WIP Tool drawer organiser (Paul Sellers design)

**Stratman** · 15th April 2019, 04:57 PM

Hi everyone

Here’s my progress (including WIP photos) towards a Paul Sellers designed two drawer tool organiser. I’m making this for my son’s 18^th birthday. No electricity used (apart from lighting, a cordless drill and some awesome Beatles tunes playing).

I chose this project as it has a few principles/skills new to me so was a good project to learn these new skills. I’ve been building this project since the beginning of March, and as I’m extremely slow

I decided not to start posting immediately, otherwise there’d be weeks between updates…

I started with 2 x 185mm x 19mm Tas Oak boards, edge jointed to make the carcass panels. Used a ‘knifewall’ and cut one end square as a reference.
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I then planed the face surfaces to flatten/take out any unevenness of the glued panel.
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Using my reference edge, I began cutting the panels to size, using the ‘knifewall’ as a guide before final edge-planing. I was very pleased with my accuracy and how the two cut panels re-aligned back together.
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Repeated this process for the other panels, you can start to see what it will look like.
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Next step was to cut the housing dados for the side panels. Started with a shallow-ish knifewall, and increased the depth using my knife until it was deep enough for the router plane. The Tas Oak is very ‘brittle’ and can chip/tear out easily if I tried to bite off too much with the router plane (which I did! Luckily it will be hidden by the side panels

)
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For the top panel, I used an old Huon Pine board approximately 3” x 1” rough sawn which I cut into 5 pieces . Planed them down to size and edge jointed to form the top panel. Repeated the dados.
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Next I cut the side panels to size and created the step-down on the outside faces to sit in and over the housing dados. As well as step-downs for the front and back edges to sit over the dados.
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Time for a dry fit to test the joints
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The next step was to cut out the mortises for the drawer support (after a bit of practice as I’d not chopped mortises before!) and the tenons for the piece itself.
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Another dry fit to check the joints
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Then on to the ‘floating’ back panel. This required a groove to be cut along the top, bottom and side panels and making a ‘raised panel’ from the back piece to sit freely in the grooves. This is done so the back panel can expand/contract freely without causing stress on the carcass. Sorry I forgot to take photos of this stage so only have the fitted panel to show.
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I didn’t have any suitable Tas Oak left over for the drawer rails so decided to use some Blackwood which I ripped and planed to size.
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Pieces ready for assembly.
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The final step before clean up and glue up was to round over the top and bottom panel edges. This, I was not looking forward to and was nearly tempted to use my router table. I’m glad I didn’t as I was extremely happy with the consistency of the final result. The Huon Pine was sublime to do this on. The Tas Oak required a bit more caution as it was very close to breaking out when planning the end grain – even with a freshly sharpened plane and careful 45 degree skewing. I was very glad when that part was over!
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All ready for glue up, after a final sand and steaming with an iron to remove any dents and blemishes. I love the router plane but my gosh it’s so easy to end up with slight depressions after a piece or shaving has become lodged underneath the base. Even after blowing, wiping and brushing between every pass, it still happens to me sometimes. Thank goodness for the iron

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And now the part I fear the most – glue up! I need more aluminium clamps to make this easier for me…lol
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Ready to start making the drawers now, so the next posts will be in a few days – as I said, I’m SLOOOOOOOOW!
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**LanceC** · 15th April 2019, 05:48 PM

That looks great Adam!

Did you have very clean Tas Oak, or do you have a trick to plane the grain? Most of my stock has interlocking grain, which is a right pain to plane (this is starting to sound like a Dr Zeus book). I've just bought another #4 plane on eBay to set up with a very tight mouth and experiment with to deal with tricky grain.

Other than that, your stock prep is outstanding! Well done. I'll follow the remainder of the build with interest.

Lance

**gknight** · 15th April 2019, 05:54 PM

Hi, I am also making the Paul Sellars tool drawer unit, but mine is a bit of a mess with dents and blemishes. I decided to go for Bunnings pine which is pretty cheap if I stuff up. I don't have a router plane so made my own but it's a bit useless for fine work, oh well it's my birthday soon!!!
Stratman yours looks so good its unlikely I will post pictures. Looking forward to seeing yours complete, such a great gift.

George

**Stratman** · 15th April 2019, 07:22 PM

Thanks Lance

I guess it was fairly clean. Pretty much like all the other Tas Oak I've used. Just buy it from Bunnings. I did plane this large panel from both directions but didn't get any tearout. Plane was freshly sharpened (just an old Stanley No. 4). The mouth is still where it was set from my Pa - quite large, probably a good 5mm at least. The cap iron is fixed very close to the iron's edge. Probably should close the mouth but so far I've not had any trouble.

As I said... I'm very slow but will post the drawer build up as soon as I get there

)

Regards Adam

**Stratman** · 15th April 2019, 07:25 PM

Hi George

I highly recommend the Veritas router plane. It's one of my favourite tools to use.

Thanks for your kind words. I enjoy the process more than the final result! Probably why I take so long... Lol

Regards Adam

**aldav** · 15th April 2019, 07:34 PM

That's a piece of furniture Adam, I'd be keeping that in the house not the shed.

Very nice work.

In my experience it's the tool user that's the problem, not the lack of a place to put the tools.

**Treecycle** · 15th April 2019, 11:07 PM

No need to apologise for how long it is taking Adam, it's the result that everyone sees that is important. Your attention to detail appears to be paying off as everything looks like it fits perfectly.
It's nice to follow a master as they show and explain the process well. I enjoy seeing those curly shavings and other slivers of wood on the floor or bench after a session of handtool work.
Is this a current project that Paul is doing or an older one?

**LanceC** · 15th April 2019, 11:26 PM

Originally Posted by Stratman

I guess it was fairly clean. Pretty much like all the other Tas Oak I've used. Just buy it from Bunnings.

That’s good to know. Most of my stock is surplus floor boards from when we built, and construction grade larger slabs from Clements.

Perhaps I just need to take more care when selecting stock from the shelf. To date I’ve just assumed most tas oak is a bit gnarly. Rather naive I guess, until you find out otherwise.

Lance

**LanceC** · 15th April 2019, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by gknight

Hi, I am also making the Paul Sellars tool drawer unit, but mine is a bit of a mess with dents and blemishes. I decided to go for Bunnings pine which is pretty cheap if I stuff up. I don't have a router plane so made my own but it's a bit useless for fine work, oh well it's my birthday soon!!!
Stratman yours looks so good its unlikely I will post pictures. Looking forward to seeing yours complete, such a great gift.

George

George you absolutely should show your work, if for no other reason than for you to look back on in years to come and see how far you’ve progressed. Also, I’d love to see your home made router plane.

Lance

**Stratman** · 16th April 2019, 09:36 AM

Thanks aldav

I'm hoping he'll keep it inside

Regards Adam

**Stratman** · 16th April 2019, 09:48 AM

Thanks Dallas

I was pleasantly surprised at the fit. I enjoy taking the time to get it as good as I can. But you're right, having the process explained makes a huge difference! I've even occasionally started using my own methods for layout etc. Not that I've 'invented them! Just that by having the process explained, I can see different ways to use tools, marking gauges, squares etc. for layout.

I really find the the entire layout process an 'art' in itself, especially when you see someone tackle the various 'measurements' required using methods that you suddenly realise will result in absolute exactness. Wonderful stuff!

Yes, this one has just finished up. He's on to a garden bench now, I think. And bought a house to build furniture for it over the next couple of years! I've made a few of his projects as I find them perfect to learn from, with each one tackling different aspects and new skills for me.

Regards
Adam

**Treecycle** · 16th April 2019, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by Xfigio

George you absolutely should show your work, if for no other reason than for you to look back on in years to come and see how far you’ve progressed. Also, I’d love to see your home made router plane.

Lance

Couldn't agree more. Obviously George is a newish member and its daunting to put your first post up of your work but you certainly don't get crucified if it's not perfect, usually just encouragement. As Lance says, you can look back later to see how far you have come but the more you do the better your projects will become.

**Treecycle** · 16th April 2019, 02:09 PM

Another one I like to watch is Matt Estlea. He is young but has very good skills and quite fast paced compared to Paul Sellers who is more laid back making it easier to follow his instructions.

**Stratman** · 16th April 2019, 02:25 PM

Ditto to what Lance and Dallas both said, George.

You'll definitely get no criticism, and only excellent help and advice. I was genuinely surprised with the amount of help I got with my first post. I've learnt a lot on this forum.

Regards Adam

**Stratman** · 16th April 2019, 02:35 PM

I've seen him also, Dallas.

Agree about the 'fast paced' style! And also his skills. And he's certainly promoting the hand tools too... Just not my taste

In case you haven't seen it... I watched Paul Sellers' 2019 'April Fools' video and it reminded me of some of the more 'fast paced' (and 'over cut'/'jump cut') videos out there (not naming names!

) But it takes all kinds of teachers to teach all kinds of students, and that's got to be a good thing.

Regards Adam

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