I have read here that some people assemble dovetail drawers and Insert them into the chest of drawers and shim them to make them assume the exact shape they will be for the rest of their lives.
I spent the day making the drawers and tuning them , fitting them into the chest, but they are dry assembled. Nine drawers.
So, do you do this? Do you install the bottom and then insert the drawers or do you let them set up and then add the bottom?
I am planning to use liquid hide glue, I have had the bottle too long, but I am testing it. Glued a couple of joints and put a drop on some plastic to see if it hardens. If that fails, I will switch to Titebond III because I have some.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Re: Assembling drawers inside chest of drawers????
Re: Assembling drawers inside chest of drawers????
Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)
Hi Barry
I let my drawers dry inside the drawer case.
The method requires (for me, at any rate) that the parts are cut exactly, and then dovetailed without any projections. This means tails and pins are to the perfect length, and there are no projections.
I use Titebond hide glue, and carefully wipe off any squeeze out. It is possible to pull the drawer out before the glue is dry, when it has stopped being runny, and clean away any left over squeeze out, and then return the drawer.
My drawers often need to be pushed in as the fit is tight. That is good. The case back is not on (it goes on last because of this), and tight drawers can be pushed out from the rear.
Adding the drawer bottom and final tuning (planing sides) takes place after the drawer has dried.
The preparations for glueing up begin with the cutting of parts. I am especially particular about this. The drawer cannot have a chance without close-to-perfection. And then the dovetailing must follow from this.
Re: Assembling drawers inside chest of drawers????
Barry Irby
Thanks Derek, I think I am on the correct path. Your dovetails look better than mine and I did mine with a Leigh jig.
I will double check mine and clean up any protruding pins or tails. Already done the rear ones.
I am planning on using Titebond Liquid Hide glue, but I bought the bottle several years ago for a special occasion and this is it. I set up a test last night to see if it's still good.
I can't believe I built a chest with nine drawers for a practice run.
I shellaced the inside corners of the parts to aid in cleanup.
Thanks for the response.
Re: Assembling drawers inside chest of drawers????
And discussed the glue with them. I had glued two pieces of poplar together face to face and clamped it. I also put a drop on a piece of polyethylene. Next morning I broke the pieces apart with a chisel. Some glue failed and some wood failed. The little glob of glue on the poly was still gummy.
The tech guy at Franklin assured me that since the glue came out as a thick syrup and the glue joint failed the way it did the glue was still fine. He assured me that the gumminess of the glob was that it could only dry to one side and it was humid and raining.
If the glue had come out of the bottle as a thin liquid it was bad.
I had gone on line and learned to decipher the date code and my bottle was three years old, but having been stored in a cool dark cabinet, it was still good.
So, yesterday I assembled the nine drawers in the chest. I started with the three smallest ones. Painted both parts of the dovetails, pressed the together, set them up in some parallel jaw clamps and glued the next one. Moved the one in the clamps to the chest, snugly wedged it into place, put the second one in the clamps and glued the third one. Rinse and repeat. Almost literally. Wiped off the excess glue over and over. By the time I got to the deeper drawers I used clamps top and bottom. The 8" deep drawer had so many dovetails that the clamps really paid off to press the joints up nice and tight.
So far, I really like the Liquid Hide glue. The extended assembly time took a lot of stress out of the process. The water clean up appears to have been really good. I had sprayed the ends of the boards with Zinsser Seal Coat Shellac before cutting the dovetails. This helped with the cleanup. If I had had enough of it I would have prefinished the the drawer parts. At least the insides of them.
I am off to the shop to pull the drawers out of the chest and make the next step. (Probably find them in a pile with no evidence of glue.)
Re: Assembling drawers inside chest of drawers????
When you are using hide glue, bench dog cleanup is even easier. You've just got to watch out for the white nose print rings on the adjacent shellac.
I keep my hide glue in the refrigerator in the shop. It's also a good place to keep shellac flakes, shellac flour, cyanoacrylate and beer, or course. Some people even keep left over hot hide glue in ice cube trays in the freezer. For small jobs, just pop one out and drop it in your glue pot.
Re: Assembling drawers inside chest of drawers????
Thanks for letting us know about the viscosity of the hide glue as a clue to useability. I usually mark the date of first use on bottles of stuff I don't use often and throw away possibly good stuff when it gets a couple of years old in my shop.
You've just got to watch out for the white nose print rings on the adjacent shellac.