Anyway, my current shop project is a four drawer storage cabinet that sits below my Table Saw. Building this gave me the opportunity to use dovetail joinery for the drawers and putting the 4 Pak to work.

After watching Tom McDonalds videos on how to cut DT’s I started hacking away. Below you will see a picture ofmy first attempt at hand cutting DTs.

I used the 4-Pack marking gauge to layout the base lines for all the pins and tials, and the paring block to lay out the pins. Then I used a Marples Japanese Pull saw to cut the pins on both drawers. Like Tommy says…. practice practice. The first set of tails I tried to cut are on the top. Easy for all to see that GAPS…. The bottom drawer came out a lot better but still, not of the quality I’ve seen produced here by our fellow LJ’s.

I called Tommy at his shop and spoke to him. He suggested two things: 1. Watch the videos again and notice how he says…... “Cut to the outside of the tail line” and 2… Get a DT saw. I took his advice. Here is a look at the corners of the DT’s I cut on my second attempt at hand cut DT’s for the second set of drawers.

By the way, the black lines you see on the tails are the pencil marks Tommy said to LEAVE… I think Tommy’s advice helped a lot.

http://www.mlwwoodworking.com

This weekend I managed to cut the lid to size, put a 3/4” round over on the top edges, apply two coats of shellac and numerous coats of General Finishes “Java” and “Georgian Cheery” Gel Coat.

I still need to do some touch up work, rub it out and apply 2 or 3 coats of GF poly seal coat. However, before that happens I have to install the hardware and the cedar lined bottom.

Here is how it looks today:

Hope you had a great Easter Holiday.

Bruce

Outside View:

Inside View

My son and daughter in law stopped by yesterday and both of them loved it.

My daughter, who is expecting her first this October saw it dry assembled two weeks ago and said “Dad, I want one too!”

That was music to my ears.

Ya’ll have a great day.

Bruce

Here is a look at the front

Viewed from the front left

Viewed from the back right

Still need to trim a couple of rail tenons, but after that, its off to building the lid.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting.

Bruce (AKA FLWoodRAT)

Set-Up and Test Flight of my Jig.

Here are one end panel and one front/back panel

And here is the edge detail._

Weather permitting I will dry fit the panels in the frame today.

Have a safe day in your shop.

Bones Baby Bones.

Front View of the loose assembly:

End View of the loose assembly:

Tomorrow I will trim up the tenons to tighten the joints and start gluing up the panel stock.

Have a great day!

Since I cut the mortises with my drill press, I had to clean the sides up with a chisel. Well the only chisels I have around were very dull Sears Craftsman that have been used to do everything from cut mortises for door lock sets and scrape paint (wifey!). Needless to say there are all pretty dull. This gave me the opportunity to sharpen the 1” chisel using the “Scary Sharp Process”. That all sounds good, but I didnt have a honing guide and with my eyes, getting and holding a 25 degree angle was going to be difficult. Alas, I found a piece of scrap wood, squared up the edges, cut a 25 degree slope on the front face, then cut dado slots top and bottom. The bottom slot was cut to allow the guide to span the wet/dry abrasive strips. After about 20 minutes of 400, 800 and 1000 grit rubbing, I had a chisel that was sharper than ever and sliced down the ridges in my mortices like they were butter.

Here are a couple of pics of my progress.

This is the blanket chest’s front frame (upper and lower rails and two muntins) loosely assembled.

These are the tenons I cut. I was amased. I ‘eyeballed’ the blade height, cut both sides and the darn thing slid with a little pressure right into the dado/mortise. I guess it’s better to be lucky than good sometimes.

The next two pics are of the ‘poor man’s honing guide’ I made to sharpen my chisel.

I did manage to clean up my tenons, round their edges, cut my haunces and dry fit the blanket chest end frames too. Tomorrow I plan to complete the fit up of the front and back frames and dry fit the entire box (without the panels and lid).

Have great day.

Having my table saw on a mobile base really helps.

Here are my Jointer and Planer

Here is my stock for the raised panels. Today was spent rough milling them to 1-3/8” thick.

This is what the shop looked like after a few hours of work.

Christmas day will be spent doing the final milling to 1-1/8”.

Merry Christmas ALL and Please Remember the Reason for the Season!