DRILL PRESS CART: ALL FINISHED

After a week of fleeting moments in the shop I have finally finished the drill press cart and I have to say that it  looks awesome and even more importantly that that it makes more room and floor space available in that ugly corner of my shop.

SHOPPING LIST

• Full sheet of 3/4" birch plywood (not baltic birch)
• A half sheet of 1/4" plywood
• I purchased some ash hardwood to use for the table top edge banding and I also used the leftovers to make my own drawer pulls that I am very happy about.
• 3" casters @4
• 22" full extension drawer slides @5
• Finished it in polycrylic.

JOINERY

Since this was a shop project I didn't use any fancy joinery for the case I simply used pocket holes and 1-1/4" pocket hole screws to join the case parts together along with glue.

FEATURES

• 5 full extension drawers which gives me ton of stroage
• 34" x 22" x 16" 
• The whole cart is portable which in my opinion is a must in any wood-shop.
• I made my own drawer pulls out of ash which was a very fun project.

If you would like to make this cart , I have plans available in my shop.

Here is a frontal picture, I have to say that the pulls look great.

Here is my drill press in its new home, I also made a the drill press table in a previous project.

Here she is in her new home.

Lots of storage

I need to finalise where everything will be stored, but since I have 5 drawers I can put each type of drill bit in its own drawer.

This is what I am moving away from, it worked well for a time but the drill press cart keeps everything I need around the drill press and not a random drawer on the other side of the shop.

Until next time take care.

DRILL PRESS CART : DAY 8

Last night a finished the cart and to be honest it was the most fun I had on this entire project because I made my own drawer pulls which is something I never did before. I used the solid ash that I purchased on that road trip I made last week and I am so glad that I made these pulls because I think I made a total of 25 pulls and it only cost me $6.. but there was a good beat of work needed to make them.

MAKING DRAWER PULLS

• 3D Model on Sketchup
• Ripped the ash on tablesaw
• Router table time
• Using my Kreg Jig to install them
• Finished pictures of the cart

3D MODEL

Since I never made drawer pulls before I used my 3D Modeling software call Sketchup to draw up a scaled model from which to work from. Below is that model.

Here is the model I made on Sketchup and all the key dimensions for the pull

I nice brand new set of router bits for the project

TABLESAW

I had a piece of  1"X 6" X 30" of ash that I needed to rip into 1-1/4" wide strips, this is how high my drawer pulls would be since that was pretty uneventful I didn't take any pictures.

ROUTER TABLE TIME

The bulk of machining was on the router table, I purchased a new set of router bits that I was dying to use and here was my perfect project to use them on. Now that I had my 30" long blank I figured I could make 5 pulls per strip so everything that I am writing about I repeated 5 times for all the pulls.

I used 3 router bits in making this pull 

• The first was a 1/4" core box bit to use on the underside of the handle where I would be removing the wood that would form hand grip on the underside of the handle. I did this incrementally because I didn't want to remove so much wood at one time so as to avoid drastic tear-rout.
• The second bit was 1/8" round-over bit this is where I would add a rounded profile on the outside lip of the pull, this was done very quickly.
• The last bit I used was a 3/8" round-over that I used on the top outside edge of the pull to ease the look of the handle.

It all starts with the blank that I made my layout lines, these are 3/8" high x 1/2" wide, you can also see a close-up of the router bit I used to remove the material, I used this bit as it left a rounded profile on the top of the material that was removed as this leaves a nice finish on the pull.

Here is the the final drawer pull .. looks awesome and it was a ton of work that I enjoyed immnsnly. 

Another view of the finished pull, just needed to crosscut them on my table-saw.

Here is the underside of the pull, very simple but effective. You can see the 1/8' round-over profile on the top edge of the pull. But the 3/8" round-over is in the router table in this picture.

KREG JIG TIME

I purchased the Kreg jig to install the drawer pulls that way they would all be unifrom on the cabinet, to be honest I usually make my own jigs for this type of project but I got this on sale and thought that I would try it out, thinking that it would remove all the work out of placing them on the false fronts and to a degree it did. But I still needed to do a little measuring to center the pulls. To be honest I didn't read all the instructions for the jig I kind of just opened the pack and started using it.

Here is the jig that I clamped to the drawer fornt, I made a measurement finding the center of the drawer and then I use a 5/16" drill bit to drill throught the drawer and then add screws to secure the pull.

Another angle of the jig.

The grey round knobs are the drill guides that you can adjust depending on the size of the pulls you are using, since mine were shop made I don't think they were a standard size.

Here is the first drawer pull installed and I have to say that the pulls look awesome and match the solid edge banding on the cabinet top.

Side profile of the pull.

Here is the finished project of adding the drawer pulls

That's a wrap I hope you have enjoyed this project with me, please feel free to leave any comments or comments on the project, I am thinking about making plans avavilavle for this project but I have not decided yet.

DRILL PRESS CART : DAY 7

I am in the final stretch of this project and cant wait to start using the cart, there is so much storage in this cabinet that it will free up a huge drawer in my miter saw station. This post might wander a little bit because I am going to write about my old unit that I am replacing, I also found a different concept for attach the casters and why I like it.

WHAT I GOT DONE TODAY

• Removed the old casters to be used on the new cabinet
• Attached the casters
• Finished the top

REMOVING THE OLD

Since casters are on the expensive side I decided that I would use the casters on the unit that I am replacing, the casters are 3" but they provide 4" up from the ground, they are lockable and they can be turned in any direction as they have 360 degrees roatating ability.

Here is the current cart that I am getting rid off, as you can see it is a lot bigger and takes a lot of space, so I'm going to take the cart apart.

Here were the casters on the old cart.

I usually use lag bolts and nuts and washers, in order to use these I needed to drill big holes into whatever I was making and when doing this I needed to alter the dimensions of the unit and I was tired of doing that, because the lag bolts passed right through the base of the cart and nuts needed to used to attach it.

ATTACHING THE CASTERS TO THE DRILL PRESS CART

So now that I have the used casters off the old cart I am ready to attach them to the new cart and I am doing it differently than I have in the past. 

Instead of using lag bolts / nuts / washers to attach the casters I am using hex head sheet metal screws and washers and the reason I am using these is because I don't need to drill through holes on the vases of what I make and I can secure them in the plywood as they don't protrude through the other side. Then attaching them is very easy I just attached a hex head socket bit in my drill and screwed them home.

This is what I wanted to get away from, protruding lag bolts.

Here is the new method using sheet metal screws and washers, quick and easy and no protruding lag bolts

1 secured 3 to go.

Here they are all attached and can now be wheeled around.

Here is how the castors look and I am happy that this finished, as I was wondering if the new method would work, and it does!!!

FINISHING OFF THE TOP

All that was left was for me to finish off the top and all I needed to do was roundover the edges with my palm router and apply a couple coats of finish on the top where the drill press would be stationed.

Here is my trusted plam router with a round-over bit installed.

Before the roundover is applied.

Here is the top after the roundover is done, sorry not a great picture.

Here is where I leave the project for today

The cabinet is almost finished all that's needed now is the drawer pulls that I am going to try and make, I have never made drawer pulls before and I am in the process of designing them on my Sketchup program

Here is the cart as I leave it today, most of the work has been completed.

Here is the top prior to me adding finish 

Another terrible picture, but its just another angle of the front of the unit.

NEXT

• All that's left now is to make the solid ash drawer pulls and breakdown the old cart

Until next time , take care

.

Drill Press Cart: Day 6

So things have been very crazy and I have not gotten down to the shop in a day or so , please remember that if you undertake this project it will not take almost a week to complete, I might only get 1-2 hours at a time in the shop , this project should only take a weekend in the shop to complete.

So Here is what I done today

• Made / Attached the top
• Attached the drawer false fronts

MAKING THE TOP

Making the top is very straight forward thanks to the pocket holes, all it takes is a plywood panel cut to size and some hardwood. Here are the steps I took making the top

1. I cut the plywood panel to its final size
2. I took the ash hardwood panel I purchased the other day and cut it into 1-1/2" wide strips
3. I laid the hardwood pieces around the plywood panel to get length needed, I then used my Japanese pull saw to cut these strips to length
4. Next I needed to put the pocket holes in the underside of the plywood 
5. I clamped all the hardwood pieces around the plywood added glue and screwed the hardwood to the panel.
6. I will still need to sand the plywood top and apply the finish to it but that's next.
7. Finally I need to attach the supports to the underside of the plywood so as that I can attach the top to the cabinet by screwing up from underneath the stretchers I used when building the cabinet 

Here is my bench top bench holding the ash hardwood before using my Japanese pull saw to cut the piece to final length ( Ireally love this bench top bench, I should make plans available to make it)

Here you can see the underside of the top, its all clamped up and the hardwood is ready to be added. I still need to add the cleats to the left & right of the panel so as that I can attach it to the cabinet.

Here is the top almost finished, just need sand and apply the finish.

Here is another angle of the top

Here you see the under side of the top, the solid wood edges give the look that it is very thick, but its all an illusiion.

ATTACHING THE DRAWER FALSE FRONTS

The last couple of days I have been applying several coats of polycrylic to the drawer fronts and cabinet so today it was time to attach them to the cabinet drawers themselves.

Here are the steps I took to attaching them.

1. I added a 1/8" thick spacer to the underside of the false front
2. The keep the false front in position while I screwed them I used clamps and pre-drilled the inside of the drawer to receive the 1-1/4" screws that hold the false fronts in place.

Here you can the spring clamps holding the false front in place, you can also see the 1/8" thick spacer under the false front.

Here is where I attached the screws to hold the false fronts, Im placed the screws to either side of the drawers because I still need to add drawer pulls that I will be making this week.

Here is what the cart looks like after todays activities

Here is a side view of the cabinet, I just love the look of the hardwood around the top, I also love the full extension drawer slides as I can reach the very back of each drawer, which comes in very handy for utilising all the storage space in each drawer.

Here you can see the front of my cabinet, I love how the grain runs from top to bottom on the false fronts.

Here is the top all attached, just need to sand it some more and apply the finish to it.

NEXT

• Since I am using castors that are currently on a cart that I am replacing this with I need to remove them and attach them to this new cart.
• I need to make and attach the drawer pulls that I found online. It entails a lot of router work.
• Finally need to apply the last coats to the top.

Until then take care

DRILL PRESS CART : DAY 5

I am starting to see the end of the project as the whole cabinet is built and the drawers are attached, here is what I did today.

• Cut & Attached False fronts
• Used my new Grr-ripper Attachment
• Applied Finish to the cabinet carcass and drawer fronts

FALSE FRONTS

When I was cutting up the 4x8 panel I put a piece aside so as that I could cut all my false fronts in sequence so as that I could keep the grain pattern on the plywood inline to add a finished touch on the front of the cart, its the little things that make a project pop.

I used my crosscut sled on my table-saw to cut all the false fronts to final size.

Here is the bottom false front, I am not attaching them yet as I want to apply the water based finish before I install them.

I used 1/8" spacers to provide a little reveal between the drawers, I used my Grr-ripper to do that but more on that in the next part.

NEW ACCESSORY

I own one of the Grrippers which is basically a expensive push stick but it has so many cool features that make table-saw work more safe, so I have been wanting to cut very thin strips for various applications and Microjig the manufacturer of the Grripper have accesories to add to your tool that allow so many applications. 

So I got the 1/8" leg attachment, it basically allows you to rip 1/8" think stock and have it fully supported through the saw blade it also reduces saw burn on the work-piece which reduces the need to sand it it

If you would like to read more about this accessory click the link below.

Here is the 1/8" thick strips that I made, I need these as spacers between the drawer false fronts.

Here is the front of the gripper.. (stock photo)

Here is my Grripper getting ready to cut the strips

On the left side of this image you can see the accesory I purchased

APPLIED FINISH

I thought that it would be easier to apply the finish to the false fronts and the cabinet now rather than waiting until the project was finished. For shop projects my go to finish is usually Minwax Polycrylic, I like this finish because its supper easy to apply with a foam brush and is extremely durable for a workshop, it also is good in my opinion at keeping dust away and if it does get dusty a simply damp rag will clean it up nice.

Here is the finish, you can read more about it here

I also usually use props to raise whatever I am finishing up from the bench by putting the work-piece on Painters tripods seen below, but I ran out of them so I made my own quick and dirty using a simple square piece of plywood and put a screw through it.

Here is a painters tripod

Here is my shop made risers, cheap but effective

So I covered my workbench in rosin paper to protect it from drips and dust getting onto my drawer fronts nad Istarted applying the finish, I will be applying a total of 3 coats sanding in between with 220 grit sandpaper.

Applied 1 coat in this picture

I moved everything to a smaller bench and applied the 3rd coat, I love how the grain popped on the cabinet side.

THE TOP (tbc)

The top is extremely easy to make, I am still using pocket holes to attach everything. The top is basically a piece of plywood cut to size and and edge banded with some solid ash covering all the plywood edges. The edgebanding give the top a nice thick look but in effect it is only 3/4" thick.

Here you can see the solid ash I picked up from a local lumber yard and the plywood top.

NEXT :

• Attaching the false fronts 
• Make and attach the top
• Attach the castors
• Make drawer pulls 

Road trip: BARNEY & CAREY LUMBER SUPPLIERS

Lately I have really wanted to purchase some real wood and not the stuff Home Depot passes as wood, I just wanted to see what was around me as far as suppliers were. Lately I have been really wishing that I could mill my own wood but since I don't own a thickness planer or a joiner and cant afford them that task seems very far away. So I needed a place that had a good selection of wood and not cost an arm and a leg to dress them for me.

I found a place near me in Avon,MA that I thought was worth a visit and its name is Barney &  Carey, so I took my son and went visit it.

I was not disappointed they have a decent selection of hardwoods, moldings and cabinet grade plywood including Baltic birch, their prices seemed about market price no higher or lower, but what I really liked was that they were very reasonable as far as their milling services. Its definitely not the biggest supplier but they have some really nice lumber both rough and dressed (meaning S4S). I took a few pictures and you can also click the link to their website.

As a token of my visit I purchased a piece of 1x6 ASH so as that I can use it on my current drill press cart project.

Outside the shop

This is one side of the shop and they have all the popular species including maple, purple heart, white oak, red oak, walnut, cedar, poplar among a lot other species

They don't have a lot of live edge slabs like this, but what they do have is very nice

They also have a great selection of mouldings

Beutiful 8/4 purple heart

A decent chop saw station, upstairs in the facility is the workshop and I am assuming the milling facility as well.

DRILL PRESS CART : DAY 4

So today I finished installing the drawers all five of them... Below are the steps I took to install them.

• Used a spacer block to space the drawer slides on the right side
• Used a spacer block to space the drawer slides on the left side
• Set the drawers on the drawer slides
• Drawer's installed

RIGHT SIDE

I am using full extension drawer slides and like any drawer slide they have two parts, one part goes into the cabinet and the other part attaches to the drawer. In order to make sure that the drawer slides are alighned on both sides of the cabinet I needed to use a spacer block so as that the both sides of the drawer were patrallel with each other otherwise the drawer would not go in.

Since I already installed the lower drawer I started working on the right side of the cabinet, which meant I needed to place the spacer block on top of the last drawer slide I attached and placed the drawer slides one after the other in this way, the pictures below will demonstrate what I did.

Here you can see the spacer block sitting on top of the previously installed drawer slide, with the spacer clamped i put the next drawer slide on top of the spacer, I did this 2 more times until all the drawer slides were in place on the left side.

Here is a close up of the spacer block

LEFT SIDE

I needed to repeat what I did on the left side, what I just did on the right using the spacer block to make sure  both sides of the cabinet were parallel with each other, otherwise the drawer would not line up with the drawer slides.

Here is the left side of the cabinet, I just needed to add one more drawer slide.

DRAWER INSTALL TIME

Now that all drawer slides were attached to the cabinet it was time to attach them to the drawers themselves, so to do this I put a 3/4" thick spacer strip on top of the last drawer that was previously installed and laid the 3/4" thick spacer on top and then placed the next drawer ... I am using a 3/4' spacer to allow room for me to add the false fronts later. While the drawer was sitting on the spacer block i pulled the drawer out and attached 2 of 3 screws to attach the drawer to the slides, I later pulled out the drawer all the way to put the final 3rd screw at the back of the drawer.

I used this method all the way up the cabinet until the top drawer was installed.

Here you can see the spacer sandwiched between the two drawers.

ALL DRAWERS ATTACHED

The previous step completed me attaching the drawers to the cabinet and they work awesome I really like the full extension slides as they allow you access to the whole 22" length of the drawer.

Below are some pictures of the installed drawers.

Here is the right side of the cabinet with all five drawers attached.

Here is the left side view of the drawers

Finally here is the front of the cabinet, I will be adding false fronts to hide the pocket hole screws and it will also add that nice finished look to the cart.

NEXT:

• Cut the drawer false fronts to size
• Make drawer pulls
• I think I will apply the finish to the cabinet before I attach the drawer false fronts
• Make the top
• Attach the castors

DRILL PRESS CART : DAY 3

Since I had already built the drawer frames all I needed to do today was to add the drawer bottoms.

Here is what I got done today

• I added the drawer bases to the 5 drawers
• Test fit 1 drawer with drawer slide 
• Needed to overcome a measurement error

ADDING THE DRAWER BASES

I needed to make 5 drawer bases so as that I could attach them to the drawer frames. So I took the following steps to complete the drawers. I have detailed pictures below detailing each step of this.

1.  Cut up a 1/4" thick sheet of plywood to the final dimensions to fit the drawer, since I was not doing any fancy joinery the cuts were very quick, I was basically cutting the the 1/4" plywood and using my brad nailer and glue to secure the bottom on the drawer.

Here is a picture of me cutting the plywood into smaller sections to fit the drawer base.

        2.  Now that all 5 drawer bottoms were cut to size , next I wanted to draw a reference line                       1/2" in from all sides of the panel, to drive brad nails in the bottom securing them to                         the  bottom of the drawer, I used my Incra T-Ruler to accomplish this, I needed the                           brad nails inset a 1/2" because I need to use my router on the edges more about this                           in  a later step.

Here is the Incra T-rule, I used this to mark a 1/2" line around all edges

Here is a close up the pencil line outlining the 1/2'' reference line on the drawer bottoms, I needed to do this to all 5 panels 

    3.  Next I needed to set -up my assembly table to secure the bases to the drawers, below                           you see what I needed. I used my pneumatic nailer with staples inside, some glue. Using                     the 1/2" line that I did in the previous step I used the arrow on the tip of my brad nailer to               reference where the nails would be entering the drawer being careful not to actually                           shoot a nail through the actual drawer base.

Supplies needed, a nailer, the bottom drawer plywood panel and glue.

Here is a view of the bottom. I needed to sand all the bottoms and edges to remove any glue .

Another picture before assembly 

Here is a look inside the drawer

Here are all 5 drawers with bases attached one more step before there almost complete.

       4 .   Before I can say the drawers are finished I needed to use my palm router to add a                                chamfer to the plywood edges. I saw this trick used online and I think it is a very                                clever method to hide the plywood edges on drawers. You basically use a chamfer bit                          in   a router and go around all edges of the plywood drawer base and it removes the                            material that can be seen when the drawer is sitting in the cabinet or unit. Oh and I                          almost forgot to tell you that the brad nails were recessed because I didn't want my                            router catching the nails as I removing the plywood edges when I was going around                            the drawer base with my router.

Here you can see the palm router ready for action, its installed with a router chamfer bit.

Here is a close-up of the router with the chamfer bit. I really love this tool. Perfect for applications like this.

Here is a close-up of the drawer base after I added the chamfer.

BEFORE picture, this is the drawer base before I added the chamfer.

AFTER Here is the drawer base after, see no visable drawer base.

INSTALLING THE BOTTOM DRAWER

Although I didn't have enough time to install all drawers I wanted to at least install one. To my surprise the bottom drawer was a tiny bit shy (short) of engaging the right drawer slide , so I needed to remedy this by installing a shim to close the gap.

1.  I started by preparing a spacer jig so as that I could space the drawer slides evenly going up both sides of the cabinet, to do this I measured the cabinet and luckily enough I could get away with one spacer would have equal distances between the drawer slides.  I also put a 1/4" thick piece of plywood to raise the bottom drawer up so as that it would not come in contact when the drawer was slid in and out.

• To be honest I was quite annoyed at the drawer slide and drawer not being wide enough, I measure everything twice and followed all cut-list, I also checked for square, I think the more I think about it my problem arose because my plywood was not exactly 3/4" thick and that was something that I took for granted, usually I buy big box plywood and they are usually 23/32" and not 3/4" but I purchased this plywood else where and they told me that it was full 3/4" but lesson learnt and I am mad at myself at not making sure as I usually do, anyway we live and learn. Everyone makes mistakes, all you can do is learn from them and move on.

Here is the spacer block with the slide sitting on top, I clamped the spacer to the cabinet and pre-drilled and screwed in 3 screws, this was before I realised that the drawer was not quite wide enough.

Here you can see how I remedied the bottom drawer slide issue.

• Next I pulled the drawer out on the slide and I could access two holes in the drawer slide to partially secure the drawer to the slide, I did this on both sides of the drawer and then I fianlly removed the drawer with the slide attached to the drawer and finished adding the back screws to each side, and it was complete.

Here is the bottom drawer installed and it moves perfectly now.

That is as far as I got this morning thanks for reading and I catch you on the next post.

NEXT

• I will be installing the remainder of the drawer slides and hopefully the drawers
• Prepare the drawer false fronts to hid the pocket hole screws on the drawer fronts
• Make the top
• Attach Casters
• Apply finish

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

Drill Press Cart: Day 1

Today I went out shopping for most of the materials I needed for the build which included.

• (1) 4' x 8' x 3/4" Birch Plywood
• (1) 4' x 8' x 1/4" plywood
• 4' section of 1" x 2" Oak 
• (5) 22" full extension drawer slides
• I had (4) 3" casters so I didn't need to but them
• A box of 1-1/4" pocket hole screws

HERE IS WHAT I DID YESTERDAY

• Cut the main pieces of the cabinet (Top, Bottom, Sides)
• Prepared the base to receive pocket holes
• My Pocket Hole Jig
• Cabinet assembly time
• Adding the Cleats
• Main Carcass finished

CUTTING THE MAIN CABINET 

Using my plans , I used my table-saw with a brand new 80 tooth blade to cut the sides, top and bottom pieces to size. Having a new blade in the table-saw left me with a beautiful edge to the birch plywood. So i laid them out on my out-feed table and used blue tape to label them and to orient them in the way I wanted them to be on the final cabinet. I like using this method because when you are done you just peel the table and don't have to worry about sanding out pencil marks.

Here are the sides of the cabinet, using the painters tape to label them.

PREPARING THE BASE

The main method of joinery in this project is pocket hole screws and the way the cabinet is designed the base is very important because all the screws will be added on the bottom side of the base that way you don't see the screws. I used my Kreg pocket hole jig to accomplish but more about that later.

The base will side inside the left & right sides and I will be running 5 pocket screws from either side of the base, Sorry that I didn't take any pictures of the finished base after the pocket holes have been inserted but I will come back and edit the pictures when I am back in the shop.

I spaced the pocket holes 1" from each end of the base and then every 5 inches, I also added glue to strengthen the butt joint. Below are some pictures of me using my pockwet hole jig in inserting the pocket holes.

In this picture I drew lines representing where I want to place the pocket holes. The lines are drawn on each long side

Although I didn't take a picture of the finished pocket holes here is a image from the plans showing you how I placed them

Here is another angle of the base, screws have just been added.

In this picture I am getting ready to drill the pocket holes with a special drill bit that drills a tapered hole to receive the screw.

Here you can see the actual base of the cabinet being clamped together getting ready for the pocket hole screws to be inserted.

MY POCKET HOLE STATION

Before I move on to the next phase of the project I wanted to show you my pocket hole station and you use it.My version of the Kreg pocket hole jig is the K4 there are other versions of the jig one cheaper and another more expensive

My workstation has 2 main functions 

• Affords me a platform to lay long work-pieces on and don't need to worry about the long work-piece from moving around while I am drilling the pocket holes.
• It also has a decent amount of storage for all the accessories that you build up over time owning this jig. 

I made my station out of 3/4" plywood scrap I had lying around, I built two compartments into it that lets me store all my Kreg clamps and screws

Below are several pictures of the jig itself housed on the workstation I made.

Here is the complete workstation, the jig sits flush with the compartments that sit on the left and right of the jig where I store my accessories. The workstation also has a lip on the front that allows me to clamp the workstation to my bench.

Here is another angle of the pocket hole station, its very important that every tool has its place.

Here are the 2 compartments that I store all the accessories for the jig.

Here is a close-up of the jig, you can see the measurement actuation's, these measurements refer to the thickness of the work-piece you are working on, the stepped drill bit can be seen that has a depth stop collar that needs to be set before you start drilling the pocket holes. Finally you can see the clamping mechanism to hole the work-piece in place.

Here is a side view of the jig, the jig has a movable insert block that you need to move that worls in accordance with your stock thickness.

Here is the main reason I designed and made this jig , it can support long work-pieces

CABINET ASSEMBLY TIME

So now that my main pieces of the cabinet were prepared and the base has its pocket holes its time to screw these parts together.

I basically set the base in between the left & right sides (as if the cabinet was resting on its back and the base was vertical) and using some clamps to keep things aligned and making sure that everything was square I added glue to the left and right sides of the base , tightened the clamps and screwed the locket hole screws home.

Below you can see an image of where the clamps need to be

Clamps in place

ADDING THE TOP CLEATS

In order to keep everything square before actually adding the top , I needed to add 2 cleats on the front & back of the cabinet, making sure that the cleats are flush to the top, front & back of the cabinet and again I am using pocket hole screws to secure them to the cabinet, these cleats also gives a place to secure the top once that is made.

The cleats have two pocket holes on each side .

MAIN CABINET CARCASS ALMOST COMPLETE

So that is as far as I got, the main body of the carcass is almost complete, I still need to add the plywood back which I will do next.

Here you can see the front side of the cabinet, this is where I will be installing the 5 drawers.

Here is the top view of the cabinet

Here is a frontal shot of the cabinet, this is definitely going to be lower than my old cart, that's a good thing.

NEXT:

• Cutting the back panel to size
• Making the drawers 
• Installing the drawer full extension drawer slides
• Making and adding the top
• Adding the casters
• Seriously thinking about making my own drawer handles and using my Kreg drawer jig
• Applying a finish

Until next time take care

New Project: Drill press Cart

I have been so busy making projects for around the house it’s time to turn my attentions back to the shop and specifically my drill press setup.

My drill press is currently housed on a very big cart that I used to have other benchtop tools on but I have found other homes for them and now I want to downsize the cart 

so I have been designing with help from online research a mobile cart just for the drill press and all the accessories I have for it.  

It will have the following features:

• Portable  
• 5 drawers  
• A better height to work at
• A smaller footprint in the shop

Here is a 3D rendering of the project

Road-trip to Epic Woodworking & Tom Mclaughlin

This weekend  I took a little road trip out to visit Tom McLaughlin at Epic Woodworking in Canterbury, NH.

Epic Woodworking has both On site Classes & Online Classes whether you are a beginner or a more experienced woodworker Epic Woodworking has a course for you, that Tom teaches.

The whole reason for my trip was to have a class with Tom McLaughlin as our host and the topic of discussion was a very informal visit to his shop to talk about how he made The Tilt Top Table that was featured on his TV show “Rough Cut with Fine Woodworking”

Here is the  shop of Tom McLaughlin of Epic Woodworking , what a beautiful shop inside and out.

Here you can see the Tilt Top Table assembled

Here is Tom demonstrating the table in tilted position

Below are a couple of pictures and video of Tom demonstrating how he made some of the components that made up the table

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Below is a couple of pictures I took while in the shop.

Lath time

Tom is demonstrating how he turned the column that supports the table top, he used Curly Maple

Master at work

A lot of effort went into the turning , I also made a video below that better demonstrates how Tom was turning it in real time

Cross-Cutting Jig

Tom made this very simple jig to cut the leg to its final size, I have to say that Tom is extremely talented in taking something complex and finding an easy solution.

Table-saw Jig

Tom made a very simple jig for the table saw and in this picture he is cutting one of the legs to final size. Tom is a genius in making very simple but extremely effective jigs in achieving his goal

Router Jig

I won’t go into too much detail on this , but it’s another jig that he made for the column that needed to recently be sliding dovetail grooves that will receive the 3 legs

Router Jig

Tom also made this ingenious jig for the router, basically making a sled for the router to ride to cut a flat into something round.

Seem-less Design for a pedestal

Here is how far we got in the class the pedestal all made with the column and feet attached.

Roughcut Swing

Here is the swing that he made when he was a guest on the Roughcut show before he actually got to host it a few years later . Let me tell you it is as beautiful as it is comfortable and he has it sitting out back behind his shop.

Crosscut Sled

Tom is demonstrating his cross cut sled on the tablesaw.

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Tom was very kind in taking a picture with me in the shop. I can never get a good picture as Tom can contest I think i tried like 6 times to get a decent pic of me, Anyway this was the best one, LOL

I would just like to Thank Tom for a wonderful day and I learnt so much just being in his shop with him showing you all the techniques that you can use in  any project, he is extremely friendly and knowledgeable. I think some of his best traits is that he is extremely approachable and no question is too dumb.

SPECIAL UNEXPECTED SURPRISE

What was a little funny was that Tom showed us the project that he made for the episode of Rough Cut & Fine Woodworking that was airing on the day that we were in his shop, the project was a Contemporary Table lamp that he made with special guest Chris Becksvoort if you want to look at the show click here

The lamp is beutiful and its made with pieces of veneer that acts as the shade and the body is made up of a few pieces of wood with half-lap joinery.

If you would like to learn more about Epic Woodworking I have placed links below to his social media sites, as well as his website.

Until next time Tom take care.!!!!!!!

Project Plans For Room Divider: Available now

Hi Everyone,

I have just completed the woodworking project plans for the Room Divider and are avaiable in my shop. These plans are extremely details and the Room Divider boasts the following:

If you are looking for a Room Divider to separate two living spaces that has style and functionality then this room divider complete woodworking plans are for you. 

The Room Divider has a one of kind herringbone wooden pattern on the front and also has a cork-board and chalkboard surfaces on the back, ideal for hanging notices or writing weekly family notes on the back side. Since I have 2 young children it works great for hanging all their school art or perfect for hanging seasonal card such as Christmas or Thanksgiving. If you are a work from home parent which is why I made it, the herringbone wood pattern makes for a eye catching backdrop to them conference & video calls that never seem to stop occurring.

THE ROOM DIVIDER HAS THE FOLLOWING FEATURES:

• Stylish wooden herringbone pattern on the front
• A chalk-board & cork board sections on the back side
• The divider is also portable and moves on 6 castors

MY PLANS INCLUDE:

• Step by step color plans that include diagrams and written instructions for building this.
• A cut-list for every component in the Divider
• A tool list of what tools you need for building this project.
• A written step by step document that details the various parts of the project.
• I also documented every phase on the project in my blog that you can see real project pictures.

New website section: Wood Lingo

When I first started woodworking and even sometimes now I was very confused with a lot of the terms and definitions used by lumber suppliers.

If you ever visit a lumber supplier either by going to the internet and visiting a supplier in person they used terms such as Board Foot, S4S and then there is the whole wood grading system, it left me feeling very bewildered and out of my depth, so I decided to start this little project on demystifying this whole subject, because if I felt like that others probably did too.

I have included some charts in here and I am working on making a downloadable PDF that you can print and take with you.

You can see the new section here, which is part of the Woodworking 101 section of the site

PROJECT FINISHED: SAND & WATER TABLE

So today I finished the table and gave it to my son and he absolutely loved it, I needed to finish a couple of things on the table before I could give it to him.

HERE IS WHAT I DID TODAY

• Added some round over details using my router
• Sanded the whole unit 
• In its new home

ROUND-OVERS

I needed to round-over all the sharp edges on the table because I didn't want my son to scratch himself. So I usede my palm router with a round-over bit to take care of this.

Here you can see the round-overs on the front & right leg

Another round-over

FINALLY I NEEDED TO SAND IT

Using my random orbital sander I sanded the whole unit from 800 grit to 220 grit and it is very smooth and more importantly kid friendly.

Sanding time

IN ITS NEW HOME

On the Deck

Front View

Side View

Sand & Water Table Update

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know that I fixed the plans for this project and they are free to download, please visit my shop for the plans!!!!

Just a quick note about the free plans although I am not charging anything for the plans I would greatly appreciate and donation that you can send as it keeps my projects and website content coming.

Thanks Ed

PROJECT: SAND & WATER TABLE

This morning I basically finished construction on the water table, all that I needed to do was build and attach the bottom shelf, but there was a lot more to that part than anything so far here is what I needed to do.

• Crosscut the slats for the shelf
• Pre-drill and countersunk the slats to receive the screws
• Dry fit slats to frame
• Added a round over to the slats
• Glued & Screwed the slats
• Attach the whole shelf assembly to the table
• Construction Phase complete

CROSSCUTTING TIME

First I needed take all my 1x3 and cut them to size on my miter saw station, using a stop block on the chop saw to cut all 16 pieces to final size, below you can see a picture of my miter saw.

Here you can see the chop saw set-up using my kreg production stop that was on my top-trak on the miter saw station, this is a dream for doing repetitive cross-cuts

COUNTERSINK TIME

So now that I have all my slats cut I wanted to bury the screws beneath the surface of the wood, I was adding 4 screws per slat so that was a lot of holes to drill so I brought all the slats over to the drill press and using my home made drill press table I set up another stop block and prepared the countersinking bit for a lot of repetitive cuts.

Here is the drill press and table with the stop block clamped to my fence. I marked the pieces 3/8" from each face as they were being drilled in 3/4' thick frames.

Here is another view of the slats being prepared on the drill press.

All the slats are drilled

DRY-FIT SLATS

I needed to determine what the spacing was for each slat so I lay out all the slats and experimented with the best spacing and I arrived at using a 3/4" space between each of the slats, you will end up with a slight larger space on the second-last slat from the end maybe 7/8" but I was OK with that.

Here is slats being spaced out evenly by 3/4" 

ROUTER TIME

I was very excited for this step because I recently purchased a new Router from Bosch and I had only installed it in my router table last night so today was the first time I used it, and it didn't disappoint. Anyway I installed a round-over bit in the router as I was using it to apply a profile around 3 edges of each slat and it came out great, took any sharp edges and turned them into soft rounded edges, a necessity for anything that you make for children.

Here is my router table top, I just inserted the round over bit

Here is the router under the table, its really powerful and has an awesome feature that let's me adjustments in bit height from the top of the table

Here is a close-up of the rounded edges, although this pic was taken as I was securing them to the frame.

SECURING THE SLATS

So now that all the slats were milled it was ready to secure them to the frame, I used Titebond wood glue and 1 1/4" exterior screws to secure the slats in position. I used a 3/4" thick piece of wood as a spacer and just glued and screwed each piece until the shelf was finished. After the slats were installed I sanded the shelf with 220 grit sand paper in my orbital sander.

Here is the spacer I used to space each slat while I glued and screwed each slat to the bottom frame

Shelf finished. Looks nice I am wondering should I finish it maybe a spar urethane on it

ATTACHING THE SHELF

Now that the bottom shelf is complete I needed to attach it to the legs, because the bottom shelf fits inside the legs and screwed, I needed to devise  a method of resting the bottom shelf assembly in place to screw into the screws. So to achieve this I cut spacers to act as ledges for the shelf to rest on temporarily and screw them home.

Below are the pictures depicting the method I used, pictures are always vetter at describing something than words so here you are, please remember that the table is upside down in these pictures.

Here is the spacer clamped to the leg with a clamp, I added 1 of these assemblies to each leg, they are resting on the bottom edge of the top frame

Here are all 4 spacers clamped to the legs

Finally here is the bottom shelf assembly turned upside down and resting on the spacers , all that was left was to screw them home

CONSTRUCTION & BUILD COMPLETE

Adding the bottom shelf completed the build phase of this project and it looks great, I still need to sand the whole unit down to 220 grit sandpaper, I was going to paint the unit but because it is pressure treated it doesnt take kindly to paint as the wood is still very moist and probably will remain that way for some weeks/months.

Below are some of the pictures of the unit completely assembled and it looks great

Here is the assembled water table, looks great and I am sure my son will get plenty of enjoyment out of it

You can see the containers that the water will go into, just a suggestion but I might adjust the dimensions of the table by a little and possibly use a thicker piece of wood for the divider because I can not get the lids on the containers easily as they bump into each other

NEXT

• Sand the entire unit smooth
• I will add the round over detail to the front of the top frame, thinking about adding the round over to the edges of the legs on the non tapered sides

Sand & Water Table Update (Plan Change)

While making the bottom shelf this morning I came across a error in the plans that I need to change, Once I have amended the plans I will post the project back on my shop.

Sorry for any inconvenience

Thanks Ed

NEW PROJECT: SAND & WATER TABLE

After working on projects for the Home Office over the last couple of months I decided to turn my attentions to my 5 year old son, he has been waiting patiently for a new water table. He had a plastic one last summer that has been around for years and it fell apart on him, so I decided to make him.

I came across this project online and the plans were already made for it so I decided to make it for him. I came across it on Ana White.com and she has plans available for it, I really like this design as it is very simple and anybody can make it with very little tools and/or experience. I also like the shelf on the bottom that you can store all the toys that come with having little ones that play on the deck.

WHAT I DID TODAY

• Went to Home Depot to buy Supplies
• Made the top frame
• Made the bottom frame
• Attached the legs

SHOPPING TIME

Materials needed for this build are

• (1) 1x6x12 Pressure Treated lumber
• (5) 1x3x8 Pressure treated lumber, I needed to buy 1x4's because my home depot doesnt carry them
• Exterior grade woodscrews 1 1/4" #8
• Exterior Grade wood glue
• 2 Tupperware containers

TOP FRAME

The top frame consisted of 2 pieces of the 1x6 for the front and back of the top frame, 2 sides of 1x6 and a center divider that divides the top frame up so as that the containers can fit inside, you need to very precise or the containers will not fit. I used glue and screws to secure the sides to the front and back pieces.

Here you can see the top frame

BOTTOM FRAME

The bottom frame is very like the construction off the top frame , except the boards are smaller and there is no center divider, this part is what forms the frame for the bottom shelf, I will be adding slats across the frame and securing it under the top frame. I used the same joinery method of butt joints and secured screws throught the sides into the ends of the front and back pieces.

Here you can see the bottom frame, Like I said I will be adding slats across this frame as this is what makes the bottom shelf in the unit.

THE LEGS

The plans call for 1x3's to be used for the legs, 2 legs are positioned on the front and back. I also added a little taper on the inside of each of the legs to add some visual appeal, I used my jigsaw and just gang cut two at a time.

The legs are then secured into the top frame , I forgot to mention every screw that I have inserted into this build so far and going forward will be counter-sunked so as that you cant see them. In the past I have plugged holes that I have inserted screws into but I am not going through this process anymore as they eventually fall out because of the weather we get up here in the North East.

Here is what the leg assemblies look like  from above them, I am very seriously thinking about rounding these edges over with a router so as that he doesn't hurt himself 

Here are the legs milled and tappered.

Here is a picture of the legs attached to the top frame.

AN OVERVIEW OF TODAY'S TASKS

Here is as far as I got today the top frame and legs made and atatched.

Here you can see how the legs are attached, and I also wanted to see how the containers fit, they do but barely, I followed the cut-list but the conmtainers are tight

NEXT:

• Attach bottom frame
• Add shelf slats
• Add some round over detail using my router

ROOM DIVIDER: ALL FINISHED

So after almost 6 weeks the room divider is all finished and was installed in the home office yesterday. I was hoping that I just needed to install the divider without any problems, but in keeping with this project it had one more hurdle to throw my way. My design had one flaw with it and that was I wanted the divider to firstly fit in the door opening, but since I had to add more wood to frame when attaching the each panel to each other using the butt hinges it through my overall width off so now it would not fit into the space.

Secondly the leg design although was very strong interfered with the panel butting up nicely to the wall so I needed to change the design and method for the room divider to still maintain its portability.

LEG DESIGN CHANGE

As I mentioned earlier I needed to change the foot design on the dividers because I could not install the dividers flush up to the wall so Instead of using 2"x2" material with the mortise and tenon joint to secure the foot to the leg as seen below. I changed it by using 2"x4"s and added a different kind of caster to them.

Here was the oroginal foot design with the mortise & tenon joint, I also used castor wheels that had stems that went into the leg.

NEW LEG DESIGN

This foot design was very different because it didn't stem from the bottom of the leg, instead i used 3 pieces of 2x4x12 and cut a dado to wrap around the bottom of the panel and then I used different castors, these castors didn't have a stem so all I had to do was screw the castors into the feet.I also made one more change my original legs had on 5 castors but the revised legs have six.

Here you can see the new leg assembly, you can see the notch that I cut into the 2x4, I also chamfered the 2x4 to match the herringbone pattern.

Here is a viiew from the top down, I didnt add the casters yet, I wanted to determine if the new design could balance the dividers and it did.

I didn't want to take any chances with my kids banging into the panels or pushing it over on top of all my computers, I decided to secure the dividers to the door frames. I basically used some loop hooks and chain that way if I need to move the divider I can just unhook it from the door frames

Here is a picture of the chains securing the room divider

ROOM DIVIDER : IN ITS NEW HOME

Finally the project is complete,this project had a lot of things that I liked and a whole lot more challenges that I didn't even see coming, but after everything is said and done. I love the divider, its definitely one of a kind (in a good way). My wife loves it as it provides that much needed element of enclosure that lets her have a productive work day.

Below are some pictures of the divider in its home separating the kitchen from the office. The side that has the wood pattern is the office and the back side is where our kitchen is as my kids can use the chalk board as is already on evident.

I hope you have enjoyed this project blog and if you feel like you want to undertake this project I will have plans available soon.

Until next time take care.

Office Side, I really like the black back drop as it makes the pattern pop

Here you can see the chalk-board and cork notice board, this will provide a nice size area  to hang family art work.

A little close up of the back side of the divider

NEXT: NEW PROJECT SAND & WATER TABLE