Dados & Rabbets
2013.11.29
I used an offcut from notching the end boards to mark out for a dado. This will hold the bottom of the chest. I clamped a fence to help guide the backsaw and sawed down one edge of the dado.
After repositioning the fence and sawing the other side, I removed most of the waste with a chisel held bevel down. Then I cleaned up the bottom with the router plane. This last step was not strictly necessary since the joint will be hidden. It could all be done with a saw and chisel.
I made the second saw cut on each dado a little inside the line. I can plane the bottom board down to fit easier than enlarging the dado; or even worse, trying to fill in a dado plowed too wide.
The front and back sides will have rebates at the ends, which mate with the notches on the end boards. There is some debate about whether a cross-grain rabbet is properly a fillester (or filletster), but whatever the name, the tool I used was a skew rabbet plane which has a nicker and a skewed blade to handle the cross-grain direction. A wooden plane called a moving fillester has the same features for the same purpose. I first chamfered the far end with a chisel so it would not spelch.
Sawing Boards