- The Wood Whisperer is sponsored
by Powermatic and Titebond.
One thing I've noticed with the way
that I store things in drawers
is that I don't always make use of the vertical space.
So a lot of times it's just things
sitting on the bottom of the drawer
with a bunch of airspace above it.
So wouldn't it be cool
if we could actually make use of that?
Well, I was in my kitchen the other day
and we're lucky to have a couple of these organizers
in there where if you slide back the top
you reveal a bottom section,
so there's essentially built-in trays inside the drawers.
So I figure why can't we do that in the shop?
So I tried to come up with a simple way
to apply that to a shop drawer,
but this is also something you can do in your kitchen.
All right, so let me show you what it looks like.
So here I've got all of my writing utensils
and even some room to expand back here.
But if I move this tray back
I've got some French curves, drawing aids,
templates, things like that.
So this was all stuff I like to store together.
The things that if I were just to throw all this stuff
into this wide open drawer
it would be really inefficient, stuff would be hard to find.
But now it's perfectly organized, right?
So to do this you're gonna have to do
a little bit of surgery to a preexisting drawer.
Your strategy might be different
if you're building these drawers brand new.
Let's start by destroying a drawer.
I'm gonna cut out the top half of the back
making a cut that's flush with the inside face.
I removed the top screw,
but I still have a brad nail to go through,
so I use my hacksaw for that part.
Then I can go back to the regular saw.
I'm going about halfway down.
Depending on how your drawer is constructed
you may have other obstacles to deal with.
Just make sure that your drawer doesn't completely lose
all structural integrity by doing this.
At the bottom of the cut I'll drill holes,
so that I have a starting point for my jigsaw.
A piece of scrape helps prevent tearout
when the bit punches through.
I outfit my jigsaw with the smallest,
highest tooth count blade that I own
and start cutting along my line.
The high tooth count helps prevent tearout
with this plywood veneer.
I can sand the inside and smooth the cuts and edges.
Now I'll cut some strips of 1/4 inch plywood
for our dividers and risers.
The side risers should be cut just a hair taller
than the remaining back piece.
That allows the tray to slide freely.
The risers are cut to length and then glued to the insides.
Now I measure for the trays.
The trays should be about 1/16 of an inch shy
from the measured width.
The depth can be the same as the drawer depth.
The trays are super simple to make.
I'll cut some scrap cherry down to about 1/2 inch thick
for the fronts and sides.
And with the bottom cut to size
I can measure for the long side pieces
and attach them with glue and brad nails.
Once both sides are attached
I measure and cut the front and back pieces
and install them with glue and brads.
This project was meant to be just kinda one afternoon thing,
so nothing fancy here.
But the trays will be durable enough
for their intended purpose.
Don't judge.
The inside edges get a little chamfer
that makes it a little bit easier on the fingers.
Each tray is dropped in and sanded
until the fit is what I need.
Snug for the bottom and sliding freely for the top.
Keep in mind, you don't really need a bottom tray.
I made one, because I thought it might make it easier
to remove and modify grid work that we'll install later.
By the time I realized I really didn't need it
it was already made, so whatever.
In order to easily slide the top tray back
we're gonna need to carve a small relief for fingers.
I just use a rasp and carve a little recess.
As designed, the top tray will just tip
when it's pushed more than halfway back,
so I'll install a couple of cleats to hold it in place.
The paper just acts as a little spacer
providing clearance for the tray.
The inner grid work will totally depend
on what you wanna store in there.
I'm sketching mine out based on my extensive collection
of name tags and hairnets.
The dividers are made from 1/4 plywood
and will receive complementary notches
where the pieces cross over.
I mark everything out and then head to the table saw.
With the blade raised to slightly over half
the height of the dividers I can cut the notches.
The blade is only 1/8 of an inch wide
so to simplify the second cut
I just use a little shim.
Some parts receive a notch in the exact same location
and I can cut all of those at the same time.
The pieces are then assembled inside the tray.
We really don't need any glue or fasteners,
just friction.
Now let's fill this thing up.
Am I the only one who clearly loses his mechanical pencils
before he even has a chance to use the refills?
So both trays are filled up
and there's plenty of room to spare.
(upbeat music)
Ever wish you could have more space in your drawers?