Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Tall Chest of Drawers - Drawers


Drawer Parts

Here are all the parts of the drawer before assembly. The red oak rails will attach to the front and back stiles.


Drawer Joints

Four brass, flat head screws will hold the red oak drawer slides to the drawer sides. Screws will hold the rail to the stiles. (See the photo below.)  The slide is inset in a groove so that the load in the drawer bears on the slide and not on the screws holding it in place.  In the event of wear on the slides and rails, they can be replaced easily. I could have used manufactured self closing drawer slides instead of the wood ones, but my client, my wife, wanted wood ones. There will be a self centering bracket on the drawer bottom to assure that the drawer is centered between the stiles in the closed position. I’ll show that detail later. Please be aware that there are several variations on drawer construction.  Any design must have a way to keep the drawer centered and level.  Cheap commercial construction short-cuts this feature.  If you want to see a good example in the flesh, visit a Stickley showroom.

Rail Detail Showing Adjustment Hole

The rails on which the drawers slide must be adjustable up and down.  This insures that the drawer front and drawer are centered in their space between the stretchers. and the narrow space between drawer fronts is uniform. (Remember, each drawer front in my design closes against the stretcher, which I have carefully placed.)  I do this by drilling a 1/2″ (1.3 cm) diameter hole with a brad point drill, deep enough so that the adjusting screw head will not interfer with the drawer slide. Then I drill three 3/16″ (.46 cm) holes side by side. With a file or Dremel tool, I smooth the three holes into a slot, which will allow for adjustment up and down.
Posted by Chuck in 05:25:18 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Monday, April 21, 2008

Anagama Kiln Opening

Yesterday, April 19, Cathy and I made the hour drive up to the anagama kiln opening north of Madrid, New Mexico. It was our fifth or sixth kiln opening. The kiln is located down a steep, rocky drive in a small canyon about a mile north of Madrid off New Mexico 14. We were excited. Often University of New Mexico ceramic students have a lot of pottery in the kiln, but this time six experienced potters were firing work, potters whose work we’d purchased in the past.  Everyone was disappointed. Some shelves bearing pottery collapsed during the firing, and parts of the kiln reached temperatures that melted some of the pottery. Over half the kiln contents were ruined. But we still managed to find some items to buy.

Anagama Kiln, Madrid, New Mexico

Kiln Entrance

Chamber through the Kiln Entrance

Looking Left toward the Firebox.

Most of these pots are fused together.  That did not keep an eager collector from buying the fused piece for $300.  That covered the kiln furniture.  The ceramics were free.

Looking Right up the Flue

Potters Ben McCracken (l) and Jesse Scott (r)

Potter Joe Kroenung

Two Hole Facilities near the Kiln


Posted by Chuck in 05:10:10 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Drawing with Edna

Untitled Drawing (Flower Portfolio), 29″ x 23″ (74cm x 58cm),
black Pastel and charcoal pencil on Strathmore 2 ply rag Bristol

Untitled Drawing (Flower Portfolio), 29″ x 23″ (74cm x 58cm),
black Pastel and charcoal pencil on Strathmore 2 ply rag Bristol

These drawings are from a session Edna Casman and I had almost two weeks ago. Last week’s session produced several interesting ideas, but nothing we’d put our names to.

Posted by Chuck in 03:30:33 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Monday, April 14, 2008

Tall Chest of Drawers - Drawers

Using Porter & Cable Dovetail Jig Model 4211 to Cut Tails in Drawer Side

Last fall I replaced my Sears dovetail jig with a new $110 Porter & Cable jig.  Unless one makes drawers every day, these are very confusing jigs to use.  It is absolutely necessary to label all the parts of the drawer and their orientation - inside, outside, up, down, front, back.  Furthermore, I have never met a machine that doesn’t need some finessing.  (Even my 1995 Nissan pick up truck, though still nearly perfect, requires that I carefully hold the visor bracket with one hand while turning or lower the visor with the other hand, otherwise the bracket brakes.  I’m on my fifth or sixth visor.  I have to stop to do this, because I’m not good at driving with my knees.)

Shim Fix for Offset Bracket on my Porter & Cable Dovetail Jig

Here’s the finessing fix, a shim to adjust the offset bracket so that the top of the right hand drawer side and top of the drawer front line up.

Rabbeted Half-Blind Dovetails (Drawer Front Face Down)

Working slowly and carefully and talking to myself and triple checking and turning off the music, I got the dovetail joints for the seven drawers completed.

Labeling What Goes Where so Things Match Up

Label every operation on a drawer part, one operation at a time.  It you try to label all the operations at the same time, you will be hopelessly confused about which operation to do when.  Even labeling one at a time  can lead to mistakes.  For example, the groove is suppose to go where it says “groove.”  How could this possibly lead to mistake?  Easy.  On the saw I’ve put the wood piece with the note FACING UP so I could read it.  That means I did the operation on the WRONG SIDE.
Posted by Chuck in 05:34:51 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Tall Chest of Drawers - Drawer Parts

Cutting the Drawer Fronts to Length (saw guard up for clarity)

I have ripped all drawer sides (front, back, two sides) to their respective widths. With a simple jig attached to the miter guage, I cut the sides to length.



Layout for Drawer Front Pull Holes

All the curves for the pull holes have the same radius. For esthetic reasons, I decrease their size slightly on each drawer going upwards. Note that I have penciled in the orientation (out for outward face of drawer front, top for the top edge) to prevent mistakes. In the above photo the stick with the mark on it is a story stick. A story stick is used to transfer a measurement among the different parts. I’ve read this term in several books on furniture building, but the term doesn’t appear in the latest edition of my Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. The listings go from “story line” to “storyteller.”

Cutting out the Hand Holes


Smoothing the Sawn Edge with a 2″ (5cm) Diameter Drum Sander Mounted on a Drill Press

The Hand Holes Finished

The next step is to rabbet the sides of the drawer fronts in preparartion for making the blind dove tail joints, which will join the front and sides of the drawer.
Posted by Chuck in 05:10:37 | Permalink | No Comments »