Cutting out a drawer front?

[madmungo]

Hi,

I am designing a walnut corner table (triangular top) for my home here in the UK and would like to use one solid piece of wood for the drawer front and the surrounding parts of the drawer. I have seen lots of people do it in the image gallery, some awesome tables there by the way chaps, i have some incredible work to aspire to. Usually when i cut a hole in a plank of wood, it is drill a hole and jigsaw inside the line, finishing it off with hand tools. However if i wanted to have just a couple of millimetre clearance and a perfect rectangle first time out, what would be my best option?

The only thing i can think of is, very slowly with a hand saw, or table saw it out and glue the surrounds back together again.

I am sure there must be a better way?

Thanks in advance people

[thewoodwhisperer]

The way I have done this in the past is with the bandsaw. A nice thin kerf and a reasonably clean cut. Once the parts are cut out, a very light pass over the jointer (or with a hand plane) will get the pieces prepped for glueup with minimal material loss.

[madmungo]

The way I have done this in the past is with the bandsaw. A nice thin kerf and a reasonably clean cut. Once the parts are cut out, a very light pass over the jointer (or with a hand plane) will get the pieces prepped for glueup with minimal material loss.

Cool... i wasnt sure if that was really ok to do, it seemed a lot of cutting. Bandsaw sounds like a much better tool to use than the table saw as i will loose much less to the dust extractor :-) How exciting.... i just got my first bandsaw last week!!!

Thanks for the reply Marc :-)

[thewoodwhisperer]

I show an example and mention this process briefly in this article.

[Vic]

I show an example and mention this process briefly in this article.

I thought you were gonna say that there's an app for that.

[thewoodwhisperer]

ha! There just might be. let me look.

[madmungo]

I show an example and mention this process briefly in this article.

Excellent thanks :-) I completely forgot to check the other site. (i mentally migrated)

[Walter Wolf G.]

Hi,

I am designing a walnut corner table (triangular top) for my home here in the UK and would like to use one solid piece of wood for the drawer front and the surrounding parts of the drawer. I have seen lots of people do it in the image gallery, some awesome tables there by the way chaps, i have some incredible work to aspire to. Usually when i cut a hole in a plank of wood, it is drill a hole and jigsaw inside the line, finishing it off with hand tools. However if i wanted to have just a couple of millimetre clearance and a perfect rectangle first time out, what would be my best option?

The only thing i can think of is, very slowly with a hand saw, or table saw it out and glue the surrounds back together again.

I am sure there must be a better way?

Thanks in advance people

Hi, I once did that, buy I don't have a good bandsaw so I did it with my hand saw, with some stops it was very hard actually haha. I can't find the pics of the process. If I find them, i'll post them. But if you have a bandsaw, I think it's gonna be a lot much easier.

Walter

[madmungo]

Hi, I once did that, buy I don't have a good bandsaw so I did it with my hand saw, with some stops it was very hard actually haha. I can't find the pics of the process. If I find them, i'll post them. But if you have a bandsaw, I think it's gonna be a lot much easier.

Walter

Err... well it is actually a good point. My bandsaw is a £170 bandsaw from Clarke, and is not really a great bandsaw either! I also don't have a jointer and my one and only jack plane cost me £7. getting quality tolerances is a job in itself. The sharpening episode was great though, it has taken my plane from a useless butter knife... to a.. sharp just about useable butter knife :-) I think i might have a go on a pine board before committing to my lovely walnut :-)

Thanks for the advice, any pictures and ideas i can steal from you are always welcome :-D

[Larry Marshall]

Err... well it is actually a good point. My bandsaw is a £170 bandsaw from Clarke, and is not really a great bandsaw either! I also don't have a jointer and my one and only jack plane cost me £7. getting quality tolerances is a job in itself.

Presuming your jack plane is a bit better than a butter knife, you should have no problems. But don't assume that you will lose no wood. The trick is to use wood where the grain is subtle and parallel to the long cuts. Whether you use a jointer or hand plane (my favorite) to smooth the cut edges, you'll lose some wood from both sides of the cut. But if you get those edges smooth/straight they'll fit together so well that you won't see the seams if you pay attention to grain.

Cheers --- Larry "aka Woodnbits"

http://www.woodnbits.com/blog

[Walter Wolf G.]

Err... well it is actually a good point. My bandsaw is a £170 bandsaw from Clarke, and is not really a great bandsaw either! I also don't have a jointer and my one and only jack plane cost me £7. getting quality tolerances is a job in itself. The sharpening episode was great though, it has taken my plane from a useless butter knife... to a.. sharp just about useable butter knife :-) I think i might have a go on a pine board before committing to my lovely walnut :-)

Thanks for the advice, any pictures and ideas i can steal from you are always welcome :-D

Hey, ok here are some pics of what I did, I finally got them from my cell (I broked the touchscreen band while "cleaning" it, but that's another story). So, What I did, is that I layed out where the drawer would be, and then, I clamped a front and back stop, and a side fence. Then, with my dovetail saw (it may not be the ideal saw, but that's the most fine i've got) i did very light strokes so I could split the pencil line and start going deeper and deeper, I did this with my saw angled about the workpiece, not the fence!. Then when I got it pretty deep I used my tenon saw (i'm not sure if it's a tenon saw but it looks like one) so I could cut the wood faster. But it's kind of difficult to get the corners perfect, so I used my panel saw (don't get carried away by the jig saw in the picture) to get that corner, a few passes and got them cut.

The hardest part are the sides, because you dont really have a lot of space so it's kinda odd. But if you do it carefully i'm sure you'll do it very good. I'm actually not a hand tool man, I love them, but I barely use them.... for now.

If you notice, in one picture theres a big and deep scratch, well... I messed up, I didn't put the stop block and that's how I paid it. So, please use them, you don't want to mess something at this point.

This might not be the good way of doing it, but it worked alright for me! I hope it helped you.

P.S: Don't use a fence like mine to do this, i messed up one face.. just to get the job done...

[madmungo]

Hey, ok here are some pics of what I did, I finally got them from my cell (I broked the touchscreen band while "cleaning" it, but that's another story). So, What I did, is that I layed out where the drawer would be, and then, I clamped a front and back stop, and a side fence. Then, with my dovetail saw (it may not be the ideal saw, but that's the most fine i've got) i did very light strokes so I could split the pencil line and start going deeper and deeper, I did this with my saw angled about the workpiece, not the fence!. Then when I got it pretty deep I used my tenon saw (i'm not sure if it's a tenon saw but it looks like one) so I could cut the wood faster. But it's kind of difficult to get the corners perfect, so I used my panel saw (don't get carried away by the jig saw in the picture) to get that corner, a few passes and got them cut.

The hardest part are the sides, because you dont really have a lot of space so it's kinda odd. But if you do it carefully i'm sure you'll do it very good. I'm actually not a hand tool man, I love them, but I barely use them.... for now.

If you notice, in one picture theres a big and deep scratch, well... I messed up, I didn't put the stop block and that's how I paid it. So, please use them, you don't want to mess something at this point.

This might not be the good way of doing it, but it worked alright for me! I hope it helped you.

P.S: Don't use a fence like mine to do this, i messed up one face.. just to get the job done...

Wow... tremendous job. Thanks for the explanation too. Funny thing was i wizzed through the pictures before i read you post and saw the jigsaw with straightedge... and yes.. i got excited :-)

As you say, patience and a steady had will win the day. I think i might try it like this with my razor saw, and if i screw up i will just bandsaw or table saw it :-)

Thanks for taking the time to post. It is very helpful :-)

[PaulMarcel]

Definitely nice work, Walter! I'd definitely try that next time, well unless it's a 50-drawer apothecary cabinet.

[Walter Wolf G.]

madmungo: Thanks I'm glad you like it and that you found it helpful. I hope it turns out good, and post some pictures even if you didn't do it this way.

And Paul-Marcel: thanks, and yes, definetly don't do an apothecary cabinet with this method or your arms will fall. I ended exahusted with just one haha!

Walter

[madmungo]

Presuming your jack plane is a bit better than a butter knife, you should have no problems. But don't assume that you will lose no wood. The trick is to use wood where the grain is subtle and parallel to the long cuts. Whether you use a jointer or hand plane (my favorite) to smooth the cut edges, you'll lose some wood from both sides of the cut. But if you get those edges smooth/straight they'll fit together so well that you won't see the seams if you pay attention to grain.

Cheers --- Larry "aka Woodnbits"

http://www.woodnbits.com/blog

Thanks Larry. I that is definately an important point and good that you mentioned it before i start the setting out :-) i will try to find a nice whirl pattern for the drawer front with some smooth wide grain around it. i think that would be lovely.

Thanks for the input :-D