Small Tool Chest – Pinned Housing Joints
Now that I have the drawer front and sides complete, I need to cut the mortises for the bottom. Nothing special about this process. I use my plow plane with a 3/16 blade and cut one in the front and each side. The unique part of these drawers is how the back is mortised and pinned into the sides.
There are several ways to connect the back to the sides, dovetails, mortise and tenons, screws etc. Each of these work in its own way; for this project I was introduced to a method I have not seen before. A mortise is cut at the rear of each side and then a through mortise is cut through the side to house a pin. The pin is then held in place with wedges.
I hope the pictures are self explanatory…This is a great joint, adds character to the drawer and I don’t anticipate any chance of a joint failure in the future.
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Your chest is looking great! The half blind dovetails on the back of my keepsake box were my first attempt at half blinds as well.
The wedges looks great – is their a trick to getting both wedges to be the same width. It seems like it would be easy to drive one in farther then the other and than end up with a slightly wider wedge.
Thanks for the comment. I went back and looked at photos of my other wedges and they were all fairly even, I was a little surprised and not sure I have an exact answer for you. I was very careful to cut wedges of a similar size and drive them evenly Into the mortise. If I get a chance I’ll try some different options and see what happens. Perhaps you could make a signature wedged tenon with a thick and thin wedge?