After coffee this morning, and washing a load of shop clothing and adding it to the dryer, I headed out to work on the drawer fronts. THIS is a critical step. The PUCKER factor is high.
The first step is to clamp the drawer front to the first drawer and check the alignment. A couple of the drawers have flexed slightly. But with weight in them, they will be flat again. My old weight set comes in handy... I keep the plates in the shop and they always come in handy. ANY drawer that has flexed gets a five or ten pound plate to hold to keep it playing fair.
Once I am satisfied, I reach inside and mark the height of the drawer front with an exacto knife. Careful here, once I make this cut, it's make or break. This is the pucker factor I was talking about. I don't want to make a new front. (Luckily, I made two extra, but they aren't near as nice as these.) I also have another slab cut to size, but who wants to go through all THAT work...
- 41 mark height desired.jpg (101.3 KiB) Viewed 4478 times
Once the drawer is marked, I unclamp the drawer front and turn it over and mark the two points with a pencil line in preparation for cutting on the band saw.
- 42 strike the cut line on the mark.jpg (90.89 KiB) Viewed 4478 times
After careful checking and crossing my fingers and toes one last time... I make the cut.
- 43 trim the face.jpg (83.39 KiB) Viewed 4478 times
Then I hand sand the roughened edge with a sanding block wrapped in sandpaper. NO fine sanding, just knocking off the rough edges. If this was a presentation piece, or would be out in public, this would get a LOT more attention, bet on it.
- 44 sand the rough edges.jpg (116.92 KiB) Viewed 4478 times
Now I test fit the piece and run it back in the cabinet to make sure it fits like it should and doesn't need to be trimmed again. Once I am satisfied, I prep it to be glued. Glue up is made easier by my squeeze bottle and those annoying fake credit cards most folks toss. I use them to spread the glue during projects like this, then toss them instead of having to clean a spreader.
- 45 use tricks to prep for gluing.jpg (118.11 KiB) Viewed 4478 times
When I spread the glue, I keep it away from the edges, since I am going to shoot four brads in the corner and six pins from the pinner in the center. In addition, the drawer pulls use thru screws. The face won't be going anywhere.
- 46 glue spread.jpg (125.58 KiB) Viewed 4478 times
Once I clamp the face to the drawer and before I shoot the brads, I check the fit ONE last time. I make any minute last minute adjustments, then crossing fingers and toes again, let 'er rip. The drawer is done and time to repeat the process until all eight are done.
- 47 clamped.jpg (125.08 KiB) Viewed 4478 times
The very last drawer was the hardest since I worked from the bottom up. I had to remove drawer seven, and hold the drawer face for eight in place and mark the bottom to determine the cutoff. I also measured the distance between the rail and the top with a square. Both measurements matched. Hurrah.
The drawers are done except for the pulls. After some additional sanding, I'll drill for the pulls, but won't put them on until the very last step. Still have the trim to do, and sanding the outside of the cabinet.
Here are the finished drawer faces... far from perfect.. but I'm happy.
- 48 repeated eight times.jpg (84.78 KiB) Viewed 4478 times
