The question is:
I am looking for advise on how to cut a rectangular center section out of a 1X6 and then use that piece of wood as a flush mount drawer front for the same piece. This way the grain will match. I suppose I could clamp the piece to my table saw and bring the blade up to cut the long top and bottom, but what about the two short ends ? I don't want to drill holes.
The answer:
The goal is to have a flush mount drawer front cut from the same board that matches the surrounding wood.
With a few simple cuts on the tablesaw, you can get a nice square drawer opening with a drawer face that shows continuous and matching grain. Here's how:
Starting with one piece of wood:
First the board is ripped into three pieces:
Then the middle section is crosscut into three pieces:
Here's the resulting pieces after the cuts are made.
The next step is to glue the short offcuts back in place to form the drawer opening.
The drawer face is trimmed to size to fit the new opening (you loose some size from the saw kerf).
Here's a real life example of this technique in practice. This picture was sent in by a friend of the site who made a terrific looking table with a matching-grain front. You can see how the grain flows continously from the face right through the drawer fronts.
This table was made by, and the photo is courtersy of, Steven Holden from Great Britain. Thanks Steven!