Top Secret: American Chess Table- Drawer Redux – Mega OOOPS!!

So, you come into the shop, and you are very excited to get your project complete, and then you realize…..you might not be getting it done so quickly!!

I took the drawer out of the clamps, and it was perfectly square, and the glue joints were all great, and I was ready to finish sand.  I went over to the table to test fit the drawer and realized…..the table is not SQUARE!!  At times like this, you say some pretty blue words, and then you move on.  We held an emergency kangaroo court in the shop and determined that I needed to make another drawer, using the face sides, but redoing the drawer sides.  I was subjected to the proper amount of deserved ridicule, and a plan was formed to fix the issue.  I made some very careful band saw cuts on the drawer sides, and proceeded to remove them from the faces.  Needless to say, it was a stressful operation, knowing I could very easily screw up the drawer faces, and then a real tragedy would have unfolded.

After I got the drawer sides off, and sanded the original joints for the drawer faces, I proceeded to cut a new set of drawer sides, in regular pine.  After carefully measuring, and making about 10 adjusting cuts, the new drawer sides were ready to install.  After the kangaroo court was held, the appropriate method was determined for the new glue up procedure.  We would clamp the drawer while in the table, and that would make the drawer “square” with the table.  At least that was the plan….

After installing the first drawer attempt (notice the drawer sitting in the table crooked):

first drawer attempt in table

Another look at the “square” drawer in the table:

drawer attempt 1 closeup

The new plan to glue up the drawer in the table:

second drawer attempt glueup