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Watching a guy in Boise try to force a drawer slide with a hammer made me swear off ever skipping a dry fit.
He cracked the whole side panel on a maple vanity because the dado was a hair off. Now I do a full mock-up with clamps before any glue touches wood, no exceptions. Anyone else have a horror story that made you adopt a new rule?
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eva_garcia563mo agoMost Upvoted
That dry fit rule is a lifesaver. I started doing the same after a cabinet face frame went all wonky on me. The clamps pulled it square during the glue-up, but the second I released them, the whole thing twisted. Had to scrap two days of work. Now I even dry-fit the fasteners, because a screw in the wrong spot can pull things out of alignment just as bad as glue. It adds maybe ten minutes to a project, but saves hours of fixing a mess.
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the_jason1mo ago
Man, that's exactly why I started doing the same thing after ruining a set of cherry nightstands. Like @eva_garcia56 said, it's about catching those little misalignments before they become big problems. Now I dry fit everything, even the drawer slides, just to make sure nothing's fighting me before the glue goes on.
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