Charlie James

Sorry to see you go Gary. I hope you’ll stay involved in woodworking in some way.

The owner was in and talked to a few of us. He just wanted us to know he was there and open for business. I’m not sure about a website but give a call. I believe he was interested in becoming a member at some point.

Let me know, I still have the pictures…

Thanks Mike, I appreciate you calling it a work of art especially… I had given a talk (with pictures!) at a meeting on building this piece a few years ago. I believe the scheduled speaker didn’t show and I happened to be in Mike Daum’s field of view so he asked me to demonstrate something. I’ll bring it to the show for sure…

You win! It’s gonna be tough on a hand plane…

I was in the middle of a job and the banjo wasn’t big enough. I made this, It works fine as long as you don’t beat it up, I still use it on occasion…

Also there’s an acronym… IDIOT = inside of tree should be outside of drawer. It makes sense and has to do with the cupping of the wood. Not too important for small boxes but bigger boxes it can make a difference.

Bill, think of the tail as a hand grabbing the back or front of the box and holding it. The palm of your hand is resting on the side of the board. The tail is your palm and your fingers reach around to grab the back board. It’s not looks that determine the location but physics. Most of the stress when pulling a drawer out is on the front and back, especially when it’s full. There should also be a half pin at the top and bottom. If the tail is at the top and bottom the glue could fail. There’s a good chance it will fail due to the fact that the’s nothing mechanical holding it back from stresses, it will start to pull away and cause problems with the fit. Pins on back and front and tails on the sides. If you have full tails on the front joint you will see the end grain so the front of most boxes are made with half blind dovetails.

Bill, Fancy is exactly what a jewelry box should be! I usually trap thin ply in a small drawer because it won’t see much expansion or contraction and cutting a groove along all four sides is fast. You just have remember to stop it so it’s not seen. I’ll bring the bottom up almost 1/4″ so I can glue a few 1/4″ strips of wood to the inside underneath as additional support for the bottom. The extra wood also adds an “extra” joint and helps to prevent racking as well.