Barnsley Reproduction Build #12: Final Fitting and Draw Boring

I wasn’t satisfied with the fit that I talked about in the last entry so I called my mentor Dick. Dick is the best sharpener, dovetail cutter, and jointer that I know, and he came over. The two sides went together but still had a gap of 1/16 in a couple of places. After a while, Dick thought that I needed a miter jack or we could make one. So we made essentially a guide that wrapped the work piece on three sides to guide a chisel. Shaving very fine amounts and pushing the chisel at an angle gives very good control and doesn’t require much effort. By matching the piece to the jack, and a little undercutting, we trimmed until the joint was as good as it could get. A dry fit looked much better but I won’t know for sure until the glue up happens.

The joints are going to be draw bored with 3/8 pegs. Drilling the mortise first, then moving the hole 1/16 towards the shoulder in the tenon will actually bend the peg and draw the joint as tight as possible. First I drilled all the mortise pieces with a 3/8 brad point in my drill press.

A dry assembly with all pieces together is next and the holes are marked with both a pencil and pressing down with the brad point to mark the exact center of the hole.

Finally all the tenons are drilled 1/16 closer to the shoulder.

Next will be final mortising, and final cutting.

-- Stevo