I did get a couple of days to work on it this week, so here is the progress that I made.
I made the drawer blade for just under the top, along with a straight 4 inch piece in the back to hold the case together. The drawer blade will need to have the cockbeading added but I'll do that a little later when I do all of them.
So this is how the case looks now. I need to make the rest of the drawer blades and then add the dovetail slots to the sides to hold the case together.
Below I am using my story stick to mark out where the drawer blades and drawer runner slots need to be located. It is pretty easy to be consistent with the story stick since the markings are there and can be transferred to both sides.
I cut out the drawer blades using the templates that I had prepared earlier for the chest bottom. I used a jig saw to cut out the shape leaving about a 1/32 to 1/16 inch extra. Then I used the router with a flush trim bit to match the profile.
Then I used a beading bit in the router table to put a 3/16" cockbead on the edges of the drawer blades.
Putting the bead on each edge of the three center blades as well as one bead on the upper and lower blades, still leaves the material behind the bead to be cleaned out.
I used a slot cutter or fly cutter with the proper bearing to remove the rest of the material. The cutter width did not match the remaining material to be removed so I just turned over the blade and cut the rest.
Below are the five blades with the cockbeading and the material removed behind the bead. I had left an extra 1/8 inch on the ends knowing that I would not leave a clean edge using the router bits.
So I gang sawed off 1/8 inch to remove all the nasty edges. This also insured that the ends were all the same length. I used a hand saw to remove the 1/8 inch.
I need to put the dovetail slots into the case sides for the drawer blades and the slots for the drawer runners. I used my router jig I had made years ago which I clamp to the work piece and run the router through. The opening is exactly the size of the router base so there is no movement of the router from side to side.
Once I get the router jig lined up, I cut the dovetail slot and the drawer runner slot with multiple routers.
I know I could do all of this with hand tools, but since I have the power tools it is easier for me.
After I have cut the dovetail slots in the sides and the drawer runner slots into the case sides, I put matching dovetails on the drawer blade ends using the same bit that I used to cut the slots. By standing the blades on end and running them over the router table, I make matching dovetails on the drawerblades.
It was hard to clamp them since they had curved fronts.
Before I would assemble the case I need to put a rabbet on the back edge of the case all the way around. I used my fillister plane to cut a 1/2 x 3/8 inch rabbet on the back of the case.
It didn't take a lot of fitting to get the dovetails on the the drawer blades to fit the sides, so here it is all assembled.
Looking pretty good at this point.
Here is a different angle. The blades all match up nice in the front. The dovetails in the sides will be hidden by the quarter columns.
So now I need to add the drawer runners and the work on the quarter columns and the cockbeading.
That will be coming up in the next installment.
Hope you enjoy the build!
Here is today's video:
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