New Project : Portable Sharpening Station

Ever since I was working on the hand plane restoration projects I didnt really have a good set-up for sharpening my tools, and I recently spent a lot of money on certain tools to help me sharpen properly such as the Veritas MKII honing jig and I also purchased 2 DMT Diamond grit sharpening stones (Course and fine) I need to buy 1 or 2 more stones in the future but these will do for now., and I finally bought a strop kit that I need to make its basically a piece of honing leather and compound to use on polishing my sharpened tools. Anyway I needed a way to store all of these tools and went about designing one on Sketchup.

CONCEPT & DESIGN & RESEARCH

After doing some research online I came across countless projects that were used for sharpening stations, some were very elaborate and some were simple.

I wanted a sharpening station that had the following features:

• Small & Portable

• A good comfortable working height

• Storage for the stones and accessories.

Here is my Sketchup design for the box. The top of the box is a removable tray that houses the sharpening stones and beneath the tray is a storage compartment for all the stones and accessories. I used finger joints to join the box frame together.

While researching online I found a YouTube video where Johnny Brook @ Crafted Workshop made a sharpening station, this is where I got the idea of a Tray with imlayed inserts to hold the bench stones, he also used a CNC machine to mill out all the patterns to use to hold the sharpening stones, I do not own a CNC machine so I have to come up with my own idea on how to remove this material, I’ll probably use a plunge router freehand or make a template to guide the router. I have included his video below.

I also came across another YouTube video from Steve Ramsey @ Woodwroking for Mere Mortals, his video shows you how to make a Finger (Box) joint jig for the tablesaw and I figured that I would use this joint to make a box. I have included his video below on how he made the jig and its also the jig I made for this project. Its not fancy in anyway but its quick to make.

So with these Youtube videos I had my concept complete and its what I brought to my Sketchup software so try and finalize a 3D model of the station.

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BOX (FINGER ) JOINT JIG

So before I even started making the sharpening station I needed to make this jig and figured I would make and test it out and have it ready for that part of the build, I think it took me all of 15 minutes to make the jig, 5 minutes of which was looking for a suitable piece of scrap lumber. I settled on a 1x6x22 piece of plywood I had and I also need 1/2” x 1/2” sqaure dowel that was used a register that I used in the jig. If you want to look at a video of how to make this i have posted it above, where Steve Ramsey made it.

Finished jig, I have it screwed onto the miter fence. You can also see the 1/2” stacked dado blade in the saw, and also see the square dowel used to register the piece as you work on it.

Here you can see it in action.

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GETTING STARTED: PARTS

This is where I get started with the station, I used my 1”x6”x6’ piece of poplar to start cutting the box parts, using my cut-list I ripped and crosscut all parts to their final dimensions. There are 4 parts that make up the box as you would think there is 2 sides a front and a back piece.

Here is the poplar length of wood that I used for the box.

Here are the 4 pieces in their correct orientation, I am deciding what faces to have have on the outside of the box, I usually try to wrap the grain around the box but because I was doing box joints , this didn’t matter as much as it normally does, anyway its only a shop project

SOME LAYOUT WORK

Usually when I am working on joinery I always mark out with pencil what I need to do, and to help simplify things when it came to using the jig I marked out all the pieces that needed to be removed, so using my marking gauge and straight edge I made all the marks, and placed an x on everything that was getting removed.

I placed an X on all parts that were to be removed using the box joint jig

Here I am using my marking gauge set to the thickness of the work-piece which is 3/4” this measurement determines the height of the cut.

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FINGER JOINT JIG TIME

For step by step instruction on how to use the box joint jig, Steve Ramsey from WWMM has it all laid out on his site, I just mimicked how he did, you get the instructions using this link below

This was my set-up

DRY ASSEMBLY

I always do a dry assembly to make sure all the parts fit nicely together and another reason is to rehearse how and where to apply clamping pressure. So now that all the finger joints have been cut its time to see how everything fits together, to be honest there is a little bit of work to clean up the finger joints because of the glue squeeze out but that is later.

Here is me doing a dry assembly no glue yet because there are a few more steps before I glue it up.

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THE CLEATS

The cleats are what I am using to support the removable tray that will hold the sharpening stones, these cleats are very simple. They are basically 3/4” x 3/4” x length of the front and back pieces, I need to pre-drill them on the drill press and attach them to the front and back pieces. To aid me in this I used a piece of oak to use as a spacer block so as that when I position the tray its flush with the top of the box that way I will not be hindered when atually sharpening.

First I went to the drill press and using a forstner bit I drilled 3/8” diameter holes and then came back with a 3/16” drill bit to finish the holes with screw holes that way when I screw the cleats into the box I will not run the risk of splitting the cleats or the box parts. I also need to do this part before the glue up because I would not be able to fit my drill/driver to reach the angle of the screws.

While I was at the drill press I also decided to drill all holes for the project on the box pieces because I will be attaching the base with screws and glue and I will be returning to add wooden plugs to cover the screws. (more about that later)

“Here are the cleats receiving their 3/8” diameter holes for the screws.

Here I am working on one of the sides, using smaller diameter drill bit to make through holes. Its so much easier doing this now than doing it after the box is assembled.

Here is the step before I actually screw the cleats in place, there is not much room and I thought it better to do this now than later, its always important to layout the steps of assembly that way you wont be pulling your hair out try to figure how to screw the cleats in place after the box is already assembled.

Using a spacer block to determine where to place the cleat so as that the tray is flush to the top and will not interfere with the sharpening of tools when I am actually using it. Everything looks fine so I screwed 4 screws into each cleat, overkill I’m sure but at least I am assured that it will never move.

I used a scrap piece of oak that I had to make sure the top would be flush, I also used a level to make sure. It all looks fine.

THE SIDES

So before I get to working on glueing everything up there is still a few things that need to be done, sometimes its easier to get shaping and milling done before the glue up and in this case I need to add a few features to the sides before I do that.

I wanted to add a finger relief in the sides to aid me when I needed to remove the top tray to get access.

To create the arc that would be convenient to use I used a sanding sleeve from my spindle sander to draw a semi-circle half way down the length of the sides, this center it from the left and right sides, and since I was going to use my spindle sander to finish sand it I thought what better way to get a best curve.

I took the sides to my band-saw and gang cut the semi-circles out together and then smoothed them out on the spindle sander, as an after thought I decided to use my palm router to add a rounder on the cut outs as they were a little catchy and I didn’t want to scratch myself when I placed my fingers in there to remove the tray.

Here you can see the spindle sander sleeve that I used to create the arc. I used double sided tape to stick both sides together for the cutting and sanding parts of this step.

Here is the spindle sander sanding both sides to remove all the milling marks left by the band saw.

I am using my palm router to add a 1/4” round-over to the cut outs and all the splinters were gone, in hind-sight I should of used a backer board to the left & right sides of the cut out because that wood was not supported when the router left the cut I had some tear-out but nothing that cant be fixed with some sanding.

Here is the cutouts after I used the router on them, do you see the tear-out, no biggie it happens from time to time.

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BOX GLUE-UP

After all that the box is finally ready to be glued up, as I said before I did a dry rehearsal before actually applying glue so I had an order in my mind as to how to complete this process.

I applied glue to all surfaces of the finger joint except on the faces that would be see on the outside of the box, that is why this joint is very strong, its not as strong as a dovetail joint but it close enough for what I need it for.

I used a total of 8 clamps to glue this up making sure I was in square as I need to add the top tray and base after this has dried, out of square would be a disaster

Here is another view of the glue-up

A close up of the box joints, they do look nice but I will have to clean them up after the glue sets.

That is all I had time for today, thanks for reading

NEXT

• Cut the base to size.

• Cut the top tray to size

• Rout all the recesses for the sharpening stones in the tray, wishing I had a CNC machine at this moment in time lol.

• Make handles for the sides

• Apply a finish.

New Project : Portable Sharpening Station

Recently I have been working on restoring a bench plane and I also wanted to sharpen all my chisels and basically anything with a metal edge so I have been purchasing supplies which I am still in the process of buying what I need as they are not cheap.

i bought 2 DMT diamond plate stone and a Veritas MKII honing guidea d now I need a place in my shop to store them as I need them to readily available when it comes time to sharpen so I am drawing up plans for a sharpening station. 

Stay tuned more to come !!!!

#5 Hand Plane Restoration : Disaster

Well this morning I was in the mood for getting this very old #5 finished decided to take stock before I went any further rehabbing it.

A lot of the parts that are key components in the operation of the hand plane are from other planes, for example the chip breaker is also damaged and the bottom needs to be ground to sit flush on the plane iron, the frog doesnt belong to this plane and was canabolised off another plane, the tote is broken and for some reason I cant get the 2 broken parts together I have tried 5 minute epoxy, Titebond II wood glue without any success, I could always remake the tote but with all the other issues with the plane I have decided to leave the plane for now and try and either find a Stanley #5 or find better replacement parts for this plane.

So as sad as it makes me feel I am leaving the restoration for now, but some times you need to cut your losses.

Anyway I need to perfect my honing skills and perfect my sharpening methods for various tools.

Until next time

Ed

#5 Hand Plane Restoration

The 2nd hand plane for restoration is a #5 hand plane, this plane is in very bad shape with a lot of surface rust and a broken tote (back handle), I also think a previous owner tried restoring it at some point because I feel like he/she used parts from other planes because after looking up all the parts for this plane I didn’t recognize some of the plane parts, primarily the frog and other solutions were improvised with common parts. The plane was also broken on the side which went right through the side and also on the underside of the plane near its mouth. A repair was attempted by brazing the crack and I am not too sure how strong the weld is.

So although I am excited to start rehabbing the plane I am unsure at how good I can get it looking and performing.

Plane Problems

1. A crack on the plane side that has been brazed.

2. The frog doesn’t sit flush with the plane bed

3. Severe rust and a little pitting

4. Chip Breaker has broken edges

5. Lever Cap has broken edges

6. Broken tote

7. Sole needs to flattened

8. Plane blade needs to honed

This #5 is in really bad shape, I am hoping I can pull this off

Broken Tote

Severely rusted plane Iron

Severely rusted chip breaker

Plane Bed

Ready for its bath

Tote close-up

Front of plane

FIRST THINGS FIRST: RUST REMOVAL

I am using the same method as the last time, I took the plane apart and put all the parts in a white vinegar bath and left it soak over the weekend and again the results speak for themselves, I also need neutralize the white vinegar so as that the parts didn’t rust when I removed them from the solution, I did that by soaking the parts in a water and baking soda.

Look at the color of the vinegar , that should tell you how rusty this plane is.

So after I left the parts in the vinegar over the weekend I took them out today and using several rust removal methods I cleaned up primarily today. My 3 methods were

1. Used a wire wheel in my drill press to remove most of the rust

2. Used various grits of sandpaper to primarily remove the rust and also to flatten the sides and the plane bottom

3. Used steel wool to remove the rust in places I couldn’t reach with the drill press and wire wheel

4. Tomorrow I will do some more as I want the sides looking a little more polished, but below you can see some of the results of today’s cleaning exploits

Plane Iron, Chip breaker and the lever cap

I started to clean these today but still have some work to do on them, I work on these tomorrow

Frog & Plane Tote

I decided to touch up these parts as I basically removed all the paint on them when I was removing the rust

Better but still need work

The vinegar worked awesome and it didnt take much to remove most of the rust and polish them up, still have a lot of work but its looking night and day better than when I started

Plane Tote

Although I didn’t take any pictures I worked on the plane tote (handle) I used my wire brush in the drill press to remove all the old finish and I also used regular wood glue to glue the two parts together, I used the the mounting screw to keep everything aligned while the glue set in a clamp .

NEXT:

Tomorrow I need to polish the plane sides and work on flattening the base of the plane and if I have time I will work on grinding down the lever cap so as that it sits flush on the chip breaker.

Until next time

BEFORE I STARTED

AFTER TODAY'S EFFORTS

Stanley Bailey # 4 HandPlane : Complete

I have to say that this whole restoration project was a real joy and to be honest when I was thinking about this I thought this whole process would be a chore after all I am woodworker and love making projects with wood, this project had everything but the wood. I was introduced to a whole new array of topics that I was very inexperienced in. I had to do a lot of research on “ The How” when I say that there are countless article and videos on the subject on the internet.

I figured what did I have to loose when I started, I was determined not to sink a lot of money into the restoration but after trying so many ways I did need to spend money on some tools that I didn’t have and if I was to spend more time using hand tools there were certain aids and tools that I just simply needed to have, such as;

• A high quality honing jig, I could of gotten a really cheap one that might only have cost $10.00 but a fellow woodworker told me in order to make something of quality you need quality tools and that is why I got the Veritas MKII honing guide, and I love using it it because it takes all the work out of figuring out the bevel angles needed.

• I also got a DMT diamond grit sharpening stone because although the sand paper method was great in cleaning up the rust on the plane it didn’t perform quite as well in sharpening anything. I also realized that when using water-stones you have to consistently flatten the stone or the unevenness on the water-stone would be introduced into whatever you sharpened on it.

• What blew me away was how effective the white vinegar was in removing even the coarsest of rust on the plane, I was truly amazed at how effective this was. While I was researching this so many people had so many methods of doing this task such as electrolysis, sand blasting and other other chemical solutions but rest assured the white vinegar is cheap and very effective.

  One of the biggest enjoyment of this whole project was how quiet the workshop was and I really enjoyed that aspect because I usually have a lot of noise in the shop because of all the power tools that I usually use in making anything, and to be honest this project really introduced me to a new found respect for hand tools so much that I really want to purchase a few more hand tools or find beaten up, old tools and restore them because I learnt so much about the tool because you are forced to research the tool in a way that you didn’t destroy the tool.

So without any more rambling from me I will show you some before and after pictures of the hand plane, although I am happy with it and it works fine, I think that the more experience I get in sharpening I might revisit this plane to get it even more sharp

BEFORE RESTORATION

Some surface rust needed to be removed and the vinegar exceeded my expectations

The plane need a lot of elbow grease especially on the plane bed and the base of the plane.

AFTER RESTORATION

The plane came out awesome and actually can smooth wood….

As you can see the wood shavings are great, full length even thickness. I could not do this before the restoration.

I went through 4 grits of sandpaper to get the sides looking this good, if you are willing to put the effort in the rewards speak for themselves.

Here you can see how much better the bottom of the plane is and its dead flat, its probably the flattest surface in my shop.

Well thanks for reading and in my next project I am still in the restoration mode where I will be attempting to restore a #5 bench plane. This project has a lot more to it as it is in extremely bad condition with severe surface rust and a broken tote.

Bailey # 4 Hand Plane : Day 3

So day 3 into this project and I had a couple of hick-ups there were some parts of the plane that I really need to work on especially the chip breaker and plane blade, the plane blade was so hard to get sharp so I had to switch from the sandpaper method and I went with the sharpening stones and with ALOT of elbow grease I finally got the plane sole flat and the planes cutting edge sharp as well.

WATER STONES

Although the sandpaper did an awesome job removing the rust and buffing the sides and the bottom of the plane to a decent luster unfortunately it did very little for sharpening the cutting edge of the plane blade even with a very good Veritas honing guide, so I went to Woodcraft and bought a course DMT diamond grit to use on the plane and also is very useful for flattening the water stones that I had which were a 1000&6000 grit combination stone.

DMT DIAMOND PLATE made quick work of sharpening the plane blade

Here is my combination water stone, this is great for polishing the bevel

FLATTENING THE SOLE

I tried various grits of sandpaper to flatten the sole of the plane (plane base) but I was getting no where fast and it would of taken me a week to get it flat, the middle of the plane was high which mean the bottom middle part of the plane was not cutting the wood, so I used a method where you put a grid on the plane base and used it on the the sharpening medium at this point it was my DMT diamond plate and all the grid disappeared on the left & right but not the middle, so I raised each side by placing a very thin ruler and that worked the middle and just did that until the entire grid was gone.

SHARPENING THE BLADE

I used my diamond plate to start flattening the back of the blade until I got a burr and again using the grid method to make sure the back of the plane blade was flat and eventually developed a burr, next was to hon the cutting edge, my blade had a 30 degree primary bevel and the beautiful thing about the Veritas honing guide is that it actually has a setting that you deploy to create the secondary bevel and I think that is a 25 degree bevel… I am very new to this whole plane blade sharpening but I did get a pretty good sharp edge and it passed all the testing I did to make sure it was working properly. I will only get better at this the more I practice.

BEFORE

BEFORE:

AFTER

AFTER: Stanley # 4 Bailey Hand plane all restored, as you can see by the shavings I got uniformed thickness and full length shavings

I hope you enjoyed this project because my next project is restoring a # 5

TAKE CARE

Ed

Bailey #4 Hand Plane Restoration : Day 2

RECAP : DAY 1

In the previous day I disassembled the plane and started trying to remove all the rust from the parts by soaking it in a bath of white vinegar and salt and I have to say that it did a great job.

TODAY’S EVENTS

I needed to go out and get some supplies for the shop today and while I was at it I decided to visit my favorite woodworking shop and that is Woodcraft while I was there I picked up some sanding paper and also purchased the Veritas Honing Jig MKII. My old eclipse style honing jig was just not cutting it as far as sharpening anything in my shop and so I decided to upgrade it, the jig is very nice and I will get to using it tomorrow, bit more about that later.

HERE IS WHAT I DID TODAY

• Removed the plane parts from the vinegar solution

• My temporary sharpening station

• The Veritas MKII honing jig

REMOVING THE PLANE PARTS FROM VINEGAR

As I said the vinegar method that I saw on Jay Bates Youtube channel that I previously talked about really did a nice job, when I opened the lid to the container I saw all the rust residue floating on the water so I could tell it did a decent job, in the picture below you can see the immediate effect this had on most of the parts.

In the future I really need to establish a set sharpening station in the shop as I see a lot of hand-tool use going going forward.

Most of the rust is gone, and I didn’t use any harsh chemicals which is something that I am please about.

TEMPORARY SHARPENING STATION

When I was researching online for the best method in cleaning up the plane lots of people had lots of different methods but I went with the cheapest and also the most used method and that was using a couple different grits of sandpaper on a true flat surface.

I had a little assembly table that I use from time to time and figured this would be ideal because of its height and its medium sized work surface.

Since I needed a known flat surface and I didn’t really want to use my cast iron wings on my table-saw I found some solid granite floor tiles that fit the bill so I used them and added 3 different grits of sand paper to the , so I also used some contact adhesive to attach the sandpaper to the granite tiles, and so far its working good.

While I am thinking about I recently saw a guy use Micron sandpaper it had a different consistency than sandpaper and it is a little more expensive but it had really nice results.

Here you can see my 3 granite stones with my regular sandpaper on it, I used 120 - 320 grit paper.

I used this setup to start flattening the plane sole and I think that came out great, I have pictures below.

Plane sole looks great

A rear view of the plane bed.

I used WD-40 to clean the black painting on the inside of the plane and it came out awesome.

While I am talking about cleaning the plane parts I also cleaned every component of the plane and sanded everything, I also used by bench grinder with a buffing wheel to polish the brass screws to a high sheen, I need to do a little more and I will show you the results. I also used a wire brush in my drill press to help clean some parts especially the frog because there were some very hard places to reach and while I was cleaning the frog I couldn’t help but remove the japanning so I I resprayed the frog, that’s all the plane cleaned, I need to sharpen the plane blade tomorrow and I got a nice tool to aid me with that, more about that next.

VERITAS MKII HONING JIG

I had a very old eclipse style honing guide that was pretty inexpensive and it served its purpose but I needed a better honing jig because I needed more help getting a scary sharp edge on my chisels and plane blades so I purchased the Veritas honing jig , its not that cheap but in this craft you get what you pay for.

Here you can the blade registration jig that has a dovetail on the back to register into the main honing guide, once the blade is aligned with honing degree bevel via a stop block you can remove it and start honing the blade.

Here is the main honing guide, there are 2 thumbscrews that tighten the jaws that securely hold the plane in place.

The honing jig is made extremely well with a solid construction. The Veritas Mk. II will set bevel angles from 15° to 54° and back bevels from 10° to 20°, and it will accommodate blades from 1/4" to 2-7/8" in width. Included is a blade registration jig which slides onto the guide body, centering and squaring the blade with the integral fence ensuring accuracy. Features include a blade stop that has discrete positions for preset bevels and a three-position eccentric roller that allows you to hone micro bevels quickly and accurately with a simple turn of a knob. Manufactured from die-cast zinc with precision machined brass and steel parts. 

That’s all I have for today, tomorrow I need to sharpen the blade and put the plane back together and hopefully start using it.

Until then, take care

Bailey #4: Hand Plane Restoration Project

About 5 years ago I decided to build out my own woodworking shop in the basement, my father in law had a paint workshop and when he passed away I decided to use the space for a woodworking shop.

There were a decent amount of tools in the shop for painting but he had a few woodworking hand tools that looked in bad shape most of them were hand planes and old ones at that, I always said that I must restore them as I thought they would come out good looking and would actually be very function-able hand planes, but alas I never did until last week when I looked around my shop and realized at how many power tools that I had but had very few hand tools, sure I had a few chisels and marking tools, but I didn’t have any planes or various saws so I decided that in the coming months since I don’t have any major projects that I would start building out my hand tools and eventually make a nice hand tool cabinet.

THE HAND PLANES

My father in law had 3 hand planes that I am looking into restoring and I believe they are

• A Stanley # 4 Bailey hand plane

• A Stanley #5 plane

• A very old but un-branded block plane

My first order of business was to do research on how to actually restore a plane as I never did it before, so I read woodworking articles, borrowed library books and watched countless You Tube videos before I undertook this process.

There are so many resources available on the internet on how to do this but I used various tips from different people on the Internet to aid me in this project. Below are some links and YouTube videos that I though would help.

• Jay Bates @ Jays Custom Creations & How to restore a hand plane

Jays uses regular household vinegar to aid in the rust removal process, he also shows you how to make the tote or rear handle (as his was broken). He also used various grits off sand paper to clean and sharpen the plane.

Rob Cossman :Top 5 Hand Plane Issues

Although Rob doesn’t specially cover a plane restoration in this video he does address some key issues with having one, for example his sharpening techniques

REX KRUEGER : Restoring a hand plane using a bench-top grinder

Rex goes through the entire process of restoring a hand plane using only a bench grinder, this video is awesome and it actually made me get one because this machine is extremely useful in a wood shop.

• Wood Magazine: Resting a hand plane

• Instructable.com

• Paul Sellers : Restoring a Smoothing Plane

• Restoring Old Hand Planes

• How to identify your Stanley Hand Plane

WENT SHOPPING

I went to my local home center to pick up some supplies before I started the restoration project, some or most of these items you might already have in your house. I also purchased a Ryobi bench grinder as I have been wanting one for some time and this was the perfect time to get it as I will be using it in the restoration process.

• Rybbi 6” Bench Grinder

• 80,120,220 & 320 Grit sand paper

• A wire cleaning wheel for the grinder

• A polishing/buffing wheel for the bench grinder

• A container to put all the planes parts in so I could clean them

• House hold white vinegar

• 3M Cleaning pads

• Small wire brushes

BENCH GRINDER

Before I dived into actually starting the hand plane restoration I needed to unpack the grinder form the box and needed to do a small bit of assembly.

When I turned the grinder on for the first time It was moving all over the bench so I decided to mount it to a platform that way I could clamp it to my bench and also use it so I could remove the grinder into a shelf when I wasn’t using it.

So all I did was cut a scrap piece of plywood big enough to support the grinder by using screws and also large enough to add clamps to either side of the grinder so as that it enabled me to clamp it to my bench.

As part of my assembly I purchased a wire brush for the grinder so as that I could use it to remove rust from the plane, I also purchased a buffing wheel for all the brass screws, to use when I was giving it a final cleaning.

Grinder all set up and ready for use. You can see the wire brush on the right side of the grinder. I got to admit for $45 this grinder is impressive and up-to most tasks that I would ever need it for.

You can see the plywood base that I added , this makes it super portable and I can put it on a shelf when not in use.

Here is just another picture angle

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GETTING STARTED

So to get started I firstly took my rusted Stanley # 4 Bailey plane, and disassembled it as you can see below

My Stanley #4 Bailey Hand-plane before I took it apart

The plane on its side, here you can see most of the rusting is on the dies of the plane bed.

TIME TO TAKE THE PLANE APART

So it was time to take this plane apart and see how much work was needed to fully restore this plane into a working tool. I did it in the following order

1. Took the front knob off the plane

2. Took the cam levelr cap off

3. Took the chip breaker off

4. Took the cap screw off

5. Took the plane iron off

6. Then took the frog off

7. Took the depth adjuster wheel off

8. Finally took the tote or rear handle off

Hand plane diagram showing you the parts and their names

All the parts are disassembled and waiting for their vinegar bath

All that was left was to submerge all the plane parts in a white vinegar bath, I will be leaving this over night. The plane isn’t in that bad a condition and this duration is overkill but I couldn’t get back to it today so it should be nice and ready for tomorrow.

Here are all the parts soaking in the vinegar solution.

That’s all I have time for today…hopefully tomorrow I can start cleaning the parts and start sharpening the plane… with a bit of luck by the end of tomorrow I should have a nice new sharp plane.. that doesn’t look to bad either.

Until then

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Project Award

I recently received another Daily Top 3 Award on my online workshop where I currently have a membership with www.lumberjocks.com. 

I received the award along with 2 other makers that also made woodworking projects. My award was for the Drill Press Cart that I made for the shop. I have included links below for the project and also links to the other winners.

MY PROJECT

I’m on vacation

For the next week I am on vacation and will have limited resources so I will see you when I get back , next week. 

Take care

Ed

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