restoration question
Bruce, a MN galoot
>My wife inherited a dresser from her grandfather, and I've inherited the job of restoring it. It probably dates back to the 1910's or so, maybe the 20's. I wouldn't call it an antique, just relatively old. Its major value is as a family keepsake, certainly not a treasured antique
The rails and stiles are held together by dowels, and they're loose enough to come apart, so I'm suspecting hide glue. The drawers are machine-cut dovetails. Drawer bottoms all have to be replaced. One of the side panels (plywood) is badly split and separated and needs to be replaced. The finish is damaged enough that my wife just wants it stripped and re-done.
Here's the major question. Those pesky dovetails are really rough. I don't have a digital camera so I can't post a pic, but the main problem is that I suspect that even when new they weren't particularly well fitting. The pins don't reach all the way to the bottom of the sockets.
There are three solutions that I see:
1. Just leave them alone, re-glue the joints as well as possible and let them go at that.
2. Where possible, drive shims into the dovetail joints and plane them flat.
3. Cut off the dovetails, shorten the drawer sides by 1/2" and re-cut the dovetails.
Any suggestions?
Thanks