– John Antone
Springfield, Oregon

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– Jim Wilson
San Marcos, Texas

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-Serge Duclos
Delson, Quebec

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-Charles Mak
Calgary, Alberta

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This wide variety of applications cannot only require different wood species but also even wood at various stages of seasoning. “Seasoning” simply means the movement of water out of a piece of harvested lumber. Freshly harvested wood that has a high moisture content is called “green.” This term has nothing to do with the wood’s color. Fully seasoned wood is said to be at a state of equilibrium, but even dried wood with a finish applied to it remains hygroscopic, which means it can absorb moisture from the air.

Over time, woodworkers have developed techniques to both minimize the effect of wood movement and take advantage of seasoning or a lack of it. Frame-and-panel construction, for example, was specifically created to accommodate wood’s seasonal cross-grain expansion and contraction.

Green Can Be Good

Once wood is fully seasoned or cured, it looses flexibility and tends to hold its shape stubbornly. We depend on this in woodworking. The last thing we want is a desktop or table that sways or easily bends under a load. Unseasoned green wood will almost always lead to disaster when it’s used for building fine furniture. As it dries, the wood shrinks, which can cause joints to open. The stock can also distort in a number of ways … none of them good.

But green wood has its advantages in some cases. Wood with a high moisture content is much easier to cut and shape than very dry wood. This is a big benefit when you are working with hand tools, as the softer tissue structure requires less muscle power to manipulate. So old-fashioned tasks like making wooden shoes or utensils were always done with green wood.

Uses for Green Wood

Green wood turns very easily, speeding the turning process up considerably. Woodturners take advantage of that fact when turning bowls and even spindles, if the blanks were riven from a log segment.

While the turner is working with green wood, they must decide whether they will be okay with the changes in a bowl’s appearance as it dries and becomes more oval-shaped. If not, turners will “rough out” the bowl, set it aside to allow it to come to equilibrium and then complete the turning process.

Stool and chair builders will sometimes take advantage of green wood by mounting legs that are fully seasoned into sockets on chair or stool seat blanks made of green wood. As the wood of the seat shrinks, the leg sockets become tighter and more secure. (This technique, of course, can go considerably wrong if the green seat board happens to split as it dries.)

Ancient ship builders (and even some modern ones) used green lumber to make their boats, because it could be bent to form hulls and was more easily shaped by muscle power. Wood carvers and craftspeople who make treenware (wooden vessels or products used for food preparation or serving) also rely on green wood. So did bodgers (traditional forestbased woodturners) who turned table and chair legs from unseasoned wood.

Timber framers often choose green lumber, too. Since no kiln drying is involved, large planks and timbers are less expensive. Rustic furniture is another area where green lumber often makes good sense. The thick stock often used in this type of furniture does not distort easily as it seasons, and the joinery is usually not exacting. And just as green lumber is great for hand carving, it’s also a fine choice for power carving — a specialty that’s becoming more popular these days.

Throwing a Curve

Steam bending wood has been around a long time, thanks to the flexibility of green wood. It’s an ideal technique for making skis, sled runners, rockers, coat hooks and much more. To bend wood with steam or heat, your stock should never be kiln dried. Unseasoned wood will bend most reliably if its moisture content is 20 percent or even more!

These days, most woodworking is done with kiln-dried lumber, and with good reason. It is the product that best suits our “flat-andstraight” woodworking tasks. But there are times when green lumber is actually still the better choice.

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Building the Cabinet Carcass

This cabinet’s side panels will join to the carcass top and bottom panels with rabbets, and its upper and lower shelves will fit into dadoes in the side panels. To ensure that this side panel joinery matches and that the other components will fit into the rabbets and dadoes squarely, it helps to make both side panels from a single piece of plywood to begin with. So rip and crosscut a 24″-wide x 29-3/4″-long panel to size.

Load a wide dado blade in your table saw to cut the top and bottom rabbets into this combined side panel. Raise the blade to 1/2″ above the saw table, and install a sacrificial fence facing on your rip fence so you can bury the dado blade partially into it. Adjust the rip fence so the blade projects the same distance out from the fence facing as the thickness of the plywood you’re using for the project. (These days, it typically will measure about 23/32″ thick, but to my surprise, the Baltic birch I used happened to be a full 3/4″ thick.)

Make a test cut on a piece of scrap to ensure that the dado blade is set correctly, then carefully mill a rabbet across the inside face of the plywood panel on both ends.

Next, plow a pair of 1/4″-deep dadoes across the same face of the plywood. Locate these dadoes 5-5/8″ and 11-1/4″ up from one end of the plywood panel. These will house the upper and lower shelves, so their width should match the plywood thickness you’re using. To mill these dadoes, I used a 3/4″-dia. straight bit and a shop-made jig with a slot that fits a 1″ O.D. guide bushing for a handheld router. When clamped in place, the jig ensures that the dadoes will be perfectly straight. But, you could also adjust the width of your table saw dado blade and cut them that way instead, if you prefer.

With the joinery now milled, switch to a regular saw blade in the table saw so you can rip each carcass side panel to 11-3/4″ wide. Rip and crosscut two 11-3/4″-wide x 24-3/4″-long plywood panels to size for the carcass top and bottom panels, too.

Finish-sand the inside faces of the sides, top and bottom to 180-grit. Then spread glue along the rabbets of the side panels, insert the top and bottom panels into them and carefully clamp up the cabinet carcass. Be careful not to overtighten the clamps. Check the assembly for square by measuring from corner to corner diagonally. The measurements should match, confirming that the assembly is square. I reinforced these rabbet joints with a few 1-1/4″-long, 18-gauge brad nails driven through the carcass sides and into the ends of the top and bottom panels.

Follow the Material List, and measure off of your actual cabinet, to cut accurately sized workpieces for the upper and lower shelves, upper and lower blocking, a pair of narrow cleats and the lower back panel.

Spread glue over one face of each lower blocking piece, and install each to opposite inside back corners of the cabinet at the bottom. Make sure the top ends of the blocking are flush with the bottoms of the dadoes for the upper shelf and do not obstruct them. Reinforce these connections with a few brad nails to hold the blocking in place while the glue dries.

Now finish-sand the front “show” face of the lower back panel and slide it into position in the cabinet, flush against the front edges of the lower blocking. Secure it near its ends by driving 1-1/4″ brad nails through its face and into the front edges of the lower blocking pieces.

Slide the upper shelf into its dadoes until its front edge is flush with the front edges of the cabinet. If it fits well, remove it so you can sand its faces smooth, then install it with some glue spread into the dadoes. I drove 1-1/4″ brads through the cabinet sides and into the ends of the shelf. I also pinned the shelf to the lower back panel by brad-nailing down through it into the back panel’s top edge.

The upper blocking pieces and cleats form two L-shaped assemblies with the face of a cleat butting against one long edge of each blocking piece. Glue and screw these parts together with their ends aligned. Then install them inside the cabinet above the lower blocking with glue and brads. Be sure the cleats face forward toward the upper shelf and the back edges of the blocking are flush with the cabinet back.

Check the fit of the lower shelf in its dadoes, and finish-sand its faces. Glue and nail it into place, driving brads through the lower back panel into its back edge as well as through the cabinet sides and into the shelf ends.

Adding French Cleats and Edging

A pair of French cleats will mount this cabinet to the wall. Rip and crosscut 4″ x 22-1/4″ plywood blanks for them, then tilt your table saw blade to 45 degrees so you can bevel-rip one edge of each cleat to shape. When installed, the bevels on these cleats should be oriented toward the cabinet’s interior and down toward the cabinet bottom. I attached my French cleats to the cabinet with pocket-screw joints. Install one cleat flush against the top inside back of the cabinet. I located the top flat edge of the other cleat 9″ up from the cabinet bottom. Its back face should also be flush with the cabinet back.

Solid wood edging will hide the front edges of the cabinet carcass to give it a more finished look. I prepared six strips of long and short edging from solid maple. When gluing each one in place, you can hold the edging securely with several strips of wide painter’s tape pulled over the joints instead of using clamps. Install the long edging strips first, keeping their edges and ends carefully aligned with the cabinet carcass. Then attach four short pieces to the front edges of the carcass top and bottom and to the shelves. Carefully measure and cut these to length so their ends form tight butt joints with the long edging. When the glue dries, sand or plane any overhanging areas of this edging flush with the cabinet edges, then finish-sand the cabinet’s side and bottom exterior.

You could make the top panel of the cabinet either from plywood banded with solid wood or from a piece of solid wood. I chose the latter and glued up a blank of 3/4″-thick maple that measured 12-3/4″ x 27-1/4″. After sanding its top face, edges and ends smooth, I installed it with six #8 x 1-1/4″ screws near the front and back corners of the cabinet’s top interior and in the middle. The back three screws were driven into round pilot holes, as usual. I installed the front three screws into slotted pilot holes instead, with the slots oriented front-to-back on the cabinet’s interior top panel. This way, the maple top can expand and contract forward or backward as needed with changes in humidity, but its rear edge (against the wall) will remain fixed in place.

Making Removable Panels and Doors

There are still two more plywood upper back panels to make. You’ll want these to be about 1/16″ shorter and narrower than necessary so they’ll slip into place easily above the upper shelf and be just as painless to remove someday, should you ever decide to add or change battery chargers. Cut the panels to size, and sand their “show” faces smooth.

The key to running cords through these upper panels is to drill a series of 3/8″-dia. holes along the panel edges. I bored three along the center seam between the panels using a sharp brad-point bit and clamping the panels edge-to-edge to minimize tearout around the holes. Then I rearranged the panels to drill three more holes along their top and bottom edges, creating six semicircles along the top and bottom of this panel assembly. You can drill as many holes as you like and wherever they are most convenient, based on the number of chargers you plan to use in your cabinet and where their cords will need to be located for easiest installation. Once the holes are drilled, set these panels aside.

The cabinet doors for this project are about as simple to build as any door can be. Mill stock for the four stiles and four rails to 3/4″ thick, then cut the door parts to final size. I purchased a 24″ x 36″ sheet of clear acrylic for my doors from a local home center. It measured 0.22″ thick. Carefully cut a 3/8″-deep, centered groove along one edge of each rail and stile to fit the acrylic you choose. I did this with a flatop-toothed ripping blade at the table saw in two cuts, flipping the workpieces end-for-end between cuts to ensure that the grooves would be centered on the part thicknesses.

Once the grooves are cut, install a wide dado blade in your table saw again to raise a stub tenon on each end of the rails. Experiment on a test piece when setting the blade height, in order to create tenons that are just thick enough to form a good friction fit in the grooves of the stiles. With that dialed in, mill the tenons on rail ends to 3/8″ long.

Dry fit the two door frames together so you can measure the width and length of the panel openings from the bottoms of their grooves. Cut an acrylic panel to fit each door at your band saw or with a triple-chip blade in your table saw. Then glue and clamp the door frames together with the acrylic in place. When the joints dry, sand the door faces smooth.

The power strip’s cord will need to pass through the bottom of the cabinet. I bored a 2-1/2″-dia. hole through my cabinet to accommodate Rockler’s plastic grommet, which will give this pass-through hole a tidier appearance for the cord.

Before hanging the doors, now is a good time to go ahead and apply a protective topcoat to the entire project. I brushed on several coats of a satin, water-based polyurethane.

Hanging the Doors and Finishing Up

Full overlay 120-degree “Euro” hinges are a simple option for hanging these cabinet doors. I marked locations for the hinges 3″ in from the top and bottom ends of the cabinet, then transferred those layout lines to the backs of the doors. Rockler’s JIG IT plastic Hinge Cup Drilling Jig made it simple to set my drill press fence accurately to bore a pair of 35 mm holes into the back of each door for the hinges’ cups.

Mount the cupped side of the hinges to the doors with their supplied screws, making sure the hinge arms are perpendicular to the door stiles. A second JIG IT jig enabled me to locate the “cabinet side” holes for the hinge hardware easily in order to drill pilot holes for the hinge screws. Fasten the hinges to the cabinet to hang the doors. Adjust the hinges with their set screws so the doors swing easily and have even reveals between one another and the cabinet top. Once you’re satisfied, install a pair of pulls on the inner door stiles to complete them.

There’s not much left to do on our project! Snap the plastic grommet into place and install a power strip inside the lower concealed compartment behind the lower back panel. Choose the chargers you’ll want to hang on the upper back panels so you can install the necessary screws to mount them on their T-slots. Set the chargers into place in the cabinet, and thread their cords through the back-panel holes. I used 1-1/4″ washerhead pocket screws to fasten the upper back panels to the cabinet cleats. Their large, exposed screwheads hint that these panels can be removed when necessary, down the road.

You’ll need to make up two more French cleats to mount your cabinet to the wall. Then choose a location in your shop where these cleats can be attached to two wall studs and where there’s an outlet close by. Set the upper French cleat — bevel facing the wall and upward — so the cabinet will be a comfortable height for you. Attach it with four 3″ screws driven into the wall studs. Mount the top beveled edge of the second cleat 20″ below the beveled edge of the first cleat.

Set the cabinet into position on the wall, and push it down to engage the interlocking cleats. Then plug in the power strip and load this handy project up with batteries. Now enjoy the fact that your tool batteries will always be charged up and at the ready when you need them!

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

3/4″ Baltic Birch Plywood, 24″W x 30″L (4) #GRP40632_4
Full Overlay Blum 120° Clip Top Snap Close Hinges (2) #55793
JIG IT Hinge Cup Drilling Jig, 5mm Tab (1) #58488
JIG IT Hinge Plate Template A (1) #50375
#6 Self-Centering Bit (1) #68991
Stainless Steel Metropolitan Bar Pull, 5-1/4″ (2) #24418
2-1/2″ Standard Plastic Grommet, Brown (1) #51100

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Forming the Uprights and Supports

Get this project underway by face gluing 1-1/2″-thick stock together to make up two blanks for the uprights that measure 2-3/4″ wide by 75-1/2″ long. Laminate a third 1-1/2″ -thick blank for the supports, and size it to 2-3/4″ x 36″ long.

When these blanks come out of the clamps, step over to your miter saw and swivel it to 15 degrees. Miter cut the support blank in half to form an angled end on each of the two support workpieces.

Then trim both ends of the long upright blanks to 15 degrees as well, orienting these angled ends parallel to one another. Swivel your miter saw back to 0 degrees again so you can crosscut the supports to their final 16-3/4″ length.

With that done, it’s time to mark and trim the top ends of the uprights to another 15-degree angle so they’ll rest against the wall correctly. To lay that cut out, make a mark 67-5/8″ up from the bottom inside corner of each upright. Lay out the cutting line on each upright using the angled end of one of the supports and a combination square.

Mark these steep angle cuts, and cut off the waste pieces at the band saw or with a jigsaw. Set one of the wedged offcuts aside, and sand the cut edges of the uprights smooth.

While any stout, loose-tenon joinery will work to attach the angled ends of the supports to the back edges of the uprights, I opted for 10 x 55 mm Festool Dominoes and cut a single joint for connecting each upright to a support.

Laying Out and Milling Dadoes

Dry fit the supports and uprights together to form two subassemblies, then I measured off the supports with a combination square and a tape measure to locate the positions of the 30″ and 44″ dadoes on the uprights.

Here’s where the wedge-shaped scrap you set aside will come in handy. I first used the scrap’s angle-cut edge as a reference for positioning my ruler so I could step off each of the four 3/4″-wide dado locations, spacing them 1″ apart.

Then I attached a straight scrap to the short end of the offcut to form a guide for drawing the dadoes across the uprights at their correct angle.

Now load a 3/4″-wide dado blade in your table saw and raise it to 1/2″. With your miter gauge swiveled to 15 degrees left or right as needed, carefully plow the four dadoes in each upright.

Assembling the Desk Frame

Follow the Material List to cut the upper rail, shelf and footrest to size. I used a flexible batten to draw the front curve on the shelf. Cut that to shape, too. Sand these parts smooth. Go ahead and glue the uprights to the supports with their loose tenons in place. When those joints cure, sand the two subassemblies smooth.

Now mark the ends of the upper rail and footrest for a pair of loose-tenon joints. Lay out the corresponding locations for these joints on the uprights and supports. Position these parts so the top edge of the upper back rail is 7/8″ down from the top ends of the uprights and the footrest is flush with the back ends of the supports and 1/2″ down from their top edges. Mill the eight mortises for these joints — I decided to use the same 10 x 55 mm domino sizes here, too. Next, fasten the upper rail to the back edge of the shelf with screws so the shelf aligns with the rail’s bottom edge. Then glue and install loose tenons in all the mortises to bring the upright/supports, upper rail/shelf and footrest together to complete the desk frame.

Making the Two Desk Panels

Each of the desk’s two panels consist of 3/4″ plywood banded with 1″-wide solid-wood edging on the sides and 1/2″-wide edging on the front. Make up these panel blanks, and glue the edging to them so the front edging overlaps the side edging. Sand the panels smooth.

The drop-down front end of the lower desk panel is 7-1/2″ wide, so take that panel to your table saw and crosscut the front piece free. Then trim this front panel’s side edging from 1″ down to 7/16″ wide so it will fit between the uprights when it’s lowered. I applied peel-and-stick veneer edge banding to hide the panel’s exposed plywood edges.

Next, set the desk frame into place against a wall so you can complete the upper desk panel. Notice in the Exploded View Drawing that a couple of stops still need to be added to the side edging of the upper desk panel.

Slide the panel into the highest dadoes, and make up an 18″-long strip of 1″-wide stock for the stops. Bevel cut its ends to 15 degrees. Hold the angled ends in place against the supports to mark where to crosscut each stop to length. Glue these stops to the upper panel’s side edging.

Final Hardware and Installation

There’s still some hardware to install on the lower desk panel. I connected its front and back sections with two drop-leaf hinges. A pair of metal drop-leaf supports went on next to hold the front lower panel upright during use.

Glue the lower desk panel into its dadoes, then topcoat the desk parts with a durable finish before fastening the upper rail to two wall studs using heavy-duty screws. Slide the upper desk panel into place, and you’re all done!

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Brass-Plated Drop Leaf Hinges (1) #29256
Metal Drop Leaf Support (1) #30006
Peel-and-Stick Edge Banding (1) #46502
3″ #10 Powerhead Screws (1) #53094

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Crafters have found joy in the practical projects they have completed. In that regard, it’s been a true silver lining in an otherwise troubling time.

Here at the Journal, we’ve been watching the sewing trend, and some have asked us to create a practical sewing cabinet to meet the need. Here it is!

Cutting the Plywood

The cabinet is made mostly of 3/4″ plywood (you’ll need two 4′ x 8′ sheets) laid up in a cherry veneer, although the choice of veneer species is entirely up to you. The many solid lumber accents on our cabinet are made of maple, which evokes a Scandinavian design motif.

Take a close look at the Material List for the length and width of the various plywood panels. One important detail to note is that the top (Piece 1) is eventually cut into three panels. After you cut it to size and wrap it with maple edging, you will then crosscut it on the table saw to form the folding top leaves. One benefit to this approach is that it allows for the figure of the hardwood plywood to flow all across the work surface when the leaves are extended.

Rip and crosscut all seven of the project’s primary plywood panels. (I broke them down in advance using a handheld circular saw so that I could manage them more safely on the table saw.) For best results, use a sharp blade designed for cutting plywood. When you’ve completed that task, surface enough maple stock to prepare all the 3/4″ x 3/4″ edging you’ll need.

Starting with the back and side panels, cut strips of this trim extra long. The back panel receives two pieces of edging and the side panels get one piece each on their front edges. (See the Drawings for details.) Glue and clamp the edging in place. When the glue joints cured, I trimmed their ends flush with a fine-toothed saw.

Install edging all around the top panel, then crosscut it into the large center panel and two leaves.

For both the top and door panels, I miter-cut the trim at 45 degrees to create a tidy and professional look. Take your time with this task. I cut and dry-fitted the four pieces of mitered trim for each panel one at a time to check the fit of the corner joints before gluing them in place.

Now lay out the foot recess in the bottom panel, using the Drawings, and cut out this contour with a jigsaw. Sand the cut edge smooth. Apply peel-and-stick cherry veneer edging to cover this curved edge and the other exposed plywood edges that remain. Then it’s time to sand the edging flush to the plywood, being careful not to sand through the hardwood veneer.

Carcass Assembly

I decided to assemble the cabinet parts using pocket holes and screws. It is a fast, easy and strong joinery method that works particularly well for casework construction like this.

Bore the pocket holes and then, with a thin coat of glue on both faces of the joints, screw the back and side panels together. If you are working by yourself as I do, wrangling these three large panels into proper alignment could be a bit frustrating, especially with glue spread on the joints. To prevent that problem, I used a pair of Rockler’s Clamp-It® Corner Clamping Jigs to align the panels and act as a “third hand” during the process. I also used my table saw’s perfectly flat top to align the top of the plywood panels (the panels are upside down in the photo). Work smart, not hard!

I debated about whether to attach the casters at this point. Chasing the cabinet around the shop on its wheels as I continued to work on it would have been comical and frustrating. But the casters all lock, and the fact that I wanted them mounted before I hung the doors convinced me that now was the time.

Speaking of timing, with the cabinet carcass assembled, now was also the time to make the lift supports. I used plywood for these parts, but you could use solid cherry lumber instead if you have some around your shop. Either way, these supports need to fit perfectly between the sides of the cabinet. Rip the supports to width and then measure their lengths off of the cabinet itself before cutting them to length.

If the supports fit well, bore two pocket holes into each of their ends. Then grab your pressure-sensitive edging and apply it to one long edge of one of the supports. Set them both aside for now.

Hanging the Doors

You’ve come a long way on this project, and next up we’ll hang the doors. Before doing that, lay out locations for the brass inset door pulls (see the Pull Location Drawing). Bore stopped holes for this hardware using a 1-3/4″-diameter Forstner bit.

The doors are mounted to the cabinet on piano hinges. That’s because the top’s fold-up leaves are supported by the doors when the sewing cabinet is in use. And piano hinges, with their many, many screws are just the sturdy ticket for this task. But there is one inescapable fact about piano hinges: once fully mounted, they allow zero adjustment for door alignment. Zero.

The way I made certain the doors hung properly was by following these steps. First, I mounted the hinges to the doors with the hinge knuckle just past the front face of the door. I could then measure the exposed margin of the edge that remained uncovered by the hinge. Using that measurement, I marked a line down the edging on the cabinet sides.

Now, using that mark to locate the hinge on the cabinet (and this is a place where a shop helper can be very helpful), I drilled one screw hole at the top of the hinge and one at the bottom. I then mounted the door with only two screws. I followed the same procedure on the other door.

If the doors are properly aligned, you should go out and buy a lottery ticket. If not, you can remove one of the screws holding the door in place, adjust the alignment and drill another screw hole. Do the same on the other door. Repeat until the doors align properly and then, using a self-centering drill bit, bore all the remaining screw holes. I finished up mounting the door by driving home all of the attachment screws. But if you prefer to apply finish first, you can remove the doors now and rehang them later.

Work Surface Details

There are a few machining tasks to be done to the top/work surface next. First, install the sewing machine hinges. To do that, make a jig that helps you rout out the hinge mortises accurately. Using the Hinge Routing Template Drawing, lay out and cut the mortise shape into the edge of a piece of 3/8″ MDF. Then mount a 3/4″ x 3/4″ guide to the edge of the MDF with screws. Install a 5/16″ O.D. guide collar and a 1/4″ straight bit in your router. Test the jig’s accuracy on some scrap. If the hinge fits, you are good. If not, adjust the jig’s opening as needed.

When the jig works correctly, rout the mortises in the top face of the center panel and leaves. Then chisel out the recesses for the hinge knuckles. Take your time with this, as the knuckle recesses will be visible when the top is folded up. I chose to mount the top to the cabinet at this point.

Remember those lift supports you made a while ago? Now is the time to mount them in the cabinet. Using the locations shown in the Drawings, first glue and screw the top support (without the edge tape) in place.

Then, with the covered edge oriented to the top of the cabinet, secure the second support with glue and screws. Attach the sewing machine lift hardware to the supports. The lift is adjustable; see the directions that come with it to fine-tune it.

Next, you need to cut the sewing machine platform out of the center section of the top/work surface by routing a large opening in the center panel. Lay out this opening using the Top Construction Details Drawing. Grab another piece of 3/8″ MDF and cut an 11-1/8″ x 19-3/8″ rectangle out of it to create a cutting guide for the router. Then with the same router setup you just used on the hinges, rout down through the plywood to create the platform piece. I did this in several deepening passes.

Finishing Up

You are in the home stretch of the building process now! There is a need for the power cord and foot control cord to have access to the inside of the cabinet when the sewing machine is in use. To do that, I chose to drill a hole and cover it with a brass grommet. It’s a two-step process, as you need to sink the grommet’s top flush with the work surface. Use a 1-3/4″ diameter Forstner bit to bore a shallow recess for the grommet top, then switch to a 1-5/8″-diameter bit to drill the grommet’s through hole.

With that done, mount the magnetic catch that holds the doors closed. Leave off installing the inset door pulls until after you apply finish to the project. Sand the edges of the sewing machine platform and its opening smooth and break their edges with sandpaper.

Go ahead and mount the sewing machine platform to the lift, and you have completed this project’s construction steps. Give the entire cabinet a good sanding, working up to at least 180-grit.

I chose Watco® Natural oil finish for this cabinet, and here’s why: few finishes pop the figure of cherry lumber or veneer like an oil finish. Four coats of Watco will create a beautiful finish. And if it should get scratched or distressed — this is a workstation, after all — it can easily be touched up.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Standard Twin Pin Sewing Machine Hinges (2) #26765
1-1/2″ x 60″ Slotted Piano Hinges in Brass Finish (1) #19308
Heavy-Duty Twin Wheel Locking Casters (1) #58907
Brusso® Solid Brass Recessed Pulls (2) #24618
Heavy-Duty Rockler Sewing Machine Lift Mechanism (1) #69191
Low Profile Magnetic Catch (1) #26542
Round Metal Grommet – Bright Brass (1) #30320

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post PROJECT: Compact Sewing Cabinet appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

I wanted to incorporate some interesting geometry into my design, and hexagonal shapes appeal to me, but I also wanted to keep the project easy to build. Rockler’s Beadlock® loose tenon joinery was just the solution I needed. The Beadlock drilling jig makes it possible to assemble the mitered corners of the captured hexagons, as well as most of the other butt joints in this table build.

Poplar was my budget-minded choice for the table’s painted parts, and I used maple for the hexagons and tabletop.

Building the Upper Support Frame

In the Drawings, you’ll see that the upper support frame for this table consists of a pair of long rails and three shorter cross braces. Given how long this table’s span is, I wanted the upper framework to be stiff and strong, so I fabricated the parts from 8/4 poplar I milled down to 1-1/2″ thick. Rip the long rails and cross braces to 3-1/2″ wide on your table saw, and crosscut them to length.

Set the parts into position on your work surface so the middle cross brace is centered on the length of the long rails and the other two cross braces are located 10-1/2″ in from the rail ends. Now draw a layout line across each joint with a combination square to mark it for one centered Beadlock tenon.

Get your Beadlock jig ready for drilling these joints by installing the 1/16″- and 1/4″-thick plastic Beadlock spacers behind the jig’s hardened-steel drilling guide with 1/2″ holes in it. Chuck a 1/2″-diameter twist bit in your drill/driver, and use the Beadlock jig’s depth scale to set the drilling depth to 1-1/4″ for these joints. Clamp the jig to the ends of the cross braces and along the edges of the long rails where you marked them so you can bore holes for each mortise. Be sure to set the jig to its “A” position, drill all of those holes, then reset to the “B” position and drill the remaining holes before unclamping the jig and moving on to the next mortise.

These six joints require 2-1/2″-long tenons, so I crosscut those to length from Rockler’s preformed Beadlock tenon stock at my miter saw. Give the ends of the tenons a bit of sanding to remove the rough edges — they’ll slide into the mortises easier that way. Then go ahead and dry fit the tenons in their mortises to assemble the upper framework. If all the joints fit well and the part surfaces are flush, pull the framework apart again. Spread glue into each of the mortises, slip the tenons back in and clamp the framework together.

Making a Supplemental Jig

While those joints dry, let’s move on to building decorative hexagons for the ends of the table. Fitting together the mitered ends of a hexagon will require precise joinery, otherwise there’s no way the last joint will close properly.

To help me zero in on those joints, I enlisted the help of Rockler’s Perfect Miter Setup Blocks and my Rockler Crosscut Sled. Using the Perfect Miter Setup Blocks is really simple, and they’re ideal for this application. They allow you to easily set the sled’s fence to precise angles without measuring.

I chose the Setup Block for making a six-sided shape, which requires 30-degree angle cuts. With my fence angle dialed in, I used the sled’s flip-stop to set the length of the 12 hexagon segments and carefully crosscut them to size from 2″-wide, 3/4″-thick maple stock.

Using the Beadlock jig to mortise the angled ends of these pieces was tricky but very possible! To do it, I designed a ramped jig from three pieces of scrap that allowed me to set each hexagon segment into position inside the Beadlock jig for drilling. My ramped jig’s 2″-thick center lamination formed a 60-degree angle, and the outer two laminations had 30-degree angles on both ends.

To prepare the Beadlock jig for this operation, I installed the 3/8″ drilling guide with a 1/4″ plastic spacer behind it. Then, with the Beadlock jig and my ramped jig clamped together and to my work surface, I could slide each hexagon segment down into place for drilling. I bored a single mortise 3/8″ deep into all the angled ends.

Once the mortises were ready, I cut a dozen 3/4″-long tenons for these joints from 3/8″ Beadlock stock and used a band clamp and glue to assemble both hexagons. Give these joints at least six hours to dry, then unclamp the hexagons so you can touch up the corners and edges with some light hand sanding.

Constructing the Leg Assemblies

Next, let’s build the leg assemblies. To do that, mill up enough 1-1/2″-thick poplar stock to cut four 27″-long short rails and four 35″-long legs to size. The short rails overlap the ends of the legs to form square corner joints. Set the parts together and mark each joint for a single tenon. Since these are face-to-end joints, mark the parts carefully so you’ll be sure to align the jig correctly for drilling. I settled on 1/2″-thick tenons for these large corner joints and set up my Beadlock jig with both 1/16″ and 1/4″ spacers installed. I drilled each mortise 1-1/4″ deep and crosscut 2-1/2″-long tenons to fit them.

The hexagons will be “suspended” between the short rails on the leg assemblies with four 3/4″-thick, 2″-wide supports. Crosscut four top supports to 9-3/4″ long and four bottom supports to 9-7/8″ long. Given the thinner stock for these supports, I decided to go down a size on my Beadlock mortises and switched to the 3/8″ drilling guide in the jig.

To drill mortises for installing tenons between the short rails and the supports, first install both the 3/4″ and the 1/2″ spacers in the jig. Mark each short rail for two mortises, spaced 11-3/4″ in from the ends. Drill these rail mortises 1″ deep. Now remove the 1/2″ spacer and mark the top and bottom segments of each hexagon 2-1/2″ in from their edges for drilling corresponding mortises here. Drill these mortises 3/8″ deep. Finally, remove the 3/4″ spacer so you can drill a centered mortise into each end of all eight support pieces. Set the depth of these mortises to 1″ deep. Cut 3/8″-thick Beadlock tenons to fit all the mortises you’ve just created, and give the short rails, legs and supports a final sanding.

Gluing up the leg assemblies requires some patience, as there are a lot of joints coming together. Definitely start out by dry assembling all the parts with the tenons in place, just to make sure all the joints will close correctly. When gluing things up, first assemble the hexagons and supports, then add the legs and short rails. Break these glue-ups down into two sequences, if that makes things easier.

Assembling the Table Base

Now is a good time to assemble the major components you’ve built so far. Set and clamp the upper support frame between the two leg assemblies so their top edges are flush. The upper support frame will be about 3″ narrower than the leg assemblies, leaving you about 1-1/2″ of inset at these joints. Mark the long rail/short rail joints for two Beadlock tenons per joint. I drilled 1/2″-wide mortises 2-1/2″ deep for these joints with 1/4″ and 1/16″ spacers installed in the jig. Cut eight Beadlock tenons for these mortises, and dry assemble the joints to verify that they fit together correctly.

While these parts are clamped up, measure for the two lower stretchers. While the table is actually plenty strong without them, I erred on the side of caution and added them in. If you do likewise, rip and crosscut poplar workpieces for them. I used 3/8″ x 2-1/2″-long tenons to attach these two stretchers to the legs. I positioned them 16 and 20 inches up from the floor. When locating their mortises, I didn’t use spacers in the jig, but I did mount the stretchers flush to the inside faces of the legs to leave a small reveal on the outside.

Bevel-cut one end of each of the table’s four feet to 30 degrees, and mount the feet to the bottoms of the leg assemblies with glue and screws.

Forming the Tabletop

The last component to build is the tabletop! I used 1/4″ Beadlock joints between the boards to help align their faces during glue-up. You might even consider gluing up the top in several narrower subassemblies, then gluing those together to form the larger top, if you have a limited number of clamps. Trim the ends of the tabletop flush to bring it to its final overall length of 78″. I chamfered the top edges of the tabletop panel all the way around to make it more skin-friendly.

Finishing Up

After finish-sanding the entire project, I top-coated all but the hexagons and tabletop with General Finishes Antique White Milk Paint. I opted for wiping varnish to seal the maple parts.

Once everything dried, I used a biscuit jointer to cut slots along the support frame’s long rails so I could attach the tabletop with eight steel Z-clips and screws.

Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Rockler has donated more than $100,000 to HFF over the last 13 years to fund tens of thousands of tree plantings nationwide. These donations have helped subsidize reforestation projects in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and elsewhere.

“We’re proud to be able to help grow beautiful, sustainable forests,” says Ann Rockler Jackson, executive chairman of Rockler Companies. “The North Shore and surrounding forests are a treasure. We know this reforestation project will improve the forest stands and give us a healthy, renewable forest for the future.”

Since 1990, HFF has planted and managed more than four million trees in 30 states and four foreign countries. Native tree species are selected for each unique site, but the more common species planted include black cherry, black walnut, red oak, hard maple, hickory and ash. Every sponsored project is required to have a management plan and a harvest and regeneration schedule.

One of those initiatives, shown in the photos here, is being undertaken by Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in the Finland State Forest near Schroeder, Minnesota.

“This stand of maple has been experiencing some dieback in the crowns over the last 10 to 15 years,” says Anna Heurth, a silviculturalist with the Minnesota DNR’s Division of Forestry. “So we’re planting a total of 78,000 seedlings on this site to create a greater diversity of species.”

The area is being replanted with predominantly northern red oak as well as white pine and white spruce.

What the DNR hopes to see in the next decade as a result of these efforts is a mixed hardwood forest of oak, birch and aspen, as well as a conifer component. Heurth says the site is a perfect example of a hardwood forest that needs to be restored. “The Hardwood Forestry Fund is timber-industry directed, and that is really interesting to me,” Heurth says. “The DNR applied for a grant from HFF because (HFF) funds restoration projects like this, and they’re a really good fit for what we do.”

Rockler’s commitment to reforestation is obviously important to the future of woodworking, but the company also recognizes the value of forests as a tremendous natural resource for wildlife, recreation and learning as well as to help counteract the effects of climate change. “I think it’s important that a Minnesota-based company like Rockler is supporting our forests in Minnesota and also the Hardwood Forestry Fund,” Heurth adds.

To learn more about HFF or to make a donation, visit hardwoodforestryfund.org.

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