How to construct wooden bottom drawers for a bombe secretary

Tommy takes a break from shaping the drawer fronts to construct the drawer bottoms and finish the drawers. He's using wood scraps saved along the way for the job. He first bevels the back edge then cleans up the side edges with a plane so the bottoms will fit snugly in the grooves along the drawer sides. Next, he cuts the profile on the front edge and then bevels it. Once the profile is set and the bottom slides in smoothly and tucks in nicely on the front profile, he uses his bandsaw to cut the back edge to fit and cleans it up with the plane. Finally, he makes a little notch where he'll put a screw that should hold the drawers together for the next 200 years. Before signing off, Tommy tosses out a little nugget of advice: you'll save aggravation when you plane, if you take five minutes to build a benchdog (or bench hook) to hold the piece you're planing securely in place.

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