Chapin High Chest of Drawers - Glue Up & Knee Blocks - Step 6

I have completed carving the four ball and claw feet, so now it is time to glue up the lower case. I dry fitted the case one more time.  It should not have changed but I did it to make sure I would not have trouble when I was gluing the pieces together.

Gluing the case together is somewhat complex, even with the long open time of the hide glue, I don't think that I could complete the entire task at one time.

First, I glued the two rear legs to the back, making sure it was square and flat. Then I glued up the front pieces to the two front legs. Again, making sure it was square and flat.

When they were dry, I had a front and back.  I laid the back on the table and put glue in all the mortises and then inserted the sides and all the runners.

Then I applied glue to all of the tenons on the front of the sides and runners.

Lastly, I placed the front on the ends of the runners and sides.  I used a dead blow hammer to bang things together and then stood it up on the feet and clamped it together.

All glued up waiting to dry.

Now that it is glued up, I can make and apply the knee blocks.  I have a full size picture of the knee block shape.  But it is a flat picture and the knee block is quite curved.

I have to enlarge the picture and shape to fit over the curved surface.

For material, I have the tops of the posts that I cut off when I first started to make the cabriolet legs, this allows me to match the grain in the legs.  I had put letters on the pieces so I could match them up.

I trace the side curve on the block of wood since this is the first cut I am going to make on the bandsaw. I now have the curve for the knee block.

Then I bend the paper template across the curve and trace it on the curved surface.

Then cut the pattern on the bandsaw. I will clean up the saw marks with a spindle sander.

Testing the shape and the fit.  Looks pretty good, now I have to make six of them, each time matching the grain on the leg.  There are none on the back.

Glue them on, I only put glue on the face of the knee block, none on the top.  Since the side of the case shrinks and expands it would not hold on the top of the knee block anyway.

I still need to pair the edges of the knee block flush with the legs after the glue dries and file or rasp the lower curve with the leg curve.

Next step is to make the waist molding.

Here is today's video: