5. BUILD THE CARCASS
At this point I give the whole interior a light
sanding, just to remove any splintering around
the dados and to smooth things out a little bit.
Because this is shop furniture, I’m going to
keep this build as simple as I can using screws
and glue to hold it together. If nails or biscuits
or finger joints are your thing, I say choose your
adventure. Just remember that if you’re using
fasteners, you will be putting them into the edge
grain of plywood, so you’ll want to test any nailing
on scraps, and predrill for any screws to keep the
plywood from delaminating.
I begin by clamping the whole thing together,
getting it flush and square, and then making
layout marks for my screws. It may seem like
overkill, but I find careful spacing of visible
fasteners can can give a piece a much cleaner
look (Figure
K
).
When everything is laid out I predrill and
countersink all my screw holes (Figure
L
), and
then disassemble. I apply a light bead of glue to
the joints, reclamp, and then drive all the screws.
You could glue first and then drill, but I don’t like
how the drill bit tends to gum up with glue, so I do
it this way.
When all the screws are in and the carcass is
checked for square, it’s time to install the back.
After measuring the back opening, I cut a piece of
¼" plywood at 11"×24⁄". Since the ¼" shoulder
doesn’t leave a lot of room for fasteners, I’ll be
using #18× ¾" nails, driven in at a slight angle,
and spaced to avoid the dados (Figures
M
,
N
,
and
O
).
6. CUT THE DRAWER BOTTOMS
From the remainder of the sheet of ¼" plywood, I
cut 14 pieces at 10⁄"×13½" (Figure
P
).
TIP: Were I to do it again, I would cut the plywood
with the grain parallel to the short dimension
instead of the long. That way the grain would be in
the same direction as the drawer fronts, giving it a
nicer look.
Slip all the bottoms into their slots and make sure
they move smoothly. Then it’s on to the drawer
fronts.
57
make.co
K
L
N
P
M
O
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