{"id":471,"date":"2009-08-26T07:28:49","date_gmt":"2009-08-26T12:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/?p=471"},"modified":"2013-04-19T23:28:42","modified_gmt":"2013-04-20T04:28:42","slug":"high-end-drawers-part-6-making-it-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/26\/high-end-drawers-part-6-making-it-fit\/","title":{"rendered":"High-end drawers, part 6: making it fit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Glue up<\/strong> in this method goes easily. No special clamping blocks are required; pressure can be applied directly to the sides with parallel jaw clamps because the surfaces of the tails\u00a0are proud of the end grain of the pins. Blue\u00a0masking tape applied to the inside surfaces will eliminate the unpleasant job of cleaning up glue squeeze out in confined areas. Use pinch rods to check the diagonals to ensure the drawer will be square.<\/p>\n

After the glued assembly has cured, it\u2019s time for the cool part<\/strong>. Plane the sides just down to the end grain of the front and back pins. This will allow the drawer to barely enter the housing, since the original fits of the front and, secondarily, the back, have remained unaltered during subsequent construction. A jig that is described in a previous post <\/a>will greatly facilitate this planing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At this point, I laminated the slightly oversized, slip-matched false fronts<\/strong> using plywood cauls, Unibond 800 glue<\/a>, and more clamps than I probably needed. After drying, I sawed and planed them flush to the original fronts. Note again that the drawer making method described here will work equally well\u00a0with regular fronts with lapped or through dovetails.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Check, and trim as needed, to ensure that the drawer lies flat, without twist. Now test the drawer to its opening, conservatively taking light shavings from the sides\u00a0to get a sweet fit<\/strong>. Swish. It should fit neither like the glove on OJ, nor like your big brother\u2019s boots. Consider the season in which you\u2019re working, and remember that a few thin shavings make a difference.\u00a0Experience has taught me that the sides do expand ever so slightly in humid weather, enough to bind a drawer that fit like a Ferrari piston in the dry season.<\/p>\n

Trim the tops of the front and sides to create adequate clearance for seasonal change<\/strong>, allowing for the most humid time of the year. Keep the top of the front parallel with the top of the housing. Remember that, all else being equal,\u00a0the gap at the top of a 6 inch high drawer will need to be about twice that of one 3 inches high. I\u00a0use the\u00a0Lee Valley Wood Movement Reference Guide<\/a>, tempered with experience, to avoid stuck drawers\u00a0during the dog days of summer.<\/p>\n

Up next: down to the bottoms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glue up in this method goes easily. No special clamping blocks are required; pressure can be applied directly to the sides with parallel jaw clamps because the surfaces of the tails\u00a0are proud of the end grain of the pins. Blue\u00a0masking tape applied to the inside surfaces will eliminate the unpleasant job of cleaning up glue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techniques","tag-high-end-drawers-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}