Bombe The Drawers

 Yesterday we managed to get the  drawers fitted in the upper case, with noted exception to the left and right drawers they are pretty  straight forward,  but then comes the bottom drawers, they  are a quite different .

      We begin with the bottom drawer , now again we will be adding matching  drawer fronts all the way up , basically a ribbon mahogany,  all cut  from one piece of 16/4  mahogany,  so we only had to concern ourselves with getting the drawer sides shaped to fit the case, , so what we did was to cut an angle that  translated to the side profile,( approx 14 degree) meaning we wanted the same distance back from the  top and bottom edge of the drawer opening, , we then cut the top and bottom of the drawer side to the same angle, to make the side sit on the correct angle in relation to the side, we then cut the tail portion of the dovetails, on the sides, next we begin shaping the side to conform to the case sides, so we using about a 7 degree angle on the table saw, and nibbling away a little at a time and checking our progress , got the side as close as we could off the table saw , then we started hand planing to final shape the side, once we were close we lightly sanded the inside of the case with some 80 grit and a random orbit, and using a straight edge to be sure the case sides were straight

    Now here is a nice trick for final shaping these sides, we coated the case sides with some chalk, then by running the side back and forth we could determine high spots and plane ridges, and level them  until we had the side  running nicely against the case side.

      Next we measured from the longest point of the drawer opening, and cut it on the same 14 degree angle, allowing for approx 1/16 of pin protrusion , so we can sand it off nice and flush, a good tip is to leave the front and back  extra long and cut the pins on  one side to insure you have it all correct and lined up, as well it will allow you to double-check your pin depth calculations and positioning.

      This is the first time I have actually used the  thicker 5/4 material, for the sides, but because of the shaping  3/4 thick material will only yield a 1/4 to 5/16  top and bottom on the sides,( runner area) I went with the thicker material , to beef up the drawer runners , this meant a very deep pin, actually about 1 5/16  , the only bit I had that would make that deep  of cut was a  1 1/4, that was alot of bit to be using hand-held, but the jig and the bit proved to work well, we had some chip out, but had left the face and back extra thick so in the event this big bit  gave us chip out we could simply plane it away , and so we did.

        Now one of the other things we did was to leave the front and back wide as well, and we will trim them to exact size after the drawer is glued up ,  this just makes it alot easier to fit, and gives us material to plane and trim to insure we have the final fit exactly as we want, basically it give us room to correct any discrepancies we could have in the dovetailing, a good idea considering all the various angles  and shaping…just remember, we can remove material alot easier than we can add it on , its back to that “sneak up on it thing”… just makes a lot of sense,  

     we concluded the day having  the upper drawers in the case, and the bottom drawer  glued, so today we  finish shaping the bottom drawer and move on to the rest of drawers…

Update : well we have an issue , It seems when we dry fitted the drawer and checked our measurement , I made a mistake, and the drawer is 1/2 too wide at the top and 1/8 at the bottom, so tomorrow see drawers continued, and see how we fixed it as well , my new idea has me now going back to the orginal way I made the drawers , to be continued

Later y’all

---