Very excited today. Used my Shapeoko Pro to cut out and decorate of front panel of a drawer I am constructing for a coffee server tray. The finger pull notch was cut out on the machine and well as the decorative touches on each end of the panel.
This is one reason I wanted to invest in a CNC machine, because you can easily and repeatably cut out elaborate pieces for multiple instances of a particular project. So cool; loving it!
Nice!
What sort of joinery are you using?
How are you cutting it?
Hey, Will.
So as not to mar the from drawer panel, I am relying on glue as the main joinery technique. However, the rear corners of the drawer will be re-enforced with small finishing nails driven into pre-drilled sockets.
The front panel will be further held in place with a glue bead along the front edge of the drawer bottom.
I used three tools paths in total. The first one cut out the finger notch with a number #102 1/4-inch bit. The two formal decorations were done with a 60° bit. I am recording the entire process and will be posting a video on YouTube. I’ll share the link when it is done.
I am not an accomplished woodworker, so I go to this site for inspiration on how I want to do it. 7 Wood Joinery Methods That Use No Metal Fasteners
With the face attached to the side rails as you have, you could do a Mortise-and-Tenon. It would give you a bit more strength.
Looks great Sir
Thanks for the link, Mr. Zman. A few days ago I constructed a jig to cut finger joints. I’m still working on perfecting its use and the results. I really love the sliding dove tail joint, but I think I would need more thickness to pull that off.
For the rear corners, I do think I will use 1/8" dowels for reenforcement.
Thanks again for the input. This forum is awesome for learning and sharing information. Much appreciated.
Unfortunately, those links aren’t well-suited to the CNC, and most of them, if cut on a CNC would require a vertical fixture (I made one a while back for my SO3: Fixture for cutting vertical joints by WillAdams ) which is a bit fussy since it requires a minimum of 3 setups:
and have used it for:
Box joints:
Dovetails:
Knapp (Cove and Pin) joints:
@daveyJ There are a couple of joinery options which have been explored pretty thoroughly:
Rabbets (Rebates for our friends across the pond) are so easily done that they are termed “The Simple Box” in one video:
c.f.,
I’ve been exploring joinery for a while now, and one promising option is quarter or full-blind box joints:
see the gitbook above for a bit more on those.
Made a box for our expansion mics at church. We only use these when we do a big event that requires more than the 8 wireless mics we have built into the system. This will protect the equipment, keep it all together, and the box will sit right on top of the equipment I already have in the sound booth. I can’t imagine trying to cut that mic tray without the CNC. It could be done, but this was SO much easier.
I am making a heart shaped box for the wife. Before I commit to the purpleheart wood, I tried the cut using some scrap plywood that I had laying around. I also enjoyed the challenge of swapping out the Dewalt router after the first toolpath ran.
Heading to see some family I haven’t seen in a decade so I thought to run something… got lost in ideas for far too long. Had a piece of hard maple from a lumber run and was wanting to do something a bit more creative/nature/natural oriented so this was made. Then I tossed it under my laser and slapped their name on it. Few coats of lacquer and we’ll call it good.
Hopefully it will be well received. I feel a little bad its a wee bit large and if its unloved well, I’ll tell them it can burn. 
edit: sorry gdon, I didn’t realize I was replying to your post. hehe!
Hey Mark, what are we looking at here? Did you ebonize/carbonize/flame the boards yourself? I like it.
The reason there are erasers on pencils is because we make mistakes.
You said you are using lacquer. Have you used Danish Oil? It is a great for one and done finishes. On the inside details I use an acid brush to get in the small crevices. Lacquer is good but it takes a lot of coats and the smell is terrible.
Nice hooters there LordofCandy.
No burning.
Dimensional pine, ripped for square edges. Bunch of sanding. One coat Varathane Red Mahogany. No preconditioner gave it real zebra levels of contrast. It looks great on a solid brown building.
Trying a new water sealer from Home Depot meant for docks. It’s given it a great satin look. I’m really impressed but it’ll take some years to see if was lying about the durability.
Blue backer to tie in the camp colors and catch your eye from a distance.
I was out of everything quick acting. My shellac. Out. My spar. Nozzle locked. My can of spar, too little too old. I have polys but I didn’t want to deal with the brush. Usually I’ll just wax and feed or finishing paste a lot of things but I wanted a little more here. I don’t like that I used laq, it’s just not made for weather. But danish, I have actually not used so I’ll add it to my shopping list. 
I like to use danish oil but I usually topcoat it with something. Usually shellac, but a recent project I used wipe on poly as the items were
Going to have some outdoor exposure.
For your front face of the drawers, relying solely on glue to hold is a bit dangerous for the long run. Your best bet for holding your front face on without any other connection would be best done with a couple dowels per side. They would make a better connection, hold for the long run, and wouldnt affect anything with the front face of the drawer.
Glue alone can tend to rip out wood if the drawers are a bit heavy and the pull force is harder then your tensile strength of the wood glue. Might be an idea for you on connecting the face to the side rails of your drawers. Love the design you chose. It is simple but elegant.
Is that a heat sink bolted to the spindle?
Ignore that. There was already a hole in the heatsink so why not. It gets insanely hot.
Working on watercooling for it. Just have to turn some fittings that don’t leak like the printed ones do.
I actually agree, Dowels would have been a good solution. I thought about it for a long time. I just did not want dowels showing in the front next to the carvings. To get around that the front panel is also held on with a long bead of glue along the front edge of the bottom of the drawer, which butts up against the back of the front panel. Hopefully my wife won’t rip the front panel clean off. Thank you for your input. Appreciated.
