I finally reached a milestone in this project and I feel like I’ve made real progress. In this case it was completing the carcass. Well almost. The last step for the carcass was to create two small cross bars that connect the two sides together at the top and hold them firm. They also allow for another surface the top can adhere to.
The two cross bars are simply attached to the sides via a single half blind dovetail. I create these similar to the way I would for a drawer except I make them about 1/4” deeper. This is to allow for the carcass sides to sit firmly in the dado I cut prior to this. At this point, the entire carcass can be assembled. This is a stressful moment because many things can go wrong and glue will slightly alter the way joints will fit together. Fortunately, having dry assembled the carcass several times before, I felt confident I would manage fine. I’ll go into more detail about assembly in its own post another time.
So with the carcass finally assembled, it was time to move onto the part of the project that I find the most challenging yet most rewarding…drawers! Drawers are fairly simple in theory, just a box with no top, yet they must fit snugly into a defined space. Also, drawers are the item that get used most so they must be able to stand up to constant push and pull forces exerted by its user. With that in mind, I construct my drawers using very common techniques that I will showcase in the future.
The first step in drawer construction is making the drawer face. I prep the board the exact same way I prep all other boards. I cut it a little larger than the measured drawer opening and then I fine tune the size by taking light shavings. I test fit it constantly until I can press it into the drawer opening and it can support itself. The image above shows exactly what I’m trying to achieve. The most important thing to remember here is that it should be snug. The drawer will not be that snug when completed because in the process of fine tuning the drawer, you will have taken a little more material off so it will fit much nicer. Besides, you can always take more material off, you can’t put any back.
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