options for cutting the drawer bottom groove?

[Joshua Clark]

There are dedicated drawer bottom planes available- these are essentially small plow planes with an adjustable fence and a couple of irons. They are almost always British and made by the big names- Marples, Mathieson, Preston, etc. They aren't terribly common, but they aren't expensive either. Guys like Tony Murland or Patrick Leach might have these available.

By far the least expensive way to go is to use the grooving plane from a tongue and groove plane pair. These planes are available in a variety of sizes and generally cut a groove the perfect distance from the edge of a board for a drawer bottom. If you find a single plane without its mate the cost is very low. If you find the matched pair even better! Then you can cut T&G joints with style and plow those drawer bottom groves with ease. These are also really common and easy to tune.

(yay hand tools!)

Josh

[Matthew Kenney]

I wrote that article in FWW. The blades I used for the original planes were made from a pair of 1/4 in. wide molding plane blanks I bought from LN. I ground them down and heat treated them. They know sell them ready to go (at 1/8 in. wide), but can still buy blanks and make your own blades. I just bought some 1/4 in. wide irons to make grooving planes for a 1/4 in. wide groove. Because they're annealed, it's easy to grind the bevel. With a MAPP gas touch you can harden them in just a few minutes. After quenching them in oil, put them in then oven for about 1/2 hour (pre-heated to 460) to temper them. If you're interested, I can share more details about the heat treating.

[Jim Matthews]

I wrote that article in FWW.

I love this site.
Thanks, MK it was an eye opener.
Do you have an independent blog?

jim
wpt, ma

[Gary Curtis]

Strangely out of place, on the Festool Owner's Group website, under the category of 'How=To' an English gentleman posted a video tour of his shop. But instead of unleashing all of that Teutonic horsepower, he demonstrated the ease of cutting a trench for drawer bottoms. He used Lie Nielsen plow plane. And, in methodical fashion started a large time clock.

It took him about a minute to cut the drawer bottom Dado. The speed of this all took my breath away. And on a power tool website.

[Justin Green]

Lie Nielsen has a plow plane?

[Chris Griggs]

Lie Nielsen has a plow plane?

My question too? I assume he meant Lee Valley, but rumor has it that an LN is in the works so maybe someone has a early test unit. How do we find the video?????

[Greg Fletcher]

Gary thank you for the heads up!

I was curious to see if it was a LN or LV (it's a LV), so I searched for the thread on the Festool Owner's Group (FOG).

Here is the thread:
http://festoolownersgroup.com/festoo...-drawer-sides/

Here is the direct YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZHPg22TYS4

[Matthew Kenney]

Jim,

Glad you liked the article (I think that's what you meant). I do write blogs, but its for the magazine. I'm one of the editors. Here's the "index" of my blogs. It's really just a list of the ones I've written, in reverse chronological order (newest first).

[Jim Matthews]

Jim,
Glad you liked the article (I think that's what you meant).

It is - I thought that article one of the more succinct written recently.
Your stuff is pitched right in my strike zone - and this article focused on a basic problem many face, regularly.

PS - I mentioned to Mike Pekovich that FWW articles should have a "this should take xxx minutes to complete" proviso.
I find some of the projects untenable due to limited shop time. These little planes should be manageable over a couple of weekends.

Thanks for the index.

jim
wpt, ma

[Matthew Kenney]

Jim,

Thanks for the kind words. Your idea about giving time estimates in articles is interesting. I feel the time crunch, too. I'm always trying to figure out how best to use my time in the shop. One potential problem, however, is that not all of us work at the same speed. Some of our authors have been making furniture full time for several decades. They are efficient woodworkers, with both hand and power tools. So, what might take one of them 40 hours to make could take you or me 80+ hours. I'm not sure it would be easy or reliable to translate their hours to ours. I'd hate to tell you that it should take 40 (Chris Becksvoort or Garrett Hack) hours to build a cabinet and have you find out that it takes many more hours for me or you to make it.

[Steven Lee, NC]

I am leaning more to making the FWW one by Matthew Kenney and got to wondering why would I need 2 planes? As long as the outside face stays outside I could just rotate the board 180 and cut the groove in the direction with the grain? The pdf has all the measurements and angles and plenty of pics that I think even a nub like me should be able to manage it


When I finally found the article on Finewoodworking.com it was filed under Skills And Techniques > FUNDAMENTALS > Power Tool Skills

[Matthew Kenney]

Steven,

That's embarrassing! I've already spoke to our web folks to have them correct it. In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions. You can ask them here or email me directly (you can do that through my member profile page). As for why I made two, it's so that I can always plane with the grain. With drawer sides, you could get away with one plane, because you can always orient the drawer so that one plane is planing with the grain (I'm right handed, so I'd make a right handed plane). However, with drawer fronts it gets a bit trickier. When it comes to drawer fronts, I care about appearance first. That typically means that the fronts are all cut from a single board. And if I need to orient the fronts in such a way that I'd need a left hand plane to plane with the grain, I want one. It's better than forcing it with the right hand plane and getting tearout.

I hope that makes sense.

[Steven Lee, NC]

Ah yeah, that makes sense. In class we didn't care what the front looked like so flipping it wasn't a big deal.

I found someone who can make some heat treated blades but wasn't quite sure how thick they should be. I think he said he had some 3/16" stuff that he normally uses for #45 replacement blades. Think thats thick enough?

[Matthew Kenney]

The blades I used were made from the LN tapered modling plane blade blanks. They're 1/8 in. thick at their thickest and taper down to about 1/16 in. thick. So, 3/16 in. should be fine. It would be better if they were tapered (helps lock in the wedge), but you should still be fine with a blade that is a consistent thickness.