Milling parts for perfect drawers
If the drawer parts don't fit properly, it doesn't matter how perfect your dovetails look.
Apr 21, 2021
Sponsored by Lee Valley/Veritas
I like a good game of smash-mouth football–heavy on the ground game. My son thinks that watching someone run into a defensive line over and over, only to gain 3-4 yards at a stretch, is boring. It’s hard for a 7-year-old to understand that once you prove you can run the ball whenever you want, the defense will focus on your running back and soon enough you can throw highlight-reel passes just as easily.
Everyone loves to see perfectly hand-cut dovetails–they’re the 40-yard pass of the woodworking world. But here’s the thing; with practice, anyone can cut dovetails. I’m more impressed with systematic layout and milling. It’s the ground game of woodworking–it does 90% of the work and gets 10% of the love. Without good layout and properly fitted drawer parts, you wind up with drawers that bind. It doesn’t matter how perfect those dovetails look when someone pulls out the drawer if the drawer binds when they push it back in.
Even though Tom McLaughlin is a Patriots fan*, he understands the importance of getting his drawer parts to fit perfectly before he starts dovetailing. In this video, you’ll see his system for doing just that—so that once he starts dovetailing it’s just a matter of not messing up. I continually learn from watching great woodworkers do the simple things, and I think you will, too.
-Ben Strano
*You can tell I’m joking about this because I’m a Tennessee Titans fan. The Titans know a lot about running the ball but Tom would probably point out that the Patriots know more about winning Super Bowls. Whatever.
You can get the full-size plans for this project at Tom’s website!
Comments
Tom McLaughlin is is both an exceptional craftsman and an excellent teacher. It is really great that FWW focuses upon his work.
Thank you!!!
Thank you Tom. You are an excellent craftsman and an inspiration.
Tom is exceptional in his abilities as a master craftsman and teacher.
Really enjoying this series. Anyone know the name of the song or artist of the music used in the videos?
Most of it is royalty free music we buy licenses to.
The theme is:
Kind Regards by Olive Musique
The soft music is:
Sweet Lullaby by Philippe da Silva
In a few other episodes I used an instrumental mix of a track called Absolute Celebrity by Kristin Cothron.
watching tom work makes you want to jump write in to a large project.I come from working in carpentry. now that I am older and have most of the major tools I've found out this is an art form of woodworking speed in woodworking is not good when building furniture. wood is not cheep. I'm learning new things all the time, and have found out it takes a lot of time and experience to get where tom is he makes it look so easy,but he has put in the time and is a pleasure to learn and watch him at work. Thanks Tom
Editing out of fluff is so good. Video and voice over are so precise in illustrating what and how. I know how to make drawers but not always satisfied with the fit but he shows the key sequences and processes to accomplish a beautiful fit.
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