Building a place to store my socks- dovetailing the case

A comment on dovetail looks

I have found that pins that vary only slightly in size don't look good.  The angle of the pins, however, can vary and not be noticed.  So,  if the goal is good looking dovetails, some means of ensuring they are the same size needs to be employed.  The nifty gauge ensures each pin is marked exactly the same size, quickly and repeatedly.  No one will ever see these pins.  On a set of drawers differences can look unattractive. 

Re: Building a place to store my socks- dovetailing the case

Impressive! I'm watching.

not impressive

Building a dovetailed case is a basic skill anyone needing a place to store their socks can easily acquire.  It's just a box.  And I don't do the joinery in these cases to a standard designed to impress.  The only fiddly requirements are that it will be easier fitting drawers into  it if the case is square and the drawer dividers are in the same plane.   Knowing these details are critical will result in enough care to achieve these objectives.  The place to be impressed with a chest of drawers is in choice of wood,  proportions, molding, carving...the things that are not a basic skill any case builder can learn and do. 

Re: not impressive

I still think the level of craftsmanship it's impressive. For myself, when I get better at these skills, I'll start concerning myself with the aesthetics. Ultimately, you're right of course; in my turning and small box making, what you say is exactly how I feel about it.

All art starts in craft.

I have failed

I hoped to convey that building a box is pedestrian and with encouragement and a few tips anyone can do it.  My goal was to provide the tips, and not make it look daunting. 

Building a drawer from pine IS daunting.  I tried it once and will not again.  Poplar is an excellent training wood, readily available and cheap.  For socks a drawer 1/2 or less thickness is preferred and easier to make. 

Re: I have failed

Why do you find pine to be a difficult wood to make a drawer from?

Why I won't use pine

I suspect you have already found out.  An isotropic material is easier to chisel and saw.  The hand/soft grain of pine makes tracking saw or chisel more difficult. Pine's crumbly nature makes chiseling harder to cut clean surfaces.  I think it is easier to control the saw in a more dense wood.  I find a medium hard wood easiest to work by any means. 

Once to be authentic I used yellow pine as a secondary wood in a large case piece.  I was complaining about the annoying properties and someone in the audience responded, "that's why we use poplar".  He is a Period Furniture maker with a good pedigree.  Pine was used in Charleston, I suppose because they did not have poplar. 

PS

This case is just a large drawer.  If you can make one you can make the other. 

Re: I have failed

I teach introductory woodworking and we use poplar.  I don't want students to get discouraged about wood working by using wood that's difficult to work -- either too hard, too soft, etc.  Poplar cuts well, responds nicely to the chisel, planes easily, and sands easily.

Re: I have failed - Take heart....

Bill

I have read and re-read your initial post here.  I believe I get the process (finally), but must admit that for me your pictures are hard to follow.  I think what throws me off the most are the following

1. Never having hand cut dovetails, I can't ever remember the names (pins, tails).  Believe I got it now.  Don't expect you to dumb that down, it's just my inexperience.

2. Your usage of secondary wood with the wide color variation makes the process pictures harder to understand.  I do understand the use of secondary wood, but there seem to be filler pieces and glued in pieces that make it harder (for me) to visualize what I am looking at.  Again inexperience.  Describe cutting the tails board with the pins in the background - again making it harder to 'see' exactly what your point is (extra details in the pic don't clarify, until I understand - only then do they help me see)

3. You describe layout, but show pictures with tails already cut.  That confused me.

4. You ARE making this far more accessible than I would have ever thought.  So much so that I am considering following with a test piece to see what I can do.  I never would have considered dovetailing a case piece, mostly because I know little about their traditional construction.  Not sure my chisels or skills are up to it, but the only way to find out is to try.

I am looking forward to understanding how you mount/insert shelves and dividers (again I am short on recalling exact terminology).  Please continue with the great details; looking forward to more on this piece.

I assume the bottom is likewise dovetailed ?

Layout division I can do with math - but not with dividers.  Please outline your process ( I know you have posted this before, but I forget! and searches here on WC don't go back too far).

Thanks

Henry

Re: Why I won't use pine

Yellow pine is nasty but white pine is very pleasant in my opinion. Douglas fir is another wood with a huge range of hardness.

Re: Why I won't use pine

This thread caught my eye because I just got back from Virginia with a load of SYP.

Here are some pics of my two benches made of Southern Yellow pine…

So, I 'd have to disagree that yellow pine is "nasty." In fact, it's one of my three or four favorite woods. It is as strong, hard, and heavy as many hardwoods. And cheap, too!

Re: Why I won't use pine

Pines are different. Besides, Elliot build his drawer not from pine, it looked like a Douglas fir and it's a completely different beast. 

My drawers are most often in pine. I might use a harder wood (poplar or oak) for bottom slips or add hardwood glue blocks to serve as a slider, and a front is usually some hardwood. Good pine is quite isotropic, even something like the whitewood from a box store - it will be soft and will dent easily, but it cuts well, and definitely doesn't splinter as bad as DF would. 

Interesting BUMP, as I have started collecting Bill's posts on ...

Yes I have used the Archive function here and collected a lot of Bill's posts on how he builds case-pieces. This post is one of them. I have a most of them (missing a few describing drawer blade installation), and I am now (reasonably!) confident that I could embark on and finish such a project. </p><p>Except of course I want to make it a bow-front not a rectilinear piece. May not be a great choice for a first piece for me with drawers? Still a few decisions to make on this before embarking - so it may be months before I get to it.

Henry

Re: I have failed

Hey Bill,  I have many projects on the back-burner, and making some dovetail boxes is on the list, right after I practice saw sharpening.  Thanks for tor the poplar recommendation.  I'll go that way for my boxes.

Although somewhat of a cheater, I have a very good cabinet maker friend who allows me to pick out drawer boxes for free from his stash of discards when he receives change orders.  I use these boxes for storage boxes in the shop.  Unfortunately, it has delayed my saw sharpening practice.