Under cabinet for desk

[Cliff]

So question for you guys who are reading this.. how far do you chase drawer spacing/gaps? I'm about 80% happy with where I am, and I honestly wonder if once I do a chamfer/roundover and final sand if I'll notice that much. 

Some of my drawer slides were off.. had to fix that. 

I also had to shim some drawers to push them left or right. Part of that could be mistakes in my cuts, or that I cut these drawers to final size a month ago, and the cabinet has had plenty of time to move. I'm not sure. As this is my first real cabinet, I am sure there are things I can improve on. 

This is a rather close up shot of where I am now. I have not adjusted the top drawer at all. 

 

 

[wtnhighlander]

I see nothing to really complain about. You are at the point where I would sand a very light chamfer around all the edges to create shadow lines to disguise any remaining inconsistency. If you can't see it, it isn't there, right? 

[Chestnut]

I think your drawers gaps look great. When i do BB slides i typically do false fronts and then attach them after everything is mounted up so i can use spaces to set the gap.

When i do try and even gaps I make the drawer front a bit large and then use a hand plane to slowly bring it to size.

[drzaius]

Okay, I'm gonna be the contrarian here. Zoom in a bit on that photo & have a closer look at the gaps. Honestly, they need work, both the vertical & horizontal. The grain selection is stellar and that just accentuates the bad gaps. If it was made of walnut stained knotty pine (I feel dirty just typing that), no one would care. Take a couple of hours to fix it up & you'll be glad you did. That wood & hardware is top notch & deserves it.

[pkinneb]

1 hour ago, drzaius said:

Okay, I'm gonna be the contrarian here. Zoom in a bit on that photo & have a closer look at the gaps. Honestly, they need work, both the vertical & horizontal. The grain selection is stellar and that just accentuates the bad gaps. If it was made of walnut stained knotty pine (I feel dirty just typing that), no one would care. Take a couple of hours to fix it up & you'll be glad you did. That wood & hardware is top notch & deserves it.

I agree take the time to make it right. It's really good now but could be great with a few more tweaks. One that really jumps out at me is the top of the bottom left drawer (left to right is off a fair amount.) Same on the top panel. 

You've gone this far, dial in the last few and know that even though nobody but a couple of crotchety woodworkers online will ever know its still the right thing to do  

[Cliff]

Right on. Thanks for the opinions all. I'm about 5 hours or so into adjusting these drawers. I'll see what I can get tonight. I know some of them can be taken care of with sanding and planing. So far I've just tried to take care of the ones that i had to adjust the slides on. 

[Cliff]

7 hours ago, Chestnut said:

I think your drawers gaps look great. When i do BB slides i typically do false fronts and then attach them after everything is mounted up so i can use spaces to set the gap.

When i do try and even gaps I make the drawer front a bit large and then use a hand plane to slowly bring it to size.

I may try false fronts next time. I spent quite some time making sure that my fronts were perfectly cut then was hoping the slide placement would be perfect and everything would fall into place. But that never happens haha. 

[Cliff]

My progress after another 2 and half hours. I've honestly just about had it. Each time I slide a drawer in I slam it a little harder. Pretty soon I'll be picking up the entire thing and throwing it. My frustration level is extremely high. 

 

My plan is to make these adjustments, moving the sides up where there are up arrows. then I'm chamfering and making sure everything is flush on the front with sanding, etc. I know how this became so problematic (using a tape measure to get my spacer measurements, so I'll take that as a lesson learned. In addition, there were a couple of drawers that were slightly out of square. And when I say slightly I mean the diagonal of a perfect drawer was 22 3/8" and one direction would be a little bit (looks to my eye to be 1/64th) over 22 3/8 and the other diagonal was just under. But then lets say my slides are slightly off and we're in pure hell from the compounding of errors.

Regardless, I don't think I have the skill to do any better than this yet.  

 

[Chestnut]

41 minutes ago, Cliff said:

My progress after another 2 and half hours. I've honestly just about had it. Each time I slide a drawer in I slam it a little harder. Pretty soon I'll be picking up the entire thing and throwing it. My frustration level is extremely high. 

Just stop then. It's not worth it to get that worked up  over gaps. Do you have space to clamp a block inside the case? I'd adjust the slides by clamping a block tight against the slide. I'd then loosen the screws and insert a couple playing cards and tighten the screws back down. If you use the same number of cards you could easily walk a gap up by an even amount etc.

Also less than 1/64th out of square over 2 feet is pretty dang good i don't know that any of my drawers are ever that close.

[wtnhighlander]

Cliff, I would be more concerned about all the drawers closing flush. If that part is good, close them and wipe some mineral spirits to show the post-finish color. You may find that the variance you see now is greatly diminished in appearance.

Or go watch videos of traditional japanese cabinetmakers building cases with perfect waterfall grain match and hidden dovetail mitered corners, filled with piston-fit drawers, all made with hand tools. Then realize what you are doing requires patience more than skill, calm down, and work it through. I am confident that you can come as close to being satisfied with the results as any of us are with our own work. Since we are never completely satisfied, are we? 

[drzaius]

Differences in the vertical gaps can be more easily seen from drawer to drawer. So, once you have all the gaps adjusted as evenly as possible, trim the sides just enough to make those gaps more even. @wtnhighlander is right when he says that this sort of thing takes more patience than skill. Frustration and patients rarely go hand in hand, so take a break from the project for a day or two. 

I don't think there's any one of us that hasn't experience this sort of thing. You can get through it and end up with something to be proud of.

[Cliff]

Glued in a strip to act as a stop for my top drawer. I'm going to have to figure out a semi-permanent solution to keep the drawer in though, cause it's very short and will easily be pulled out and fall on the floor.

Sanded, chamfered, etc. Finish on the case. Using Rubio Monocoat.

I'm really happy with the grain. It's not perfect but it's by far the best I've ever done.

 

[mat60]

53 minutes ago, Cliff said:

Glued in a strip to act as a stop for my top drawer. I'm going to have to figure out a semi-permanent solution to keep the drawer in though, cause it's very short and will easily be pulled out and fall on the floor.

Sanded, chamfered, etc. Finish on the case. Using Rubio Monocoat.

I'm really happy with the grain. It's not perfect but it's by far the best I've ever done.

 

Looks very nice and I really like the grain.  Your shop looks like you have made some changes also.

 

 

[drzaius]

I'll say again, that's some truly spectactular walnut. And the grain is very nicely laid out. Well done.

[Cliff]

I tried to get some of the sides evened up with a shooting board that I built a year ago and never used until today. I think I need to learn how to use it better because I sucked. 

+

 

Sanded, chamfered and drilled some pull holes.

Tomorrow I put finish on drawers.

 

 

[B1rdhunter]

Looks pretty fine from here.

[Cliff]

Finished! Thanks all for watching, and to those that gave advice, super appreciated.

 

[treeslayer]

Real nice Cliff and the grain on those drawer fronts really pop with the finish, and while we’re on the subject what did you use for finish? 

[drzaius]

That's a stellar job Cliff. Beautiful.

[wtnhighlander]

Wow! That really stands out with finish and hardware applied. Very nice!

See, it really was worth all the worry, wasn't it?

[Cliff]

2 hours ago, treeslayer said:

Real nice Cliff and the grain on those drawer fronts really pop with the finish, and while we’re on the subject what did you use for finish? 

Rubio monocoat

57 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

Wow! That really stands out with finish and hardware applied. Very nice!

See, it really was worth all the worry, wasn't it?

I really think it was. 

[pkinneb]

Very nice!!

[Chestnut]

That looks great cliff i like the desing and the hardware with the desk.

10 hours ago, Cliff said:

Rubio monocoat

I need to try the stuff.

[Mark J]

It came out great!  

[Bmac]

Very nice Cliff, great result and great grain selection. That was air dried walnut, correct? I don't think you typically see those colors in kiln dried.