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Drawer stops for the stand-up desk

April 6, 2010 By Al Navas

If you follow the blog, you already know I dislike stuck drawers, and sloppy fitting drawers. In the sloppy category I place a drawer that goes into the opening crooked, such that you must fiddle with it to align it to the opening. The solution to avoid this is to install drawer stops, and to carefully trim them to ensure perfect alignment of the drawer front with the apron.I use a variation of the technique used by Mario Rodriguez, which he discussed during his presentation at Woodworking in America at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania; I shot and edited a video that you can watch at this link.

To ensure proper alignment, I insert a drawer stop into a mortise I mark and then chop with chisels. I also use liquid hide glue, to make it easy to replace the stops if needed:

The right drawer stop.

The following photo shows the taper I put on the bottom of the front edge; this allows me to tweak the position of the stop during the glue-up (once the glue has cured, I simply trim the edge to ensure perfect alignment of the drawer front):

The left stop.

In the next photo I show the two drawer stops installed, and ready for trimming — I set each stop 2-5/8″ from the drawer openings. In this photo I have removed the drawer bottom, to make it possible to peek at the front edge:

Both stops installed, ready for trimming.

Once the glue has set on all stops, I will do the fine-tuning with the small #75 bull nose rabbet plane.

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Design, Education, Mortise, furniture Tagged With: desk, drawer, furniture, hide glue, Mortise, stop

No clamps required for this assembly

March 24, 2010 By Al Navas

What else can I add? Thank-you Sandy — your help was invaluable!

This was an assembly of a large desk base with four aprons, three stretchers, and four legs; it was assembled with mortise and tenon joinery, prepared as I showed in an earlier blog entry. You can follow the work on the stand-up desk at this link.

After applying glue to the mortises and the tenons, I applied a little glue to the tapered tips of the pegs and drove them home; the liquid hide glue is a wonderful lubricant, too! No clamps were required to assemble the aprons to the legs (and the stretchers to the legs, etc.):

Drawbore pegs after leveling with block plane.

I used liquid hide glue, as it has a long open time; I felt this was the best way to assure myself of a panic-free, clamp-free, and relaxed time during the glue-up of a very large desk base. After the glue dried, I trimmed the pegs with a flush-cutting saw, and leveled all the pegs using a little block plane. Now the drawer fitting begins in earnest, including stops and alignment strips to ensure straight travel during opening and closing. In the meantime I will be touching up the shellac layers, to blend the areas I planed to the surrounding areas. Finally I will apply a durable varnish, Target Coatings’ Emtech 2000wvx.

I had to use a few clamps to hold the dust cover in place, while the glue dried – here is the dust cover in place:

Dust cover in place.

If you want to eliminate much of the anxiety during large glue-ups, I recommend the use of the drawboring technique to pull together all mortise and tenon joints tight. Even the double-tenon/double-mortise joints I used on the stretchers between the legs went together flawlessly; properly tapered, the pegs snaked their way nicely. This was the double mortise and tenon joint at the end of a stretcher, and made with an FMT Pro:

Dual mortise and tenon joint on stretchers.

I admit this was the joint I was most concerned about prior to the glue-up, due to the spacing (“Will the peg find its way through the second tenon…???”). But I am a happy camper now; well, maybe a happier woodworker, as the drawboring technique worked beautifully.

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Drawboring, Joinery, Mortise, Tenon Tagged With: drawboring, Joinery, Mortise, stand-up desk, Tenon

Readying the drawboring pins, and applying finish to the dust cover

March 4, 2010 By Al Navas

As I stepped out of the shop, I noticed the temperature gauge in the shade, on the wall of the wooden shed:

The thermometer caught my eye.

I had to look. Confirmed! I might be able to get away with spraying some lacquer today. The temperature was just above 40°F:

The first time over 40°F in weeks!

In the shop, on the outer wall to the finishing room, the thermometer has held between 66°F and 68°F for the last several weeks:

Master thermo-hygrometer, on finishing room wall.

The remote unit, near the West wall, and on the lumber rack, showed a slightly lower temperature, but still acceptable to spray the finish:

Remote thermo-hygro, at lumber rack.

In the finishing room, with all the equipment set up and ready to go, I started adjustments on the spray pattern, and air and liquid flow – I like to use craft paper as the target to make the adjustments:

Adjusting air and liquid flow, for optimum spray pattern.

During the Winter months I use a small ceramic heater in the finishing room; I use it to keep the temperature at 73°-74°F. It is powerful enough to keep the temperature in the room at 73°F with the 2,200 CFM exhaust fan running. In Winter I am typically limited to about 12-15 minutes of spray time before the temperature in the open part of the shop drops several degrees as the make up air comes in through a window. I should have waited until tomorrow, or the day after, to spray, as the outdoor temperatures will be in the high 40s; but why not today? Aw, heck, just get it done!

Following a short session spraying the lacquer, I moved on to preparing the pins I will use in drawboring the joints. I found a huge amount of oak dowels at the local home center, and proceeded to select those with the straightest grain (I don’t own a plate, to make my own pins). To minimize measurement errors, I decided to use one piece of dowel, pre cut to 2-3/4 inches, to measure all the others:

Measuring drawbore pins.

I have been readying the band saw for a presentation on resawing lumber to our Guild next week; as a result, the guides and blade are off the 17-inch machine. Why not use the Kenyon replica dovetail saw (made by Mike Wenzloff) to cut the pins to size? Of course! That made sense:

Cutting pins, using dovetail saw.

Some people prefer to cut with the dowel vertical to the workbench:

Another way to cut the pins.

I had a great day in the shop. The outside temperatures and the sunshine have been a welcome addition to the time spent in the shop. Have you:

  • Been able to do much work in your shop, or is it too cold?
  • Applied any finishes during the cold Winter months, or are some projects waiting for warmer weather?

Drop me a note to let me know about your time in the shop during the last several cold weeks.

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Finishing, Joinery, Mortise, Tenon Tagged With: dovetail saw, drawbore pin, finish, technique