Craftsman - Stickley Projects #11: Back to the Chests after 2 Month Diversion

Gosh, time flies. Projects that I’ve outlined in other blogs piled up and I needed my space back to work on these chests. Didn’t get a whole heck of lot accomplished after the flea market and yard sales today.

Purchased manufactured maple drawer guides. Made a mistake and left a 5/8” inset to the drawer bottoms and the guide was 3/4” high. Fortunately, I was able to take 1/16” off each half of the guide by running through my table top tickness planer to make them 5/8” high. The other option was to inset each drawer guide 1/8” into the drawer dividers. I knew it was doable but since the drawer dividers were already mounted in the carcase, there would be limited room for working with chisels and creating a 1/8” inset. Certainly couldn’t get a router in there. That was probably the correct option instead of planing the guides but glue and screw on each end . . . they aren’t going anywhere.

After planing, cut to length and center mounted a guide for each drawer. Slid the other half onto the mounted half, placed the drawer in the opening – center with shims and mark to the bottom of the drawer. Got just two drawers marked and the other half of the guides glued to the bottom. Wish I had a brad nailer to tack the guides to the drawer bottoms, too.

If the nice weather holds, I may take a couple of vacation days next week and try to get a ways down the road on finishing up these chests.

-- Paul, Texas