Drawer Dovetails

 

 

 

 

Drawers

Started the NK style drawers. Here's the drawer bottom glue-up with steel sheet, and fitting the drawer fronts into the carcase. Steel bottom because it can take a beating from cutlery, and because I wouldn't want to start using plywood. Yes...a spline running through that partition dovetail...somehow I only put glue on the bottom dovetail, not the top one during assembly, must have been one of those quick & easy glue-ups done when already late for picking my son up from school...had to stabilise the joint somehow. "Mr. Greenley was never perturbed about a mistake; he simply set about finding the most efficient fix. He understood intuitively that surges of negative emotion not only interfere with problem-solving; they also get built into the object you’re working on." (From Mr Cheek's thoughts on boat building).

Pass the blow torch please

You know it's gone beyond the advertised 2 hour instal as soon as you reach for the blow torch. Perhaps the previous owner installed the pulley side bearing with some locktite for good measure. No amount of tapping was easing her out of the casting. Once I'd made the decision to sacrifice the bearing it released easily enough with some penetrating fluid and heat. It's a good idea to replace both bearings along with the cutterhead anyway, turns out the bearing on the gear box side had a fair amount of play in it. While I'm at it I'm going to try replace the infeed roller with a rubberised outfeed roller. Not sure why Delta use a serrated infeed roller which often scars the wood on a final light pass. So now we wait for parts. I used BC Bearings for the bearings, fraction of the price from Delta, and Delta for the roller and gear box gasket.

The Shelix Arrival

 

So long tear-out, see ya. Hoping to get this bad boy into my planer at some point. It's been on the list since experiencing the Shelix advantage at a course a couple years ago, mindblowing.

Little More Metal.