Drawers & Doors

The drawers went together well though I had to make a few adjustments to allow for smooth rolling. An empty drawer may work well but putting weight in one adds stress for testing.  This week I began to put the fronts on the drawers and doors on the shelves.

I found a couple easy handle plans and decided to make my own. A drawer/door handle can cost between 2 & 4 dollars. The bench is going to take 19 handles and the upper cabinet will take another 8. I save about 60 dollars making them. It only took 5 ft of 1.5 inch Red Oak and 2 hours of labor. I made 40 identical handles just incase I wanted to make more cabinets.  The next  step  is to fill the spaces between the cabinets. These I haven’t design yet but the idea comes from kitchen cabinetry. For kitchens with no pantry, the builder usually puts in a pull out where cans and boxed foods are stored. Instead mine will be used for hardware, screws, nails, hooks, etc.

Now for some cool stuff, I’ve updated yet another major tool in my shop. My old table saw (Craftsmen) has been a muscle in my shop but like many things has begin to show some wear. Lately my cuts have not been as exact as I like. I did some shopping around and found three saws that were within my price tag. Lowe’s had two, a Hitachi and a Delta, both good saws, price at just below 600 dollars. Home depot had a Ridgid with in the price range. I choose the Ridgid for two reasons, 1) A good consumer reports rating, 2) a 2 inch marble table top, sweet! All three were belt driven which means super quite operation, that combined with easy adjustments and with the ability to cut at 30 inch verses 18 makes it more conducive to cabinet work.