drawers and boxes for them

i'm using imbuya for the drawer front. it smelled good at first, but now it's starting to give me a bit of a headache. 

i've got some quarter sawn eastern maple for the sides and backs, and some colorful western maple for the bottoms. it dawned on me the other day that flat sawn stock might be better for drawers that are fit with let go. too late now. it's amazing how much wood moves out here in the maritimes. there's such a big humidity differential with the cold winters and humid summers. it can really cause some serious havoc.

the drawer box got glued in the other day and i got the rest of my hinges in the mail too. i could have sworn that i ordered enough for both doors, and the lady at sanderson even confirmed this, but i could not for the life of me find the other set. oh well, maybe i'll find them in the car or some non-wood related place in the future.

i started cutting the dovetails in the drawer fronts this week. i can now see why krenov seems to have avoided them to all cost during his career. and all the info that i find is for concave front, as opposed to convex. it's supposed to be the same procedure, but i think there may be some little differences. at least, that's what i'm going to keep on telling myself.

dowels

i got the doweling done yesterday, it went well. i decided to drill the above holes on the drillpress cause of runout on the mortiser. sorry about the bad photo. the mdf t thing just hold the side up square. i had to clamp the jig to the side because of brad shortages. after i drill out the big holes, i just popped some dowels in the holes to solidify the whole thing and then drilled that smaller holes. i had to take the clamps off for those, hence the dowels.

then i just laid the jig onto a full size plywood jig that i made to the same size as the top and bottom. i just shaped the top and jig off of the bottom, which was shaped off of a template. i packed out the jig to get something to flush up at the back and so the sides would be over the applied edge joint as well. i flipped and did the other side.

then i laid the real size plywood jig down onto the top and bottom and drilled those holes out. i had some stops glued onto the back to register it.

i routed out the back panel rabbet today. it was fun.

guards and progress

so here's the general idea. there'll be a partition with some drawers behind the panels in the doors. i got some imbuya that i'm going to use for the drawer fronts with some eastern maple sides and western maple bottoms. these will be my first curved dovetails, should be exciting.

i'm going to be doweling tomorrow, i think. i'm going to have to do this on the drill press. our mortiser has too much runout. it's mucho visible to the naked eye, so i'm going to have to go vertical. i kinda wish i had my table set up on the lathe. the machinist i got to mount the chuck did a bang up job with it. oh well, i'll have to concoct something to hold it upright. after i dowel i'll have the applied edges to do, and then all the hardware holes and door fittings, and the rabbet for the back. it's nice to be working on a small cabinet again.

here's the david ellsworth saw. he turned some huge segmented donuts and hinged them somehow. i just got the thought that maybe they lift off instead of hinge. anyhow, that's what i'll try to do. i don't think i'll turn them, that's just a sure way to have something explode. so i'll have to rout, carve, file, sand, chainsaw some kind of big glue up. any ideas? those are some pretty good colors too... my saw is green with red wheels, don't know what i'll paint the guards.