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Compact Kitchen Island

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Trimming drawer frontsAfter removing the clamps, scraping the glue pips off with a flush plane, and sanding with 60 grit paper, we trim the billets to finished size.  First we rip saw the excess material from each edge, keeping the joint centered in the finished panel, then cross-cutting the panel to length by removing a little wood from both ends, leaving smooth, even surfaces on each end.

Tall fenceTo make the beveled edges on the drawer fronts we will stand them up on edge and run them through the table saw with the blade tilted to 15°.  To do this safely I built this "tall fence" that clamps to the rip fence of the table saw.  It will provide support for the panels as they pass through the blade so that we get a nice even cut, and to make sure the panel doesn't bind on the blade and get tossed back into my face.

Score a practice blankBefore we risk any of our drawer front blanks, we'll test the set-up on a practice blank made from scrap wood.  The first step is to define the central, flat part of the drawer front.  We do this by running all four edges of the board along the fence with the saw blade height set at 1/8", producing a shallow gridwork.

Cut bevels on practice blankThen we install the tall fence and begin nibbling away at the beveled edges.  Because we're using a fine toothed blade which can burn the wood if we try to cut away too much at once, we make multiple passes, removing just 1/8" at a time, allowing one face of the saw blade to be open to the air all the time for cooling.

Completed practice blankCompleted drawer frontsThe practice run produces satisfactory results, so we repeat the process on the drawer fronts.

The rest of our time today is spent sanding and putting away our toys.


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