Whenever visitors stop by, they look at the secretary I’m building, scratch their heads and say something like: “I don’t get how this works.”
So here is a photo of the secretary’s gallery inside the top drawer, which is missing its drop-front right now. I think this project is starting to look like something.
As I was fitting the gallery inside the top drawer and fitting the top drawer inside the carcase today, I had an odd thought: How do people do this process with only power tools? It’s not a snide remark, really, just my plain ignorance. I’ve never fit a drawer with power tools, so I have absolutely no clue how it’s done.
I think I know what my old boss, Steve Shanesy, would say: Build it right, and it will fit perfectly the first time.
But I know that’s not typical. Even a little bit of bow or wind can jam a drawer.
The only thing I could come up with is using a dull block plane and then sanding away the tool marks. And I once saw cabinetmaker Troy Sexton fit a drawer on a 8” jointer – no lie – and he wasn’t even wearing Depends.
Surely one doesn’t use a belt sander?
— Christopher Schwarz