Whenever visitors stop by, they look at the secretary I’m building, scratch their heads and say something like: “I don’t get how this works.”
So here is a photo of the secretary’s gallery inside the top drawer, which is missing its drop-front right now. I think this project is starting to look like something.
As I was fitting the gallery inside the top drawer and fitting the top drawer inside the carcase today, I had an odd thought: How do people do this process with only power tools? It’s not a snide remark, really, just my plain ignorance. I’ve never fit a drawer with power tools, so I have absolutely no clue how it’s done.
I think I know what my old boss, Steve Shanesy, would say: Build it right, and it will fit perfectly the first time.
But I know that’s not typical. Even a little bit of bow or wind can jam a drawer.
The only thing I could come up with is using a dull block plane and then sanding away the tool marks. And I once saw cabinetmaker Troy Sexton fit a drawer on a 8” jointer – no lie – and he wasn’t even wearing Depends.
Surely one doesn’t use a belt sander?
— Christopher Schwarz
I can not wait for this article to come out in the magazine!
Chris, I know what you mean. Today my wife and I were struggling to open a child proof lid on her over the counter pain med. So, I located a sharp chisel and gently pared away some the plastic nubs inside until it opened easily, yet still would close. Try that with power tools.
Bill, you may be too young, but on the very first episode of Saturday NIght Live (which was titled only “Saturday Night” for only this one show), they had a fake commercial for “Jamatol”, an anti-arthritis pain medication, showing the poor soul’s arthritic hands unable to open the child-proof cap. Until they got out the hammer. (Are you familiar with “JAMA”, the Journal of the American Medical Association”?) Who needs power tools?
Random orbital sander
a lot of head and butt scratchin, me thinks. By the way Chris, looking good.
Belt sanders can do amazing things if you get good with them. They can also screw stuff up in a hurry. In the past before I found out what a decent hand plane can do I have shaved a couple thousands at a time off the long board with at miter sled at the table saw to make the sides fit properly.
When you use self closing, ball-bearing roller-closing runners, you don’t actually need to ‘fit’ the drawer!
I will add “loose tolerances. Very loose.”
I’ve actually seen belt sander and edge sanders used in books and one woodworking magazine in the last year, for fitting drawers. How this is possible I don’t know, I shutter to think about taking a precious drawer to such a thing.
“Belt Sander”……..blaspheming again.
Cheers,
Frank.
Chris,
As always thanks for your posts. I look forward to them everyday (my life is so boring….), When will you be taking orders for the campaign book? Soon I hope.
Len
I would not recommend using a belt sander. Not only is it hard to hold onto inside the cabinet, but it is too hard to get into the corners. 🙂
Most of the drawers on machine made objects I’ve seen weren’t really fitted into the space. Sides and back were undersized. On case pieces with roller bearing drawer slides, it’s worse.
I’ve gotten my biesemeyer fence set up to where I can reliably micro-adjust .002″ at a time. (google James Watriss Biesemeyer fence micro-adjust) That said, I still need to make sure the drawer is joined and glued up squarely after that, but the fine adjustment capability is there to get pieces very close to final size.
I still like my hand-planes though.
http://www.gerstnerusa.com/
Check out minutes 4:49-5:10 on their video – drawer being belt sanded to fit
This is so cool!
Nice proportions on the cubby-holes!
My pop ran a two man custom cabinet shop back in the 70’s. I remember the 3×21 portable belt sander and the 6×48 floor standing belt sander being used for all kinds of minor adjustments including fitting drawers. I once saw him take a 4×24 sander and level out the top of a checkerboard coffee table he had just inlaid. Cojones.
I really can’t wait to see this in the magazine because I must be missing something. I thought campaign furniture was supposed to break down for transport while on, er, campaign. Those sides look solid! I was looking for the corner brasses and how the boxes fit together and I don’t see that. It sure does look nice even in black and white (or sepia, or whatever those tones are) I can’t wait to see that grain in color!
Looks nice Chris! I’m just a little confused!
Well I don’t have the corner brasses on yet or the chest lifts. And the case is in two pieces — the seam is below the second drawer. It will be a faithful rendition of a campaign chest when it’s done.
Cool! Now that you mention where the seam is I can sort of almost see the suggestion of it. Nice joinery, man!
Funny, after I read this I was paging through Fine Woodworking’s 2011 Tool Guide issue. On page 60 at the top in their sander review article the headline reads, “Belt Sanders: Who Needs a Handplane?”.
no, you don’t need to adjust it with a belt sander…Side runners dadoed into the drawer sides is one solution. Here again, the design ends up being dictated by the machine instead of executed by whatever tool is at hand. A $5 flea market find, tuned and sharpened properly, will plane circles around a holtey with a dull blade. No, I wont trade in my sliding panel saw for a handplane, but I ain’t giving up my handplanes, either.