So when I was asked to help create a mobile sharpening center for the Journal, I was happy to get to the task. While this specific cart has a couple of tool holders hanging on the sides that favor woodturning, it will be equally useful for woodworkers who don’t own a lathe. (It just seemed right to accommodate turners — they sharpen constantly.)

Designed with Solid Construction

We chose to make the cart from Baltic birch plywood. The vast majority is 3/4″ thick, with the drawer boxes and bottoms formed from 1/2″ material. You could use any plywood, or even solid lumber for your cart, but voidless composition of the Baltic birch was a big plus in my mind. Just sand the edges smooth and you’ve got a good-looking and durable surface to finish. No need to face the edges. It also glues up great and handles screws (for drawer slides and other hardware) well.

I made the leg components, inner panels and the top and bottom first (pieces 1 to 4). The legs and the top/bottom are just cut from the Baltic birch stock. Glue and clamp the leg components together to build up the legs. While that glue is curing, move on to the inner panels — which have notches to accept the legs at each corner. I roughed out the notches using a band saw, but then I used a simple hardboard template to pattern-rout the exact dimensions (see Drawings). One neat trick here is that I used a 1/2″-diameter pattern routing bit. It left the perfect radius in the notched corner to match my legs — because I then used a 1/4″ roundover bit mounted in my router table to soften the long edges of the legs.

When those tasks were in the rearview mirror, I glued the inner panels to the top/bottoms in order to form two 1-1/2″-thick pieces. I waited for that glue to cure and then joined the legs to the top/bottom subassemblies with glue and screws. I clamped up the whole unit as well, checking and adjusting for square.

Making the Drawer Case

The drawer case is as simple a bit of bread-and-butter woodworking as you are likely to find. The sides, back, top and stretchers (pieces 5 through 8) are just cut from the plywood to the sizes indicated in the Material List. Plow a couple of 3/4″-wide by 1/4″-deep dadoes into the back edges of the sides to capture the back. Look to the Drawings for their locations. Here, I must confess that I used a Festool Domino joining system to locate floating tenons to join the stretchers to the sides. Why? Because I have a Domino machine, and my cart was going to get photographed for a magazine. If those things were not true, I would have simply glued and screwed the entire case together. Either method works, and the dimensions of the parts remain the same either way. (See the Drawings for the stretcher locations.)

Once you have the sides, back and stretchers assembled, the top is secured to that subassembly using glue and screws driven up through the stretchers. Simply made but sturdy — it could hold an NFL lineman and his coaches. Take a few minutes to sand the drawer case smooth and then mount it to the rolling cart subassembly using screws driven down through the stretchers. You are really making progress now.

Adding Three Strong Drawers

The drawer boxes (pieces 9 through 18), as mentioned earlier, are constructed from 1/2″-thick Baltic birch plywood, but the drawer fronts are made of 3/4″ material. Cut the box parts to size and then step to your table saw and replace the saw blade with a dado set installed to cut a 1/2″ groove. Lock the fence 3/8″ away from the blade, and test the setup to be certain that the plywood fits properly in the groove you are plowing. Go ahead and plow grooves for the drawer bottoms in all four pieces of each drawer box. Next, with the same dado head in the saw, use your miter gauge with an auxiliary fence and stop to form the rabbets at the ends of the drawer sides. Test-fit your drawer boxes, and when you are satisfied, glue and clamp the pieces together. Because these parts are all made of rock-steady plywood, you need not make accommodations for seasonal wood movement.

I made my three drawer fronts from a single piece of Baltic birch plywood so that the wood grain would flow through all three drawer fronts. Hey, just because this is a shop project doesn’t mean that we should get sloppy here! Use a 1″ core box bit to form the handle cutouts on the drawer fronts. You could mount regular drawer pulls here; it is really a matter of personal preference.

I attached the drawer fronts to the drawer boxes after I used full-extension drawer slides to mount the drawers into the drawer case. That way, if I was a hair off in my drawer location north or south, I could adjust the drawer faces to accommodate for that miscue. (Not that such a thing would happen to me …)

Making Tricky Tool Holders

Even though they are just a small part of this pretty substantial project, the tool holders (pieces 19 to 22) took the most thought and design work. They are easy to make: after you cut the pieces to size, both plywood and PVC, take the plywood pieces over to your drill press. Lay out and drill the holes in the top and bottom pieces. First, drill the shallow borings that will capture the PVC pipe tubes. Then, on the top, switch bits and bore the access holes all the way though the plywood. On those same pieces, plow the dadoes that will capture the side pieces. You have one more task on these parts: form the little grooves that capture the shelf pins (from which the whole assembly hangs on the rolling cart). I used a 1/4″ core box bit to make the little groove, but you could just as easily carve it with a chisel. Finally, drill a hole to hold a rare-earth magnet on one end of the tool holder bottom. This magnet will hold the tool holder upright when the cart is not in use. Epoxy that magnet in place.

The tubes, while simple in concept, are a little tricky to make in practice (mostly because I decided it would be cool to create a “window” in each tube, so you can see your tool without pulling it all the way out of the holder). To rout that opening, I made a jig that controlled the process. Take a look at the Drawing for details on constructing the jig. I used a 1″ bowl-carving bit in my plunge router. I attached a round 1/4″ MDF piece to the base plate of my router and then glued the sliding top of the jig right to my router. It worked really slick. I clamped the PVC pipe in place and routed the opening in a single operation. The length of the sliding top of the jig allows you to register the length of the cut. Once all the tubes are machined, you are ready to assemble the tool hangers. Secure the PVC in place using clear silicone adhesive and glue and clamp the hangers together, checking to make sure they’re square.

Completing the Final Details

The sharpening cart is nearly finished at this point; there are just a few fun details yet to be completed. First, locate (from the Drawings) and drill the holes to hold the shelf pins on the legs of the rolling cart. After you have done that, mount the casters on the bottom of the rolling cart. I used short lag screws with washers to hold the casters in place. I put the two locking casters on the front side of the cart.

Now hang the tool holders in place. Mark on the leg the location for the metal disk that will align with the rare-earth magnets you installed earlier. Once the hole is drilled, mount the metal disks. At this point, go ahead and mount a rare earth magnet on the long side of the tool holder bottom and a matching disk on the side of the drawer case. They will hold the tool holder at an angle when the rolling cart is in use.

I also mounted a power strip to the back of the drawer case. That allows me to plug in my sharpening machine and magnifying glass — which is ringed with LED lights. While it may seem a bit over-the-top, that lighted magnifier makes a huge difference when putting an edge on a tool. (It’s really great when you can see what you are doing.)

Because I use various sharpening systems, everything from a machine to a slip stone, I wanted the top of the rolling cart to be bulletproof. So I purchased a 1/16″-thick sheet of aluminum (from Lowe’s®) and secured it to the top of the cart with contact cement. Cut the aluminum a bit oversized using your table saw and a carbide-toothed saw blade. The process of securing it is just like applying plastic laminate — which would have worked well here. Apply the contact cement to the aluminum and the plywood top. Allow the cement to dry.

Then lay a few 1/4″ dowels across the width of the top to help control the process of sticking the aluminum down. Position the glued faces toward each other, and start pulling out the dowels and sticking the two parts together. Be careful: once they touch, you are not getting them apart. Roll the aluminum down with a J-roller and then trim off the excess with a carbide 45° trim bit in your handheld router. It will cut the aluminum like butter. Once it was in place, I used some steel wool to texture the top — I have to say, it looked pretty good when I was done.

Now apply three coats of Watco Oil natural finish, let it cure, and you are ready to load the cart up with all of your finishing paraphernalia and roll it to wherever you wish to use it. In my shop, it will be hanging out near the lathe.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

5″ Caster (Locking) #37138
5″ Caster (Swivel) #39507
1/2″ Magnets (10 pack) #30810
Shelf Pins (10 pack) #22278

The post PROJECT: Sharpening Cart appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Some aspects of the project were not at all a departure from the Arts & Crafts genre: its quartersawn white oak lumber is strictly Stickley in its origin. We also worked out a stain and finish that closely mimicked existing Stickley finishes. The exposed breadboard end joints are a step away from traditional Stickley construction — although the concept of exposed joinery is right in the Arts & Crafts sweet spot. The “corner posts” are one area where we took our own path. In an early 1900s piece, these posts would have been full thickness chunks of wood — we chose to miter 3/4″ stock to create the look of a solid leg. You might think that the arched cathedral panels were a bit of extracurricular design, but you would be wrong. That look is pure Stickley — but how we went about constructing those panels with their adjacent curved stiles is a 21st century take on the look. As a result of our design process and decisions, I think this blanket chest not only turned out to be a solid representation of the Arts & Crafts style, but a really fun project to build.

It Starts with the Wood

While you might just possibly be able to get away with cherry lumber for this project, the choice of quartersawn white oak lumber is absolutely the way to go. And be certain to select your stock so that its figure is shown off to its best advantage. All quartersawn stock does not display equally. Some has regular straight grain without many medullary rays — but other boards show off the classic quartersawn flake (the rays mentioned earlier) with serious flair. Work out in advance where you want each type of grain to be most prevalent. I wanted the dramatic flake to be most visible on the book-matched flat panels and in the aforementioned corner posts. One of the big advantages of building up the posts is that I was able to show quartersawn figure on both exposed faces of the posts.

The whole of the chest is made, or resawn from, 3/4″ stock. The significant exception to this is the lid, which is formed from 1-1/4″ stock. There are a couple of lid supports that hold the top in an open position, and I chose solid brass butt hinges to attach the top to the chest, although other options would have been fine. One important note: As this chest is configured here, this is not a toy box. The lid is heavy, and the hinges and lid supports do little to hold back the momentum of the top when closing. Little children and this chest should not mix.

Frame and Panel and Then Some

This chest is constructed using frame and panel joinery and, in that regard, it is pretty much bread-and-butter woodworking. Where it starts to get a bit tricky is that some of the rails are curved, and that means the panels must match that shape. But before you have to worry about that, you need to start with the posts and rails. Start by cutting the post parts to width and length from prepared stock (pieces 1).

When you use solid hardwood like this, it is a good idea to get it into your shop a week or so before you start to work it. That lets it settle into the environment and stabilize. Now that you’ve started selecting and cutting out the frame pieces, go ahead and machine all the rectilinear rails and stiles to length and width (pieces 2 though 6). Although it is easy to get into a routine when cutting these pieces, take time to select the appropriate figured wood for each of these parts and to mark them to indicate their position on the blanket chest. In an additional bit of machining, all of the bottom rails have a gentle curve scribed and cut on their lower edge. I used a thin flexible piece of wood, which I flexed using a long pipe clamp. I traced the curve onto one of the front and back bottom rails and a complementary curve form in the same basic manner onto one of the bottom side rails. Then I stepped up to the band saw and sliced the curve onto the rails. After I had trued up the shapes using a sander, plane and a bunch of elbow grease, I transferred that shape onto the remaining two rails and repeated the procedure.

The post parts also need a bit of machining. In addition to the groove on one long edge, they are mitered along the other edge (see the Drawings for construction details) and then have a spline groove cut into the mating edges. (The splines will help a great deal when you align the post parts during glue-up.) All of this is done on the table saw. Once you have the spline grooves cut, go ahead and cut the splines (pieces 7) and fit them to the spline grooves. The post parts also have stopped grooves plowed, top and bottom — see the Drawings for details — that are 1/4″ wide and 3/8″ deep. I formed these on my router table with a 1/4″ straight bit.

Mortise and Tenons

The next step to consider is machining the various mortises and tenons on the stiles and rails and post parts. It is my habit to form the mortises first, so that I can fit the tenons to match them. First, I carefully marked where each mortise was to be cut. My technique is to clamp the stock that I will be machining between two pieces of wood in my bench vise. In this case, I used a plunge router with a 1/4″ straight bit chucked into the collet.

After setting the cutting depth on the router (I like the depth to be slightly greater than the length of the tenons), I use an edge guide attachment to locate the placement of the mortise. I highly recommend testing your setup on scrap material. When you are pleased with your setup, go ahead and form the mortises. I square up my mortises with a sharp bench chisel.

To help form the tenons on the ends of the straight stiles, I made a simple little jig that slides over the fence on my table saw. It is made from MDF and is sort of H-shaped. The upright stop on the long side holds the stiles square to the table saw blade. Clamp the stile in place and you can start the tenons with just one cut per side. (If you own a factory-made tenoning jig for your table saw, it will do nicely as well.) Set up and test your cuts with properly sized scrap lumber. When you have the cuts dialed in, cut all the cheeks and then move on to the shoulders. The shoulders are formed using the miter gauge on the table saw. Be sure to use a hold-off block to be safe. Cut the shoulders and set them aside.

Curved Stiles

The most striking visual aspects of this chest are the arched stiles and panels. The most complicated joinery on the project is fitting those two components to each other. If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you probably already know that pattern routing is going to be the key to solving this conundrum.

Begin this process by cutting the curved stile blanks to size (pieces 8). I selected stock that had a similar grain pattern for all these parts, and I recommend that you do the same. Next use the gridded pattern found in the scaled Drawing to form a template for the curved edge on the stile from 1/4″ hardboard or MDF. Take care to keep this curve fair and true, because you will be routing that shape onto all the curved stiles. Before you start cutting the shape onto them, you will need to glue the curved stile blanks into their common straight stiles (it is a simple butt joint…see the Drawings for details). Once those subassemblies are done, trace the curved line onto the curved stiles using the template you made earlier. When you’ve got all the parts properly marked, go back to your band saw and rough out the shape. Stay just outside of the pencil line as you make your cut. The less material you need to trim while pattern routing, the easier that task will be.

I used a pattern routing bit (bearing at the end of the bit) in my router table to machine the curved stiles to their final shape. Attach the template to the workpieces with double sided carpet tape. In cases like this, where you are removing just a small amount of material and where any tearout will be a disaster, I use a climb cut to do the deed. It can be a little bit hairy, but in this case it is the way to go. Take your time and machine all the curved stile subassemblies, then set them aside for now.

In order to make the book-matched flat panels (pieces 9 – 11) at the center of each of the frame sections, you will need to resaw 3/4″ stock and machine it down to a final thickness of 1/4″. I resaw wide panels in a two-step process that I think adds some control. First, I cut kerfs into the edges of the board on my table saw. Then I step to the band saw and complete the cut. The saw kerfs make it much easier to keep the band saw blade perfectly on track. It works really slick. When the pieces are all resawn, I mark them so that I don’t mismatch them later on, and then take them to the planer to remove the saw marks, surfacing them to just a bit thicker than their finished dimension. With great care, edge glue these pieces together with their mates.

While the glue cures, grab some 1/4″ MDF or hardboard. Lay out and make full-size templates of all three flat panels. Once again, the curves must be fair and true. That curve is the reciprocal shape that you made on the curved stile template. Use that template to make the lines on your panel templates. Go ahead and cut the template to the rough shape and then use a combination of a sander and a file to get the shape just right. (You could just make one template and use it to make all the curved pattern cuts, but I found it easier to have one for each of the panels.)

Take the glued-up panels out of their clamps and clean up the glue line. Surface the panels to their final thickness — I used a hand plane for this task. When all the panels are ready, mark the curved lines onto them using your templates as a guide. Now, step back to the band saw and do some careful cutting as you rough out the shapes on the panels. This is exacting work — cut close to the line, but not into it. With that task behind you, take your pile of pieces over to the router table and pattern rout the final edges onto the panels. Once again, I used carpet tape to adhere the templates to the workpieces, and used a climb cut to avoid tearout. When you are done shaping the panels, go ahead and give them a final sanding — I went up to 180-grit.

Now that the panels are basically done, you can cut grooves into the edges of the curved stiles. I used a bearing-guided slot-cutting bit on my router table to plow those grooves. I needed to make two cuts per groove, so I was able to control the fit just as I wanted it (see the Drawings for the groove details).

Frame and Panel Subassemblies

I won’t sugarcoat this: the dry fitting stage of this project might be a bit trying. There are a lot of parts, and some of them are curved. But at the end of the day, you just need to fit and adjust the pieces like any other frame and panel project.

Dry fit the front and back as well as the side components. When they fit properly, glue them up in subassemblies of a front and back, and side panels. Once these are ready, take them out of the clamps and set up a dado cut that will capture the bottom (piece 12) on all four subassemblies. Plow the dado, cut out the bottom and, once again, do a test fit of all these components. These are big pieces, so an extra set of hands may be of help here. I took the time at this point to pre-finish the flat panels. They are going to float in their housings, so I wanted no stain line to show if and when they shrank a bit. When everything is ready, assemble the pieces using the splines in the corners to help align the miters. Check for square, and allow the glue to cure.

Hinges in the Mix

Choosing hardware for a project is often an arm-wrestle between style and function. In the case of this chest, Rob and I debated about using Rockler’s Lid-Stay Torsion Hinges, because they allow nearly any size lid to open smoothly and stay open without additional support hardware.

If we had gone that route, the Rustic Bronze color could have worked. Instead, we decided to go with more classic hardware styling for this period piece, to keep it closer to its Arts & Crafts roots: three antique brass butt hinges and a pair of matching lid supports. You could also use a piano hinge or even no-mortise hinges to keep things really simple.

Whatever style of hinges suits your fancy, keep in mind that, at 1-1/4″ thick, this is a very heavy lid. You’ll need some sturdy means of stopping the lid when it’s fully opened or to help slow it down during closing. Rockler sells a variety of lid support options. Buy a pair that are rated for around 125-inch/lbs. of support each to play it safe. Pinched skin and fingers is nobody’s idea of a good time!

Topping it Off

With the case in clamps, you can move on to building the lid. Made from 1-1/4″ thick lumber, it is a fitting crown for a substantial piece of furniture. I glued up the top panel (piece 13) and once again chose to flatten the piece using my bench plane. I cut it to overall dimensions and then formed the tongues using a router and a straightedge. Next, I machined up the two breadboard ends (pieces 14) from the same thickness of stock. I plowed the deep grooves to accept the tongues using just a full kerf table saw blade and multiple cuts. I nibbled away at the opening and kept it centered by flipping the piece end for end with each operation…making two cuts per effort. When I was satisfied with the fit, I glued the breadboard ends onto the top panel. Look to the Drawings for the machining details for these joints.

With the components of the blanket chest completed, I started in on my final sanding and applying the finish. A case this large and with as many different levels (or planes) to deal with means that you really must be methodical in your sanding procedure. I worked from the “highest” to lowest plane as I sanded the piece. I also worked around the perimeter in a set pattern — all this just to help me be sure that I got every piece and aspect smoothed exactly the same. For more discussion of the finish we chose and how it is applied to this project.

After the finish had cured, I mounted the lid to the case with three solid brass butt hinges. Because the lid is so heavy, I felt it was important to add some good quality lid supports to the mix.

I hope that you take the opportunity to build this blanket chest. It is a sweet little project that nicely evokes the heart of Arts & Crafts style. While there are a couple of challenging details, nothing here is so complex as to move beyond just plain woodworking. Which, in itself, is what makes the Arts & Crafts style so appealing.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post PROJECT: Arts & Crafts Blanket Chest appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

This project not only serves all the important tasks of a typical screen door, but does it with a degree of style that will make any woodworker proud and their loved ones happy. That’s because it is a true woodworking project. With classic mortise and tenon joinery, it is within the skill level of most woodworkers … but this door is not exactly a weekend project. It will keep you in the shop for a few days — but it’s well worth the effort.

The Arts & Crafts style of the door would work well with white oak lumber, a good exterior-use wood species, but we thought that a mahogany look would be perfect. So to play the part of mahogany, we chose Lyptus®, a plantation-grown hardwood. Rockler.com sells it in 1-1/8″ thickness, perfect for our screen door.

Here are a couple of other important points as you consider building a door for your house. While door openings are pretty standard these days, take the time to carefully measure yours. Our door is 36″ wide as we built it. Don’t buy your glass pieces until you have built your door and measured its openings. Also, our art glass was provided to us by the nice folks at Gaytee Glass in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It’s a standard Kokomo glass that you can purchase from most any quality stained glass company. There are many hues to choose from, but ours are classic Arts & Crafts colors. Some local building codes may require a safety film made by 3M to be applied to the glass. Check your local codes.

Building from the Outside In

Think of this project as a series of frames constructed from mortise and tenon and half-lap joinery. Although there are some really fine door-making router sets on the market (which I highly recommend), as I often do, I decided to go “old school” on this project.

Start by cutting out the large door stiles and the bottom, middle and top large rails (pieces 1 through 4). You can find the Material List. These pieces form the main “superstructure” of the door to which all the other parts are attached. My old school intentions had me reaching for my mortise chisel to chop out the through mortises on the large door stiles, but my first test mortise taught me a couple of things: first, Lyptus is really, really hard and second, if I was going to get this project done in time to use it this year, I was going to need to use my mortising machine. (Hey, if William Morris had had a mortising machine, he would have used it!) Look to the Drawings for the mortise and groove locations on the stiles. I always form my mortises first and then cut the tenons to fit. After I completed all the mortises (large and small) in the large door stiles and rails, I stepped over to the router table to plow the stopped grooves for the raised panel (piece 5). As long as you have it set up, go ahead and slice the corresponding grooves on the lower and middle rails.

Raising the tenons on the large rails was the next step on the agenda. I used a shop-made tenoning jig on my table saw for this task and finished up on the band saw, but you could use a router table or any other means that you prefer. Take the time to fit these joints well. A door puts a good deal of stress on its joinery.

Somewhere in this time frame, you should glue up the blank for the raised panel, and this brings up an important point. A screen door is an outdoor project and is subjected to the weather year after year. For that reason, I recommend using a highly water-resistant glue, such as Titebond® III or a polyurethane glue of some sort. Once you have the panel in clamps, set it aside and let the glue cure.

The narrow stiles and rails (pieces 6 and 7) are next up on the machining agenda. Rip these four pieces to size on the table saw, cut them to length, and then go ahead and raise the tenons on their ends. These narrow stiles and rails have half-lap joints that must be marked out and cut. The way I marked out the joints was to dry-fit all the door parts together except the narrow rails. After checking that everything was square and true, I put the narrow rails directly over their mortises, then I marked the joint locations right on the stiles and rails. Again, how you form these half laps is up to you, but I chose to do it on my router table using a miter gauge to push the stock across the bit.

At first blush, you might think that you were done machining these narrow stiles and rails … but you would be wrong. First, I used my router table and a straight bit to start the rabbets that hold the art glass. Second, the inside section of the narrow stiles needs to be reduced to 1/2″ in thickness to accommodate the screen panel. I did this with a handheld router guided by a jig that controlled the cutting depth. Once that material is removed, you can return to your clamped-up raised panel blank.

Take the blank out of the clamps and scrape off any excess glue. I ran the piece through my planer to skin it down and get two parallel faces. Next, I cut it to size and stepped to my router table to raise the panel.

I used a Freud large dimension bit to raise the panel because it has a back cutting function. It sized my panel lip and provided a nice shadow line around the back of the panel, all in one operation. With that done, it was time to dry-fit all of the parts together, and, for me, a pleasant surprise: everything fit exceptionally well on the first try. Hey, sometimes you get lucky!

The final step before I put the main door section together was to stain the raised panel. After the stain was dry, I went ahead and assembled this main door section, using Titebond III. I clamped it together, checked it for square, and left it overnight.

Screening It Off

Once I removed the clamps, there was a bit more machining to do on the main door section. With a router and a bearing-guided bit, finish routing the rabbets on the glass openings. You will need to square up the corners with a sharp chisel. When that task is done, get yourself a straightedge and chuck a straight bit into your router, so you can form all the rabbets on the edges of the screen panel area (see Drawings). Once again, there will be some squaring up to do with your chisel. Now you are ready to make the screen panel.

The screen panel is made up of two outer stiles, two inner stiles (pieces 8 and 9) and two rails (pieces 10). All these pieces are made from 1/2″ stock. Go ahead and cut them to length and width and then step over to the mortising machine again to chop the mortises on the rails. When that is done, I move to the table saw to form tenons on the ends of the inner stiles and the screen rails. Finally, shape the open mortises on the ends of the outer stiles. See the Drawing for all of these construction details. When everything is fitting well, you’re ready to glue up the subassembly. While the glue cured, I went back to the main door section and chopped hinge mortises. (Have your hinges in hand before you do this!) I also installed the door handle and lockset (piece 11). Once it fit well, I took it off and set it aside until later.

I went back to the screen door panel and took it out of the clamps. After a bit of cleanup with a scraper and a hand plane, I grabbed a 1/2″ Forstner bit and drilled little round mortises on the inside face of the panel. (See the Drawing for locations.) Then I drilled 5/16″ holes through the stock at the center of those little mortises. With the panel subassembly complete, I was ready to test fit it in the main door (I suggest using a block plane to help with the fit), and mark the locations for the threaded inserts (pieces 12).

Taking the screen panel to my work table, I secured it with blocks on its inside corners. Then, with a straight bit and an edge guide mounted to my router, I cut a groove around the perimeter of the panel for the screen retaining cord.

At this point, I needed to mount the threaded inserts. So I drilled a pilot hole for them and used a special little tool to drive them home. Be careful drilling the holes for these inserts (don’t drill through!): the inserts must sit just a little proud of the wood.

I needed to grind down the brass knurled knobs (pieces 13) to the proper length, and I was ready to try to put the whole door together. Well, as you can imagine, there were a couple of minor tweaks to do, and then it was time to sand, stain and finish the door parts. I used three coats of spar varnish for the top coat.

When that was completed, all I had left to do was mount the screen with its retainer strips (pieces 14 and 15) and install the art glass and its retainer strips (pieces 16, 17 and 18) — plus a bead of clear silicone adhesive. The door was now ready to be hung on its hinges, and the strike plate installed.

Final Thoughts

For those of you who, like me, live in a climate that needs a storm door panel in addition to a screen panel, here’s what you will need to do. Cut out the parts for a second screen panel. Once you have all the mortises and tenons formed, take the two inner stiles to your planer and take 1/8″ off of one face. Then assemble the panel. Proceed as you did on the screen door panel, but instead of routing out a groove for the screen, form a 1/8″ deep x 3/8″ wide rabbet all around the inner edge of the frame. Square out the corners and measure for your 1/8″-thick safety glass. When you have ordered and picked up that glass panel, mount it in the frame with clear silicone adhesive. Now you will be ready when the weather begins to cool.

Well, that is it. Now all you have to do is get busy mowing that lawn you have been ignoring while you built the screen door … well, you knew it had to happen!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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The coffee table has one thing its predecessor didn’t: a glass top, something I couldn’t afford at the time. A custom-shaped piece of 1/2″ glass with a 15″ hole cut in the middle just wasn’t in the budget.

But back to the legs. I was sitting there at my bench looking at these nice sticks of maple, and I began to wonder what it would look like to form adjoining radii, constructing them in a manner not unlike cabriole legs. It’s a technique where you trace your pattern onto adjoining leg faces, starting by making a cut through one face to form the profile, then reattaching the waste wood with double-sided tape, rotating the leg 90°, retracing the shape and cutting the adjoining profile. In this case, the technique revealed an interesting and cool compound shape. It’s fun to do, but, as with traditional cabriole legs, be sure to complete your joinery first — it’s easier and far more precise that way.

I quickly settled on the shape of the legs and found a nicely figured maple board sized perfectly to make the ends and sides (which form the apron) of the table. I also had a nice stash of purpleheart lying around, and this helped hatch the idea of constructing a decorative cruciform shape that would present a “woven” appearance, but without actually weaving it. I just love making more work for myself, especially when it comes to joinery.

While the shape of each leg was very simple, it also needed to be precise, so I included making a leg template in the design process. I used a stick compass to make the curves for the legs, and in doing so I was quickly able to see that normally shouldered tenons (with the tenon in the center of the 3/4″ apron boards) would project beyond the leg curve. So I decided I would offset the apron tenons flush with their outside faces (called a barefaced tenon), locating their inside faces flush with the inside corners of the legs. This construction would form a clean, simple detail when seen through the glass top. I then shifted the mortises on the legs down about 1-1/8″, the thickness of the purpleheart leftovers that would become the cruciform centerpiece. With the construction details determined, I moved on to the machining steps.

Making the Parts

Shellac or poly, glossy or flat — which looks better? Tails or pins, mortises or tenons … which should you make first? Without taking time to solve all of woodworking’s raging controversies, I can tell you that I make my mortises first, and then fit the tenons to them. In this case, I used a benchtop mortiser to chop the apron mortises. I had to be careful not to cut too deep and chop through what would become the finished curved faces of the legs. You can find the details for the mortise and tenon dimensions in the Drawings. For overall joint integrity, I cleaned up the bottom of the mortise with a 1/4″ chisel to take out the roughness the mortiser tends to leave behind.

To minimize the amount of sanding required on the legs and at the same time ensure uniformity, I template-routed them using a two-sided jig (see the Drawings). I fastened the legs to the jig, using double-faced tape, and finished their shape on the router table using a pattern-cutting bit. The trick here is to rough-cut the legs to within 1/16″ of their finished dimension. This will give you less resistance, especially on the uphill climbs through the grain where the danger of kickback and chip-out are greatest.

Use a 3hp router for best results. After shaping one curved side (raising the bit step-by-step to smooth the entire surface), flip the leg over and re-tape it to the other side of the jig to shape the other face of the leg. Another option would be to use a stationary bench sander to smooth them, but be careful not to change their shape in the process.

Next, I cut the side and end aprons to length and width, and set up a shop-made tenoning jig on the table saw. I finished the tenons with a crosscut controlled by my miter gauge and stand-off blocks on the fence. It is a simple, two-step process, but I always check my setup on scrap lumber first.

One little trick on the tenons was that I cut a tiny micro-shoulder on the top of the tenon (see the Drawing details). Before I completed the final fitting for the mortises, I took a detour to the drill press and bored 3/16″-diameter dowel holes into the top edge. These will help secure the woven lattice.

Note the mitered ends on the tenons: they just miss each other within the mortise. You can cut those with a backsaw. Another trick I used when fitting the tenons was to remove just a smidge of material from the face of the aprons using my jointer. It worked well (but don’t take off too much!).

Test clamp the end and side subassemblies together without glue, using scrap that was cut away from the legs as clamping cauls (perfectly shaped!) and, when they fit, go ahead and glue the base section together.

Weaving the Lattice

What happened next could be described as multiple, maniacal bridle joint-mode. I set up an indexing system using the miter gauge on my table saw to precisely locate each small notch on the long and short lattice (again, look to the Drawings for details). I made an indexing key and mounted it on my miter gauge. I cut these one at a time.

The important thing is to make sure the cuts are all very accurate — if the cuts vary 1/64″ over a few of them, it’ll be a mess. If you cut these individually on the table saw as I did, you must consider everything you’re doing, even how you place your hands and push the stock through the saw. Use some sideways force to keep the miter gauge riding on the left or right side of the slot in the saw table for every single cut, 288 in all. Challenging but fun! My advice: practice with scrap, lots of it. And don’t sweat the breakage — those little pieces glue right back in and no one will know the difference except you, me and thousands of readers like you!

Earlier, I bored holes in the apron for the 3/16″ dowels that secure the lattice to the aprons. Now it was time to drill the reciprocal holes in the purpleheart. I set up stop blocks on the drill press, spending the necessary time (and supply of scrap) on setup to make everything go together right. After drilling, I then went back to the patterns to trace the irregular shapes onto the lattice strips.

When making these shapes, I incorporated high spots to bear the weight of the glass in the appropriate areas. I figured that a 9″ hole in the middle of a sheet of glass could be a major stress-riser (meaning, a weak place in the sheet that becomes the breaking point when subjected to load; ask the solid-surface countertop folks). After assembly, I would turn it upside down on my bench, locate the high spots and level them with a hand plane, belt sander or some other tool.

Now, for the most dreaded assembly of all — the cruciform lattice work. I’m not sure what kind of advice I would give regarding this arrangement, but I can tell you I did pull it off, and I only broke off three of the little short grain pieces while doing so. If you dry-fit the purpleheart together and it works, I say leave it without glue: it has little structural importance and the weight of the glass (50 lbs. or so) will keep everything in place.

How to smooth or treat band-sawn edges of the purpleheart was a dilemma. In the end, I simply scraped these edges using a steel card scraper, working downhill with the grain from all the high points. It was easier than I suspected it would be. The result is a rather burnished effect that works well on the edges of this freakishly hard, stringy wood.

Important note: use a straightedge to check that there are no high spots in the lattice assembly (they’d add stress to a glass table) — plane or sand them down to exactly the level of the ends of the legs.

The finish is shellac, sprayed on from an aerosol can. Very simple and easy to fix. It’s also easy to repair and, of course, with a piece of furniture like this you don’t really need bar-top durability.

Finally, I worked out the final shape of the top by looking at several MDF mock-ups. When I was happy with the shape, I debated whether to put the bevel on the edge — but in the end, I was happy I had. It adds an important shadow line that defines the edge of the glass very well. I ordered the glass 1/2″ thick, with the edges polished, except in the center hole, which was just sanded.

Well, there’s the short story, and it all started with a few pieces of scrap lumber sitting on my workbench!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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Designing a substantial piece of furniture with moving parts capable of bearing around 500-lb. loads without tipping over and landing on an innocent party became the goal. Jeff Jacobson and Larry Stoiaken noodled through several ideas, after which Jeff came through with CAD drawings. That’s when I got busy and put together a full-size mock-up in MDF — always a good idea when working through a new design. In this case we especially needed to try out the moving parts and determine how best to anchor the cabinet to the wall or floor. (Actually a good idea with any large or tippy cabinet with a 60″ TV, even if it does not have a slide-out section!)

At the end of the process, we settled on the configuration you see above, where the entire top glided out with the center console, creating a large, stable surface that presented an unbroken visual line at the top of the cabinet. The center console needed to be large enough to contain most, if not all, sizes of electronic media components, and obviously strong enough to handle the weight of everything. We chose two Accuride glides rated for 500 pounds for the sides of the console and two Accuride 250-pound glides beneath it. These provide around 1,500 pounds of load-bearing strength, allowing us to support not just the TV monitor and components but perhaps even a safe and a boat motor … just in case!

The key to this whole design is access, so we decided not to put a back on any of the casework to help move that goal forward. We also chose a large, double-barrel grommet to fit through the top behind the TV, for cable and wire access. Once we figured all that out, and picked out the drawer glides, pulls and adjustable feet, material selection was a piece of cake!

SAFETY NOTICE!

This cabinet must be attached to the wall and the TV must be secured to the top of the cabinet. Use the locking pin to avoid accidental roll-out.

Kicking It Off

Developing a cutting list was easy, too: we simply took measurements from our mock-up, another benefit of a prototype approach to woodworking design.

There are several major parts to this project. The plinth, or base, holds everything off the ground. The two side drawer cabinets share a common base panel that covers the plinth and becomes an attaching point for the bottom glides on the center console. The center console is attached to a sub-top that’s flush with the casework beneath it, and this in turn is attached to the solid cherry top which overhangs the casework by 2-1/2″ at the ends and 5/8″ at the front.

I started with the easy stuff. I built the plinth using solid cherry for the front and sides for durability on these high traffic parts and cherry veneered plywood for the back and middle parts. You can find all the dimensions for these pieces in the Material List on the facing page.

I decided to spline the mitered front corners and plowed dadoes for the cross members, then used a fun little trick called glue blocks to reinforce all the corners. As woodworkers through the ages can attest, glue blocks deliver amazing strength with just a small amount of effort and material. I glued and clamped the plinth together and then allowed the glue to cure.

Once everything was set, I mounted six heavy-duty lifting levelers to the front and back — it is important to have the ability to level a big piece of casework like this — without using old carpenter’s shims in your living room!

Before I went any further with the casework, I decided to glue up the top. It is a bit out of sequence, but I could come back to it as I waited for other clamped and glued subassemblies to cure. The top is a simple, butt-glued panel. After I jointed and planed the stock, I examined the grain patterns and composed the pieces. I glued the top together and then set it aside for future attention, once I had built everything else.

Cabinet Parts

The plywood components for the drawer cabinets were next on the agenda. I put a sharp saw blade paired with a zero-clearance insert in the table saw and started ripping and crosscutting pieces — again, look to the Material List for their sizes. All the panels’ exposed edges got banding of 1/4″ solid cherry before final sizing and spline cutting. The joinery for all these carcass parts was butt joints and biscuits. Take your time to lay out the biscuit locations carefully, and you will save yourself a lot of misery.

In addition to the biscuit locations, there is a long notch cut out on the back edge of the carcass bottom. The notch is there to allow power cords and other sorts of wiring access to the center sliding console. Look to the Elevation Drawing for the location of the notch. I used a Forstner bit at either end of the notch and then cut the rest of it away with a jigsaw.

One of the most important pieces on this cabinet is the carcass rear stringer that runs the whole length of this subassembly. It sits in notches on the vertical dividers and is biscuited into each carcass end.

This stringer is the means by which you attach this cabinet to the wall, which you must do to safely operate the sliding console. If you don’t attach it to the wall, the whole cabinet will tip over and your expensive equipment will end up in a landfill somewhere.

With all the machining done for the carcass, I performed a final test fit. Everything was jake, so I took the time to sand all the pieces before final assembly. I clamped the subassembly together and set it aside while I went on to build the center console. (Do you see a pattern here?) Although it could go without saying, I am not going to risk it: make every effort to be certain you have clamped up the carcass square and true. Remember, you can’t reverse a glue-up step.

The Electrified Slide

The sliding center console is the heart of this project’s design. Even so, it is pretty much bread-and-butter casework construction, just as you did with the carcass. Once again, the cherry veneered plywood pieces have solid cherry lipping on their exposed edges. The exception for that is the face frame area. The center console needed to allow for the thickness of the heavy-duty slides (they are so robustly made that they are 3/4″ thick compared to the standard slide thickness of 1/2″!), so Jeff designed a face frame to fit into the center of the case to hide that unsightly hardware. It sits in the same plane as the drawer faces, which overlay the casework behind them. He also added a center vertical divider for additional strength, allowing us to eliminate any fixed shelving and giving you even more options in loading up the electronic stuff into your “ultimate” media cabinet.

I biscuit-joined, sanded and assembled the console in the same manner as the carcass, with the additional step of drilling shelf-pin holes. See the Drawings for the locations of the holes. Like the other plywood pieces, the shelving is simply edge-banded and sanded smooth. The limited size of these shelves means they won’t sag over time; otherwise I’d have suggested solid wood shelving.

As I mentioned before, the glue stage step is irreversible, so the dry-fit pre-assembly step cannot be done too carefully. Take your time, apply the clamps as you would if you were using glue, and then test for square. When everything fits perfectly, go ahead and do the glue-up.

When the glue has cured, set this subassembly aside, too. (You will be getting a pretty big pile of “set asides” by now!)

At this point, I went back to work on the carcass subassembly, building and fitting the drawers using the Accuride drawer slides. In this instance, the drawer construction was simple: 1/2″ Baltic plywood rabbeted at the corners. I glued the joints and drove trim nails into the corners. The bottoms were 1/4″ Baltic plywood panels captured fully within a dadoed housing. Look to the Drawings for the details of these simple drawers. One detail you will notice is that the sides of the drawers are shallow, which allows for easy finger access when grabbing your favorite movie or game cartridge.

The drawer faces are made from solid cherry lumber and are attached with screws driven from the inside of the drawer boxes. Getting these faces to line up with each other and the face frame of the center console proved to be the most challenging woodworking task of the entire project, in my opinion. I’m great at making hand-cut dovetailed and hand planed fitted drawers — it’s the easy stuff I sometimes struggle with. Be patient and as accurate as you can. Fortunately, with a 1/8″ reveal you have some room for trimming and fitting. I was grateful for that reveal, I can tell you.

Demanding Drawer Slides

I installed all the of the slide hardware basically by the numbers, meaning I use the manufacturer’s specs and make my measurements precise. The drawer slides on the drawers (as opposed to the console) fully disengage, and I was able to mount each slide part to its mating surface on the drawer and cabinet sides. I simply measured, taking into account all offsets, then precisely marked and screwed them in place. For the aluminum drawer handles, I made a template out of scrap 1/4″ birch plywood, clamped it to the drawer face with a backer block and drilled straight through for the mounting screws. Easy breezy…

That was the drawers…the center console, however, has the Accuride super heavy-duty slides that do not come apart into two pieces, which made things a bit more complicated. After noodling over the challenge, I started out by setting the bottom slides (which are detachable) to the carcass bottom and the adjoining bottom of the center console — again, doing it by the numbers to manufacturer’s specs: all of the required offsets, etc., which are basically built into the casework. I attached the big glides to the vertical dividers of the carcass and then blocked and shimmed up the center console to connect with the carcass at just the right spot. I connected the smaller glides, pushed the center in a little ways and checked my marks against the screw holes on the slides (wow, good job!) and fastened it down. Then it was time to test it out: I can’t begin to tell you how nice it worked, better than the drawers. I even impressed myself on this little step of the job; it was far easier than I anticipated.

Driving It Home

It was now time to start thinking about finishing this project off. Remember the top that has been waiting patiently on the sidelines? There was some work left to do on it. I first hand planed it with a #07 beater plane of Rob’s, then started at about 80-grit with a Festool 6″ random orbital (sorry, purists … you’ll notice the drawers are pinned also). I cut and shaped the top before the final sanding, then gave it a coat of Watco® before setting it aside again to start getting the casework prepped and ready for finishing. I needed to work on the reveals some more, getting all the lines looking straight. I eased all the edges along with a final clean-up scuff sanding using 220-grit paper before tacking and rubbing in a coat of Watco. A penetrating oil finish on cherry brings out the grain like no other treatment, in my opinion. Even if you are going to apply a durable topcoat like polyurethane, I would still recommend taking the time to apply a coal of oil before the poly.

After an overnight dry, I mated the top to the sub-top of the center console, simply screwed in place but with elongated holes at the front and middle to allow for movement of the cherry top.

Next I drilled holes for the grommet hardware through the top and the subtop. I confess to a bit of anxiety; I was using a really big bit on a really nice top! After the holes were drilled, I used a jigsaw to connect the holes for the grommet. Following that, I drilled the 3/8″ hole for the locking pin. This dowel keeps young children from “accidentally” pulling the console forward unsupervised.

I then gave it all a light rubdown with #0000 steel wool, tacked the surfaces clean and applied another coat of Watco Danish oil.

This was a very fun, very cool project to work on. I don’t think it’s a groundbreaking achievement in the world of fine woodworking, but it sure offered up a number of challenging elements to bang my head against, some beautiful wood to use and cool moving parts! Imagine the ease with which you’ll reconnect your Xbox or new amplifier, Blu-ray or an “old style” DVD player to your system, with no chiropractor bills for your efforts or shorted-out components!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials Lists.

Hard to Find Hardware

Heavy-duty Drawer Slides (1 pr.) #31416
Accuride Drawer Slides (5 pr.) #32482
Drawer Pulls (4) #23331
Heavy-duty Levelers (2 packs) #81239
Hex Wrench for Levelers (1) #81253
Black 1/4” Pin Support (1) #22781

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That this cart is truly effective is not an accident. Working with the staff at Woodworker’s Journal, we tried many different approaches and gadgets in mock-ups and prototypes before we got to this simple configuration. (Contributing Editor Sandor Nagyszalanczy’s expert advice was especially useful in this effort.) It’s designed to be connected to a standard 4″ dust collector hose. The end wings and back (which, when lowered down, becomes the top) tip up to create barriers that block the dust as it is literally thrown from the sander. Curiously, we found 1/4-sheet sanders to be some of the dustiest. The downdraft table panels — four steel plates with holes and rubber non-slip grommets preinstalled — allow the dust to be sucked down into the vacuum chamber. If you team up this table with a random-orbit sander that has its own dust collection system, your overall dust collection will be remarkably effective (although not 100% dust-free).

The other features that make this little cart even more useful include an aluminum-covered top that, when folded down, can be used for any number of shop tasks; storage in a drawer and on an open lower shelf; a handy little jig for tearing sandpaper into perfect quarters to fit jitterbug sanders; and two casters that allow you to move the unit around with ease. I think it will make a great addition to nearly any woodworking shop.

Starting Out

I used standard 3/4″ birch plywood to make the majority of the components of this cart. There is some 1/4″ plywood that forms the bottom of the vacuum chamber and a bit of solid hardwood on some of the edges (I used cherry) — but any type of veneer core plywood will do, and the hardwood is your choice as well. It’s a shop project … but, hey, it can still look nice!

Use the Material List to cut out the front, back and ends (pieces 1, 2 and 3) of what I call the vacuum chamber — the top section that will eventually slide down onto the base. These pieces are butt-joined using biscuits and glue.

I put the sides up against the locked fence on my table saw to give me a 90° secure setup for slicing the biscuit mortises. When the pieces are prepared, go ahead and glue and clamp them together, checking for square as you do. Note that the front is 1/4″ taller than the back. Next, cut the chamber’s end and front and back cleats and bottom pieces (pieces 4, 5 and 6).

I used a circle cutting bit in my drill press to form the opening for the dust port into one of the bottom pieces. Check the Drawings for the location. Plow grooves into the chamber’s end cleats at a 7° angle, using a 1/4″ dado head.

I found the best way to assemble and install the angled bottom into the vacuum chamber was to use a really strong tape (duct tape or its equivalent). Adhere a strip to the underside of the bottom pieces, apply glue to the seam, and then flex the bottom into a slight V.

Get ready for assembling the bottom and installing it into the chamber by flipping the subassembly upside down and setting it on three 1/4″ spacers. These spacers accommodate for the front’s extra height. In addition, place 1″ scrap blocks inside the chamber subassembly positioned against each end. The reason will become clear in a moment.

Install the chamber end cleats so their grooves fit over the ends of the thin bottom subassembly, and push the whole thing down until it stops on the 1″ scrap blocks you just placed. Then drill pilot holes and drive screws through the chamber end cleats. The four front and back cleats that support the chamber bottom are added next. I installed these using a simple “rub joint,” moving them gently back and forth until the glue tacked and grabbed.

Once the glue has cured, turn the chamber over and install the glue blocks and center support (pieces 7 and 8). The metal downdraft table panels rest on the center support and the chamber end cleats when you are using the cart. The last pieces to make and install on the vacuum chamber are the end wings and the top. Cut them to size from 3/4″ birch plywood. Trim the edges of the top with cherry hardwood and sand it flush (pieces 9 through 11). Now take a few moments to drill and secure the magnets (pieces 12) to the back panel (see Drawings) using epoxy. Fasten the piano hinge to the top edge of the chamber back (piece 2), then attach it to the underside of the top so the panel will stand up at 90° to the chamber when open. Transfer the positions of the magnets to the underside of the top, and mount the magnet washers. When that’s done, install the end wings to the chamber with more lengths of piano hinge (piece 13), positioning them so they are tight against the top when in the upright position.

Attach the barrel latches (pieces 14 — available at your local hardware store) to the wings and then mark and drill holes into the underside of the top to accept their barrels. You are almost done with the vacuum chamber. Position one of the dust ports (pieces 15) over the opening you made on the angled bottom, mark and drill its mounting holes and use short hex-head bolts, washers and nuts to install it. Put the vacuum chamber aside for now and move on to building the base.

Constructing the Base

Construction techniques used in making the rolling base are stone simple, but still sturdy and practical. Start by cutting out the tall and short ends, front and back panels, lower shelf, handle and the divider (pieces 16 through 21).

Grab the base front and back and get ready to shape their ends. I made a template from MDF to the exact shape of the end (see the Drawings for details). By forming the shape on a template, I could fair it up and get it just right. If I made a mistake, I could just start over on another piece of MDF — I wouldn’t have wasted a good piece of stock. Once the template was accurate, I transfered the shape onto the handle panels, stepped to the band saw and rough cut the shape just outside of the pencil line.

Then I chucked a pattern-routing bit into my router table. Attaching the template to the pieces with double-sided tape, I could carefully rout the shape. It left a nice smooth edge. Repeat the process on the other panel. Next, I selected one of the pieces to be the front and receive the drawer opening. I marked out and rough cut the opening with a jigsaw. I made another template to exactly the drawer opening size and template-routed that opening as well. Routing leaves the edges smoother than the jigsaw can. The pieces still need a pair of stopped holes drilled on their inside faces for the handle, plus some cherry trim along their lower edges. You also need to cut the bottom curve on the tall end piece and use the circle cutting bit to bore a dust port hole through it. Do that final prep work now, and you’ll be ready for assembly.

Get out your pencil and marking tools, because it is time to warm up your biscuit cutter. Mark out and locate the biscuit slots. When they are cut, dry-fit the base subassembly together so you can verify the fit and practice your clamping procedure. At this point, I would recommend finding a friend to help with the gluing and clamping, and it might be very helpful to pre-glue the biscuits into the panels so you don’t have to handle them during glueup. (While it’s not required, if you have a nail gun handy, well…you will find it very handy!)

While the subassembly is drying, make the lower stretchers (pieces 22). I started by cutting blanks and milling a 3/4″-wide x 3/8″-deep groove along the lengths of their inside faces. I stepped to the band saw to cut the stretchers’ bottom profiles to shape. Align these cuts so they turn the groove into a rabbet where the curved edge straightens out (see Drawings), and sand these cuts smooth. Add some hardwood trim to their top flat edges before fitting the stretchers against the bottom shelf and gluing them in place with biscuits. When the glue dries, attach the two casters (pieces 23) to the bottom shelf with short lag screws and washers.

Adding the Sandpaper Cutting Jig and Drawer

Build the sandpaper cutting jig next. Cut pieces 24 to 27 to size and assemble them with glue, as shown in the Drawings. Secure the hacksaw blade (piece 28) with #4 screws, and mount the jig to the cart with screws driven from the inside.

The last major bit of work is making and mounting the drawer. Cut the drawer parts (pieces 29 to 32) to size. The drawer box sides and ends have 1/4″ grooves formed on their inside faces for the bottom, while the front and back have rabbets cut as shown in the Drawings. Glue and clamp the drawer parts together. While it dries, secure the drawer spacer (piece 33) in place as shown on the Drawings. (The spacer is needed to help mount the left drawer slide.) Mount the slide hardware (piece 34) to the drawer box and carcass, and slide it together to hang the box. The drawer face requires a routed recess to accept the drawer pull (piece 35), which you can install now. Center the drawer face on the box and attach it with two screws driven through from inside the drawer. Way to go, you’re almost done!

Grab two more dust ports and mount them “back to back” on both faces of the tall end panel with bolts, nuts and washers. Drill some countersunk pilot holes on the inside faces of the cart ends to prepare for attaching the vacuum chamber. Grab the vacuum chamber and slide it down into position on the cart. Lift the cart up onto a bench, and drive screws through the pilot holes to attach the vacuum chamber to the cart. Now cut a length of flexible dust collector hose to fit between the dust port on the bottom of the vacuum chamber and the one on the inside face of the cart’s tall end. Secure it with tubing clamps.

Two things remain to be done. First, glue a thin sheet of aluminum to the cart’s top using contact adhesive. (Most big box stores sell sheet aluminum.) Trim it to fit with a carbide chamfering bit in a router — it works surprisingly well. Sand off any sharp edges of the aluminum when you are done and your cart is ready for the last step — finishing. I used Watco® oil. It is really easy to apply, dries hard and can be touched up in a snap. It’s the perfect shop project finish.

Click Here to download a PDF of the related drawings.

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