Walnut table hutch - in progress

[Jarrod McGehee]

that's going to definitely look really nice. Nice work and I love the dovetails

[Jacob Mac]

Those are beautiful drawers. I really appreicate how you blend hand work with machine work. Your work shows the advantages that both options have to offer. Looking forward to following along.

[John Keeton]

Thanks again for all the kind words. Had hoped to get the drawer guides installed and the table drawers adjusted, but it was a long day - just going to vegetate tonite. I did slip them in temporarily and the fit is good.

Gary, I would be more than honored to spend a day in your shop. I would be no more than a mere apprentice!! You are the human dovetail machine

William, the BS chisels really do make a difference! They are so comfortable to use, and the sharply beveled edges are key to a clean cut in the pin pockets.

I did receive the smaller knobs for the drawer unit today, and they really are going to make a scale difference in the look. Hopefully, when all is assembled, they will look appropriate. I will report more after tomorrow nite.

[Bruce Page]

"Maybe I could send you some measurements and have you build a couple drawers for me to speed up my project....."

I was thinking the same thing!

John, they look great.

(I got my DT saw, DT gage & tite-mark yesterday! another couple of weeks and I'll be ready to be humbled)

[John Keeton]

Bruce, don't you just love gettin' boxes in the mail

In my vast experience of cutting dovetails - all 12 thru and 6 halfblinds - I think I have to agree with Cosman and I believe that Gary Zimmel will agree - learning the saw is key in doing dovetails.

If you can mark out some angles and starting making cuts right now, by the time you get that fret saw and those chisels - you will be ready!!

[Bruce Page]

Bruce, don't you just love gettin' boxes in the mail

In my vast experience of cutting dovetails - all 12 thru and 6 halfblinds - I think I have to agree with Cosman and I believe that Gary Zimmel will agree - learning the saw is key in doing dovetails.

If you can mark out some angles and starting making cuts right now, by the time you get that fret saw and those chisels - you will be ready!!

I'm going to do just that this weekend. I'm going to get some wood to practice on this Friday.

I'm still waiting on the fret saw and chisels but I'm almost there!

[gary Zimmel]

One little tip Bruce

As you are practicing with the dovetail saw, take a little weight of the saw off the piece of wood. This will get it started a lot easier. Also no death grip on the saw. I find if I do my cuts with a consistent grip and stance things go quite well. If I am cutting tails the piece of wood will be the same height off my bench. About 2". My pins for the 1/2 blinds have to be a lot higher so the saw won't hit the front of my vice.
A good saw will cut straight. I would suggest cutting vertical lines to start.
This will give you a good idea about "aiming the saw. If you aim correctly the saw will cut on the line and just fall straight down.
Good luck with the practicing.

[Bruce Page]

One little tip Bruce

As you are practicing with the dovetail saw, take a little weight of the saw off the piece of wood. This will get it started a lot easier. Also no death grip on the saw. I find if I do my cuts with a consistent grip and stance things go quite well. If I am cutting tails the piece of wood will be the same height off my bench. About 2". My pins for the 1/2 blinds have to be a lot higher so the saw won't hit the front of my vice.
A good saw will cut straight. I would suggest cutting vertical lines to start.
This will give you a good idea about "aiming the saw. If you aim correctly the saw will cut on the line and just fall straight down.
Good luck with the practicing.

Thanks Gary. I'm trying to soak up as much as I can. Even after watching Cosman's video's and learning from people like you and John, I fully expect to be humbled the first few times - but I'll get there.

[Ken Werner]

John, I just noticed this thread today. Wanted to commend you on the fine DTs. As Mark said, excellent proportions and execution.

Ken

[Salem Ganzhorn]

John,
I really like this piece. I like the proportions and using one board for the drawer fronts really brings it together for me. Nice!

[John Keeton]

Time for an update. Not much shop time this week, but I did get some time yesterday afternoon and today between trips to town to run errands, etc.

I am at the point where I need to finish up installation of the drawers in the table base. I removed the table top to allow access to the drawer area.

I want to work from the center out. So, the first thing to do was to install a center guide for the table drawers. The drawers are a good snug fit and operate freely, so I need to be very careful to get the guides installed correctly. This is compounded by the whole table structure being less than perfectly square because of the old recycled legs as previously mentioned.

For the center and side guides, I used scraps of walnut topped with a piece of poplar milled to a little less than 3/8”. This poplar had been in the shop for a couple of years and was very stable. This is one of the side guides. The poplar on the center guide was wider and overlapped the walnut on either side.

Before installing the guide, I slid in the drawers, and slowly planned a bit off the guide until I could barely get the drawers in the openings. This pushed the drawers to the outside as far as they would go. Then I glued in the center divider and let it set.

Then, I removed the drawers and carefully planned the center divider until I was able to install the drawers with them centered in their respective openings.

Now it was time to install the side guides snug to the drawers.

[John Keeton]

With the guides installed, the first pic is a view of the drawer opening looking to the front of the table. I want the drawers snug, as it has been very humid the past few days, and I expect the guides to shrink some. I can always plane a little off, but I can’t add wood back on!!

In order to keep the drawers from tilting down when open, I installed a poplar retainer on the bottom of the center spreader. This permitted a clearance of approximately ¼” and prevents a lot of tilt to the drawers.

In order to have an even reveal on all four sides of the drawer, I needed a rebate on the drawer bottoms. I didn’t have a tool for this, so it gave me an excuse to buy a new toy!! I was able to buy a Craftsman 78 on the “bay” for about $30 shipped.

It was in excellent shape, and after a good sharpening, and tuning, it produced the desired rebate.

The last pic is the reveal on the bottom of the drawer – all drawers were similarly done, although in some of the pics it is difficult to see the reveals because of the darkness of the walnut.

[John Keeton]

The drawer unit had not been glued up, and finished out. So, I installed a center support and enclosed the back of the unit. The hutch top will sit on the drawer unit and it must be able to support the weight.

Now, with the drawer unit complete, this is the appearance of where I am today.

[John Keeton]

Moving from the table base to the hutch top, the sides of the hutch are block and panel, and will not have much front to back movement. However, the top and bottom of the “box” would have a tendency to move if they were solid stock. I checked on getting a sheet of ¾” walnut ply, but the availability was not good – and the cost was about $95!! So, scavenged my local cabinet shop again (a frequent thing for me) and was able to get some ½” maple ply scraps, and some ¼” walnut ply scraps. I cut them a little large, and glued up a “sandwich” of layers for the two pieces needed – using a wax paper divider.

Anticipating using raised panels; I had previously acquired a vertical panel-raising bit. I milled some panels for the sides, and taking 3-4 shallow passes, I milled the panels to within one final cleanup pass. So far – so good!

Then, slowly taking a shallow pass to clean them up, the first one went great. Then – CRAP!!! The second one dipped ever so slightly, and this is what I got

Now, this is where all the Neanderthals are going to tell me that these things just do not happen with tailless tools. Wilbur Pan, this is where you can chime in and chastise me!!

[John Keeton]

This last post is for Bruce Page – and, is kind of a stealth gloat. Bruce is waiting on his Blue Spruce chisels to get started on hand-cut dovetails. His post about getting the skews and the fishtail chisels got me envious, so I ordered a set of skews and the fishtail. Bruce asked that I post a pic so he could drool. So, Bruce, this pic is for YOU!!

And Gary Zimmel and I have discussed the need for a thin marking knife to do London style dovetails. Dave Jeske is now making an ultra thin marking knife – and here is mine!

I haven’t had an opportunity to use these new toys yet. I think I may need to do a small drawer unit to set inside the hutch top just to use my new BS chisels!

Tomorrow, I will start on milling stock for the hutch. Thanks for allowing me to share.