So when last we left off, I had finished most major construction on the drawer pieces. It's kind of a pain to apply stain or finish evenly in the interior of boxes once they are assembled, so I usually prefer to pre-finish all the insides before clamp and glue.
I'm using Watco Danish Oil here. I like it for a couple of reasons. It's a clean, natural finish with just a bit of amber. It's oil based, and you just wipe it on with a rag, let the wood absorb whatever it's going to take, and wipe it off. Do that twice, and that's it.
Another nice thing about Danish Oil is that it is very easy to refinish. I found a box where I forgot to remove some pencil marks before I applied finish. I just waited until it dried, sanded down the finish and the marks, and hit it with a little more Watco. Watco is super-easy to blend with, because it doesn't care. The wood is going to take whatever it takes, and that's it.
This stuff dries to the touch in a couple of hours, but it still takes a couple of days to fully cure.
Finally ended up with a small pile of half pre-finished parts.
Next comes glueing and clamping.
With the large box, I used some extra care for the glue-up. Taped all the inside corners before I hit it with TiteBond III glue. After realizing what it would take in terms of patience for the next 13 boxes, this is the only one I taped.
Some folks might wonder how many clamps a guy needs. The answer is always at least one more than you actually have. It took a lot of clamps per box to pull everything in and make it reasonably square.
The smaller boxes took about the same number of clamps. I had enough to do about two boxes at a time, so I did a pair a night over the course of the week.
The cluster box I cut upside down with the template. Also known as box L. I will get the priveledge of recutting this eventually.
All glued up!
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Originally Posted by JohnnyEgo
