Computer Cabinet - #6 Completing Drawer Sides & Backs, Sanding plus a Patch

Making the backs comes next.  The blanks were cut and thickness sanded the same time as when I made the drawer side blanks so they are right at four hundredths of an inch too thick.  First step is to cut the blanks into rough sizes about 1/8” wide and half an inch long.  That’s followed by running them through the thickness sander so they fit into the ½” dado in the sides which measures four hundredths of an inch less than ½”.  Cutting them to length is next.  To make sure the interior dimension is the same at the back as it is in the front, I cut a spacer the exact same length as the space between the sides at the front.  It’s then moved to the back and the back piece is cut to make a tight fit in the dados.  I could have measured the distance but then if the side spacing measurement was off or the dados were not exactly right the back width would be off.  For me this way is simpler and less prone to error.  Here is that setup with the back next to the drawer, the other bottom drawer up next to be done and at the top four drawers dry-fitted and stacked.

When the back is fitted here is the completed dry-assembled drawer and it disassembled ready for finish sanding.

The finish sanding starts by working on the curved hand-hold.  The rest of the drawer can be power sanded but this needs to be done by hand.  Using one of the drums from the oscillating sander wrapped in 120 grit paper the curves are sanded smooth paying particular attention to the end and near end grain on either side.  Once that’s smoothed the 120-grit paper is replaced with 220 and finally 320.  This is the primary area that’s going to be touched so I want it to be really smooth.

The rest of the pieces are all power sanded using a random orbital sander with 220 grit then finished off with a ¼ sheet pad sander loaded with 320 grit paper.

One of the sides has a hole completely through where a small knot fell out.  The top photo shows the black epoxy used to fill it full from both sides, mounded up slightly.  After letting it cure overnight sanding with 220 then 320 gives a nice smooth flat surface.

Over the years I have built a lot of different drawers using all types of construction including everything from unevenly spaced dovetails to box joints to light use ones that were simply glued and pin nailed together.  One type that has seen a lot of wear and tear are the shop’s 37 drawers which consist of glue, air driven finishing nails and screws.  Some are fairly lightly loaded but most have tools and a fair amount of weight.  The oldest are probably pushing 20 years and are as solid and operate as easily as they did when new.  A major contributing factor to the ease of use is heavy duty full extension side mounted drawer slides.  Here is what a side view of one of the shop cabinet drawers looks like.

For these cabinets I am going to use a variation of that style.  The glue and screws will be retained but nails will be omitted and replaced with an additional screw.  Because I don’t want the screws visible, they will be counter sunk below the side’s face and the hole plugged.  As a tie to the cherry unit the drawer cabinet will go into the plugs will be made out of cherry rather than oak.  Below is a rendering of what I have in mind.  Look closely and you can see that the front plugs are bigger than the back ones.  There is a reason for that I will explain later.

The drilling of all those holes requires accurate layout so I will use a couple of tri-squares, dial calipers, and a marking gauge to make sure there is consistency in their placement.

Once the holes are marked the setup on the drill press for the front holes can be done.  The fence is set so all the holes are a consistent distance from the front edge and the depth of cut is limited with a stop on the drill.  Here is what that looks like plus a close view of the finished countersunk hole.  Note the drill, it’s designed to make a pilot hole and countersink all in one pass.  Unfortunately, the pilot hole is too small for the shank of the screw and too large for the threaded part but that can be worked around later during the drawer assembly.

The second set of holes to be drilled are for attaching the sides to the back which are smaller than the front ones.  First, is that most of the stress on the drawer is where the front attaches to the sides and that’s because of the forces applied when pulling the drawer open or closing it.  The back just holds the sides together and keeps things from falling out the rear, so the joint does not need to be as strong.  Second is due to the dado the back fits in.  As the side is ½” thick and the dado is ¼” deep the thickness available for the screw head and plug is only ¼” so a thinner #4 screw is used versus the #6 at the front. 

The end result will be the same.  A countersunk hole for the screw and the peg albeit smaller but the method is different because I don’t have combination pilot hole and countersink bit for a #4 screw.  What’s required is two setups – one to drill the pilot hole and one to make the countersink.  I tried drilling the pilot hole first then the countersink and doing the countersink first then the pilot hole which worked out best.  Here is a cut through one of my test pieces that shows what I am after.

The top photo below shows the ¼” counter sink hole setup while the bottom photo shows the setup for drilling the smaller pilot hole.

There is one small detail that needs to be taken care of after drilling the pilot hole.  When the drill breaks through the back side it does not leave a clean exit hole.  You can see that in the left photo below.  The rough edges get cleaned up with a countersink/pilot hole drill whose bit diameter matches that of the pilot hole.  In case you are wondering why this combination bit wasn’t used to drill the hole in one pass it’s because the diameter of the countersink part is too big.

Next Up – Drawer Assembly & Cutting Plugs