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by
Steve Maxwell
photos: Roger Yip
illustration: Len Churchill |
FLOOR CABINET |
| A
plywood box forms the heart of this project, while face features
add style and grace |
If there
are kids in your life, you’ve probably eaten more than
your fair share of fund-raising chocolates, citrus fruit and
cookie dough. But worse than the prospect of eating that tenth
giant chocolate bar is the thought of selling it—and deliverance
from that fate, along with raising money for a local nursery
school, is why I built this project. Since building two projects
is as easy as building one, I doubled the recipe and kept one
for myself.
 My
design incorporates three features that I like in a cabinet:
all four sides are finished; all sides are solid-wood frame-and-panel
assemblies; and a hand-carved detail graces the door and attracts
the eye.
Before getting started, note that
the materials list includes measurements for all the project
parts but only the inner box parts should be cut to the sizes
listed. The other part sizes are estimated dimensions. Cut these
parts to fit as they’re built.
Build the Inner Box
First, cut the inner top, bottom, sides, shelf and back to size.
Cap the front edges of the three horizontal parts with strips
of solid wood. This hides the exposed plywood edges. Seal the
inner plywood box faces with two coats of urethane before putting
the box together—it’s easier this way and there’s
less chance of missing any drips that remain on the final surface.
Plunge the slots for #20 biscuits through the urethane and assemble.
Wipe away any glue squeeze-out from the sealed surface and attach
the back panel using only finishing nails only. The back edges
will be hidden by solid wood.
Stile and Rail Secrets
 |
| Old
on the outside, new on the inside. Apply traditional
solid-wood frame-and-panel pine onto a 3/4"-thick
birch-veneered plywood inner box (above). Finish
the plywood parts before assembly for easy and run-free
results. Mill simple, layered mouldings on a router
table to add elegance (below) |
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Stand the
plywood box upright on your workbench before cutting and fitting
the stiles and rails. Cut the eight corner stiles to length
and width first, then saw 45° angles along one edge of each
stile using a tablesaw. Join the matching pairs of stiles with
glue and masking tape. Before the glue dries, draw a screwdriver
shaft along the length of the mitred corner. The pressure of
the screwdriver shaft closes any small unsightly gaps that would
otherwise stand out on the finished cabinet. Remove the glue
squeeze-out from the inside corner of the mitres and set aside
to dry.
Next, cut the side, back and door
panels to size. Cut the pieces 1/2" larger than the measurements
in the materials list—fine-tune these later after measuring
the stiles and rails.
Remove the tape and clamp the
corner stile assemblies to the plywood box. Next, measure and
cut the rails to fit between them. Butt joints work well here
because they’re easy to strengthen with biscuits, floating
tenons or dowels. Cut the rails 1/32" longer than needed,
then loosen the clamps and fit the rails between the corner
assemblies.
Once the rails are fitted on all
four sides, mill 1/4"-wide by 1/2"-deep panel grooves
along the inside edges of the stiles and rails with a table-mounted
router and fence. Strengthen the joints with either biscuits,
floating tenons or dowels.
Low-Tech, High-Style Cabinet Panels
Clamp the stiles and rails onto the cabinet again, one side
at a time. Measure the length and width of the panel openings,
down to the bottom of the stile and rail grooves. Determine
the right panel size by subtracting 1/16" from the smallest
top-to-bottom measurements and 1/8" from the side-to-side
width of the openings.
 |
Good
looks all around with nothing to hide.
Finish the cabinet back to make this project look
good from any angle (above) Surround the flush-mounted
door opening with shop-milled bullnose trim (below). |
 |
|
I
make raised panels with an ordinary benchtop tablesaw and a
hand plane, even though I have a big router that could easily
spin a panel-raising bit. The reason I do this is appearance—long,
slim and flat-faced bevels on panel edges look great and can’t
be reproduced with a router.
To
duplicate this panel-raising method, tilt the tablesaw blade
15° from vertical. Set the saw fence to leave 1/4"
of wood at the narrowest part of the taper and rip around all
four panel edges. Then, fine-tune the rough bevel with a hand
plane. My saw isn’t big, but it can still handle these
cuts in a single pass using a sharp blade. If your saw struggles
with the cut, lower the blade and make each cut in two passes.
Next,
draw reference lines on the face of each panel, a little further
in than the farthest reach of the bevels. These are planing
guides, and help create a consistent bevel.
Clamp
a single panel to the edge of your bench with an end-grain side
sticking out over the edge. Smooth the bevel face with a razor-sharp
jack plane, working from one side of the panel to the other.
You have three goals as you do this: smooth the bevel; increase
the bevel width so it extends to the pencil lines; and make
the outer edge of the bevel thin enough to fit into the stile
and rail grooves. It’s a trial-and-error technique, so
stop every few strokes and test-fit a stile or rail over the
panel edge.
When all the panels are completed,
hand sand the bevels and faces with 240-grit sandpaper. Dry-fit
the parts once more, then assemble permanently onto the plywood
box with glue and pipe clamps. Stain the edge-grain panel edges
before assembling to conceal any new wood that might become
exposed as it shrinks over time.
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PART 2 |
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