There are quite a few ways to make drawers. A traditional and common way is
to make the drawer the same size as the opening, then sand or plane the
sides and top for a slip fit. With a slip fit, there is little side play
and the drawer doesn't droop much as it is pulled out. There are also
numerous ways to build a drawer with runners. You just have to choose which
one you like. Personally, I like a dovetailed drawer with a slip fit and
flush fitting front.

For an end table, which is a smaller piece of furniture, I would think you
could get some proportional legs from 8/4 material.

For the mortise and tenon, I have a dedicated Powermatic mortiser and Delta
tenoning jig for the tablesaw. I have used those for quite a few mortise
and tenons. Just recently, I needed to do some through mortises with wedged
tenons. The mortises had rounded ends instead of being squared off.
Borrowing from jigs in "Chairmaking and Design", by Jeff Miller, I built my
own jigs for doing mortises and tenons. Boy, I wish I had tried this a long
time ago. With the jigs, it is really easy to make straight and compound
angle mortises and tenons. Of course, for the tenons, you have to cut the
shoulders on the ends with something like a bandsaw and then file the ends
round to fit the mortise, but after a few of them, you get pretty fast at
it. And, you need a plunge router with a spiral upcut bit. The mortise is
much simpler if you buy the bit the same diameter as the width of the
mortise.

Preston

"Bay Area Dave" wrote in message
. com...
1) Every drawer I've made I've used full extension slides. Now I want
to make an end table with a single drawer; all wood. If I have oak on
hand, do I make a single center runner (and btw, HOW?? ) or do you
use two runners, or runners on the side, from oak? I also have maple,
but the table will be oak. In other words, how do YOU make a drawer
slide with all wood components?

This is going to be a country styled oak end table with a drawer near
the top, and I'm leaning towards, but not committed to, a full width
shelf near the floor. Thinking about tapered legs, which I suppose I'd
have to start by gluing up 5/4 or 6/4 material to make the legs thick
enough. At what point do you make hollow legs (not that I'd imagine
that would be the case for the size I'm gonna make)?

2) I saw a picture of fluted legs that are taped only near the floor,
starting about six inches up. The flutes taper off to a point, like I
had asked about a while back. Still can't quite envision how to bring
the flute to a sharp point while routing it. If I use a router table to
flute, do I just practice at lifting the leg up near the end of the cut,
and set a reference mark, so that all 3 flutes have the same ending
contour. Seems like that would be hard to pull off with uniformity, so
I'm expecting someone has a better way.

3) I think I'm going to finally make mortise and tenons. (MAJOR
CRINGING! I have the mortising attachment for the DP, which should work
in oak, I hope.) Mortise first, and then make the tenon fit it,
correct? What level of smoothness does a decent M&T have to have for a
long lasting joint? I can't imagine that the mortising attachment is
gonna leave the walls of the mortise all that smooth. I've only gone
general purpose chisel for now. Do I just got at it with sandpaper or
do I need to buy more tools (aaargh! I can't get something new every
week!)

I don't have a tenoning attachment for the TS, but could rig up
something, albeit kludgy to run a board thru vertically. Is using a BS
not a good way to do it? I have one blade that gives a reasonably
smooth cut; a 3/16 Pro olsen 10 TPI, raker set. Should I just use the
TS for ALL the tenon cuts? I'm expecting that if it's all done on the
TS, I won't need to smooth the surface, but to make a tiny adjustment,
do you sand or what? My new smoother is the only plane I've got. Or
would I be better off milling this on the router table, using a 1/2
straight double flute bit. I could make precise depth changes to the
bit for a very precise fit. Would you use or TS or router?

Please tell me I can accomplish these tasks without buying more stuff!
Eventually I'll get a bunch of chisels, and perhaps a tenon jig for
the TS. But for now, is this doable with a BS, TS, router table, and no
Neander tools but one basic chisel and a smoother.

How do you set up a router to do a deep, carefully positioned mortise,
without buying the Leigh jig, or other expensive jig? Like I said, I
have a router table, but I also have a 2 1/4 HP handheld router.


dave