"Roger Woehl" wrote in message
. ..
I have been designing furniture and other wood projects for many years.
Usually I draw out the plans and then proceed to make the cuts and
adjustments as needed. I am at the point where I feel my project designs
are not very challenging or creative. I am curious if any of you use any
particular methodology to get your creative design juices flowing. How do
you stretch your imaginations to take a traditional idea and make it
unique, eye catching and interesting? What is it about a project design
that causes the observer to look at it with wonder?

Roger


Often I finish a project, stand back and look at it and wonder my self. ;~)

I am currently working on 2 projects with numerous dado's that appear to be
stopped while in actuality they were cut complete. The effect is that the
stopped end is square ended with no use of a chisel or tool to square the
end. These dado's hold square ended drawer slides flush with the ends of
the dado's.

I have used this similar technique to inlay square pieces of wood in small
box sides.

Leon wrote:

I am currently working on 2 projects with numerous dado's that appear to be
stopped while in actuality they were cut complete. The effect is that the
stopped end is square ended with no use of a chisel or tool to square the
end. These dado's hold square ended drawer slides flush with the ends of
the dado's.

I have used this similar technique to inlay square pieces of wood in small
box sides.

Here's another example of not getting trapped by the conventional way
of doing things - in this case drawer guides. Why does there have to
be a groove in the drawer side and a guide attached to the inside
frame? That Tried & True method means the drawer can only be
opened from the "front". But if the guides are on the drawer sides
and the "groove" it rides in are on the piece the drawer is in
- THEN the drawer can be opened from "front" or "back". Think
"kitchen island" - or woodworking bench. AND you can integrate
the drawer guides and drawer pulls into one unit.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/D...CBbench13.html

charlie b

"charlieb" wrote in message
...

Here's another example of not getting trapped by the conventional way
of doing things - in this case drawer guides. Why does there have to
be a groove in the drawer side and a guide attached to the inside
frame? That Tried & True method means the drawer can only be
opened from the "front". But if the guides are on the drawer sides
and the "groove" it rides in are on the piece the drawer is in
- THEN the drawer can be opened from "front" or "back". Think
"kitchen island" - or woodworking bench. AND you can integrate
the drawer guides and drawer pulls into one unit.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/D...CBbench13.html

charlie b

Thanks Charlie, I'll keep that in mind. Because this is a Jewelry box I
don't want the drawers to slide out from the back. That said however,
several years ago I built an end table/magazine rack/3drawer chest that sets
between 2 recliners. The drawers simply set and slide on the web frames but
the table looks the same on both ends and sides. The drawers slide out
either direction like the ones you built

In addition to you suggestion above, I dadoed the chest sides to receive the
slides. I also dadoed the drawer sides and backs. The backs are rabbeted
and are the full width of the drawer. These rabbets also have a dado for
the slides. Before assembly and while working the fronts and backs and
cutting the dado slots on the end of the backs I got carried away and cut
them in the fronts of several drawers also. Had I not corrected this
mistake the drawers would have opened from either front or back also. Each
of the 24 drawers has a combination of 12 separately cut rabbets and
dado's. Yesterday was spent cutting 244 dado and rabbet joints plus a few
mistakes.