February 8, 2012

Woodworking in America at Valley Forge: Making and fitting drawers, with Mario Rodriguez

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Duration: 19:34 minutes

You can read a short description of the work by Mario Rodriguez at the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop web page, and at FineWoodworking.com.

Making drawers, and fitting them well, separates a good piece from a great workpiece. As a result, it behooves the craftsman to learn how make drawers properly. Mario used a case containing two drawers to illustrate differences in fitting options.

Included in this session you will the following: milling the wood, letting it “rest” to acclimate to the shop environment, milling to final dimensions for a perfect drawer front fit, suitable material thickness, layout of the dovetails, fitting the bottoms, hardwood bottoms and grain orientation, drawer slips to beef up the thickness of the sides, drawer web with dust cover, and installation and sizing of drawer stops.

Mario ended the session with a verbal description of the technique he uses to cut and fit the dovetails by hand.

Although I edited the 90-minute session to less than 20 minutes, I hope you will find all the critical information to properly make and fit drawers in your next masterpiece.

If you ever have a chance, make the time to attend one of the Woodworking in America conferences. I know you will likely learn something new, will meet new people, and will enjoy the Marketplace and the terrific tool makers!

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——  Al Navas

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Related posts:
More Woodworking in America posts on this blog.

Woodworking in America Valley Forge: One boring cat fight

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Duration: 5:57 minutes

It had to happen, as the stage was set at the Woodworking in America conference in St Charles: Three women, all chasing the title of “Fastest Borer”. I won’t give away the ending – you will have to watch the video to learn who won.

Christopher Schwarz, Editor of Popular Woodworking and Woodworking magazines, introduced the contestants: Megan Fitzpatrick, Managing Editor of Popular Woodworking magazine; Heather Griffin, with the conference organizing group for FW Media; and Kari Hultman, The Village Carpenter. Each contestant had to bore a 3/4″ hole in a plank using a brace and bit setup.

I screwed up the exposure in part of the video – my bad! But I hope you enjoy the festivities.

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—- Al Navas

WIA St Charles: Keynote address by Tom Moser – Artistry in Wood

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Duration: 17:39 minutes

From the abstract provided as a hand-out during the Woodworking in America Furniture Construction and Design Conference in St Charles, Ill.:

…In this slide-filled lecture, Tom Moser relates the process of discovery that led him to furniture design, and how the Shaker community located near his first shop in New Gloucester, Maine has influenced his work.

Family, personal, and company memories flowed in Mr. Moser’s presentation to an audience of several hundred at the banquet held during the conference. He was funny, affable, and down-to-earth; a perfect gentleman and the consummate businessman. The slide show journey brought the audience from the humble beginnings of Thos. Moser, Cabinetmakers, to the enormous success it is today.

A personal note: The description of the Moser’s travels in Asia took Sandy and I back in time. Immediately following the dinner and speech we were lucky to run into Mr Moser and his wonderful wife Mary in the hallway. In passing them I asked him a short question about a certain locale in Asia, not wanting to detract from their conversation with someone else. His eyes lit up, and we spent the next 20 minutes together, reminiscing with relish about locales and details from our parallel journeys almost 20 years apart. This was a wonderful end to a terrific speech about the exciting life experience of the Mosers.

My hope is that in this edited version of a one-hour speech you are able to also glean into the life the Mosers, and the company they have built. It is a great journey, filled with great successes and a few setbacks.

I also hope that the story of Thos. Moser, Cabinetmakers, will get you in the mood to plan on attending the next Woodworking in America Hand Tools and Techniques conference, coming up soon in Valley Forge, Pa. October 2-4.

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