The Armoire Continues

I can honestly say that I’m glad I didn’t really get much done in the shop today.

Not that I didn’t try to. I was actually hoping to fit some of the stretchers into their mortises; with an outside shot of doing a little glue up. In the end, all I really got done was trimming the tenons on the stretchers for the front and back, and getting the rails for the sides cut along with their tenons.

I thought I had marked the layout lines on the posts for the mortises. After I had finished the third attempt and realized I had gotten it wrong again, I decided it was time to call it quits. How did I get it wrong 3 times? Because I’d forgotten the details involved that I had so meticulously thought through a week or two ago and I didn’t thoroughly inspect the notes I’d taken at the time.

After the first markup, I realized I’d forgotten to account for the shoulder cuts. Having remarked everything for the second time, I then forgot to allow 1/4 inch for spacing around the drawer. So I marked it up a third time. When I finished, the last tenon was too close to the end of the post; I knew I had left a margin for error. Finally, I went back to my notes. I figured out that instead of starting the layout at 4″ from the bottom of the post, I should have started 3″ from the bottom of the post.

Man, was I glad I hadn’t cut any mortises like I’d considered doing. Next time, I’ll make a story stick when I’ve worked out those details for a non-trivial layout.