Drawers Ain’t Easy!

My 30th anniversary was awesome, the photo says it all. Donna and I have been blessed with a marriage that has sustain despite the secular world’s wisdom. We have two great kids and a wonderful grandson. Of course all these blessings has nothing to do with our actions but those of our Lord.

This weekend I began working on the workbench drawers. Drawers aren’t easy so I took a yet another simple design out of one of my wood magazines, one that is strong but not fancy. I haven’t purchased a dado yet so I have been using my router and my Kreg Jig R3, a awesome combination.  In the photo I build the front of the drawers with a frame and panel design. I use .75in x 1.5in red oak to build the frame and the panel is plain .25in oak. Building and install 8 draws took me about 6 hours. Your cuts have to be close to perfect and alignments right on or nothing slides the way it is suppose too.  I have a sense of satisfaction when it is all completed. More importantly than that I’ve added to my cabinet making skills. I built 4 shallow and 4 deep drawers for future options.

The next phase is to work on the doors. If you notice I did not put a center bar. This allows me a wider opening to put larger kits inside.

Work Bench Cabinets

 

My skills at building quality cabinets isn’t where it should be. I intentionally decided to build real cabinets under and above my workbench. My workbenches of the past have always been 2x4s with open shelves. I took some simple plans I found in my Wood magazine and of course like we all do adjusted them to fit my requirements. Each cabinet is 33 inches long and 23 inches deep with two draws and two doors. I used 3/4 inch birch plywood for the sides and oak 1.5x.75 to frame the front. Since I preinstalled the dust collection hoses on the floor, I had to cut a 4 inch square at the bottom back to give it proper clearance.

As you can see by this picture I have spaced my 4 33 inch cabinets out with 3 12 inch openings. This will serve two purposes. 1) Allows me to have a workbench 13 feet long. 2) I can now create 3 full size pull outs that will hold hardware and consumables. You can also see the dust collection hose coming to the top of bench.

The bench is 1.5 inches thick, I did this by gluing to 3/4 inch thick MDF. I intent put a 1/4 inch sheet of hard board on top and trim it out with red oak. This will allow me to replace the top once I finishing abusing it. The bench is 24 inches deep, once trimmed it will be just short of 25 inch.

I will be taking a break from my shop for a couple weeks. Next week Donna and I have a business trip to Fredericksburg, TX and next weekend we will be off to Hawaii, where we will celebrate our 30th anniversary. When I return I will continue work on the drawers and doors, yet another skill of many that I am weak on. It is a good thing I have so many weaknesses, otherwise I be extremely bored.