My new customer had four large drawers that she wanted me to build a cabinet for them.
Usually the drawers are made last so this was a new one on me. I had to measure the drawers then figure out the measurements for the cabinet from that.
Once I figured out the size of the openings which is one inch wider and higher than the drawer box I had to figure out the over all hieght and width of the cabinet. Once I had those numbers the next obsticle was the design, how the cabinet would look finished. I really wanted to give her her money's worth. God flashed the finished product in my mind so I knew what I had to do.
I started with the legs. Glueded up the pieces (for this whole project I chose poplar as it paints well). After glueing up the pieces and letting them dry over night I cut them down to 1 3/4" square then planed them to 1.625 square. Cut them down to the lenght I needed then cut a 0.250 dado on two sides each dead center.
The dado is .375 deep x .250 wide. This allows for the tongue of the the sides to slide in. After cutting the dado the whole lenght I cut 8 .250 x .500 x 4" pieces that I glued in the bottom of each leg. After they dried using my band saw cut tappers on the inside of each dado sides so the feet had a little style and wasn't just square all the way to the floor and hid the dado.
I choose to do style and rail sides with flat panels. One the left and right side of each side panel I made the tongues to fit in the dados on the legs.
I glued and brad nailed (on the inside) into the legs.
The face and the back were also done the same way.
For the face where the drawers fit in I dadoed the center of each rail the same .250 x .375. Then made the rails with a .250 x .375 tongue on each end. Fit them in where they needed to be and cut a couple of full lenght strips to fill in the grooves between the styles. Glueded them in place and sanded them down. This hid the grooves as well as locked the styles in place. Brad nailed it all in place from the back.
The back
Once I got it all assembled I made sure it was all square and let it dry over night.
I wanted to give it a little flare so I made a piece to go on the bottom. I used my bandsaw to cut out the design.
Before cutting out the design I made a rabbit cut on the back of the top so it would fit and wouldn't stick out past the legs.
After cutting it out and sanding it well I used my table router and cut a profile on the bottom. Then drew my design on the front and using different sized drill bits made my design on the face then mounted it on the cabinet.
Once the cabibet was complete I painted it then put the too on which I made out of birch and left it natural. Once the top was installed I sprayed the entire unit with three coats of water based poly urathane to protect the acrlyic paint and the birch top.
Here it is in my customer's home.
I'm not much of a writer so thank you if yoy made it all the way to the end of this.
