Drill Press Cart: Day 2

This morning I got busy finishing up the cabinet carcass by installing the back. After that I turned my attentions to start making the 5 drawers.

HERE IS WHAT I GOT DONE TODAY

• Attached the back panel
• Started making the drawers
• Cut all parts to final size on table-saw using my crosscut sled.
• Pocket hole time
• Are the drawers square
• Assembly time
• Drawer boxes complete

ATTACHED THE BACK PANEL

To get started with wrapping up the cabinet carcass I needed to rip a 1/4" thick sheet of plywood to its final dimensions, after that was done I lay it on the back of the cabinet and drew a reference line 3/8" for the outside edge so I cut center my screws used to secure the back panel, which adds a lot of rigidity, then added glue to the back of the cabinet carcass and started screwing the panel in place, I also left the panel a little oversize so as that I could flush trim the panel to the cabinet, this is just a little trick I picked up if the cabinet is not 100% square.

Here I am getting ready to rip the back panel to size on my table-saw

Here you can see the over-sized panel screwed and glued to the back of the carcass, I came back with my palm router and using a flush trim bit I finished flushing the back panel to give the back panel that finished look, even if the cabinet is not exactly sqaure.

Back all secured, I usually plug the screw holes but because the back is only 1/4" thick I don't have enough meat to add the plugs without blowing through the back panel, its only a shop

MOVING ONTO THE DRAWERS

I didn't have enough time to complete the drawers but I did make all 5 drawer frames I will need to come back and add the bases to them.

There are 5 drawers in total and there are 3 different sizes to them. The drawer construction is very basic using only pocket holes and glue and securing the bases with glue and brad nails. I found this concept online on I like to Make Stuff.com and it makes for a quick drawer assembly with very little fuss about joinery, perfect for a shop project.

• First Up: Cut all the parts to size

Following my cut-list I  cut all the drawer parts to size on the table-saw, then using my crosscut sled I cut them to final size

Here is my table-saw cross-cut sled with a stop block set-up on the fence.

Here is the front of the cross-cut sled

Here are all the drawer parts cut to size (accept the bases)

Another view of the drawer parts cut to size 

POCKET HOLE TIME

Now that all my drawers front,backs & sides are all cut I needed to add pocket holes to join the box together, I only placed pocket holes on the front and back of the drawer as they would be covered with drawer false fronts later, these fronts and back would be screwed into the sides of the drawer.

Here is the Kreg Pocket hole jig in action, I didnt bother setting up my dust collection on this

Here is all the pocket holed parts completed.

IS EVERYTHING SQUARE??

I am almost ready to start gluing up and assembling the drawer frames but before I do I need to make sure that everything is at right angles to each other or square, so to do this I do two things I take diagonal measurements and if they are the same then I know they're square, I also use a machinest square in the corners and make sure they are also at right angles.

I use the machinist at the bottom and top of all corners, if I don't see daylight I know they are good, so I am looking good here

Top of the corner is also looking good, off we go to assembly!!!

DRAWER ASSEMBLY TIME

Since there are no fancy joinery techniques being used on this assembly I basically make the drawer my placing the front / back pieces in between each of the sides, use some clamps to tighten things up after applying glue to the edges of the front / back of the darwer and screw the 1-1/4" pocket hole screws into the screw hole I had already prepared.

A clamp on the front and back of the drawer is enough to keep everything alighned.

Sometimes I use a little scrap block and hammer if the pieces are out of alignment just a little 

The pocket hole screws use a special sqaure bit that you put into your driver and then drive the screws home.

DRAWER BOXES ALL COMPLETE

The drawer boxes are all complete I just need to add the bases to them, below you can see all five drawers assembled and I will return to them when I get a chance.

This birch plywood is nice I really like the color of the wood laminate, but I will be honest I bought the expensive plywood although its not cabinet grade (its a grade b) I found a lot of voids in the plywood.

I am not a hug fan of pocket holes because of how they look, but I will be hiding these with false fronts, the jig has its pros & cons for sure.

NEXT

• Put the drawer bottoms on
• Install drawer slides
• Make top
• Install casters
• Apply finish

ROOM DIVIDER : DAY 3

WHAT I DID TODAY

• Cleaned up the legs
• Attached the face frames 
• Miter Joint Tips/Tricks

CLEANING UP THE LEGS

Yesterday I glued up the legs into a solid leg, this morning after the glue had dried and set I went  about the process of removing all the glue squeeze out, since I made the legs oversize I could achieve this by ripping the legs on the table-saw by removing a skim cut. I also needed to make the legs top and bottom flush so I used my new Veritas flush trim saw to cut them to final size. There is still more work to do on the legs such as sanding them, add biscuit slots so as that I can attach them to the panels, cut a tenon on the bottoms and I will probably also add countersunk holes to add some screws,  but at least they are made.

You can see the leg blank that is oversized I ripped the sides and use my flush trim saw to clean them up. 

ATTACHED THE FACE-FRAMES

Yesterday I cut all the face frames for the plywood panels and today it was tyime to attach them. I used 1 1/4" brads from my brad gun and wood glue to attach them.

Each side of the panels were receiving them so  I placed them on the panels and added the glue and then nailed them in place. I also needed to start cleaning them up because I needed to fill all the brad indents by using a special filler just for this task. I also needed a way to make the miter joints look a little tighter (they always seem to move a hair when the glue is setting, the gap always seems bigger than it is because the 45 degree angle compounds the gap so it looks like the grand canyon,so I i used a method that a lot of woodworkers are familiar with, but more on that in a second.

I just added the glue and brad nails, waiting on the glue to set up.

Doing a dry fit of the face frames, next to add the glue.

Here is the front side of the panels, still have alot of work to do but they are starting to take shape.

This is the back side og the panels, I will be adding chalkboard paint and corkboard, later in the project

MITER JOINT TIPS/TRICKS

Sometimes when you make miter joints you try so hard to make sure that joints line up to make it look like the wood corners around the project seamlessly, but despite your best efforts and your attention to detail you find yourself with the smallest of gaps but it looks like you could drive a bus through the gap. So a while ago I specifically solicited advise from fellow woodworkers what they do in this situation and the one that I like the most is this.

Sawdust Paste

Whenever you cut wood by either ripping or crosscutting the boards keep the sawdust that you generate because if you mix that sawdust with wood-glue you can use it to fill in them little gaps that you have. So I got in the habit of bagging sawdust and keeping it for occasions such as this, espicially hardwoods such as oak or maple, but on this occasion its pine.

Below are pictures of me applying the paste , I will need to come back to the miter joints tomorrow and cleaning them up so the gap totally disappears.

Here is my little set-up. The sawdust is in the plastic container, my glue bot and a scrap piece of plywood to do my mixing.

Here is the joint after I have applied the wood paste, i will clean it up tomorrow.

If you would like to learn more about this process I found a useful article in Popular Mechanics explaining it

Tomorrow I will be cleaing up the face frames by sanding them, I will also be cutting some of the biscuits slots so I can attach the legs to the plywood panels.

Until then, Take Care