The dresser is only about 15″ wide, so it might be perfect for a narrow wall space or small bedroom. But notice that its three unconventional legs are centered underneath, so the dresser must be mounted securely to a wall stud. It’s not one you can move around a room, but it’s surely bound to be a conversation piece!

Building the Carcass

Get this dresser project off to a fast start by breaking down a sheet of walnut-veneered plywood into two carcass side panels, a top and bottom and four dividers, according to the sizes specified in the Material List. I used a track saw and my sliding compound miter saw with fine tooth blades for that job to help minimize tearing out the fragile face veneer.

Notice in the Exploded View Drawing, that the top, bottom and side panels have mitered corners to help extend the illusion that this dresser’s carcass is solid wood. So very carefully trim the corners of those parts at your table saw with the blade tilted exactly to 45 degrees.

Then I dry-assembled the mitered parts to check their fit and so I could measure for a 1/2″-thick plywood back panel. Cut the panel to size now, too.

In the Drawings, you’ll see that the top, bottom and sides require a 1/4″ x 1/4″ groove cut 1/4″ in from the back edges of the parts. This groove around the carcass fits a 1/4″ x 1/4″ rabbet, milled into the edges and ends of the back panel, to both lock it securely in place and enable the back panel to be installed flush with the back edges of the dresser.

Remember, it’s the wall attachment point for the project. So, head to your table saw or router table to mill the grooves and rabbets with a 1/4″ dado blade or straight bit. Carry out a full dry-fit again to make sure the back panel fits into the carcass easily and the mitered corners close well.

At this point, we can cut four 1/4″-deep x 3/4″-wide dadoes across each side panel to house the four dividers. I clamped them together, side by side, and milled the dadoes across both side panels in long passes with my router and a straightedge to ensure that the dadoes would line up evenly.

The plywood top and bottom divider panels are narrower than the middle dividers so their front edges can be covered by a 3/4″ x 3/4″ solid-wood trim piece. Go ahead and make up those trim pieces from walnut, and glue and clamp them to the front edges of the two dividers.

Preparing for Doors

The dresser’s two doors recess flush to the front edges of the top, bottom and dividers, so we need to cut 13/16″-deep notches that extend from the carcass top down to the top divider and up from the carcass bottom to the bottom divider (see Drawings) on both side panels.

As you can see, I took care of that job with my handheld router mounted to a scrap plywood base and a 1/2″ straight bit. I carefully removed the face veneer in these notched areas first to prevent tearout, then hogged out the rest of the inner plies to leave clean openings. Alternately, you could use a jigsaw if you like.

You’re ready to glue up a 3/4″-thick blank of solid walnut to create the two doors. I chose walnut stock for my doors with a pleasing grain pattern and no sapwood, so each door’s appearance would really complement the face of the dresser. Sand your door panel smooth when it comes out of the clamps, and rip and crosscut it to create two doors at final size. Then take a close look at the Drawings again and at the photo series above to get a clearer understanding of how the fingerpull edge on each door works.

The sculpted lip on the door edge is created partially with a 1-7/8″-diameter cove bit in the router table, set to 9/16″ high and projecting 3/4″ out from the router table’s fence. The flat, fingerpull edge of the door receives this profile cut first, then a portion of the coved area is removed by cutting the routed edge of the door into a gentle, broad arc. The outer edges of the coved recess disappear, with the full cove shape remaining only in the apex area of the arc. Pretty cool, huh?!

I used a thin dowel, flexed between a couple of clamps on the door, to draw the arc shape, then headed to my router table to make the cove cuts. Again, even though routing these coves will have you looking down at a curve drawn on each door, what you’re making is a simple cove cut along a flat door edge.

Once the coves are routed, take both doors over to your band saw to finish up the fingerpulls by sawing along the arcs. Complete these door details with some hand-sanding to remove any burn marks left by the router bit and to smooth the sawn edges.

Preliminary Hinge Installation

Brass knife hinges are about as sleek as hinges get, and instead of seeing long hinge knuckles along the edges of the dresser, as you would with butt hinges, or chunks of hinge hardware inside when you open the doors, as with Euro-style cup hinges, knife hinges are much more refined and subtle. There’s just a thin bar of brass for each hinge leaf, recessed into the top and bottom edges of these doors and the adjacent faces of the dresser’s top and bottom panels and dividers. The downside to knife hinges, though, is that installing them is more exacting than other hinge options. They offer no adjustability once installed. So, working patiently and precisely is the name of the game for getting these hinges hung on the project correctly.

The first step of the installation process is to lay out the hinge-leaf sizes and locations on the top and bottom edges of the doors. I used a cutting gauge, a small square and a knife to incise the hinge-leaf mortises on the doors to make sure they would fit the hardware like a glove when I was done. It’s also important that the pivot points of the hinges are located completely outside the faces of the dresser, so keep that in mind when setting the mortise lengths on the doors. Removing the waste from the hinge-leaf mortises is quick and easy if you run the doors on-edge against your router table’s fence and use a 3/8″-dia. straight or spiral bit to zip away most of the waste. I clamped a scrap piece of walnut to the outfeed side of the fence to act as a stop block, preventing me from accidentally routing too far (it’s easy to make this mistake, believe me!). I then squared up the mortises with a chisel.

That takes care of the door-side preparation. Now the hinge locations need to be marked and the other hinge leaves cut accurately on top and bottom divider panels and the carcass sides. That’s easy to do on the divider panels with a similar router table setup that you used for the door-leaf hinges. But marking the hinge-leaf locations on the carcass side panels is trickier. That’s because the front edges of the carcass need to be covered with walnut veneer edge tape to hide the center plies, and it takes up a thickness.

The door also needs to end up flush with the front edges of the dresser when closed. My solution was to use strips of walnut veneer as spacers to shim up the door where it would need to be in the carcass recesses. Once each door was accurately placed, I could mark their locations onto the side panels with a sharp pencil, then extend those lines as needed where the hinges would cross over the side panels to account for their pivot points.

A narrow, flush-cutting backsaw was just the ticket to saw shallow pairs of layout lines for the hinge mortises on the edges of the carcass side panels, and I removed the waste in between the saw kerfs with a sharp chisel.

Assembling the Carcass

With the hinge prep work behind you, give all the plywood parts a final sanding, then go ahead and assemble the carcass top, bottom sides and dividers with glue and clamps.

Make sure the assembly is square and that the four miter joints at the corners are as close to airtight as you can get them.

Making and Installing Drawers

Because this dresser is pretty narrow, the drawers don’t have to be heavy-duty. Some good quality 1/2″ plywood is all you need to build the drawer boxes. Cut panels for the fronts, backs, sides and bottoms to size, according to the Material List. The corner joints are 1/4″ x 1/4″ rabbet-and-dado style. You can see how to machine the joints in his article. Locate the drawer bottom grooves 1/2″ up from the bottom edges of these drawers, however, because you’ll need that clear space underneath for installing the undermount drawer slides used here. Finish-sand the drawer box components, and assemble the three drawer boxes with glue and clamps.

Rockler’s Soft-Close Undermount Drawer Slides require a 1/2″ x 1-3/8″ notch cut into the bottom back corners of the drawer backs so they’ll fit over the slide hardware. I cut those notches at the table saw with a wide dado blade. The instructions that come with the slides will also inform you that a hole needs to be drilled above these drawer notches to accommodate a sharp prong on the slides that helps to lock the drawers and slides together. Bore those holes now, too.

The main steel component of the slides fastens to the inside walls of the carcass, and a second component fastens to the inside front bottom corners of the drawers, underneath the bottom panels. Follow the hinge instructions that come with the hinges carefully to create the proper setback for the slides inside the carcass, and install them with screws. Then attach the “drawer” components of the slides to the drawers with more screws. Check that the setup works.

I painted the faces of these drawers, made from 3/4″ MDF, and used a V-groove bit in the router table set to 1/8″ high, to plow a series of decorative grooves into the faces one inch apart. You could space them differently if you’d like. Once you’ve painted the drawer faces, attach them with short panhead screws. Select your drawer pulls — I like the look of oil-rubbed bronze with dark woods like this — and install them.

Finishing Up

With all the hardware in place, you can go ahead and apply adhesive-backed walnut veneer edge tape to every exposed plywood edge to cover them up. I also added edge tape to the front edges of the walnut trim on the top and bottom dividers to bring those edges flush with the other carcass edges.

You still have a center leg and two outer legs to complete. I made mine from three pieces of walnut plywood, cutting their front and back curves at the band saw and hiding those edges with veneer tape. I centered the legs on the bottom of the dresser and spaced them 2″ apart. A few countersunk 2″-long screws, driven down through the dresser’s bottom and into the tops of the legs, is all it takes to fasten them in place. Again, remember that this unit must be attached to the wall with screws. Its design will not allow it to be freestanding.

Your choice of finish for the plywood components of this new dresser is entirely up to you. I suggest shellac, lacquer or oilbased varnish to really bring that walnut grain and color to life!

The only step left is to position it where you want it to be and fasten the dresser to a wall stud through the back panel with four to six #10 x 3″ screws, and it’s ready for use.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post PROJECT: Tall Dresser appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

While mitered and regular half-lap joints can be made any number of ways, Rockler’s new Router Table Half Lap Jig makes quick work of them with a spiral upcut bit. You’ll need to mill eight of these joints to build this mirror frame, so we’ll put this innovative jig to use here as a helpful introduction to its capabilities.

Preparing Narrow Frame Stock

Joint and plane a piece of 4/4 hardwood flat and square along its width and length, and reduce the board’s thickness to 3/4″. I decided to use bird’s eye maple for the primary parts of this project, because its attractive “spotted” grain pattern is sure to capture attention! But you can select any hardwood that suits your preference and budget. A piece of 5″ x 36″ stock will be sufficient for making the frame’s top, bottom, sides, rail and stile. Because the components of this modified mirror frame project are so narrow — just 1-1/8″ wide — choose your stock carefully. Give the wood at least a few days to acclimate to your shop before surfacing it to help minimize potential twisting, bowing or cupping.

Next, rip workpieces for the top, bottom, two sides, rail and stile to 1-1/4″ wide, and give the parts a night to allow for any minor warpage that might still occur along their length after ripping them. The next day, flatten one edge of each on the jointer again, and rip these parts to their final 1-1/8″ width.

Crosscut two frame workpieces to 12-3/8″ long for the top and bottom of the mirror frame. Crosscut two more to 22-1/2″ long for the sides of the frame. These side pieces are overly long because their ends will be mitered; the extra length will allow you a margin for error when sawing those angles. Crosscut the frame’s rail and stile to rough length, too — leave these at least 1/4″ longer than necessary.

Study the Exploded View Drawing to familiarize yourself with the mitered half-laps that form the corner joints of this picture frame. Notice that the top and bottom frame members (pieces 1) have 3/8″-deep recesses with a 45-degree shoulder on each end of the parts, and these recesses are removed from the front faces of the workpieces. The back tongue of the half-lap remains square on the end. Conversely, the side frame workpieces (pieces 2) have mitered ends. A 3/8″-deep recess is removed from the back faces of these frame parts instead, creating a front-facing mitered tongue with a square shoulder. The front and back tongues of the four corners of the mirror frame overlap to create strong mitered half-lap face grain joints.

At your table saw, set the fence on a crosscut sled or a miter gauge carefully to 45 degrees, and miter-cut the ends of the side frame pieces. Or, use a miter saw to make these cuts instead. Have these cuts trim the side frame workpieces to their final 21-7/8″ lengths. Do not miter-cut the ends of the top and bottom frame pieces.

Routing Mitered Half-Laps

Rockler’s Router Table Half Lap Jig has a repositionable fence for plowing square or 45-degree half-laps accurately and safely. It requires the use of a 1/2″-diameter upcut spiral bit to remove the waste material on both halves of the joints. And to that end, you will be removing exactly half the stock thickness to create the overlapping connections. So, take some time now to mark the side frame workpieces on their back faces and outside edges with square layout lines to indicate the recessed areas that will be removed next to form the half-lap joints. It also helps avoid confusion if you mark the waste areas with X’s. Mark the top and bottom frame workpieces as well with a 45-degree layout line on each end on the front faces of these parts. Then mark the outer edges of these waste areas with layout lines to show how much stock must be removed there.

Step over to your router table and install the upcut spiral bit in it. Carefully follow the instructions that come with Rockler’s Router Table Half Lap Jig to set the bit height accordingly. The process involves using two test pieces that match the thickness of your frame stock and routing a matching rabbet into the end of each one. Adjusting the size of these rabbets until their tongues meet in the middle when the rabbets are fitted together ensures that the router bit will cut to the exact center of your frame workpiece thickness.

Next, set the fence on Rockler’s Router Table Half Lap Jig to the 90-degree position. Rout away the waste on the back side of the frame side pieces at each end of the parts to form the four mitered tongues of the half lap joints. Be careful when approaching the shoulders of these joint cuts to not rout too far; trim just to your layout lines.

Now swivel the fence on the jig to 45 degrees. With the workpieces oriented face-down, carefully cut the mitered recesses on the top and bottom frame parts, removing all the waste material you laid out initially.

When all four mitered half-laps are routed, set the four frame parts together to check the fit of the joints. Ideally, the edges and faces of the joints should meet flush when fitted together. If they don’t, carefully consider how the joint fit could be improved. If the joints don’t quite close completely, you might be able to adjust their fit by routing away a sliver of more material from the shoulders of the cuts.

Adding the Rail and Stile

Install a strap clamp around the frame to draw the corner joints together tightly. Take a measurement of the outer width of the frame; this is the length to crosscut the rail to, so do that now. Then, on the front face of the rail, lay out a 1-1/8″-long x 3/8″-deep recess on both ends, and mark these waste areas with X’s.

Now refer to the Frame (Front View) Drawing to mark the rail’s location on the back face of the frame side pieces. Remove the strap clamp and disassemble the frame so you can lay out these 3/8″-deep dadoes where the tongues on the ends of the rails will fit into the frame sides.

Head back to the router table to mill the “regular” half-lap joints on the side frame pieces and the ends of the rail. This time, the fence on Rockler’s Router Table Half Lap Jig remains in the 90-degree position for removing the waste on all three workpieces. Be careful when approaching the layout lines during routing to avoid cutting away too much of the layout lines. The goal is for the rail to fit snugly between the two frame side pieces, with the seams of the half-lap joints meeting flush. Any gaps between the ends of the rail and the frame sides will be really obvious on the front of the frame when it’s assembled.

Dry-assemble the parts again so you know exactly how long the stile needs to be, and crosscut it to this length. Then repeat the layout process for centering the stile between the frame sides — it sets the 4-1/2″-wide openings for the two 5×7 photo spaces in the frame. As with the rail, lay out the stile so the tongues of its half-lap joints will be on the back of the stile, not the front. Mark the back faces of the frame bottom and the rail for 1-1/8″-wide, 3/8″-deep dadoes to house the stile. Rout these two half-lap joints in the three frame parts.

With all the joinery cuts done, go ahead and glue the top, bottom, sides, rail and stile together. Use the strap clamp and small clamps at each joint to hold the parts together while the glue cures.

When the frame comes out of the clamps, clean off all excess glue and sand the faces and edges up through the grits to 180. Then install a rabbeting bit that cuts 1/2″-wide rabbets in the router table, and set its cutting height to 1/4″. With the back of the mirror frame facing down, plow a rabbet around the inside edges of the frame in the mirror area only to begin creating the recess for the mirror backer piece. Reset the bit to 3/8″ high and make a second routing pass to deepen this backer piece recess.

Now switch to a rabbeting bit that cuts 1/4″-wide rabbets and set it to about 1/2″ cutting height (the exact depth will depend on the thickness of the mirror glass you’ve chosen). Make a third routing pass around the mirror opening to create a deeper “step” at the bottom of the recess for the mirror itself. Creating a larger opening for the backer than for the mirror will enable you to install the backer with brad or pin nails driven into the frame around the mirror, which will strengthen the frame as well as hold the mirror in place.

Lower the same 1/4″ rabbeting bit to 1/4″ cutting height, and this time rout recesses around both picture frame openings in the back face of the frame. Then raise the bit to 1/2″ to deepen these recesses. Finish up this work by squaring up the rounded corners of the mirror and photo recesses with a sharp chisel.

Applying Decorative Beaded Moldings

You could choose to leave the outer edges of the frame as they are in order to see the edges of the lap joints you’ve made. But a banding of beaded moldings around the frame will add even more pizzazz. I made them from lacewood using Rockler’s Edge Beading Router Bit with a 1/8″-radius bead profile in the router table.

Rout the profile into the face of a couple long pieces of 3/4″-thick x 2″-wide stock — sufficiently long to create the four pieces of molding you’ll need to wrap around the frame. Make two routing passes into opposite long edges of the same face of each molding workpiece.

Now rip both of these profiled edges free, with the table saw’s rip fence set 5/16″ away from the blade, to create long strips of molding with a tiny recess next to the beaded edge. Sand these strips lightly to remove any routed burn marks or irregularities. Carefully miter-cut them into four pieces to wrap around the outer edges of the frame; arrange the molding so the larger beaded edge will be on the outside and the recess abuts the frame. Install the moldings with glue and 3/4″-long pin nails.

Installing Mirror, Photos and Backers

Cut three backer boards from 1/8″- or 1/4″-thick hardboard or MDF to fit the photo and mirror recesses. Insert the glass and mirror into their openings, and choose a couple of photos.

I installed the mirror backer with 1/2″-long, 23-gauge pin nails driven through the backer, about 1/8″ in from its edges. I switched to short beads of hot-melt glue for attaching the photo backers to the frame. It offers enough strength to hold the backers in place but also is fairly easy to peel off, should the photos need to be changed in the future.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post PROJECT: Memento Mirror Frame appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

And if you’re willing to test your template-making skills, this alternating, double-shelf project is well worth the effort. Its small cubby in between the shelves can stow a wallet, jewelry or other small valuables behind the front door. I outfitted the project with a strip of low-cost LED rope lighting to cast a soft glow under each shelf. Mine also contains a USB outlet for charging smart devices. The project mounts to a wall stud with screws driven through the cubby’s back panel.

If you like the look of the project but aren’t yet up to the challenge of tricky template-making (or investing in the edge V-groove router bit set), you could simply make the plywood shelf cores larger and wrap their edges with thin veneer edge tape. But that won’t be as durable as solid wood in the long run, nor will it give the same effect as this contrasting, wide purpleheart will. So, why not test your skills and build it just as I have!

Making Subassemblies of Trim Blanks

Let’s get down to business by assembling pieces of long and short side trim to the front trim pieces. I ripped my purpleheart stock to 4″ wide, then headed to my miter saw to crosscut the pieces to rough length. Now, study the Trim Subassembly Drawing for miter-cutting these trim pieces correctly. Why miter them, you ask? Well, mitering will eliminate nearly all of the end grain that would take finish more darkly than the side grain will. You’ll also help to blend the face grain more uniformly all around the shelves, which will look much better when viewing the shelf trim from above.

Notice how the short and long side trim pieces are mitered at 45 degrees on one end. The long front trim piece is miter-cut at 29.5 degrees on one end but 60.5 degrees on the other end. I could make that last cut happen because my Makita miter saw swivels to 60.5 degrees. Some saws do. If yours doesn’t, you might have to tackle that cut in a different way with another saw instead.

Glue and clamp the three trim pieces for each subassembly together. You can see in the photo at right that these are simply glued butt joints. Any reinforcement across the joints (dowels, floating tenons, biscuits) would become exposed when the trim is finally cut to width. But no worries, because in this application, reinforcement isn’t crucial. Glued miter joints will be strong enough for machining, and once the trim wraps the shelves, joint strength will come from the routed V-groove joints between the plywood and purpleheart anyway.

Get ready for some challenges gluing the funky mitered ends together, however. I used both wood screw clamps and bar clamps for that job. The wood screw clamps actually became attachment points for my bar clamps. Kind of unusual, sure, but it worked! When the clamps come off, sand or plane the joints flush.

Making Template #1: Inner Trim Edges

Draw a full-size version of the Shelf Template on a large piece of 1/2″ MDF or other sheet material. Make sure your template workpiece is at least a couple inches wider on both sides than the gridded shape. You also want the “legs” of the template on either side of the shelf shape to be 2″ longer than necessary. Use a flexible batten or large French curves to draw a smooth layout line for this template, centering it on the template material. The line represents the inside edge of the purpleheart trim. I used a jigsaw to cut out the center waste of the template, sawing just inside my layout line.

Then I took the template over to my benchtop oscillating spindle sander to smooth and fair its sawn edge. Go the extra yard here to make sure this inside edge of the template is perfectly smooth and even by working it further with some careful hand sanding.

Mark the 2″ template leg extensions on their inside edges so you can line the template up accurately on your glued-up trim subassemblies.

The next step will depend on your confidence at the band saw. I attached the template to the first trim subassembly with short pieces of double-sided tape, took it to the band saw, and sawed away the inner purpleheart waste. I was careful when attaching the template that I would be removing about the same amount of trim material all the way around.

If you fear you might accidentally cut into the template doing it this way, then just trace the template’s inner profile onto the trim subassemblies instead and band-saw the waste away. There’s no risk of damaging your template this way, so play it safe if you wish.

Forming the Routed Profile on the Inner Trim Edges

With the template attached to the first trim subassembly, install the concave edge V-groove bit (the one that looks like a bird’s mouth) in your router table. With the router unplugged, set the motor to a medium/ high speed and adjust the bit’s height so the midpoint of the bird’s mouth profile will be centered on the thickness of the trim material.

The router bit’s top pilot bearing needs to be able to roll along the cut edge of the template, too. Then start the router and, beginning with the bit’s bearing on the template’s right “leg,” feed the template and trim subassembly clockwise around the bit to remove the rest of the inner waste. This bit reforms the inner edge of the purpleheart trim into a sharp chisel point.

Detach the template from the first trim subassembly carefully, then mount the template to the second trim subassembly with more double-sided tape, and repeat the routing process.

Making Template #2: Outer Edge of Shelves

The good news about doing a really careful job of making the first template is that it will improve your odds for laying out the second template accurately. This one, also made of 1/2″ MDF or plywood, will form the outer routed profile of the shelf cores to mate with the chisel-pointed profile on the purpleheart trim. Here’s how to lay it out. Start with a piece of oversized MDF, and mark it 2″ in from one long edge to serve as an extension of the template past the shelf during routing. Now lay one of the trim subassemblies on it so the bottom square ends of the side trim pieces intersect your 2″ layout marks. Take a very sharp pencil or a fine leaded mechanical pencil and trace around the bottom edge of the trim’s routed profile, right where it touches the template surface. This line represents the outer perimeter of what will be the plywood shelf. It’s SUPER important to trace this layout line accurately.

Grab your jigsaw and cut just outside of this layout line (only the portion inside the layout line is the template this time). Very carefully, sand the template up to the layout line. If you sand the line away, the fit between the plywood and the trim might be too loose and create a gap on the shelf. If you don’t sand enough, the trim will fit too tightly around the plywood and could break at the mitered joints when it’s installed. Take your time and be fussy with this sanding.

Fitting the Routed Shelf Edge to the Trim

Cut two plywood panels for the shelves, and then cut one or two more that you can use as test pieces. Why? Because at this moment, we still don’t know if the second template will produce shelf cores that fit the trim correctly. So, there’s some experimentation and refinement ahead of us! It’s the nature of the beast … don’t ask me how I know.

Get one of your plywood test pieces, and trace the shelf template onto it. Band-saw the test shelf about 1/16″ outside the layout line. Now chuck the convex V-groove bit (with the pointed center tips) in your router table. Adjust its height so the bit’s tips line up with the inside routed edge of the trim subassemblies. Once that’s dialed in, mount template #2 to your plywood test shelf with double-sided tape so the shelf’s contoured edge overhangs the template’s edge evenly. Make sure to also align the back “flat” edge of the shelf with the template’s 2″ overhang marks. Start the router, and rout all the way around the shelf to reduce its size and form the concave, mirror image to the trim’s convex chisel-edge profile.

Remove the template from the shelf, and clean off any whiskers left by the router bit along the routed edge. Now very carefully and gently, try to slide one of the trim subassemblies into place on the test shelf. Don’t force the parts together, or you could break the miter joints. Do the routed joints fit together? Are there any gaps, or is the fit too tight? Either way, if the shelf and trim don’t come together well, it’s time to make little adjustments to the shelf template’s perimeter and rout another test shelf. Keep working at the template’s shape until it produces a shelf that fits the trim.

My cherry plywood was slightly thinner than my purpleheart trim, so I readjusted the bit height so the best face of each shelf aligns flush with the best face of each trim subassembly. Keep in mind that if you need to do the same thing, these shelves will face in opposite directions on the final project. Go ahead and rout your actual shelves. Then glue and clamp the trim to each shelf. Remember to tighten those clamps carefull so as not to over-stress the miter joints.

Making Template #3: Outer Perimeter of Trim

It’s time to bring the overly-wide purpleheart trim down to its 1-1/4″ final width, and we’ll do that with a third template. To make it, I first created a simple scribing jig for my pencil.

It’s just a scrap with a flat edge that rides against the shelf template to trace a layout line 1-1/4″ larger than the shelf onto a piece of MDF.

Create this template with the same 2″ extension as the other two templates.

Cut the template out, sand its outer edge smooth and use it to trace the outer perimeter layout line onto both trim subassemblies.

Cut them to shape at the band saw or with a jigsaw.

Grain Direction Precautions

Refining the outer edge of the trim with template #3 is our next step, but it’s a bit tricky because the grain direction of the purpleheart comes into play. Flush-trimming around the corners could mean you’ll be routing with the grain and then inadvertently against the grain from one piece to the next, depending on your stock arrangement. So to help mitigate problems, I installed a double-bearing flush-trim bit with a shear-cutting angle (Rockler #27867). After sticking each trim subassembly to the template, I started the routing process with the template on top, riding against the bit’s top bearing.

But, if the purpleheart started to chip, or the bit’s cutting action began to feel choppy, I stopped the routing pass, flipped the template over, and raised the bit to use its bottom bearing against the template instead. That way, I could reverse my feed direction and rout with the grain again. Your template-routing experience will help you assess how best to flush-trim these edges in order to rout with the grain direction as much as possible. But I definitely recommend preemptively using the same shear-cutting bit as I did, or one similar to it. It really helped here!

Finishing Up the Shelves

Once the trim was flush-cut to final width, it was time to trim the shelves to their final front-to-back width of 12-1/4″ at the widest point. I did this by mounting each shelf temporarily to a flat-edged panel of MDF that was wider than the shelf. That way, the panel’s flat edge could follow my table saw’s rip fence while I trimmed the waste off of the back flat edge of both shelves.

Wrap up work on the shelves by hand-planing or scraping and sanding the trim flush with the plywood cores. Be careful to not overdo it and cut through the plywood’s thin face veneer. And when you’re satisfied with your shelves, you can also be happy that you’ve completed the hardest part of this project!

Building the Middle Cubby

I made the cubby so that all the visible parts, when viewed from in front, would be purpleheart. So, the cubby’s sides and door are solid purpleheart. But the top and bottom panels are maple with a 3/4″ x 3/4” strip of purpleheart glued to their front edges because those components aren’t as obvious. That way, when the cubby’s door is opened, the carcass looks like purpleheart all the way around.

Use a wide straight bit in the router table or a dado blade in your table saw to plow 3/8″-deep x 3/4″-wide rabbets along the top, bottom and back edges of the side panels so they wrap over the ends of the top and bottom panels.

I decided to install the door with a single Mini Blum® 26 mm Frameless Overlay Hinge (Rockler #38385) that snaps closed, because this door is so tiny as to not need two hinges. Follow the instructions that come with the hinge to bore a stopped hole in the back of the door for the hinge’s cup. Dry-assemble the cubby with clamps so you can install the carcass-side component of the hinge on the cubby’s side panel.

Tricking Out the Project and Installing It

There are several doodads you can choose to add to your project as I have to make it even more useful, and now is the right time to consider them. I like the white Tot-Lok Mechanism (Rockler #63164, #63172), because it enables a door to be unlocked with a magnetic key from the outside. So, I mounted this hardware to the back of the door and to the cubby side opposite the hinge. I also thought LED lighting might be a nice touch. I picked up an inexpensive 6-ft LED rope light, and I routed a channel in the cubby top, bottom and back to feed the LED through from inside the cubby to the bottom faces of the shelves. If you’d like USB ports in the cubby too, you’ll need to chisel an opening for that hardware in the cubby side as I have.

All of this work happens before gluing the cubby together. When I was finally ready to assemble everything, I glued the cubby top and back panels to the side panels first, but I left the bottom panel unglued so I could remove it for installing the cubby to the top shelf. When this glue-up dried, I centered the cubby’s top on the bottom face of the top shelf with the back of the cubby flush with the back edge of the shelf. I fastened the cubby to the top shelf with four #8 x 1-1/2″ screws driven into countersunk pilot holes. Then I could glue the cubby’s bottom panel into place and install the bottom shelf to it (facing the opposite direction to the top shelf) when the glue dried. To verify the alignment of the two shelves before attaching the second one, stand the project on a workbench and use a couple of combination squares held against the ends of the shelves to see that their ends align. I made a few adjustments, then drove four screws up through the bottom shelf into the cubby bottom to attach the parts.

At this point, I went ahead and applied a couple of coats of poly to the whole project. After it cured, I installed the LEDs and USB hardware, then hung the shelf on the wall near an outlet to power everything up. A few long screws driven through the cubby’s back and into a wall stud will provide plenty of structural support to secure this project at the height you need it.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post PROJECT: Floating Bedside Shelf appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Instead, it’s for the new situation of so many people working from home, with their “home office” often in the corner of a living room or other multi-use area of the house. This room divider was conceived to create an attractive way to hide the office clutter from view while also providing a unique and attractive background during video meetings.

It’s not difficult to build; you’ll only find three parts in the Material List on page 39, and the Beadlock loose-tenon joints on the frames are simplicity themselves. We covered the 1/4″ plywood center panels with wallpaper to provide elegant panel designs, but we chose two very different styles so we could change the look simply by turning the divider around. To facilitate adjusting the individual panels to various angles, we used double-action hinges that were just the ticket for this project. One warning here: we found out the hard way that it is best to replace the brass screws provided with the hinges with similar steel screws. There is enough torque created when moving the room divider around to potentially break the brass screws.

Starting at the Beginning

These frames need to be strong, and it’s my opinion that they should be made of hardwood for that reason. I chose cherry both for its color and strength, but which hardwood species you use is up to you. When building frames like this, it’s important that the stock be flat in width and length — bowing or twisting will cause all sorts of problems in these long narrow frames. Rip the stiles to width on your table saw and then cut them to length. I used a miter saw for that task. Set them aside for now.

The rails are next up. They are, of course, shorter than the stiles but are also much wider at 4-1/2″. After ripping them to width, I cut them to length on the table saw using a miter gauge and employing a stand-off block to keep them from binding. Their width lets you cut them into curved arcs. I made a template of the arched rail from a small scrap of 1/4″ plywood. The thin stock was easy to shape, and if I made a mistake, I could have simply started over on more scrap. Find the details for the curved rails in the Drawings.

With the rail blanks cut to size and the template completed, I was ready to machine them further. I decided to make the rails in pairs and keep them together through the machining process. I attached two blanks with Rockler sticky dots and then stepped over the band saw.

After marking the curves, I carefully cut the shape staying just outside of the pencil lines. Then I used a horizontal benchtop belt sander to sand them smooth and to final shape. With that done, it was time to move onto machining some mortises.

Drilling Beadlock Joints

The Beadlock system is one of the easiest and most affordable loose-tenon systems around, and the joints it creates are rock-solid. The system has drill guides for diff ering thicknesses of stock, and in this case I used the 3/4″ drill guide that makes use of 3/8″ tenon stock. The preformed, uniquely-shaped tenon stock is available in various lengths. Although I chose Beadlock, you could make the joints with dowels or even Dominoes.

To get started with this task, I fit the four pieces of each frame together laying on my workbench. I clamped the stiles to the table with the rails fitting properly between them. Then I marked the center of each joint. Doing it this way helped me to visualize the assembly, confirm the mortise locations and understand how it all fit together. Next, it was time to bore the Beadlock mortises. One important note: I found that the 3/4″ drill guide was a touch thinner than my cherry stock. For that reason, it was important to clamp the Beadlock jig from the same face for each joint. Otherwise there would have been a slight but visible offset at the joint that would be unacceptable. I formed a mortise on each end of each piece as marked, then returned the part to its spot onto the bench. Another important point is to test-fit the shaped loose-tenon stock in each mortise.

You may need to refine the mortise on occasion by cleaning out more waste inside it. I used this process for all four frames. And speaking of the individual frames, I marked each piece of each frame with a letter so I could keep them clear as I moved forward through machining to assembly. While in theory all the pieces should have been identical and thus interchangeable, that was a theory I decided not to test. You may call me a coward, but prudence is often the better part of valor.

After mortising all the parts, the next step was plowing the grooves down the inside edge of each of the stiles and rails. Stepping over to the router table, I chucked a 1/4″-wide slot cutter that slices 3/8″ deep, controlled by a guide bearing on top of the bit. The plywood that would be captured by these grooves was 1/4″ thick, but would soon have wallpaper glued to both faces. After a good bit of experimenting, I found that I needed to form the grooves 3/8″ wide instead, so the final dimension for the grooves is 3/8″ deep by 3/8″ wide and centered on the edges of the stiles and rails.

Up until this point, the top and bottom rails have been interchangeable, but with the addition of the grooves this is no longer the case. As they are situated in the frame, one rail gets its groove plowed into its “top” edge (this would be the lower rails) and the other has the groove on the “bottom” edge. By flipping the stiles and rails over and taking two passes, you can be certain that the grooves are centered on the pieces as you widen them. For the flat- and convex-shaped pieces, you can set up the router table to use its fence as a bearing surface. For the concave edge of the rails, however, use the guide bearing to position the cut. When all the grooves have been machined, it’s time to cut the plywood to fit the frames.

Fitting the Panels

Ripping the plywood panels to their proper width is an easy task on the table saw. Cutting the curved ends is best done by placing a panel under a clamped-up frame and then tracing the frame’s curve onto the top of the panel. Now put a small mark on the plywood in the center of the arc at the bottom the frame. Then slide the plywood 5/8″ up under the frame using the small mark as your guide. Trace the curve on the bottom of the panel. Do that for all four panels. I then used a band saw to cut the curves to shape. A handheld jigsaw will work as well, but it will likely leave a rougher cut. Sand away any splinters.

Next up, I wiped on a coat of shellac mixed 50/50 with denatured alcohol onto both faces of the panels. When it dries, polish any raised grain with a synthetic scratchy pad. With that done, it’s time to break out the wallpaper.

Carrying Out the Last Details

While we chose wallpaper to decorate these panels, there’s no reason you couldn’t paint the panels or apply veneer or even use a nice hardwood plywood and apply a clear finish instead.

I am not an expert wallpaper person, so I just followed the directions on the packages and had success. One roll of the paper I bought covered four panels, so two rolls were required. If you have a similar situation to mine with differing treatments to opposite faces of the panels, make certain to pair them up so you don’t end up with three panels with one treatment and one of the other type. (Awkward.) With the panels completed I took the time to mask off each glue joint on the frame stock and then applied two coats of Watco Natural Oil. It is easier to apply the finish now, and it prevents it from staining the wallpaper.

You are now almost ready to get started gluing and clamping the frames and panels together. But before you do, there’s one more step. The 3/8″ Beadlock tenons have five “lobes” per tenon. Due to the width of the stiles and rails and the depth of the grooves, a tenon could impede the plywood panel in the grooves. So cut one lobe off of the Beadlock tenons and be sure to place the tenons as shown in the inset photo, middle right.

It is important to keep the frames square during glue-up, so I assembled them on a bench and put a board in the end vise. With one stile aligned with the edge of the bench and both feet touching the board, I could be sure the panel was square as I glued it up. I found the frames went together much more easily with a helper. I did the first one myself, but getting the panel in its grooves and the tenons in their mortises without the assembly coming apart elsewhere was doable, but frustrating. With the aid of a second set of hands, it was much easier. Apply glue to the tenons and put them in one of the stiles, slide a plywood panel into place and then glue and place the rails. With glue on the last two tenons, add the second stile — align the feet on the board and the stile on the edge of the bench, and clamp the frame together. Once the glue dries, you need to take each frame to the band saw and cut off the “horn” that is sticking up past the curved upper rail. Sand the cut smooth and apply finish. The two-way hinges come next. I made a small jig from 3/8″ MDF that had a fence attached to it at a right angle with an opening to guide my router, outfitted with a rub collar.

Set up two frames and clamp them together, back-to-back, with a 1/8″-thick piece of plywood between them. I clamped the jig to the frame and routed a mortise into two frames at once. Before I unclamped the setup, I installed the hinges. This worked very well. When the last hinge was secured with screws, the project was done. It was ready to hide a home office setup and add beauty to the room while doing it.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Rockler Beadlock Pro Jig Kit and Case (1) #54318
Double Action Hinges (5) #29033

The post PROJECT: Modern Room Divider appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

But recently I have had a change of heart when it comes to mixing species, especially when those various pieces create an interesting geometric design. I think this table is a good example of exactly that. The chevron (not herringbone!) design is interesting to look at but not overpowering. I used six different wood species, but of course that is a completely subjective decision; you could go with more or less.

The table is easy to build and quite sturdy. As a dad with little kids, sturdy is very important to me. This table will need to withstand some rough-and-tumble times!

Starting Out

The core of the tabletop is two pieces of 3/4″ plywood. Cut the pieces to size, as shown in the Material List. You’ll notice that one of the pieces is 1/2″ longer than the other — that’s intentional. With the two pieces cut, form the radius on the corners of Top #1, the shorter piece.

I’ve found that getting exactly symmetrical radii on corners is very easy to do with a corner radius routing template. I use the template to mark the shape, rough-cut it with a jigsaw or band saw and then step over to the router table. Using a flush-trim bit with the bearing at the top end of the flutes, I completed the shapes of all four corners. Keep the bit in the router table — you’ll use it again shortly.

Go ahead and grab the second top and gather up a glue bottle, a couple of clamps and some #8 x 1-1/4″ screws. Apply a generous coating of glue to the surface of the top you just shaped, then place it on top of the second top. Position it so there is a 1/4″ of plywood extending on each end of the glue-up. You’ll notice that the tops will easily move around as the upper panel is “floating” on the glue layer. Once the panels are correctly aligned, clamp them together to hold them in place. Now screw the panels together and allow the glue to tack-up solidly. Roughcut the corners of the second top at the band saw. The final step on the tabletop for now is going back to the router table and flush-trimming Top #2 to match its mate. Sand the routed edges smooth, and set the top aside.

Resawing

We purchased our chevron lumber already sized at 1/8″ thick. Another option is to resaw your pieces. Planing those pieces smooth and to a uniform thickness can be done, but that requires a sacrificial surface in your planer and a bit of caution

Prepping the Other Stock

While the tabletop has a plywood core, the cubby is solid lumber. That means you need to glue up its bottom panel before you make the cubby. Take the time to prep your stock and glue up a panel that’s slightly larger than the finished dimensions found in the Material List.

The choice of the cubby material is up to you. I chose cherry to match the lighter woods on the finished tabletop.

Next up is to machine the 24 chevron pieces. I sourced my stock for the chevrons from Rockler. Not only do they have 1/8″-thick stock for sale, but they have it in a very wide selection of species. For this table, I used maple, cherry, mahogany, bubinga, ebiara and wenge. (Yeah, I had never heard of ebiara either …)

There is absolutely no reason that you could not make your own 1/8″-thick pieces by resawing them from thicker stock. One advantage to doing so is that the matching pieces will be more uniform in color and figure. However,
a challenge will be how you get identical thicknesses and two smooth faces. Planing thin stock is possible on home-shop planers, but you usually need to add a smooth sacrificial platten to the planer, and then take very shallow passes. Even so, the thin pieces may get pulled up into the cutterhead and shatter. You’ll have to sort out your planing process if you do your own stock milling for these parts.

The most critical detail in this project is to make the chevrons exactly the same width and to form the angles precisely the same on each piece. I chose the table saw for this task and made sure I had a sharp blade in the machine. My chevrons were exactly 31⁄8″ wide, and I determined their angle to be 30 degrees. I cut them all at the same time and set them aside for a moment. I left the length of the chevrons overly long, as I would trim them after they were all glued in place on the tabletop. I grabbed the table core and moved it to my workbench, then drew a line down the center of its length. To assist with aligning the chevrons, I clamped a straightedge on that line.

Installing the Chevrons

It’s finally time to mount the first chevron. I used an unusual method to secure the first piece. First, I spread a coating of PVA wood glue in the center of the chevron, then squeezed a thick bead of CA glue around its perimeter. Next, I carefully placed the corner of the chevron at the end of the table core with its angled edge up against the straightedge. Pressing it down into place, I sprayed CA accelerator around the piece which locked it down. Then I added a clamp to further secure it to the core. I used this technique to speed up gluing and placing the remaining chevrons.

While I didn’t mention it earlier, I had already determined the order of the various species of wood on the top. Now I took one of each species and placed them next to the table core in the order in which they were to be mounted. I put a thick coat of glue on the table core, using a glue roller to spread it evenly. Then I placed each chevron on the top, sliding it gently back and forth to help the glue get tacky. I worked my way down one side of the tabletop layout line, installing half the chevron pattern.

To further secure the chevrons, I put a panel clamp down their middle. If you don’t have a panel clamp, you’ll need to make clamping cauls (the stiff ness of 2x material works well). The cauls should have a very slight crown along the length of them to apply pressure in the middle of the glue-up. Add another panel clamp next to the straightedge in the center of the panel. Check the end of each chevron to be certain that they are making good contact with the table core. If not, add clamps to solve that problem. If I noticed that a chevron was lifting in the middle, I used a heavy weight to push it down. Allow a couple of hours for the glue to cure.

When you are confident that the glue has set, use the same basic techniques to glue the remaining chevrons in place on the other side of the core’s layout line. Follow that up by adding four more pieces to the top. There will be two rather wide pieces that go on one end of the core — the end you started the chevrons on — and two smaller piece at the other end of the table. You’ll need to fit the small pieces in place. Glue and clamp them, and allow the glue to cure.

Tip-top Details

With all the chevron pieces now installed, scrape any glue squeeze-out off the surface, then turn the tabletop over and put it down on the workbench. At this point, I made a 1/4″-thick spacer to use as I trimmed the chevrons back a bit. I attached the spacer to the edge of the tabletop with self-adhesive sticky dots and used a hand saw to trim away the excess length of the chevrons. I did this on all four sides of the tabletop. The reason I left the small “ledge” is to make the next task much easier: wrapping the table core’s edges with edge banding. Before I attached the edge banding, I removed any glue blobs or irregularities on the edge of the core.

If you’ve ever attached long pieces of thin edge banding, you’ll know that one of the challenges it presents is that it can flop around and cause trouble. I solved that problem by putting a couple of clamps on the core that loosely kept the edge banding from moving around. I looped an overly long piece around the top and then began ironing it in place on one of the narrow ends. The small “ledge” formed by the overhanging chevrons helped me to align the edge banding perfectly as I worked around the end and down both sides. When I got to the far end, I overlapped the edge banding and sliced both pieces at once, creating a perfect fit. After the final bits were ironed in place, I was pleased with how well the operation had gone. The edge banding was a bit wider than the table core, so I trimmed off the excess and then used a file to put a slight bevel on the edge to prevent it from being pulled out easily or splintering.

With that done, it was time to flip the tabletop over and do some sanding on the chevrons. (You didn’t think you’d get away without sanding did you?) Despite my best effort, the chevrons were not perfectly level to one another. So I grabbed the biggest rotary sander that I own, put some 40-grit paper on it and leveled the top. Then I worked up through the grits to 320.

The smooth top was a benefit for the next step. Setting up a handheld router with a flush-trim bit, I removed the last bit of the chevron’s overhang. I took my time, feeding the router around the tabletop smoothly and steadily. When I was done, I hand-sanded the freshly routed edges, gently breaking their top corner and smoothing away any bit marks.

A Chubby Cubby

You are really making progress now! The cubby is a very basic bit of woodworking, as it is constructed with butt joints and dowels. Grab the panel you glued up earlier and sand it smooth, top and bottom.

At the table saw, cut it to the dimensions found in the Material List. Then cut two sides for the cubby, and you’re ready to put it together.

I had some 3/8″ walnut dowel left over from another project and thought it would add an interesting detail. When I clamped the sides to the cubby bottom, I drilled holes through the sides and, with a small bit of glue, drove the dowels through the sides into the ends of the bottom panel. I left it alone for the glue to cure. Once the joints were dry, I trimmed the dowels flush and then gave the cubby a complete sanding up through the grits.

To attach the cubby to the underside of the tabletop, I used long screws driven up through the width of the sides. The Screw Mounting Detail drawing shows a narrow hole bored into the edge of the side, and then two larger diameter holes on the top and bottom edges of the side.

The screws (#6 x 3″ trimheads) seat at the bottom of the 1/4″ opening and are driven up into the bottom face of the tabletop. You can also glue the cubby’s edges to the tabletop if you so desire, but I felt that the screws were more than strong enough.

I chose black steel legs from Rockler for this table. They screw onto the bottom of the tabletop and are very sturdy when installed. Drill pilot holes for the screws and install them with a drill/driver. Again, my choice of leg style is subjective. There are many different types of legs that would work with this tabletop. Should they be steel or wood, or even if you made the legs in your shop, that’s your choice and another way to customize this unique project.

I then applied a clear finish to this table. With all the different species of wood, it seemed a shame to change their natural color with stain. I applied a coat of sanding sealer, sanded it with fine grit paper and then finished with two top coats of polyurethane.

This project was fun to build, and I’ve found that it fits right into our home — kids and all.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

2″ x 25′ Pre-Glued Edge Banding, Cherry (1) #57121
16″ I-Semble Bent Flat Steel Legs with Adjustable Feet (1) #85560

The post PROJECT: Chevron Table appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Building the Cabinet Sides

Mark the leg bottoms for short tapers on both inside edges of each leg. These tapers begin 3″ up from the bottom ends and reduce their thickness to 1″ square at the “feet.” Cut them to shape using a tapering jig, either at the table saw or band saw.

Set the legs aside for now so you can rip 2″-wide workpieces for the rails and stiles of the side frames from 3/4″ stock. Here again, I used affordable poplar. While you’re at it, prepare lengths of rail-and-stile stock for the doors, too. Make sure these door frame parts are harvested from straight-grained lumber and are jointed flat. They’re large doors, and you don’t want the frames distorting, or the doors won’t close properly.

Install the stile bit in your router table, and mill the sticking profile along the inside edges of side frame and door frame stiles. Then repeat this process on the inside edges of all the side frame and door rail stock. Make sure to test the cut on a piece of scrap material first, to verify the router bit’s setting for accuracy.

Crosscut the side frame workpieces to final length. Note that in the Material List, the part lengths for the stiles include an additional 3/4″ to account for the coped joinery on their ends. Crosscut the door frame parts 1/8″ longer than listed for now. This way, you can trim the parts to final lengths when the doors are fitted to the cabinet’s exact opening.

Replace the stile bit with the rail bit in the router table, and adjust it accordingly so its height matches the sticking profile you routed on the stiles and rails. Mill the cope profile into the ends of the side frame stiles. Leave the rail bit in the router table and set up as is, but don’t cope the ends of the door frame rails now. Set the door frame parts aside. You won’t need them again until much later in the building process.

Cut the side frame panels to size from 1/4″ plywood or MDF. Make sure they fit the panel grooves of the stile cutter snugly. Sand the legs and side frame parts up through the grits to 120. Go ahead and glue the rails, stiles and panels together to form two side frames. Don’t worry that the panels need to “float” in their frames. They can be glued in place, because they aren’t made of solid wood, so they won’t need to expand and contract seasonally.

When the glue cures, it’s time to install a side frame between each pair of legs. I used five 6 x 40 Festool Dominoes per side of each side frame for this task, but you also could use Rockler’s Beadlock loose tenons or even dowel pins, if you prefer. Whichever method you choose, lay out the position of the frames on the legs so they’re set 1/4″ back from the outer leg faces to create pleasing shadow lines here. Mill mortises or dowel holes for the joints in the legs and along the long edges of the side frames, and assemble the sides of the cabinet with glue and whichever loose tenon or dowel solution you’ve chosen. Clamp the side subassemblies to close the glue joints.

Assembling the Carcass

Next, rip and crosscut a pair of upper and lower front rails to size, and determine how you plan to install them in the cabinet. I used single 8 x 50 Dominoes for these joints and cut their mortises now. Position these parts so the top front rail will be flush with the tops of the legs and the bottom front rail aligns with the starting points of the taper cuts. These rails are also flush with the front faces of the legs.

The back panel of this cabinet is made of 3/4″ plywood. You could also use MDF, but I opted for plywood because it’s much lighter in weight. Cut a blank for the back panel to size. A nice way to decorate a flat panel that will be painted is to add some V-grooves to it, simulating a traditional slatted back.

This back panel’s 32″ width makes those “slat” cuts easy to space apart at 4″ intervals. I laid out the pattern with a pencil and straightedge, then plowed 1/4″-deep grooves with a V-groove bit in a handheld router. If you do the same, guide the edge of the router’s subbase against a clamped straightedge to ensure the slat lines are perfectly straight and parallel with one another.

After that, I milled Domino mortises into the side edges of the back panel and followed with corresponding mortise cuts in the back legs. Position these so the back panel will be flush with the back faces of the legs. I also bored several screw pockets into the back face of the back panel to reinforce the long edge joints.

Finish-sand the back panel and sand the front upper/lower rails to 120-grit. Then dry-assemble the side frames, back panel and front rails to check the fit of these cabinet carcass components. While it’s clamped up, determine the range of settings for the cabinet’s two adjustable shelves, and mark the stiles of the side frames with shelf pin holes. I decided on seven holes, spaced 2-1/2″ apart, beginning 8″ down from the top of the side frames. Drill the shelf pin holes. Now, go ahead and glue and clamp the cabinet carcass together, making sure the overall assembly remains square when the clamps are tightened up. If you’ve added pocket screws to the back panel as I have, drive those 1-1/4″-long screws into place, too.

Next, cut a bottom panel to size from MDF or plywood. There’s a solid-wood edging strip that still needs to be glued to its front edge. This strip will hide the edge plies of the plywood or, if you use MDF instead, it will make the front edge of the MDF more abrasion-resistant. Make up this strip and glue it to the bottom panel’s front edge. Then lay out and cut notches in the four corners of the bottom panel so it will wrap around the legs. On all four corners, these notches should be 1″ deep where the bottom will fit against the back panel or bottom front rail but 3/4″ where it abuts the side frames. Sand the bottom panel smooth.

The bottom panel rests on two long and two short cleats, fastened to the bottom side frame rails, the bottom front rail and the back panel. Rip and crosscut these cleats to size from 3/4″ stock, and install them 1/4″ up from the bottom edges of the cabinet’s side and front bottom rails. The rear cleat installs flush with the bottom of the back panel. Glue and brad-nail or screw them into place, as you prefer. Then fit the bottom panel inside the cabinet on top of its cleats. Drive 18-gauge 1-1/2″ brad nails down through the bottom panel and into the cleats to secure it. Cover the nailheads with dabs of wood putty.

Next comes the top stretchers, so cut them to length and width. Notice in the Exploded View Drawing that the outside corners of the stretchers need to be notched to fit around the legs, so cut those 3/4″ x 1″ notches at the band saw or with a jigsaw.

The cabinet’s top panel will need to expand and contract across its width with changes in seasonal humidity. To account for this, I routed three 3/16″-wide x 3/8″-long slotted holes through the front stretcher, orienting these holes perpendicular to the stretcher’s length. That way, the cabinet’s top panel will still be able to expand or contract when screws are driven through these slotted holes. (The rear stretcher, however, can have typical round screw pilot holes instead, in order to hold the panel stationary along its back edge.)

Drill a series of screw pockets into the top faces of the top stretchers so you can attach them to the top front rail and the back panel with 1-1/4″ pocket screws. Spread glue along the contact edges of the stretchers, position them slightly below the top edges of the cabinet and clamp them in place. Drive in the pocket screws to secure the stretchers. (The reason for positioning the stretchers slightly below the top edges of the cabinet is so the top panel installation screws will pull it down tightly against the cabinet when they are driven through the stretchers.)

Adding Shelves and Doors

Glue up a panel of solid wood for the cabinet’s top panel. I used some clear cherry I had on hand, in order to contrast attractively with this cabinet’s sage-green painted finish and give the project some two-tone pizzazz. When the top panel’s glue joints cure, rip and crosscut it to final size, and ease its bottom ends and front edge with a chamfering bit in a handheld router. I sized these chamfer cuts to match the chamfered sticking profile on my rail router bit.

Next, make up the cabinet’s shelves from slightly oversized panels of solid wood. Again, I used cherry. When they come out of the clamps, rip and crosscut the shelves to final size. Notch all four corners so the shelves can fit around the inside corners of the legs, and test-fit them inside the cabinet with the shelf pins in place.

That leaves us with building the doors, so round up the door frame parts you made earlier. Determine the final length of the door rails, and crosscut them to size. When you make this calculation, keep in mind that it’s always better to start with doors that fit their openings tightly and trim or plane them to final size, rather than have the doors be too short or narrow for the cabinet opening to begin with. Head back to the router table so you can mill the cope profile into the ends of the door rails.

Dry-assemble the two door frames, and measure their interior openings for door panels. Cut two panels to these dimensions from 1/4″ plywood or MDF. Then finish-sand the rails, stiles and panels, and glue each door together.

When the doors come out of the clamps, carefully trim or plane them to final length and width. Allow for about 1/16″ of clearance between the top and bottom ends of the doors and the cabinet’s top and bottom front rails. Leave this same amount of spacing along the hinge edges of the doors and where the doors meet in the middle.

No-mortise hinges will make these doors easy to install. Start by attaching the bent “wrap-around” leaf of each hinge to the back of each door. I tend to align the top or bottom ends of hinge knuckles even with the inside edges of the door rails, as I have done here. Now lay the cabinet on its back and clamp a temporary spacer behind the top rail to act as a ledge so you can set the doors in the cabinet opening. Adjust them for even gaps all around. Carefully mark the locations of the flat “leg-side” hinge leaves on the inside leg faces. Then remove the doors and unscrew the hinges. Set the hinges into place on the legs, and mark the flat-leaf screw hole locations onto them. Fasten the hinges to the legs, driving a single screw into one of the slotted hinge leaf holes in each hinge for now. Attach the hinges to the doors again, and shift the hinges up or down on the legs to achieve an even gap above and below the doors. Once the gaps are dialed in, drive the rest of the leg-side hinge leaf screws.

With the doors hung, add a door catch to each door. The magnetic catch hardware I used has a bent-steel receiver piece that mounts to the bottom edge of the upper front rail. The magnetic component fastens to the inside top back corner of each door with screws.

Finishing Up with Several Finishes

Remove the doors, hinges and catches to prepare for painting. I applied two coats of General Finishes Basil Milk Paint to the cabinet’s carcass and doors with a foam roller and brush. The top panel and shelf received three coats of General Finishes Enduro-Var II water-based satin urethane finish, also applied with a roller. Give the paint and clear finish at least eight hours between coats to fully dry.

To add even more protection to the painted areas, I rolled on a coat of General Finishes’ new Dead Flat topcoat.

Once the finishing stage is behind you, set the top panel into place on the cabinet, adjusting it for an even 1″ overhang on the ends and front edge; it should be flush with the back of the cabinet. Attach it with wood screws driven up through the pilot holes in the back stretcher and the slotted holes in the front stretcher. I used 1-3/8″-long pocket screws here. Center the screws in the slotted holes.

Your last task is to drill a through hole in each door for the knob hardware you’ve chosen. I centered mine on the lengths of the doors. Then rehang the doors in the cabinet on their hinges. Choose heights for the shelves inside, and install them with shelf pins. Mount the door knobs on the doors with machine screws to complete this helpful and handsome storage project.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Oil Rubbed Bronze, Ball Tip, Partial Wrap-Around Hinge (2) #24720
Magnetic Catch For Inset Doors (2) #30546
Oil Rubbed Bronze Zachary Knob, 1-1/16″ (2) #52237

The post PROJECT: Shaker-inspired Cabinet appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Now, we all here recognize that this project is a bit aspirational for most woodworkers. Heck, you might only have one sander or very little money to spend. And judging by the very long list of components I’ve integrated into this unit, you might shake your head in disbelief. But my hope is that once I walk you through this project’s design, there might be a few features to tuck away in the back of your mind for when you DO need a sanding station of some sort. And I hope this project overview of mine encourages you to visit rockler.com for the almost astonishing variety of dust collection fittings and accessories you’ll find there. If you need a dust collection solution, whatever it might be, Rockler probably has it.

A Walk Through the Station’s Basic Construction

You’ll see my starting point: it’s an amalgam of Rockler’s Rock-Steady Shop Stand legs, four 28″ stretchers and six 44″ rails. (I used four long rails for the basic stand and an extra two longs rails serve as supports for the upper shelf that holds our downdraft table.)

The shelf is also a raceway of sorts for the 4″ and 2-1/2″ dust hoses that pass through it on the way to the station’s top. Both the upper and lower shelves are made of 3/4″ MDF, and so is a side wall I built for mounting a central “trunk line” of dust collection fittings on the station’s lower shelf.

The top surface of my sanding station is a piece of Rockler’s 1-1/2″-thick x 28″ x 40″ prefab hardwood butcher block, which I split in half, widthwise, on the table saw. Its 28″ width fits the top of the Rock-Steady stand perfectly, and the material is rigid enough not to need any intermediate cross supports underneath. One half of the butcher block serves as a “table” for our spindle sander.

If you look closely at the opening photo of this article, I surrounded the downdraft table on three sides with two layers of 3/4″ x 2″ MDF strips to create a flush surface the rest of the way around the top of the Rock-Steady stand. After laminating these MDF strips together, I simply screwed them and the butcher block section to the top stretchers of the stand with #6 x 3/4″ flathead wood screws, driven up from underneath.

The other half of the butcher block is on the opposite end of the station. It mounts to the project with brackets from Rockler’s new Rock-Steady Knock-Down Table Saw Outfeed Kit.

The kit’s folding, telescoping legs make it possible for us to extend the cart’s worktop length when we need to by tipping this section of the worktop up. It folds down for storage when we’re done sanding. I think it’s a handy addition!

In terms of the basic order of operations for assembling the project, after I had wrenched together the steel stand and installed oversized casters on its legs, I cut the two shelf panels to shape. The upper shelf needed a couple of large holes cut through it for the two dust hose sizes to pass through.

I located these holes quite a ways away from the bottom trunk line of dust collection to ensure that the bends in the hoses would be as broad and gentle as possible; I didn’t want to restrict airflow by bending the hoses any more severely than necessary. Also, I actually reversed the orientation of the two long upper shelf stretchers so that the shelf panel could nest down inside rather than sit on top of them.

With this shelf in place, the downdraft table’s height was just where I needed it to be: flush to the worktop’s surface. For both the 4″ and 2-1/2″ hoses, I used 90-degree elbows to help them change direction where they pass through the upper shelf.

The MDF wall on the bottom left end of the station went in next. It’s doubled up with a narrower piece on the inside face to provide a thicker attachment surface for the dust collection fittings. This shorter inner layer also offsets the dust collection assembly from the station’s steel legs enough so a 4″ Dust Right Quick Change Handle can plug straight into it.

After I had the shelves and wall installed, I added the tip-up portion of butcher block using the Outfeed Kit. Rockler provides thorough instructions for how to mount the hardware components of the kit and its legs, so follow those carefully.

The leg brackets attach to the worktop with machine screws that pass all the way through it. I was able to easily tackle drilling those holes with my drill/driver mounted on Rockler’s Portable Drill Guide and using a long twist bit. The drill guide ensures that holes will run straight through whatever you’re drilling.

Once you have one of these drill guides, you’ll be surprised by how often it can come to the rescue for drilling through workpieces that are two big or bulky to hulk over to the drill press. I countersunk the worktop bolt holes for the tapered heads of the machine screws so there’d be no chance of them marring anything we happen to be sanding.

Rockler Downdraft Table Panels

Prefabricated downdraft tables, such as the blue steel version shown in the opening photo, are just one option. You can also purchase only the perforated top panels and build a downdraft table yourself from sheet goods and a dust collection port.

These 6-3/4″x 16-1/2″ steel panels with rubber grommets offer a more economical, customizable solution to fit your sanding needs and budget.

A Menagerie of Dust Collection Fittings

The last 13 items of the “Hard to Find Hardware” box are all dust collection hoses, fittings, adapters and brackets for creating this sanding station’s dust collection trunk line. I’ve already covered how the 2-1/2″ and 4″ hoses pass through the upper shelf. The smaller hose terminates on top in an adapter dust port that’s mounted below the worktop on the left end of the spindle sander table. This port enables smaller power tool dust hoses to be connected to the 2-1/2″ main hose with Rockler’s new Click-Connect tool adapters. This makes it simple to use dust collection with any sander we’re using and to have no excuses for not keeping the work area as clean as possible. I think that’s one of the big reasons why we often don’t use dust collection — it can be a hassle to hook up quickly and easily. That’s not a problem with this setup.

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What about the components that form the dust collection trunk line down below? Well, that collection of fittings, adapters and sections of hose took a lot of figuring on my part. Because as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, one goal was to have all of the dust collection accommodations of this station be serviced by one 4″ dust collector. I also wanted the 2-1/2″ and 4″ hoses to be able to be used at the same time (for instance, to run a random-orbit sander and the downdraft table simultaneously) or to have the option of closing one or the other off when needed (say, to run just dust collection for the spindle sander or only the downdraft table when hand-sanding on top of it). Here’s how I did it. The two sizes of hose attach to a pair of side-by-side blast gates attached to the bottom shelf. The 4″ blast gate connects with a coupling to a 90-degree elbow, and a coupling in turn connects it to a 4″-to-2-1/2″ Y-connector.

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The smaller blast gate ports into this Y-connector with a short piece of 2-1/2″ hose. From there, the remaining 4″ end of the Y-connector has a short length of 4″ hose that feeds to an adapter piece from Rockler’s Quick Change Tool Set. That’s where we attach the sanding station to our dust collector. Several Rockler Ready-Mount 4″ Brackets secure these various parts to the station’s side wall with short screws. This integrated trunk line was worth the careful planning, because so far it’s serving our sanding needs well by helping to keep the dust at bay!

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Legs for Rockler Rock-Steady Shop Stands, 4-Pack, 28″H (1) #56980
Stretchers for Rockler Rock-Steady Shop Stands, 4-Pack, 28″L (1) #62379
Stretchers for Rockler Rock-Steady Shop Stands, 4-Pack, 44″L (2) #53469
Butcher Block Worktop, 40″L x 28″D x 1-1/2″ Thick (1) #61342
Rockler Rock-Steady Knock-Down Table Saw Outfeed Kit (1) #65575
Dust Right Downdraft Table (1) #57664
4″ 300-lb. Heavy Duty Stem-Mount Polyurethane Caster, Swivel with Total Lock Brake (4) #87643
Clear Flexible Dust Collection Hose – 2-1/2″ Diameter (1) #22784
Clear Flexible Hose – 10 Feet Long 4″ Diameter (1) #22791
Dust Right 4″ Quick Change Tool Set (1) #52594
Dust Right 4″ Mountable Dust Coupler (1) #58448
Dust Right Ready-Mount 4″-to-2 1/2″ Y-Connector (1) #66519
Dust Right Ready-Mount 4″ Mounting Brackets, 2-Pack (1) #65053
Dust Right Quick Connect 4″ Elbow (2) #34432
Rockler 4″ Dust Coupling (1) #27651
2-1/2″-to-2-1/2″ Ready-Mount Blast Gate (1) #69089
4″-to-4″ Ready-Mount Blast Gate (1) #65837
Dust Right Ready-Mount 2-1/2″ 90° Elbow (1) #62138
Dust Right Ready-Mount 2-1/2″ Mounting Brackets, Pair (1) #63960
Dust Right Click-Connect Upgrade Kit for FlexiPort Hose Kit (1) #61615

The post PROJECT: Ultimate Sanding Station appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Today, you can use spurtles for any number of kitchen tasks — as a stirring spoon for soups and stews, as a spatula for whisking batters or flipping pancakes or even as a knife for spreading toppings on your favorite bagel. Their uses are as wide open as your needs may be.

Along those lines, how you make a spurtle and what its final shape becomes is also up to you. There is no “right” way, and there is no “ideal” shape. The four sizes and styles you see here are my interpretation. But by all means, don’t be limited by what you see here. Part of the fun of making these is creating their shapes. And you may find that changing the design slightly makes a spurtle that reaches into the corners of a jar better or suits your sautéing or pancake-flipping just right. All the better!

Here’s my suggestion: After reading this article, grab a few pieces of 3/4″ scrap and practice the sawing and sanding process on material you’ll plan to just throw away or burn anyway. My first few attempts didn’t look great, but by the third try, I had a real “feel” for the shaping and sculpting process. I bet you will, too.

Reusable Templates

These spurtles are awfully handy in the kitchen, so don’t be surprised when friends and family ask you to make some — or you need a quick gift idea this holiday season! Why not make a permanent set of templates from 1/4″ plywood, so they’re always ready to trace whatever spurtle shape you need?

Download the Templates.

Routing the Slots

While you could use a router table and fence with a stop block to rout the three-slot pattern on a spurtle, the author opted to make a jig from scrap that traps the workpiece inside so he could rout it with a 1/4″ spiral bit in a handheld plunge router. The position and the length of the three slots is shown on the pattern.

Because router bases vary, and you may opt to make spurtles of different sizes than what’s shown here, we’re not providing the dimensions for this jig. Use it as a general guide for how slots can be cut if you choose this routing method.

My jig traps the spurtle workpiece between a fixed stop on either side and a square stop block on one end. The block serves both to help hold the workpiece down during routing and to limit the router’s travel on the handle end of the spurtle.

Taller fences on one side and end of the jig enable spacers to be inserted next to the spurtle to set the three locations and two lengths of the slot cuts.

This way, the spurtle workpiece can stay in the same position in the jig for the entire routing process.

The only thing that changes from cut to cut is which spacers are inserted to set up each slot cut. The author oriented the spurtle workpiece bottom-face up.

The two shorter slots were routed using the narrowest or widest side spacers in the jig, in tandem with two very narrow spacers positioned against the end fence and stop block.

The author routed these slots about 1/2″ deep, guiding the router base along the side spacer and feeding the router from left to right.

To mill the longer middle slot the thin end spacers were removed, and the middle-width side spacer was installed.

Band-sawing a Spurtle to Rough Shape

If you like my spurtle shapes, make the four templates and round up some 3/4″ stock. I used cherry, but any hard, close-grained wood is fine. Maple, birch or hickory all would be long-lasting options without an open grain structure that will be hard to keep clean. Trace the template shapes onto your workpieces, install a sharp blade on the band saw and carefully cut them to rough shape, just outside the layout lines. Sand the cut edges smooth.

The slotted style is the most involved of the options, so that’s what you see me making here. While the three slots in this spurtle are optional, they’re really handy for draining purposes. I routed those using a jig I made to a depth of about 1/2″ into the back face of the spurtle blank.

While you don’t see the slots in the first photo, they appear when you cut the top face of the flared paddle portion away. When I made this cut, it reduced the paddle to about 5/16″ thick, but again, that’s just a guide. It could be a bit thicker or thinner if you prefer. Keep the bottom face of the paddle flat. I did, however, cut the spurtle’s bottom front edge into a shallow beveled blade that extends back about 1-3⁄4″ along the bottom face. This edge will make it easier to scrape foods up.

Sculpting on a Sander

Here’s where the fun happens! Install an 80- or 100-grit belt on a stationary belt sander if you have one. An oscillating spindle sander could also work.

Sand the top and bottom faces of the paddle to smooth away the saw marks and to blend the front beveled edge into the bottom face.

It’s time to shape the handle into a round profile that’s comfortable to hold. I started by marking a centerline along the side and top of the handle, using a pencil and my finger as an index. I also drew a pair of parallel lines about 1/4″ in from the top and bottom faces of the handle to give me guides for how much material to remove.

Then, sanding a little material away at a time, I began to sculpt the handle by sweeping it along the belt in broad, angled strokes. My goal was to remove the handle’s hard edges, shape it from a wider bulb at the end into a narrower gripping area in the middle and to blend the handle into the paddle without hard transition lines.

The best way to understand how to do this shaping work is to just dive in on your scrap piece and try it for yourself. Your goal is to continue to remove wood until the handle slopes up smoothly from the paddle, is curved in all respects and feels comfortable in your hand. I kidded with our staff that you just keep taking off wood until it looks like a spurtle!

I also sanded away the bottom edges of the paddle’s perimeter, rolling those areas up into the top face. You’ll know when the shape is right enough for you and that you’ve tended to all the surfaces that need to be smoothed, softened and blended together. Just keep sizing it up as you work, and take your time.

Finishing Up

Spurtles should get used, so I applied a simple oil/wax finish for butcher blocks. That way, I can just wipe on another coat whenever it’s needed. And that should be often, because I’m finding that these are pretty nifty gadgets to have around the kitchen!

The post PROJECT: Kitchen Spurtles appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Because of this support, augmented with adjustable hold-downs, crosscutting is safer, especially for workpieces too small for a miter gauge. If you add a T-track flip stop on the rear fence, effortless repeatability will be built in.

Material and Sizing

You can use any engineered sheet material — solid wood is too prone to warping — with 3/4″ Baltic birch plywood typically being the go-to stock for sleds. Regular ply and MDF are other options.

For rigidity, the front and rear fences should be thick. They’ll hold the sled together after it’s essentially sliced in half. Here, we’ll laminate two pieces of 3/4″ ply together for 1-1/2″ thick fences.

This sled’s 3/4″ base is thick enough to incorporate T-tracks for hold-downs, but if you’d prefer a lighter, more basic sled without T-tracks, you might opt for 1/2″ plywood for the base instead.

Sleds can be any size. If you only do small work like decorative boxes or chessboards, a small sled will do the job and is easy to use and store. If you regularly crosscut wide or long stock, such as half-sheet plywood, make a bigger one. Proportions are totally up to you. I’ve based this sled on one of the most commonly available sizes of Baltic birch plywood — 24″ x 30″ — which results in a sled with a crosscut capacity of 22-1/2″.

Getting Started

First, check your rip fence for alignment. Even though the finished sled rides in your table saw’s miter slots, we’ll use the rip fence during its construction. Make sure it’s parallel to the blade for precise cutting here.

There are three main components to the sled — the base and two fences — so start by cutting these to size. We’ll cover a fourth component, a rear-mounted safety guard block, later.

With the four 3/4″ fence workpieces cut to size, glue and clamp them together into two pairs. Baltic birch plywood has minimal edge voids, but they do occur. Check the plywood workpieces and note any voids with a pencil. Try to orient these pieces so voids don’t show. I found one on the rear fence, indicated by an arrow in the top right photo. No problem; I’ll eliminate it when adding a rabbet for the T-track.

Kerf Considerations

For most table saw sleds, the main kerf is generally located at the center, leaving equal sled surfaces on each side. But that’s not a hard-and-fast rule. Depending on how you work, your most-common crosscut chores may involve repeatedly cutting a particular-sized piece of stock or making certain parts regularly. Likewise, you may want to construct a sled specifically for a type of project you do frequently. In those cases, you may find that having the kerf offset to the right or left side of the sled is more useful. This is perfectly fine, and it’s a good example of how versatile these sleds can be.

Fences, Rabbets and Dadoes

Cut a 3/4″-wide by 3/8″-deep rabbet on the top back edge of the rear fence to accommodate a T-track for a flip stop. A 3/4″-wide dado set installed in your table saw handles this with ease, or you could use a router.

The front fence requires a groove for a clear acrylic blade cover. There can be a bit of variance in acrylic thicknesses; I’ve used nominal 1/4″-thick acrylic here, which is actually closer to 0.22″. To get that fence groove’s width right, cut the acrylic first so it can be test fit.

You can cut acrylic a couple of ways, but for this thickness I’ve had the best success with a jigsaw. Use the finest-tooth blade you have, and dial down the jigsaw’s orbital action all the way. If your acrylic still has the peel-off covering, leave it in place. If not, cover the face with masking tape to prevent scratches.

As is common with jigsaw cuts, edges probably won’t be perfectly straight and smooth, but you can flatten them just like a thin board on your jointer. Lower the cutterhead for a minimal cut and take multiple passes to ensure a clean, chip-free edge. Set the acrylic aside.

Take a moment to check all components before final cutting and assembly. Verify that the T-track fits on the rear fence, and measure and lay out locations for miter bars and T-tracks on the base. Note in the upper photo, below, that I’ve used the narrower rear fence itself to pencil a line at the exact height of the acrylic guard on the wider front fence.

Before changing out that dado cutter, mill the dadoes for the base T-tracks. I’ve designed this sled so the kerf is dead-center. I placed the marked-up top on my table saw and aligned it for that center kerf. Then I marked the base for the miter bar locations first, followed by the location of the T-tracks on the other side, being sure the tracks wouldn’t be right over the miter slots.

Not all miter slots are in the same place on all table saws, so the location of your T-tracks may be different. For my saw, I could place the T-tracks 3-1/2″ from each side of the blade kerf without interfering with the screws holding the miter bars on the base’s bottom face.

With the T-track locations determined, use that 3/4″ dado set to cut dadoes 3/8″ deep into the base’s top face. Now adjust the dado cutter to 3/4″ high, and cut a rabbet along the bottom edge of the front fence so it can fit over the front edge of the sled’s base.

Swap out the dado cutter for your regular blade to cut the groove for the clear acrylic guard. To do this, set your saw’s rip fence to 3″ and cut a 1/2″-deep groove the length of the front fence. Gradually move the fence in steps to widen the groove, and use the cut acrylic piece to check the groove’s width after each pass. Aim for a snug fit.

Use the Front Fence Drawing to lay out the curved shapes on the fence blank, and cut the profiles on the band saw. There are some tight inside curves, so you may need to clear those out with relief cuts. Refine and smooth the shape with a spindle or orbital sander.

Installing Bars and Tracks

Now set and lock your saw’s freshly squared rip fence so it can serve as a stop for centering the sled base on the saw.

To attach the miter bars, we’ll use a combination of glue and screws. This is a good time to check the proper length of screws to avoid one coming through the other side. For 3/4″ plywood and the Rockler aluminum miter bars used here, #6 x 1″ flathead screws work well, but always check. Do the same thing with the T-tracks inside their dadoes. For those, I found that #6 x 1/2″ flatheads work best, but it will exceed the depth of the 3/8″ dadoes. Rather than bump down to a shorter screw, which would have smaller threads, I ground off the tips of the 1/2″ screws instead.

Lightly score the top (contact) surface of the bars. I used a rotary tool with a small sanding drum; coarse sandpaper or a file also works fine. Scoring gives the glue a better gripping surface on the smooth aluminum bars.

While we’ll go easy on the glue, apply masking tape along the sides of each miter slot anyway to protect the table. Now place some spacers in the slots — dimes are ideal — to raise the tops of the miter bars slightly above the table and align the miter bars with the back edge.

Run a line of glue along the entire length of the scored surface of the miter bars. I brushed on some 15-minute epoxy, but you can also use cyanoacrylate (CA) glue. I placed some tiny rare-earth magnets in the slots against the ends of the bars to keep them from moving.

With the edge of the sled base held against the saw’s rip fence and aligned with the back edge of the saw table, lower it onto the bars. Weigh down the sled until the glue sets; gallon paint cans work great.

When the glue cures, flip the sled over onto your work surface. The epoxy I used is probably plenty strong by itself, but I also used a self-centering bit to drill pilot holes through the bars’ countersunk holes and added those #6 x 1″ screws mentioned earlier.

Now, flip the sled upright to install the T-tracks. (We’ll remove them later for final tweaks and finishing.) Drill pilot holes and drive in the shortened #6 x 1/2″ screws. After driving each screw, check the underside of the base to ensure it hasn’t come through. If it has, remove it, shorten it a bit more, then reinsert. Because the plywood is thin here, even if the screw hasn’t come through, you may get a veneer “dimple” on the underside of the base. Just sand these smooth.

Bringing Everything Together

Begin final assembly by gluing and clamping the front fence into place. This rabbet joint is very strong, but add a couple of 2″ screws driven from underneath for extra insurance.

At your table saw, place the sled into its slots. Cut the main kerf across the base with your standard blade set to 0 degrees, but stop short of the rear edge by a couple of inches to keep that back edge intact for setting the rear fence.

A sled is worthless if it doesn’t cut squarely, so set and install the rear fence carefully. You can do this with a lot of test cutting and math, but I’ve had success with an easier method. First, align the fence on the back edge of the base and clamp the parts at both ends. Drill a pilot hole up from underneath at the right corner, and countersink a 2″ screw to secure that one end only. Loosen the clamp on the left corner.

Slip a length of hardboard or other thin material into the center kerf so it’s standing up. If it’s loose, a layer or two of clear packing tape will snug it up. Use a reliable square to adjust the fence perfectly flush along the square and this reference piece in the kerf, and then tighten the left clamp. Add another clamp in the center of the rear fence, making sure it’s still square to the kerf.

Now drill a pilot hole up from underneath on the left corner, and drive in a countersunk screw. Remove the clamps and recheck for square again, just to make sure nothing moved. If all is good, countersink two more screws evenly along the fence’s length to secure it.

The rear fence isn’t glued into place for a reason: after prolonged use, the fence may go out of square. If so, remove all screws except the one on the right corner, recalibrate the fence for squareness, and redrill and drive new holding screws from underneath.

When using a sled, the blade will, of course, exit the back of the fence. Adding a guard block keeps the blade contained to offer added protection.

The guard block is a “sandwich” of four 3-3/4″ x 4″ plywood rectangles, glued and clamped together. When the glue joints dry, use a sanding block to round over all edges except on the front. Now, center and glue the block to the back of the rear fence, but don’t put glue on the bottom 3/4″ where the base edge is. I’ve slipped some construction paper underneath the block. This will add a tiny bit of clearance to reduce table friction and protect the cast iron from any glue squeeze-out.

Smooth Sledding

The sled is complete and ready for finishing, but there’s one last tweak. To easily insert and remove hold-down bolts, you’ll need a small access gap at the front of the T-tracks. For the T bolts on my hold-downs, a gap of about 1″ worked well, which I got by removing the T-tracks and shortening them at the front by 11⁄2″. Your hold-downs may differ slightly, so use your bolts to gauge the gap you need, and shorten the fronts by that much.

While the T-tracks are out, give the entire sled several coats of the finish of your choice. Polyurethane is a good option; the smooth surface it gives the underside of the sled can be waxed to decrease friction on the saw.

When the finish is cured, set the T-tracks back into place and screw them down, add a pair of hold-downs to the base, and slide the flip stop into the rear fence track. Now, slip the clear acrylic guard into the slot on the front fence, then center and drill a 1/4″ hole through the guard so it’s over the rear track. Use a 1″ hex bolt and star knob to secure the clear guard at the back. You should try to use the sled with that clear blade guard in place all the time, but for occasions where you need to slide the flip stop closer to the kerf, or for ease of placing large stock into the sled, it can easily be removed with a twist of that star knob, then replaced for future cuts again.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Universal T-Track 2 Ft. (2) #22104
Universal T-Track 3 Ft. (1) #26420
Rockler Aluminum Miter Bar 24″ (2) #26232
Rockler 3″ Fence Flip Stop (1) #26991
Rockler Bit-Saver Hold Down Clamps (1) #63688
Rockler Easy-to-Grip 4-Star Knob (1) #59277

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For me, the choice of a twin-size bed was a no-brainer for a couple of reasons. First, the room the bed was destined for would have been overwhelmed by a full- or queen-size bed. They would have fit, but a lot of furniture would have needed to be moved each time the bed was lowered. And second, the orientation of this bed leaves enough open wall above it that you could hang a flat-screen TV there if you like. It’s a good use of space!

Getting Started

I selected birch plywood for the sheet stock components and maple hardwood for the solid-wood pieces. It is important to use plywood in this construction; MDF or particleboard, while perhaps less expensive, just will not hold up to this use and could eventually become unsafe. The hardwood was used primarily for the interior components.

I got started ripping the plywood workpieces to the dimensions found in the Material List. I followed the cutting diagrams and the step-by-step instructions provided by the hardware manufacturer.

In fact, I cut every piece on the list to size before I got busy assembling them. I know that’s often not a good idea when building a project — typically it’s better to measure and cut parts as you need them to adjust for little deviations here and there, but these part sizes worked out perfectly. I was also careful to mark exactly which piece was which so that I would not get confused later.

Next, I laid out and bored a 5/8″-diameter hole 1/2″ deep on each side rail before forming their front curved shapes at my band saw. If you don’t have a band saw, a handheld jigsaw with a fine-toothed blade would also work well.

Hardware is the Key

I took some time at this point to become familiar with the hardware. As I mentioned earlier, old-style Murphy beds were often haphazard affairs with some real problems stemming from the use of hardware not created specifically for this sort of functionality. Using this kit from Create-A-Bed changes all that.

Even so, it’s important that this hardware is mounted accurately to the locations provided in the Create-A-Bed instructions. Take the time now to install the hardware as directed, and then remove it. You will reinstall it after you have applied your finish. The only hardware not supplied in the kit are 1-1/4″ and 1-1/2″ screws I used to join the 3/4″ components together.

With that in mind, I used Titebond II glue to strengthen the screw joints where possible. There is a fair bit of stress when operating the bed, so don’t skimp on secure joinery. I also took the time to apply iron-on edge banding to conceal the plywood edges where those would show.

One of the aspects I really liked about this project was that when I had the components cut to their proper dimensions, it went together quickly, like those Erector Set constructions I once made as a kid. I just started assembling the pieces, beginning with the bed frame.

I did not have a work surface large enough for the whole bed frame assembly, so I put a piece of plywood on the floor and assembled the parts there instead. The flat surface kept everything well-aligned. I chose wood screws and glue rather than finishing nails to assemble the frame struts. There’s nothing difficult about the bed frame’s basic butt-joint construction.

The last big construction task is assembling the bed cabinet. There are a few pretty big pieces in this assembly, and I found it helpful to have a friend hold them at times during the process.

Again, I did not skimp on screws and glue. I mounted the hardware to these pieces before assembly, as recommended, and then I removed the hardware as before. Create the header subassembly.

When all the woodworking was done, I applied three coats of Watco Natural oil finish to them. Once it fully cured, I reinstalled the hardware and got ready to put the whole thing together.

Final Assembly and Installation

Assemble the pieces in the room in which the bed will be located. Start out by attaching the mattress retaining straps to the bed frame. With the bed frame laying on the floor (see the instructions), slide the cabinet verticals into the pivot holes on the bed frame.

Attach the headboard to the verticals. With the bed frame still on the floor, stand the vertical subassembly up. Attach the header subassembly to the vertical subassembly with glue and screws. Place the bed cabinet a couple of feet from the wall mounting location.

Now it’s time to attach the gas springs to the bed cabinet, as directed in the manufacturer’s instructions. You’ll swing the bed frame inside the cabinet past vertical to attach the gas springs. When that’s done, pull the bed out of the cabinet and screw the bed stops in place. Push the bed back into position on the wall and check to make certain the bed frame and cabinet are square.

It’s critical at this point to secure the bed to the wall with appropriate fasteners. I used 3″ cabinet screws driven into the wall studs through the header’s rear rail. These screws must be driven into the walls studs. If you have a hard time locating wall studs on your installation wall, verify the framing with a stud finder. You want to be certain every screw is driven into solid 2x framing members.

Now’s the time to add decorative features to the front of the bed, if that’s your preference. I did little to modify the cabinet or bed frame with extra ornamentation, but that is always an option. (You can find some really creative treatments for hideaway beds like this on the Internet.) But be sure to plan where the handles will go first, because you will need them.

Place the handles as directed by the instructions. The weight of a mattress helps the bed open and close smoothly. Just be aware that there will be a bit of wrestling with the hardware until the mattress is in place. Secure the mattress to the frame with straps to wrap up construction.

This Murphy bed was fun to build. Adding another bed to a room without needing to dedicate it as a bedroom can be very practical. Perhaps your house or cabin could benefit from this fun space-saving project, just as mine will!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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