Chipman Oxbow Chest Making Curved Drawer Fronts Step 5

It has been awhile since I made an entry to the blog.  I have been in Florida for a month and no woodworking.  I am back now and getting into the swing of things again. 

I have glued on the bracket feet that I made before I left for vacation.

 I also added the drawer runners to the sides of the chest, these have a 1/4 inch tongue on the front that slips into a 1/4 inch grove in the back of the drawer blades.  They are nailed into the dado grove with 2 nails toward the back.

Now it is time to work on the  oxbow curved drawer fronts.  Back in the beginning of the project I hand planed 8/4 mahogany so I could see the grain.  Now is the time I pick out the matching grain patterns to make the drawer fronts.  Each chest has the fronts from one boards.

I milled that 8/4 stock to just under 2 inches thick and cut them to each of the openings.

I left 1/16 of an inch at the top and 1/32 on each side of each drawer front.

Here are the first set, ready to be sawed with the oxbow curve. I take care to make sure that the grain is going the right way and matching.

Both sets are fitted now, ready for the band sawing.

I use my table saw jig to cut the flat part of the drawer fronts before the curve starts. This gives me an accurate reference point for dovetailing and making the drawers.

Now I am ready to cut out the curves.  It is not a difficult saw cut to make there are no sharp turns to cut.

Now I have to clean up all of the band saw marks. I use a spokeshave.  It takes a fine shaving and leaves the surface pretty smooth.  I have reference lines on the top and bottom of the drawer front to help me keep that surface flat.

I use the spokeshave to bring the surface to the lines on both sides and smooth out the bumps.

For final clean up before sanding, I use a card scraper to remove some of the deep scratches and tearout.

Here are the two chests with the drawers cleaned up.  The chest on the right was really difficult to clean up because there was a lot of tearout on the highly figured grain.

I put a little mineral spirits on the fronts to better show how they will look when finished.

That's it for the drawer fronts.  Now I need to cut out the backs and make the drawers.
That will be in the next video and post.

Here is today's video: