# 4 drawer unit - WIP - COMPLETED!



## Lee J (27 May 2010)

'er indoors pointed to a space in her 'walk in wardrobe' and said...
"A 4 drawer unit would just finish this room off nicely" 
so off I marched to retrieve my trusty tape measure. 

I'm going to use this project to learn a few new skills. I could just cut pieces, screw and glue it together, paint it and job done but there's so much more potential with an iten like this to use and learn new techniques. I will use 'mortice and tenons' for construction of the frame, dovetails to create the drawers and I'll actually make a solid wood top by glueing up some lengths of timber and hand planing smooth. I am going to take a careful approach and try to creat a piece of furniture that is of a reasonable standard. Please dont expect a piece of fine craftsmanship here though.

As I always declare at the start of a WIP some of my methods are probably not correct and you may cringe sometimes and shake your head as I'm doing something but as long as I get to where I need to be - I'm happy. 

First off I got meself a potta and sat and drew a very rough sketch on the back of a phone bill.







The frame will be made from redwood pine, 28mm x 44mm. 
The side panels will be MDF painted white and will sit in a recess. 
The drawer cases will be MDF and the fronts will probably be MDF painted white (unless I get any other ideas). 
The top will be solid pine. 

*Frame*

So I purchased some nice smooth straight redwood pine and made a rough cut list as follows...

A Legs/posts/uprights : 28 x 44 x 1100 (WxDxH) QTY : 4
B Horizontal braces : 28 x 44 x 392 QTY : 8
C Upright side panel pieces : 28 x 44 x 1005 QTY : 3

NOTE : For B and C I have add 20mm to each end to allow for tenons. So the actual visable length of B is 352 and C is 965.

I set up my saw and cut the 4 pieces labelled A... Look! there's me potta tea!






Then I cut the 8 pieces labelled B and the 3 labelled C (only 2 C's in the picture though!) 






To be continued...


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## ByronBlack (27 May 2010)

How are you cutting the dovetails for the drawer-boxes? Dovetailing by hand in MDF is an exercise in frustration because its so crumbly and dusty, unless you use a powered router and jig, even then it's not a great idea.

I'd recommend using at least pine, but preferably an inexpensive hardwood for the drawers so that they will last a bit longer. MDF is not a great choice for drawers, they can easily be damaged - especially friction fit ones.


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## Lee J (27 May 2010)

I was gonna use my new dovetail jig on the MDF cases but now you've got me thinking. Pine draw cases would wear longer as I'm thinking of using hardwood runners for the drawers to slide along.

I might even go for somthing like this...


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## woodbloke (27 May 2010)

Plan looks sound. I usually add hardwood strips to the bottom of drawer sides and make the runners from hardwood as well. If it's a solid pine top you're contemplating, it'll need to be fixed to the frame to allow for movement...'buttons' are the usual way in a groove along the inside of the top rails. BB is right about mdf and drawers, much better to go for decent pine throughout - Rob


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## joiner_sim (27 May 2010)

I would have to agree on the mention of using an inexpensive hardwood for dovetailing as I learnt ages ago when I first attempted them:

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/drawer-joints-t31851.html?highlight=dovetails

I would also like to point you in the direction of some soft close drawer runners, instead of timber ones, they really are nice to use:

http://www.hafele.co.uk/Hafele35a1/...ncealed+runners&classlevel=6604&tab=furniture


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## devonwoody (28 May 2010)

Not wanting to be controversial but I once heard that drawer runner (bottoms) should be softwood to avoid wear I suppose on the hardwood frame?


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## Lee J (28 May 2010)

woodbloke":47akybly said:


> If it's a solid pine top you're contemplating, it'll need to be fixed to the frame to allow for movement...'buttons' are the usual way in a groove along the inside of the top rails.



Hey woodbloke can you alaborate a little on this method of fixing the solid pine top? I have not heard of 'buttons' before

cheers


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## mailee (28 May 2010)

This is what a button is Lee J. I hope the pic is clear enough.


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## Lee J (28 May 2010)

ahhh! got ya. 

I take it there is no glue anywhere then?

thanks mailee, will work on that


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## woodbloke (28 May 2010)

Lee J":1ptqhxaz said:


> ahhh! got ya.
> 
> I take it there is no glue anywhere then?
> 
> thanks mailee, will work on that


Nope...not to fix the top to the carcase - Rob


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## Benchwayze (29 May 2010)

Lee, 

In case you don’t already know…

To make buttons, you could rebate a piece of 50mm x 25 mm along its length and chop your buttons off the length, but it's not a good idea.

So:

Find a close-grained hardwood board (say 24” x 9”). Square it up, and work a rebate *across the end-grain*, to form the tongue of your buttons.

Cross-cut this rebate from the board, so you have about 2” length, rebated across the grain. 

Chop this piece *along the grain*, into your individual buttons, each about 1.25 wide. Repeat as necessary for the number of buttons you need. 

Work a tapered chamfer along the three edges of the button, where it will show under the top. 

Wood will move whatever we do, and cutting buttons the first way makes it easier for the tongue to split away under pressure. You could probably break it away with your thumb and fingers, if you want to prove the pudding. 

(The second way can also split, but not often!) 

Arrange the slots in the rails so that there is the slightest gap under the button, where it meets the table rail. (The slot should be a smidgeon lower than the thickness of the button. )

I never use any glue whatsoever on a button, and I make the screw-hole slightly over size to boot. 
Hope you can decipher this and that it helps.

John


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## OPJ (29 May 2010)

...Or, if you have a bandsaw, Steve Maskery's come up with an excellent jig for producing buttons on a single machine. :wink:


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## Benchwayze (29 May 2010)

Agreed Olly, 

Much quicker, and you could then cut your buttons from the end of a longer piece of 50mm x 25mm. Three cuts for 'long -grain' buttons. 
The way I sometimes cut tenons. 

I still like to see that tapered chamfer though. :lol: 


John :wink:


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## Lee J (29 May 2010)

cheers fellas, some button cutting practice this afternoon i think.


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## Lee J (29 May 2010)

tell ya what i do find tricky because i dont really know the 'best' way of doing it - cutting tenons. I've just had a practice at some methods -

1. set up the router table - nice clean cut but split out the edge when it exited the other side

2. bandsaw - bit wavy at times but wih practice...

3. by hand - not too bad at all but time consuming and i have about 20 to cut lol

how does you guys cut yours?


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## Benchwayze (29 May 2010)

Lee, 

I always cut mortices first. Then size the tenon from that and mark the rails to be tenoned.

My preferred methood for machine tenons is the bandsaw:
In case you never did that before:

Assuming tenon shoulders are the same width, set the bandsaw fence to the right postion using a piece of scrap, same size as your stock. Clamp a block on the fence, behind the blade to stop the workpiece when cheeks are cut to the right depth. Then make test cuts adjusting the fence, until your tenon is in the centre. 

Cut both sides. Then use the mitre guide to cut off the cheeks square. Keep the bandsaw guard as low as you can for all cuts. 

Trial and error really. Once you have it right, cut all tenon cheeks in one go. Then cut all shoulders in one go.

Hope you can follow. 

John


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## Lee J (29 May 2010)

got ya - thanks


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## OPJ (30 May 2010)

I do mine on the router table, making one cut from each face to centralise the tenon (assuming both faces are parallel). You can buy large tenon cutters - they're excellent; they'll take bigger cuts and will also leave less breakout on the back edge. But, you should be able to prevent this by having a piece of scrap supporting your work piece. :wink:

Banadsaws can also work well though, I don't find them accurate for cutting tenon shoulders. You could remove most of the waste on the saw and then finish on the router table...


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## Lee J (2 Jun 2010)

OPJ - I've done some practice and it seems the method of cutting most of the waste on the bandsaw and trimming up on the router table gives the ebst results. I'm gonna use that method in the future but for this project I have decided to screw the frame together and plug the holes using a contrasting colour plug. Sort of to make a feature out of it. 

Anyway, I cracked on last night...

the front uprights of the frame will have a rounded over edge so I figured this was the best time to do this. I set the router table up, tested a piece of scrap and when I was happy I rounded over the outside edges, look at the round over on that...






In order to take the MDF side panels I opted to rout a slot in each piece. The router was set up to rout a slot 10mm deep using a 12mm cutter. I pre-drilled a 12mm hole at one end to start the rout. 

The 4 uprights/legs had their slots cut first...






...then the centre pieces, which needed slots on both edges...






...then the braces for top and bottom...






Next up was to pre drill the screw holes. I marked out where I wanted the screws and drilled 4mm holes (to take the screw shafts) then I drilled a 8mm counter sink hole to take the screw head and a 8mm plug. I drilled all the required holes needed. Didnt take a photo though but I will for next time. 

Next up sand down each piece and cut some side panels.


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## Lee J (9 Aug 2010)

yeah I know it's taking forever to get on with this project - the missus keeps reminding me! What with all the other jobs I have on I can only do this job a bit at time. Anyway, cleared a few jobs out this weekend so made some progress. 

I opted for screwing this frame together and then hiding the screw heads/holes with dowel made from a contrasting timber. So I drilled the nessesary holes starting with a 4mm hole and then countersinking with an 8mm hole which will take the contrasting plug.






I did a test run for the plugs and this is how it looked...






and closer up...






I decided I'd do a dry fit of the frames at this stage just to make sure it all went together nice and squarely, which I'm pleased to say it does...











Now the frames are made up I can take an exact measurment for the side panels which will slot snuggly into the slots I routed earlier, in fact, too snuggly. I'll have to rebate the edges by 1mm I reckon. 

Here's a side panel freshly cut from a big sheet of MDF...






I set the router up using the fence and I took 1mm depth off all the way around. This will help when I come to assemble it....






Once I'd cut all 6 panels (2x left side, 2x right side, 2x back) I cleaned the shop up and tried to make it as clean as I could because these panels are to be painted white. 

Thats my job for an evening this week.


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## Lee J (16 Aug 2010)

Didn't bother taking photos of me painting the MDF panels so I continue by slotting the panel into it's slot...







No need to glue the panels as they fit nice and snug into the slots. I fit the centre piece then dropped in the 2nd panel and fitted the end...











that looks twisted in that photo above but I can assure you it's not. Trick of the photo. 

I'm enjoying this, seem to be making good progress today. I assembled the right hand side next, same as the left. 
I decided at this point that I needed 3 pairs of arms. I had to put the rear together which required some cunning propping up of the side panels. I fixed the bottom rail in, then slotted the 2 rear panels in place and then from the top I inserted the centre upright. Slid it straight down. I realised it didn't fit. Much head scratching to be done for the next 10 mins while I work out what on earth I'd done. Looked like I'd not gone deep enough with the slots on the centre piece and I needed to run the router down them again taking out 2mm from each side - sorted, put the top brace on and the front braces too, stood back and admired my work... with pot of tea in hand of course.
















**********************
got distracted for a while cos some people came to buy some bird boxes I'd made from pallet wood. I put them on the wall at the end of my drive and get a fiver a piece for them.

**********************

Right-o, ten quid better off I returned to my masterpiece lol
As I'd chosen to screw/glue the frame together I was left with 8mm holes in the frame. Now I'd planned this so the holes were all in the same place all around. I took an 8mm dowel and went around the whole frame glueing the dowels into the holes... 











then when dried I trimmed them with my flush cut saw and gave them a light sanding down, nothing to serious though because the whole thing needs a good rub down later (oo-er)






The top for this unit had me stumped for a while. Couldn't decide on what to make it out of then I spied my pile of timber I'd not allocated for a job yet. Thought I'd knock up a top from this and if it doesnt look any good at least I'd not forked out for good timber. A lot of planing up needed though, wish I'd of bought a thickneser/planer now. 

The rough cuts...






Hand planing the edges...






isn't this what every woodworker wants to see? nice long smooth shavings...






I put biscuit slots into the edges of the roughly planed timber (I'll be planing it a bit better once it's one piece) 











and clamped it up...






and that concludes todays events. More to follow...


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## stoatyboy (19 Aug 2010)

Hi - good to see some progress and looking good -- you might even shame me into posting my WIPS of my similar but different project

It looks a bit taller than the original sketch? but then I read the dimensions

If it's going to be white couldn't you use mdf for the top? might save quite a bit of work cleaning up the old wood?

Like the bird box idea by the way

Pete


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## Lee J (19 Aug 2010)

Thanks Pete, I'm leaving the frame natural with maybe some tinted wax (oakish colour) as a finish. The side panels will be the only white bits. 

The drawer fronts I think will be pine as will the drawer boxes. 

thanks for you input.

**Bird boxes - it has been a good idea to sell them out front. I live on a country lane and about 2 mile down the lane is a garden centre. So, I make garden planters from reclaimed deck boards and sell them out front. I catch the people coming back up the lane with a boot full of new plants. They see the planters and stop to buy. I keep the prices low too. Garden centre charges £25 for a 3ft planter, I charge a tenner. they charge £9.99 for a bird box and I charge a fiver. 
Cos mine are made from reclaimed wood they've cost me nowt to make.


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## Lee J (26 Aug 2010)

Scrap the top. I came to plane it up and spent a couple of hours sanding it and filling it and I couldn't get it anywhere near good enough to use for the top to this unit so I binned it. I need suggestions on what to use for the top. maybe should start with some ready planed furniture grade pine from a timber yard? at least then it'll join with no gaps and it wont take a lot of finishing. Pallet latts are too rough for this. I dont have a thickneser/jointer/planer machine. 

Also, I think I am going to make the top hinged at the back so I can build into it a jewelery tray. hmmmm. [scratching chin]


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## Lee J (27 Oct 2010)

I scrapped the pallet wood top idea and purchased some professional grade pine timber instead. I carefully measured up and cut each piece using my mitre saw and a stop...






Then I carefully found the best fit for the 4 pieces and on a blob of masking tape I labelled each one and ruled a line across each joint, for the biscuit jointer to line up to...






Once I had done that I took each piece and laid it on the bench...






...and proceeded to put biscuit slots in each edge (except for the two outer edges :wink: )






Then the glue up. I know it looks a bit unusual but I needed weight on it to stop it bowing...






next job will be the drawers.


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## Ironballs (27 Oct 2010)

A tip for glueing and avoiding bowing, alternate your clamps above and below the piece. So for your piece there I would have had a clamp underneath at each end and then a clamp sat above in the middle to help even out the clamping forces. You also don't need huge amounts of clamping force here either, the more you clamp a piece the worse you can make the bowing - imagine you're pressing a piece of flat card between your hands, the more pressure you add the more it wants to bow. So nice and tight but not clamping down as hard as you can


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## Lee J (16 Nov 2010)

Thanks Ironballs for that info - noted it down.

'er indoors is pushing for this unit now, it's gonna go into her dressing room/wardrobe room. I also want it done and out of the workshop before xmas to be honest. 

But, as I am a busy fella I can only do small bits at a time. 

so I cleaned the glued top up a bit and located it on the top of the unit. I was going to use the button method to fix the top to the carcass but I didn't put the slot into the carcass to accept the buttons and the biscuit machine is too long in the body to get into the gap. So I had to settle for 4 screws along each edge but NO GLUE! I screwed the top to the frame...






I then used beech dowel to plug the holes where the screws had gone in...






Drawers next! 

I set the stopper on my mitre saw and chopped some nice planed smooth timber (D:15mm x W:92mm) to make the drawer sides. Because I'm having 5 drawers in total the bottom 4 drawers will be 8.5" deep and the top drawer is to be 4" deep I need to double up the timber on the sides/back of the drawers to make them as deep as possible. 

this is my sketch for the 4" drawer...






and a sketch for my 8.5" drawers (4x)






these are the sides cut to length...






For the drawer front I wanted them to be one piece (already joined together) but nice quality pine so I took the plunge and bought some premium furniture pine (£24 for a 2.4m length, 350mm wide, 18mm thick)

I cut the drawer fronts...






and I couldn't resist having a dry fit just to see...






Tonight I continue...


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## stoatyboy (16 Nov 2010)

getting there!

it's going to be massive must be a big wardrobe it's going in

just looking at it - have you fitted the runners for the drawers yet? doesn't look like it but I could be wrong. Might have been easier to do it when it was flat - before you glued the carcass together?

just a thought.

looking forward to the finished article


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## Lee J (16 Nov 2010)

hi mate, the wardrobe is a single bedroom converted to a walk in wardrobe (highly recommended for maximum brownie points!) 

This unit is approx H:1100mm W:440mm D:440mm

Not fitted the runners yet, plenty of access to the inside though so should be ok to get an arm into it. Would you rout the runner slots on the drawers sides first (while in pieces) and then mark the carcass off the assembled drawer? seems the only logical way to do it.


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## Nick W (16 Nov 2010)

Lee J":2hi1mejf said:


>



For future reference you really ought to put the dowel as close to the shoulder of the joint as reasonably possible. The cross grain of the stile will move seasonally while the long grain of the tenon won't. The result will be stress on, and eventual failure of, the glue, and an open gap at the shoulder. Either that or the stile might split.


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## stoatyboy (16 Nov 2010)

Single bedroom = wardrobe

does that mean you get a room for the train set?

I'm not an expert but I think generally you do as much of the joinery as you can before you glue things together or cut weird shapes in them (like curves). 

Not sure whether you would put the runners in the sides and then rout the grooves in the drawers to match or the other way round to be honest - I think questions like this are why apprentices were invented!!

I'm sure you'll find a way - or someone sensible will help?

Pete


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## Lee J (19 Nov 2010)

Well my great idea of using dovetails to join the drawer fronts to the sides was scuppered when my dovetail jig made a right balls up of the job. Lined it all up and ran 3 test pieces and seemed to get it right, popped the first front in place and the left side piece, did the route and it was out by 4mm. Now I could've got away with this but it took that long to set up and faff about I just wasn't looking forward to doing the rest. Then I offered 'er indoors an option. I'll either persevere with dovetails but may require more wood and may end up fluff it up completely or I could use this type of joint...






screwed through the sides and holes plugged. 

Then I offered to drill and plug the front panels as a feature to match the frame and the top and this went down really well and I got permission to change the brief and crack on. 

Set my router up in the table, measure it all out and routed the rebates in the rear face of the front drawer panels...

At first only routing as far up as the drawer sides needed to go...






but this was proving to be taking ages and for what? So I blasted straight through...






Heres the smallest drawer (the top drawer of the unit) dry fit...












and thats all folks as it was nearly 10pm and the router isn't the quietest tool in our sleepy village. 

Back in tonight to rout the slots for the 6mm ply drawer bottoms and the runner slots too.


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## Lee J (26 Nov 2010)

Slots routed for the 6mm ply. I used a 6.35mm straight cutter in the router table. made two passes with each piece because when I tried to go through with a single pass it didn't sound too healthy. 

Here's the front panels with the slots sorted!






and of course, the fronts close up too...






So this weekend I will attempt to rout the slots that will be used for the runners. Not sure the best way to approach it really? 

I think rout the slots then offer the drawers up one by one and mark out where the runners will be, then fix the runners to the carcass.


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## stoatyboy (29 Nov 2010)

keep at it - nearly there

drawers take absolutely ages!! (well they take me absolutely ages)

looking forward to seeing the finished - very tall - article

cheers


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## Lee J (30 Nov 2010)

cheers mate, it's not that tall really  

I've set myself a deadline of Sunday to get this to a state ready for a finish to be applied. so all drawers assembled and fitted, rubbed down, final sand off and then let the dust settle - couple of days later I'll coat it with some varnish type stuff I did the internal pine doors in. It's just a standard satin clear varnish. Should be enough to protect it from scuffs. I'm gonna spend a bit of time on the drawer fronts and the carcass top to ensure a nice finish


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## Lee J (6 Dec 2010)

Here I am again. Plodding on. 

I got in the workshop on Saturday lunchtime despite the fact it was minus 4 degrees outside. No heating in there this year but I may look into oil radiators for next year. I decided this year I'd get this unit finished then close the shop up until Spring (yeah right lol).

I set the hand held router up using the fence to put a slot into these side bits. Looks like I've made them a little too deep. But, this shouldn't be a problem as they still seem strong enough. 











Once I'd completed this it was time to glue up the drawer panels and leave them to go off. 
I know this looks a bit daft but it works. Didn't need a lot of clamp pressure, just enough to nip the glue out of the join.






I cut up the 6mm hardboard drawer bottoms ready for assembly.
That was Saturday done, it was 4pm and it was minus 7 degrees outside. Brrrrr


Sunday and it looks a bit brighter outside. Still under a cover of snow but hey ho.

I planed up the side panels using my hand plane. Something satisfying about using a hand plane and seeing all those shavings roll off...






Time for a dry fit...






...and then with the drawer bottom in place...






This dry fit photo shows the drawer sat on top of the unit, looks kinda good really, I'm well pleased so far...






Next job it was shaping the drawer fronts. I dont want to fit handles to this unit so I'm going for a 'cut away' style handle. I roughly marked out a cut away on the top drawer and cut a series of relief cuts on the bandsaw...






then cut out the waste until I had this...






It was potta tea time while I thought through how to sand this down to the correct shape and while I was stood gazing I spotted my flatbed sander thingy-me-bob. The profile of the flat bed and the end roller was perfect for my drawer front so I did this...






...and I ended up with this...











What a result! I was well chuffed. I did them all then went for drawer assembly. 

Here's the story up to date, drawers...











Shouldn't be too long now! Brrrrrrr


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## stoatyboy (12 Dec 2010)

Ah you see I was looking at those drawers with the big lumps sticking out the top with the rebate going all the way up thinking "I don't really like that"

and then you cut it all away and shape it and I'm thinking "I like that" it's amazing how things change

are you going to do the other side or keep it on one - I like the asymetric look but would fret if I had that rebate on the other side leering at me each time I opened the drawer!

I'm not an expert but as you say I also suspect the rebate for the slides is probably too deep - quite what it should be though I have no idea - I'm sure it'll be fine

looking forward to it getting finished keen to see how you fit the runners and keep it all evenly spaced

cheers


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## Lee J (16 Dec 2010)

Applied the same assembly principles to the other 4 drawers and I was now ready to fit them into the unit. I'm going to use pine runners for this as these drawers wont get heavy usage to be honest, missus is gonna store some clothes that aren't used much and a bits of make up and jewelry that she wants to keep - for what ever reason women keep these things :roll: 

Anyway, I thought long and hard over a potta about the way to do this and came up with putting marks on the front of the drawer inline with the slots on the sides, then offering the drawer up into the unit, get it central/level and mark the unit sides. Then hold a runner up so the front is on the marks at the front and with a level mark all the way across. Drill clearance hole in runner, counter sink, pilot hole in unit and hey presto...






and then the moment of truth...











Repeat process another 4 times...











I had a problem with drawer number 3, it didn't shut right. took me ages to realise I had made a mistake and put the right hand runner on wonky. Only about 2 or 3mm but enough to stop the drawer running freely. Quick adjustment and all was well again. 

Well wont you look at that, all fitted and functioning...











Not bad really, I'm quite pleased to be honest. I spent a few hours just sanding down through from 120 grit to 240 grit, then 400 grit and finally 600 grit. Gave it a few coats of satin varnish and it looks really good. 

So I started with this...






and ended up with this...







I thank you


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## eggflan (17 Dec 2010)

I like it , (but i do have a soft spot for pine) you should be really proud of it 8)


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## stoatyboy (17 Dec 2010)

If I was from del monte I would say yes!

like the drawer pull/cut out especially. 

well done and thanks for sharing


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