Small Chest on a Stand

[woodbloke]

Pete (Newt) was round this afternoon and asked me to take a pic:

of this small chest of drawers he recently made. He'll be along shortly to tell you about it - Rob

 

[Paul Chapman]

Very neat - his dovetails are getting good 8)

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[newt]

Thanks for taking the picture Rob. Yes interesting story, I bought a lot of Oak 6 months ago to make a large book case. Couple of weeks back started to machine and resaw and it was all over the place, cupping twisting and bending, threw away 60% ( it was kiln dried I was bloody annoyed). So to use what I had left I decided to make a small chest really as an exercise in making drawers. Anyway I decided to leave all layout marks except those in pencil and I am quite pleased with the result. SWIMBO is going to use it for her sowing stuff. The handles are made from WAKA's rosewood offcuts. One thing that I am not quite sure about is that as you close one drawer another starts to open, this annoys SWIMBO. I suggested to Rob I could drill a couple of holes somewhere and he told me quite strongly leave it alone. So who am I to argue.

 

[Rich]

I wonder if this is the "piston fit" syndrome, I have seen this on various videos and have noticed that the maker has made the back of the drawer smaller than the 2 sides and front in order that air can escape when the drawer is closed, just a thought.

Rich.

 

[Night Train]

Nice work there, Newt!

Piston fit is nice, I wonder if the novelty every wears off?

I knew a student who made an excellent set of piston fit drawers and it was a pain trying to get all the drawers to stay shut. He eventually put a breather hole in the back panel.

 

[Mr Maguire]

Nice work Newt,
I love small items like this, very quaint.

Many thanks
Richard

(by the way...nice dovetails :wink: )

 

[BradNaylor]

That's very nice Newt, but...

I decided to leave all layout marks except those in pencil

WHY????

I HATE it when people leave knife marks on dovetails. It just looks so appallingly amateurish.

I suspect that it is simply to make the statement that they are hand cut and not done on a jig. Like anyone gives a pineapple!

Sand 'em off!

Or plane 'em off if you insist!


Cheers
Brad

 

[Ironballs]

I agree, the trend seems to be to leave your knife/gauge marks running across your dovetails. Whenever I've done them I take great care to only place the lines where they are needed. You see it a lot in F&C and the like

 

[Paul Chapman]

One thing that I am not quite sure about is that as you close one drawer another starts to open, this annoys SWIMBO. I suggested to Rob I could drill a couple of holes somewhere and he told me quite strongly leave it alone. So who am I to argue.

Pete,

I would drill the holes. Woodworkers may marvel at piston-fit drawers and delight in showing people how as one drawer is pushed in, another pops out. However, that feature is annoying for non-woodworking users who just want to shut the bloody drawer :evil:

Very nice piece 8)

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[BradNaylor]

I would drill the holes. Woodworkers may marvel at piston-fit drawers and delight in showing people how as one drawer is pushed in, another pops out. However, that feature is annoying for non-woodworking users who just want to shut the bloody drawer

Absolutely right.

A chest of drawers where the drawers don't close properly is simply not fit for purpose.

No-one is interested in 'piston fits' and smart-pineapple cabinet makers. If I was judging a competition :wink: I would deduct points for drawers that didn't shut and visible marking knife lines.

Cheers
Brad

 

[woodbloke]

If I was judging a competition :wink:
Cheers
Brad

:-$ :lol: - Rob

 

[head clansman]

Hi ALL

Piston fitted drawers , dovetail scribing lines left in the finished job , come on who ever taught you that , No self respecting trades man who think of leaving his marking out line in any form what so ever .

piston fitted drawers are wrongly made drawers by some smart buttocks's who don't know any better . drawers should be fitted by at least 2" short of the width of the unit to allow for air displacement when closing a drawers they should close against the drawer stop which are place into there position to allow the face of drawer to align with the face of unit when closed .

apart from that the unit look nice , nice neat dovetails keep it up mate . hc

 

[matt]

I think I'd drill a hole at the top back of each draw so the air displaces in to each drawer as it is closed. Just don't keep feathers in the draw :lol:

 

[head clansman]

Hi all

scribing line doe's your work an injustice by drawing eyes away from what you actually wanted us all to see your dovetails .hc

 

[newt]

This was an experiment to see how the layout marks looked ( I normally remove them), on balance I have to agree that the marking lines on the carcase dovetails should be removed. However I do not think those on the drawers are a problem, and anyway removing them would compromise the fit of the drawer. Thanks for the constructive comments.

 

[TrimTheKing]

I HATE it when people leave knife marks on dovetails. It just looks so appallingly amateurish.

I suspect that it is simply to make the statement that they are hand cut and not done on a jig. Like anyone gives a pineapple!

Sand 'em off!

Or plane 'em off if you insist!

No-one is interested in 'piston fits' and smart-pineapple cabinet makers.

LOL

Straight from the hip, both barrels :wink:

 

[wizer]

Straight to the point Bradley.

You do have to remember that Pete does this for pleasure not profit. If I managed to make a drawer that was a piston fit then I'd be shouting it from the tree tops.

But I agree it's not functional and would end up drilling a hole in it before wifey got the hump with it and slammed it shut. :roll: :wink:

 

[newt]

Brad, I suspect there are some folk who enjoy a piston fit for drawers, particularly, as I have been told, that some top end cabinet makers have to plane the drawers when exhibiting in humid conditions.

 

[Wanlock Dod]

Hi Pete,

Nice chest of drawers, and on quite a pleasing scale.

As regards the piston fit of drawers and visible marking lines, you are the only one who can make the final choice. I'm sure that you did what you felt was right at the time.

Some of the comments do, however, raise the issue of what pleases a woodworker versus what might, or might not, please a furniture user.

Cheers,

Dod

 

[Paul Chapman]

Whatever the rights and wrongs of piston fit drawers, Pete, I bet there are plenty on here who wish they could work to such tolerances and accuracy :wink:

Cheers :wink:

Paul