Angled Chest of Drawers Part I

I went batty and decided to construct a chest of drawers on a twenty degree angle. Part 1 is supposed to explain how much harder it was to glue up an angled piece of work. Learned this the hard way. And this is just a web framed carcass. Started working on how I constructed this but may take some time

For this bit you will need:

table saw

square block of wood

hand saw

cardboard paper bag

scissors to cut the paper bag

a lot of clamps depending on the size of your project

a strong wood glue with enough open time, epoxy or tight bond III

help from another person

latex gloves (if you are using epoxy)

Step 1: Cutting a Scrap Piece for Your Clamping Blocks

first you have to have a piece of scrap material that is square. Take it to the table saw with the blade angled at the same angle as your project. I used the larger of two shootingboards (used to direct my chisels when shopping out the joints) to set the angle to absolutely sure. The material you are ripping off will be cut into several pieces. Try to give about and 1/8th of and inch but no more than a 1/4" otherwise it gets in the way. Cut the individual pieces to fit your clamp size and be sure you have enough of them. In my case I needed 17.

Step 2: Gluing the Angled Clamping Blocks Onto the Outside of the Frame

next, you will need some thing cardboard (paper bag works fine), some wood glue and smaller clamps to just hold these blocks in place. In place would be where the joints are, (where you will apply the most pressure).

First add a dab of glue to the side of the carcass (frame) and add a piece of the thin cardboard. press down gently and remove the excess glue. Then, squirt another dab on the cardboard and add on the clamping block. Do this to all of the blocks and clamp them down gently with small clamps. This can be tedious.

Step 3: Clamping Up the Angled Carcass

Lotta dovetails I had to watch out for on every corner and stub tenons inside for each web frame as I clamped this up with the help from a friend. I chose to use epoxy of two parts. one being an addition to slow the hardening process. This gave me as much time as possible to clamp the beast together before it hardened up to the point where you cannot use it anymore. The ratio was even for the epoxy mix I used. I chose to use some dirt cheap brushes to paint it on. Don't forget to put on some latex gloves, for epoxy will not come off for a long, long, long time and do one or more dry fits before applying the glue

Had to use a lot of clamps and help from one pal but it worked. I strongly suggest having someone else help out.

Step 4: Knocking Off the Blocks

After the wood glue or epoxy or whatever you chose for glue has dried, take all the clamps off and with a small mallet tap the blocks being sure not to use to much force and with a few taps the block of wood should fall off. You may be left with some of cardboard left sticking on. You will just have to sand that off.