RogerS
Established Member
The story so far...in this thread and having successfully resolved the question of the 'thingy' with the help of you guys, it left me pondering whether I was pushing my luck in keeping a 1mm gap between the drawers. Especially as I'd already made them up and front, back and sides were all the same height. So no false fronts then.
This post details my thinking and approach and is quite long but I hope you find it interesting.
was where we left off.
I decided to persevere and first rechecked all the drawers for dimensional accuracy. I used pocket screws and despite clamping up the corners in all directions I must have let some play in the system as several of the drawers weren't quite square or about 2-3mm oversize. I stripped them down and remade them and this time they were all pretty much spot-on..give or take 0.5mm. :lol:
Using some plastic spacer shims that I have (from Screwfix..very useful) I stacked the drawers on top of each other in situ to check the overall height and all seemed OK. Originally I wanted my plane drawer near the top but laying them out that way jsut didn't look right and so I re-arranged them in the more traditional way, largest at the bottom and smallest at the top. certainly looks better.
I decided to make the drawers and sides float underneath the bench. That way it didn't matter if the bench wasn't square (it wasn't). Came to the conclusion that the positioning and accuracy in fixing of the slides was paramount and would either make or break the project. I could either measure as accurately as I could or use the drawers themselves as the 'measure'. I opted for the latter and laid one side panel flat on the bench and then stacked the drawers on top using the spacers to keep the gaps correct. I then carefull removed one drawer at a time and used my Japanese marking knife to score on the side panel where the bottom of the drawer was, taking the advice of amilford and mount the runners at the drawer bottoms.
Then I checked the lines for squareness and found them to be all over the place. So back to square one. Thought through the problem again and realised that provided the runners that are fixed to the side panels are parallel to each other and each drawers' runners are at the same height then it doesn't really matter where they are located (within reason) as what really matters is where the drawer runner counterpart is fixed to the drawer. I used my calipers to keep the side panel runners parallel and even the wee optical centre punch from Veritas...very useful and guarantees that your centre pop is bang in the middle of your mark. Finally fixed all the runners on side one but embarrassed to admit that it took me nearly all morning.
Next problem...how to ensure that the pair of runners on the other side are at the same height? I was reluctant to drill through the first side panel (into the second panel) as I always find that, unless you're using a drill press, if the drill bits not exactly vertical then there could be enough inaccuracy to make the second panel out enough to give me problems downline. In the end I lined the two panels together (taking care to remember the mirror image) and used my square...something nagging me that this might not be the best way but I pressed on regardless).
Finally after a day
I had achieved two side panels with fixed runners as accurately placed as I could manage.
How to fix the slides on the drawers? Looking at the above picture I decided to use the drawers again as my reference markers. Bottom drawer went in (sitting on its 1mm spacer) and I carefully marked up on the drawer side where the screwholes should go. Another source of inaccuracy was how far back from the drawer front to mount the runner as the runners have a detent that keeps the drawer completely closed. Used my calipers for this and managed to get it spot-on first time. First drawer in OK. Four to go.
Used one of the spacers again.
and marked up the second drawer. As you've probably gathered, each drawer was different which was a bit of a pain but the only way I could see to do it and get my 1mm clearance as any errors would be cumulative. Basically I double checked everything as I went along which was just as well as I'd made the assumption that the distance of the drawer sliders relative to the drawer front when fully closed was consistent between runners. Runner two was out by several mm.
And so I pressed on and all was going swimmingly. Each drawer slid in and out without fouling the drawer above or below. I fixed the right hand side panel to the bench and fiddled about with it's fixing until I was happy that it was as square to the bench front as I could make it. I nearly forgot the holes for the bench dogs. Originally the panel was mounted too far forward and the dogs would have fouled the drawers...a lucky escape.
What to do with the lefthand panel? I came to the conclusion that with five drawers, that the left hand panel was self-supporting, simply resting on the bench front bearer to take the weight and that's how I've left it.
I slid in each drawer starting with the bottom drawer and the first four went in beautifully...still missing each other. The top drawer was too big! Somehow, somewhere a few mm had crept in and it was mounting too high ..dammit. Luckily I'd not used too much glue in the front and back grooves and so was able to strip the drawer down and run the sides and front etc through the thicknesser to reduce it down. Quick reassembly and bingo..job done.
1mm gap between the drawers..OK...there's a 2mm gap between the top one.
The bottom of the drawers I covered with flooring insulation foam and I'm waiting to see how the content re-arrangement works before I divide them up internally.
So, as in all good workshop pictures, what's in them? Looks pitifully empty .
from the bottom
You've been waiting for the 'BUT', haven't you
There is one. Quite an annoying one. Because I wanted to have the maximum depth possible in each drawer, and because I used the existing groove in each recycled floorboard if it seemed appropriate, some of the drawers have the bottom panel pretty low down. Now that's not a problem...unless one of those drawers happens to be the one with all those heavy planes in. And guess what, because the drawers are so large, the ply sags and just rubs against the top of the drawer underneath. Dammit.
This post details my thinking and approach and is quite long but I hope you find it interesting.
I decided to persevere and first rechecked all the drawers for dimensional accuracy. I used pocket screws and despite clamping up the corners in all directions I must have let some play in the system as several of the drawers weren't quite square or about 2-3mm oversize. I stripped them down and remade them and this time they were all pretty much spot-on..give or take 0.5mm. :lol:
Using some plastic spacer shims that I have (from Screwfix..very useful) I stacked the drawers on top of each other in situ to check the overall height and all seemed OK. Originally I wanted my plane drawer near the top but laying them out that way jsut didn't look right and so I re-arranged them in the more traditional way, largest at the bottom and smallest at the top. certainly looks better.
I decided to make the drawers and sides float underneath the bench. That way it didn't matter if the bench wasn't square (it wasn't). Came to the conclusion that the positioning and accuracy in fixing of the slides was paramount and would either make or break the project. I could either measure as accurately as I could or use the drawers themselves as the 'measure'. I opted for the latter and laid one side panel flat on the bench and then stacked the drawers on top using the spacers to keep the gaps correct. I then carefull removed one drawer at a time and used my Japanese marking knife to score on the side panel where the bottom of the drawer was, taking the advice of amilford and mount the runners at the drawer bottoms.
Then I checked the lines for squareness and found them to be all over the place. So back to square one. Thought through the problem again and realised that provided the runners that are fixed to the side panels are parallel to each other and each drawers' runners are at the same height then it doesn't really matter where they are located (within reason) as what really matters is where the drawer runner counterpart is fixed to the drawer. I used my calipers to keep the side panel runners parallel and even the wee optical centre punch from Veritas...very useful and guarantees that your centre pop is bang in the middle of your mark. Finally fixed all the runners on side one but embarrassed to admit that it took me nearly all morning.
Next problem...how to ensure that the pair of runners on the other side are at the same height? I was reluctant to drill through the first side panel (into the second panel) as I always find that, unless you're using a drill press, if the drill bits not exactly vertical then there could be enough inaccuracy to make the second panel out enough to give me problems downline. In the end I lined the two panels together (taking care to remember the mirror image) and used my square...something nagging me that this might not be the best way but I pressed on regardless).
Finally after a day
I had achieved two side panels with fixed runners as accurately placed as I could manage.
How to fix the slides on the drawers? Looking at the above picture I decided to use the drawers again as my reference markers. Bottom drawer went in (sitting on its 1mm spacer) and I carefully marked up on the drawer side where the screwholes should go. Another source of inaccuracy was how far back from the drawer front to mount the runner as the runners have a detent that keeps the drawer completely closed. Used my calipers for this and managed to get it spot-on first time. First drawer in OK. Four to go.
Used one of the spacers again.
And so I pressed on and all was going swimmingly. Each drawer slid in and out without fouling the drawer above or below. I fixed the right hand side panel to the bench and fiddled about with it's fixing until I was happy that it was as square to the bench front as I could make it. I nearly forgot the holes for the bench dogs. Originally the panel was mounted too far forward and the dogs would have fouled the drawers...a lucky escape.
What to do with the lefthand panel? I came to the conclusion that with five drawers, that the left hand panel was self-supporting, simply resting on the bench front bearer to take the weight and that's how I've left it.
I slid in each drawer starting with the bottom drawer and the first four went in beautifully...still missing each other. The top drawer was too big! Somehow, somewhere a few mm had crept in and it was mounting too high ..dammit. Luckily I'd not used too much glue in the front and back grooves and so was able to strip the drawer down and run the sides and front etc through the thicknesser to reduce it down. Quick reassembly and bingo..job done.
1mm gap between the drawers..OK...there's a 2mm gap between the top one.
The bottom of the drawers I covered with flooring insulation foam and I'm waiting to see how the content re-arrangement works before I divide them up internally.
So, as in all good workshop pictures, what's in them? Looks pitifully empty .
from the bottom
You've been waiting for the 'BUT', haven't you
There is one. Quite an annoying one. Because I wanted to have the maximum depth possible in each drawer, and because I used the existing groove in each recycled floorboard if it seemed appropriate, some of the drawers have the bottom panel pretty low down. Now that's not a problem...unless one of those drawers happens to be the one with all those heavy planes in. And guess what, because the drawers are so large, the ply sags and just rubs against the top of the drawer underneath. Dammit.
