custard
Established Member
I'm building a loose copy of the Shaker Harvard Side Table, you can see another version of it here,
http://www.shakerworkshops.com/catalog/ ... Table/F333
The project originated when Toby (of this parish) saw it in John Shea's book of measured Shaker drawings, as he also wanted some practise in copy routing I thought if I made the router copy template I might be able to get the build time down and sell a few of them. The design was amended slightly as the original was very short, and would have looked almost comical in a modern room. But increasing the height would expose some of the design weaknesses of the original, namely propensity for racking and the vulnerability of the short grain in the "cow horn" feet. So the leg thickness was increased and the central cross bar was made thicker and deeper.
The router template was made,
And we each have been making our own version in English Cherry,
I've now had an order for one in Curly American Cherry. So I've got this one to sort out some design issues before making another. And here's the snag. The drawer measures about 550mm wide, but is only 200mm deep! If I make it as the original (hung from a pair of oak runners), it's inevitable that it will keep getting pulled out and the contents tipped on the floor. Given that I've already told the client it's an inherently unstable and delicate design and will need to be treated carefully, an "April Fool" drawer design might be the straw that breaks the camel's back in respect of future orders!
Has anyone any suggestions on how to keep such a shallow drawer in place whilst still retaining at least some useful depth to the drawer? I suppose the ideal would be to extend the drawer sides into arms that pass through notches in the centre rail (like the arms on an extending leaf table), but I'd hate to thicken up the drawer sides in order to do that.
http://www.shakerworkshops.com/catalog/ ... Table/F333
The project originated when Toby (of this parish) saw it in John Shea's book of measured Shaker drawings, as he also wanted some practise in copy routing I thought if I made the router copy template I might be able to get the build time down and sell a few of them. The design was amended slightly as the original was very short, and would have looked almost comical in a modern room. But increasing the height would expose some of the design weaknesses of the original, namely propensity for racking and the vulnerability of the short grain in the "cow horn" feet. So the leg thickness was increased and the central cross bar was made thicker and deeper.
The router template was made,
And we each have been making our own version in English Cherry,
I've now had an order for one in Curly American Cherry. So I've got this one to sort out some design issues before making another. And here's the snag. The drawer measures about 550mm wide, but is only 200mm deep! If I make it as the original (hung from a pair of oak runners), it's inevitable that it will keep getting pulled out and the contents tipped on the floor. Given that I've already told the client it's an inherently unstable and delicate design and will need to be treated carefully, an "April Fool" drawer design might be the straw that breaks the camel's back in respect of future orders!
Has anyone any suggestions on how to keep such a shallow drawer in place whilst still retaining at least some useful depth to the drawer? I suppose the ideal would be to extend the drawer sides into arms that pass through notches in the centre rail (like the arms on an extending leaf table), but I'd hate to thicken up the drawer sides in order to do that.