Here is the completed sofa table in the back of my truck ready for delivery to Nick and Samantha. After 8 months and 86 1/4 hours in the shop, the sofa table is finally done. I spent $164.50 for the wood and another $75 for stain, finishing materials and shop supplies and had plenty of "learning opportunities" along the way. Here are some better shots of the completed table. They will be followed by photos and description of how I made the drawers.
The first step in making a tight fitting drawer is to cut the drawer fronts to fit into their opening very precisely. I cut the fronts for each opening and I was surprised to find that the middle and right opening were exactly the same size and the left one only 1 mm narrower. All three were the same height. I cut the backs to the same size as the fronts.
I then set up my dovetail jig to cut all of the drawer joints. I spent one frustrating afternoon cutting trial joints only to find out that the router bit I was using was dull and not cutting evenly. After switching to a sharp bit, I had the jig set up in a half an hour. The next day, I had all of the drawer joints cut and glued up the drawers the following day.
The next step was to sand the drawer sides so that the drawers easily fit in. I then sanded the front edges to create a uniform shadow line all around each drawer.
After using the same stain and fininishing process as the rest of the table, I mounted Arts and Crafts style handles and put adjustment screws in the back of the drawers so that when closed they were about 2 mm recessed. I delivered the sofa table just 2 weeks before our grandson Nicholas's first birthday.
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