Cherry Oxbow Chest - Making the Drawer Runners, Dust Panels & Glue-up Step 4

I got back into the shop this week after the weekend in Detroit.  The smell of sawdust is great but I think it is making my allergies act up.

I started to mill some poplar for the drawer runners,  checked my measurements since there is an offset for the quarter columns.  I have to make sure they are wide enough to reach to actual drawers. It wouldn't be good to put them in and the drawers not rest on the runner.

I put a 3/8 inch mortise on the back of the cherry drawer blades and a tenon on the end of the drawer runners.  Originally, I only made the mortise groove wide enough to fit the tenon.

I did not plan on putting dust panels between the drawers.  I have seen a number of 18th century pieces without. However, after checking with my expert Tim Garland in the UK, he said I really needed to add them.

I in my early days of making furniture I would cut a 1/4 inch plywood panel and insert it into the runners.  But Tim Garland said I have to make the panel flush with the top of the drawer runner and of course no plywood.

So I am going to need 17/32 stock to make it flush with the top edge.

I don't have thick enough stock to cut in half to make panels that size. To mill 4/4 stock to 17/32 would be too wasteful.   So I made a trip to the lumber mill to pick up some 5/4 soft maple.  This I could re-saw into 2 panels 9/16 inch thick with some consistency.  Then plane it to 17/32 inch.

Then I went back and completed the mortise groove completely from end to end on the drawer runners and blades.  This created a groove clear around the inside of each drawer support.

This is how it looked before I added the groove all the way around the inside.

Here I am gluing up to 9/16 inch dust panels for the chest.  After they dried I planed them to 17/32.

Then I rabbeted the edge to a 1/4 inch to fit into the groove in the inside of the drawer runners.

Before I glued up the case, I cleaned up the drawer blades with a spokeshave blade that I used as a scraper.   The blades that had a double bead I used a narrow chisel.

Now I was ready to glue everything together. Drawer blades, drawer runners and dust panels all glued together.  I did leave the dust panels about 1/16 inch smaller to allow for expansion and they float in the grooves.

Also, the drawer runners are only glued to the case sides near the front.  This allows the case sides to expand and contract when needed.  If I had glued the runners in all the way from front to back the case sides would probably crack at some point.

Now the next thing to work on is the cockbeading and the quarter columns.

Here is today's short video: