Photo 4- Mount a small drum sander in the drill press to smooth and shape the curves on the ends of the rails. Be careful not to taper the curve onto the area of the mortise and tenon joint, or you will create a gap at the tenon shoulder.

Smooth the tight, inside curves on the ends of the rails with a small diameter drum sander mounted in the drill press as in photo 4. These tools are available at most hardware stores. This sander will remove the band saw marks and help smooth out the curve, but it leaves a rough surface. Smooth this out with a scraper, as in photo 5.

Photo 5- Clean up the marks left by the drum sander with a scraper. If the scraper is sharp, it will leave a smooth finish that won't need sanding. Otherwise, it will leave a surface that reuaires a minimum of sanding.

TIP- USING A SCRAPER

Putting a sharp burr onto a scraper so that it produces tissue shavings and a very smooth surface is hard to do. A simpler method is to simply file the scraper edge flat, smooth the edge on fine stones, and use it without a burr. Without a burr it won't work as well or leave as smooth a surface, but it will work well for cleaning up curved edges such as in this project. The finish it leaves will require a minimum of sanding with fine grits.

Having finished the curve work on the top and bottom rails, get out all the other frame parts, which, happily, are all straight and easy to make. You will put curves on the edges of the mid rails that pass between the front and rear frames, but not until after cutting the tenons on them at the bandsaw.

TIP- USE A BLOCK PLANE TO SMOOTH SURFACES

When you saw out parts on the table saw, the remaining sawn edges must be cleaned up. You can do so with sandpaper, starting with rough grit and working through several grits to get a smooth surface. Or, you can clean up the rough edges in one operation with a block plane, as in photo 6. A sharp plane leaves a surface that requires no sanding. It will also remove planer knife marks just as quickly. Always plane with, not against, the grain direction to avoid tearout.

Photo 6- Clean up sawn edges or planer knife marks on straight parts with sharp block plane. This is one place where hand tool skills will really help you, because in one or two quick swipes you can create a smooth surface that needs no sanding, avoiding a lot of sanding drudgery.

Next cut all of the mortises and tenons for the frame components, following the instructions given in the article on this site titled Mortise and Tenon Joinery. Note that all the mid rails that pass between the front and rear frames have through tenons except the two mid rails at the top corners. These have short stub tenons that are only 3/16" long. Cut the mortises for these stub tenons into curved top rails before cutting the post mortises in these rails. Make the mortises in the bottom rails 1-1/8" deep, and the tenons to fit them 1" long.

Note that you must locate the tenons on the mid rails so that the inside edge on each protrudes ¼" beyond the inside of the vertical frame posts. The drawers fit onto the rails along these surfaces with grooves (see photo 9).