Time
Adam Cherubini, NJ
>Gents,
I post "time to beat" not to be competitive, but to give you a sense for roughly how long something should take. If you are much slower, you may find you can improve your technique or tools. If you are faster, you should be sharing your techniques with us.
I would have given my eye teeth for this information 10 years ago. I had no idea how to use my tools, which tools were used for what, and practically no dependable recorded source. Most of what I learned I learned on my own, with your help. (There is no single relevant book) I remain motivated to share my findings with you investors who taught me.
Along those lines, I recently spent a good amount of time researching how long it took John Head (active 1718-1754) to make a specific piece (which I recently copied). Coming up with time spent is very difficult, and very speculative. But I used the times I came up with to validate my techniques and workmanship. It might be worth noting that despite my impressive collection of very sharp tools and streamlined objectives, John Head beat me by several days. I hope to make another similar piece to see if I can achieve Head's speed.
In general, here a few specific "times to beat":
Dovetailed carcass from rough sawn stock = 4-6 hours.
Complete carcass with drawer blades/runners = 1 day
1 drawer, half blinds in front, complete = 1 to 1-1/2 hours (I can't do it).
Complete chest of drawers, moldings, bracket or bun feet, 4-5 drawers, all hardware installed including a half a day for finishing = 1 week max (That week was probably 6 days for John Head.)
Time spent on sub-processes like mortises are very important. I evaluate different techniques to see which one is:
a) faster
b) meets the goal faster
The technique I recommend for mortising is slower than some others, but the final result is always perfect and thus often faster overall. Cabinetry aside, when I'm making mortises, I'm making 16 mortises. So an extra 10 minutes per may make the difference between finishing today and not finishing today.
I don't want you to rush, or feel bad if you are slow. I want you to have the data I have so you can evaluate the effectiveness of your techniques. Rushing is not the solution. That's how you cut yourself. Relying on your tools, getting your tools to work together, working with your tools to meet reasonable expectations, challenging arbitrary requirements (working parametrically) are the keys to working quickly. In my opinion, these are the secrets masters kept.
I hope this helps you,
Adam