Thanks in advance all- y'all have so much more experience at this and I appreciate any advice you can give.
I'm starting the 4 drawers for our kitchen cabinets tomorrow... I've purchased plenty of 1/2 cherry in 5 inch widths and also have bought some 1/4 baltic birch ply for the bottoms. I plan to do through dovetails for the front and am not quite sure what I am doing for the back... I'll have the jig set up for the dovetails, so I may go ahead and dovetail them, but I may end up doing a different joint such as a dado and rabbet etc... anyway, on to my questions....
1. I'm using cherry. I plan to put the wood out into the sun to darken a bit. Should I do so before or after I assemble them? I'm assuming after as I will have already planed the dovetails etc, but wanted to make sure.
2. Should I use any finish? I know not to use an oil based finish as it will cause smells, but does anyone recommend a different (shellac, water based poly, etc) finish? Amazingly enough, information out there on this subject is tough to find in detail. As these are drawers, they will not be exposed to sunlight much after they are installed, but I'd like to add some protection if possible. I also plan to line the bottoms with clear contact paper.
3. Is it considered a "higher quality" of construction to have full dovetails on the front and back of a drawer? Is this something an estate agent would notice or am I throwing pearls before swine here and should just do a dado/rabbet in the back. The cabinets are standard merillat cabinets but they now have crown molding and have blum soft close features and knobs so they now appear to be a decent quality cabinet (other than the fake maple printed hardboard interiors)
4. I'm using blum "solo" undermount slides and am refering to the blum website for drawer construction specs. Any/all advice from anyone out there that has used these slides would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any and all advice (other than hand cutting the dt's
)
Lawrence