New Bench Drawers: 50% hand cut 100% hand look

[Edward G. Burlington]

I am in the throws of making 16 drawers for my new bench. I started by doing some test DT parts and fitting to sharpen up my hand work. After a few test pieces I began to realize how long it would take to do 32 corners let alone 64 if I did all four corners. I decided to cheat a bit and make the pins with a router, but I wanted to still make the tails by hand. I also wanted to maintain the 100% hand made look so I made some simple jigs to do the pins. It is now going smoothly and all the pins are done as well as some of the tails.
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You will obviously notice that the fronts are modified so I could use walnut scraps to get the wonderful contrast with the European Beach sides, backs and false fronts. The false fronts will be glued and screwed to the walnut mini corners.
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Hope you forgive the cheating but I am happy with the outcome.

E.G.

[yesterday]

I very much like the dovetails, the contrast between the two woods is really great. I don't think using a router is cheating; if that was the case them I guess power table saws would also be considered cheating. My view it is better to use the tools you have to do the job that need to be done than attempt to do it all by 'hand' and never get it done or even worse never start the project.

Looks great

[Jim in Burlington]

Edward,
Do you use some kind of jig to clamp the boards secure so you can route out the pins? Nice work btw.

[Old Pine]

Those look great. More details on your jig would be great. Pins for some reason are harder for me for but I guess that's because I have to cut them to match the tail. Getting better at I but still not ready for project use. Practice practice practice.

[Frank D.]

The dovetails look great Edward.
I'd like to see a pic of the whole drawer eventually if possible. It looks like you don't use a full front pîece to attach the false front to?
The router sure must speed things up a lot. I know how you feel, I have mostly avoided using dovetails until now because I rarely have that kind of time to invest. I'm going to start practicing dovetails on my TS this weekend.

[Mike in London]

Hi Edward

Thanks posting this, I'd like to know more the jig and how you built as well.

Mike

[Edward G. Burlington]

Per requests for more details on the pin jig the following is the process to prepare the jig.

Cut a pattern piece the same width as the drawer sides. Lay the drawer side on top and mark the width of the side board on the pattern piece.
Make a line ¼ to 3/8 inch below the drawer side line(or width of your bit). Layout the pins as you desire (similar to the photo below). 2520

Cut the pins with a scroll saw or band saw (even a table saw can be used) to the lower line. Remove the piece to the lower line. I also smooth out the surface with a file if I feel the surface is not very smooth. Bring the points of the pin guide to about 1/32 inch or less.2521

Mount your drawer front in the DT jig or any other jig you have or make. Set up the pin guide so that it is about 1/16 inch behind the drawer front and fasten it down. In the picture they appear to be out front but they should be flush or behind somewhat. Be sure that everything is square and flush along the sides.
Note that the board below the pin guide is tight against the drawer front. This becomes the backer board that helps reduce splintering.2527
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I use an up cut carbide spiral bit with a template guide that fits close to the bit. It is important to make sure the template guide is not overly large relative to the bit. If you can find a bit and guide combination that has only 1/16 clearance at the side that is ideal. I happen to have a 3/8 carbide bit and template guide that is a good combination and you can see from the last photo the clearance between the guide and the pin is quite close. This allows you to get a nice narrow point on the pin. Any size will do, the key is a tight match to the guide.
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I was able to cut the pin boards (32 ends) in less than an hour (which included changing to two additional sizes) so it was well worth the time it took to make the templates. In addition every one of the pin boards for the same width is identical so they are interchangeable. Cutting the tail boards to match is much slower but still much easier than dealing with an inconsistent set of pins while trying to get a tight fit.
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I will be happy to add the tail board process but as you all probably know there is no easy way to do it by hand.

E.G.

P.S. Here is a picture of the requied template guide setup.
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[Edward G. Burlington]

The dovetails look great Edward.
I'd like to see a pic of the whole drawer eventually if possible. It looks like you don't use a full front pîece to attach the false front to?
The router sure must speed things up a lot. I know how you feel, I have mostly avoided using dovetails until now because I rarely have that kind of time to invest. I'm going to start practicing dovetails on my TS this weekend.
Frank: I will post some pictures as soon as I have some completed. You are right about using partial fronts to attach the false fronts. This allows me to use scraps of dark wood like walnut to get the contrasting pins without requiring a full piece for the fronts. I was able to get enough for 16 drawers out of one 5 foot board and some scraps.

E.G.

[Edward G. Burlington]

Here is an alternate way to hold the pin board in place while routing. If you do not have a dove tail jig, use a method similar to this. I would suggest more substantial clamps however, these are used for illustration only. The board used is a 2/6 and the pin template is screwed to the board and the board is clamped to the bench. Maximum length of the pinboard is the height of the template off the floor.
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E.G.