Iceclimber said:
Very nice!
Can you tell me a bit about the procedure with regard to cutting the dovetails on a curved drawers like that.
This was the first time I have done it, so don't take this as "the" way. First thing is to cut the ends of the drawer fronts square to the rest of the drawer. I used a version of the laminating form to make a tablesaw jig for this. Then find the angle at which the dovetails would be cut to follow the shape of the drawer. As this was a very gentle curve, the dovetails don't actually have to be curved, just angled.
Cut a few sticks with that master angle for reference. One can be used later as a guide for holding your chisel at the correct angle - very useful for me with my bum hand. The reference will also be used for setting table saw blades, etc.
Then cut the end of your drawer side to that angle, use a marking gauge to mark the depth of the tail at that angle and continue marking in the normal manner. Saw at that angle and chisel out waste maintaining the angle.
Use the tails to mark the pins in the drawer front. Saw the shoulder line normally. I used a small router to hog out most of the waste, if the router base is small enough, it will more or less follow the angle of the drawer. Finish the waste removal with a chisel and proceed with fitting and glueup as normal.
The only tricky thing for me was to be very careful with the last bits of waste removal. There is only a thin bit of drawer front left and
its easy to pierce all the way through. If I do this again, I might make the drawer front thicker.
An alternative method, not available for laminated drawer fronts, would be to leave some extra wood at the ends of the drawers and just cut the joinery square, trimming a curve into the square bit when done.