Chipman Oxbow Chest Bottom & Drawer Blades Step 3

I have pretty much constructed the carcass of the chests. I dovetailed the top cross members in and drilled holes underneath for screws to fasten the top.  The holes in the rear cross member are elongated to allow the top to expand or contract.  There are also small slots in the sides to put in wood buttons to help keep the top flat on the sides.

Glue up and clamping of the cases.

Bottom of the chests receive a frame of secondary wood. The frame is held on with screws which are elongated to allow for wood movement. 

The frame sides have a 1/4 tongue and the side molding has a 1/4 groove in it.  The molding is 1 5/8 thick which matches the front molding with the big dovetail.  The molding is glued to secondary wood underneath and only fastened to the case in the front.  This way the base can expand or contract without the molding moving.
The elongated screw holes allow for the movement.

I am just gluing in the cut off pieces to finish off the base.  The bracket feet will be glued to this bottom.

This is what the side and front molding looks like after the side molding was attached to the bottom frame. Bracket feet will be glued underneath.

Now to make the oxbow drawer dividers.  I start with glued up pieces and trace the template and secure it to piece.

Then band saw off the waste leaving about 1/32 excess.

Using a flush trim router bit, I clean up the edge to the template.

Then I put the dovetail on the edge.  I saw off the back edge with a hand saw leaving just the mahogany dovetail.

Then I used a beading bit to put a  1/8 x 3/16 inch bead on both sides of the drawer divider.

Then I carved out the waste in the middle.  I have tried various router bits to remove the middle but none have worked out well.

Drawer dividers fitted to the case.

Time to make the cockbeading. The 1/2 x 3/16 groove was made early on when dadoing the sides.
You can see that the dovetail is only about 1/2 inch into the side so that the beading on the drawer divider extends into the groove.  This is so it can be mitered to the vertical cockbead.

First I make some 5/8 inch stock for the cockbeading.  This is 1/2 inch for the groove and 1/8 inch that needs to stick out for the miter.

Running the stock through the same beading bit makes the cockbead.

Now I rip it off of the stock piece.
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I have made 5 strips, should be enough for mistakes and material for both chests.

In the next post I'll be showing how to miter and attach the cockbead around the drawer openings.

Here is today's video: