SUNCOAST WOODCRAFTERS GUILD

The students

Denis Gobeil: Instructor

The students

From left to right: Jonathan Weintraub, Jan Major, Marcia Cooley, Ken Parker, Penny Dunford

The setting

Denis Gobeil: Instructor

The students

The class was held at Denis' beautiful home in Lower Gibsons. An adorable four month old Australian Shepherd named Max inspected the work

Denis Gobeil: Instructor

Also known as Maximus, you can read about Denis here: Biography | Tree Spirit Wood Carvings (wordpress.com)

Finished Credenza

Profiling the drawer front

Started it in October and have been puttering on the credenza at a leisurely (i.e. lazy) pace since then. The basic dimensions are based on an old credenza I already have, made of an unknown wood. It’s made of maple and walnut trim. The drawers use wood glides and guides, and found that this process required a lot more precision than I originally anticipated, and in general there were more challenges than expected but it worked out fine and the problem-solving was fun.

Profiling the drawer front

I very firmly secured a fence on my table saw, raised the blade to about 1 mm over the surface, and ran the boards slowly across the blade. I repeated this about four times, each time raising the blade about 1 mm. After about 4 passes I had the ¼” depth I was seeking. Then I repositioned the fence for the second scallop. You can get different shaped scallops, from circular to strongly elliptical, but altering the angle of the fence. The key to doing this safely is to always secure the fence really well, and to raise the blade in tiny increments for each pass.

Drawer supports

Profiling the drawer front

Drawer supports

On either side of each horizontal support there is a thin maple glide on which the drawer rests. In the center is a higher oak guide that is slightly narrower than the matching oak channel attached to the center of the drawer bottom directly above. This guide & channel keep the drawer neatly centered. So the drawers rest on the maple glides on either side of the drawer support, and the drawer movement is ‘steered’ by the oak guide mounted in the centre of the drawer support. This system never jams, and the drawers and drawer fronts never touch the credenza frame on either side.