Fitting the drawers to the stand-up desk
January 26, 2010 by Al Navas (Sandal Woods) · 7 Comments
Finally, time to fit the drawers to their respective openings in the front apron of the desk (Edit to add: all hand-cut dovetails, as I am trying to reproduce features of a desk for my client):
Changes in humidity caused the drawer fronts to grow considerably across the grain; I had to wait until things stabilized [...]
Tutorial: hand-cut half-blind dovetails
December 21, 2009 by Al Navas (Sandal Woods) · 4 Comments
Download this video in Quicktime format
(In Windows, Right-click | Save Link As…)
Duration: 21:41 minutes
One of the readers of the blog recently posted the following Comment to the earlier article on More great drawers:
Could you add ‘Cutting Pins by Hand for Half-Blind Dovetails’ to the list of topics to cover? I fully get how to cut [...]
More great drawers
December 18, 2009 by Al Navas (Sandal Woods) · 4 Comments
Glenn, one of the readers of my blog, saw the following photo of the first great drawer I made for the stand-up desk. The joinery on the back of the drawer is shown, with no glue, and the surfaces not yet planed even – in other words, pretty much as the the dovetails came off [...]
Fine furniture deserves great drawers
November 16, 2009 by Al Navas (Sandal Woods) · 2 Comments
Drawers are a critical part of a project. Mario Rodriguez shared his insight into making and fitting drawers during a terrific session at the Woodworking in America conference in Valley Forge, PA. You can view a 19-minute video I shot and later edited, at this link.
As I work on the stand-up desk and prepare for [...]
Two marking gauges, one old and one new
August 28, 2009 by Al Navas (Sandal Woods) · Leave a Comment
I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that keeping your practice pieces will confirm the progress you have made. And I find this is true. Below is a photograph of my practice “bucket”, plus some of the more recent results of my hand-cut dovetail journey, with focus on very small joinery for very small [...]
The new dovetail chisel from Czeck Edge Hand Tool
May 25, 2009 by Al Navas (Sandal Woods) · Leave a Comment
The bottom line: I love my new chisel.
I felt lucky to get one of the new Czeck Edge Hand Tool dovetail chisels while I was in Cincinnati last week. The dovetail chisel is “…a design collaboration…” between Bob Zajicek and Jameel Abraham, of Benchcrafted. Click on the link to go to Jameel’s blog post about [...]
Hot: Buy a new Leigh D4R dovetail jig, and get two free clamps!
March 5, 2009 by Al Navas (Sandal Woods) · Leave a Comment
Special promotions from Leigh are pretty special, as they happen only a limited number of times during the year. THIS is one of those times. In case you have not received notification from them, please read on. In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, Leigh is one of my sponsors. Why am I so [...]
Hi. My name is Al Navas, Owner of Sandal Woods - Fine Woodworking. Welcome to my site - I hope you will enjoy your stay! While you are here, I invite you to support my sponsors by clicking on their links and buying "stuff" from them. Disclosure: I receive a small commission from your purchases through my Affiliates only (Amazon.com, Woodcraft, and Rockler); these help defray my costs a little. I also sometimes receive tools from my sponsors, for evaluation purposes. I thank you for your support of my effort!
