- [Marc] The Wood Whisperer is sponsored by
Powermatic and Titebond.
So today I want to show you how I made
this under workbench cabinet.
A funny thing about this,
is I never intended it to be this fancy
with all these embellishments and details.
I really started with something that was utilitarian
and practical, just made with solid woods
so it would be nice and it would last a long time.
But, ultimately, with influence of friends of mine online,
people pushing me to do more with it,
it evolved into this crazy project
that I never expected it to be.
So, you might see some continuity issues in a sense
where normally I would actually put a lot of attention
into my grain direction on a piece like this,
but I really didn't.
I just kind of took a walnut board
and started chopping out my parts
because it didn't matter when I started.
Then at the end, you're left with this thing
that's this weird dichotomy of practicality,
utilitarian stuff, along with embellishment
and extra details that you might normally add
into a piece of furniture that you want
to be a showpiece in your home.
Right, so, it's got plenty of room for storage,
lots of nice drawers, inlaid drawer pulls,
you'll see in a future video,
I'll show you some of the details on tool holders like this,
but if you are married to a set of chisels,
this is a nice little thing that you can do.
Lots of fun techniques in this project.
This is a Wood Whisperer Guild project,
so, if you want the full set of plans and all the videos,
you can go to WoodWhispererGuild.com.
But this is a pretty good introduction to see how I made it.
So, let's take a look.
(motor spinning)
The case is made from four quarter walnut.
(saw buzzing)
Most of the case parts will require a glue up
to get the width that I need.
(clanking)
Once the glue is dry I scrape away the excess
and then sand the panels to 180.
(whirring)
The panels are then cut to length and width.
(saw buzzing)
The main joinery will be box joints,
so I'll whip up a quick box joint jig on the miter sled.
Check out my knife case video if you want to see more detail
on how to construct a jig like this.
Big panels can be tricky,
so make sure you use a tall fence
and a clamp if you need it.
(saw buzzing)
(banging)
To connect the partitions, I'll be using sliding dovetails.
They're more work than simple dados,
but they're also much stronger
and they look a lot better too.
The male part of the joint is cut at the router table.
This is one of those times where it's really nice
to have an Incra setup because it allows you
to sneak up on the perfect fit.
The back panel will sit in a simple groove
that gets cut all the way around the perimeter.
And the back panel itself will be made from two boards
with a rabbet cut all the way around.
The panel is slightly narrower than the opening
to allow for wood movement.
To avoid losing my mind, we'll glue one joint at a time.
And the calls are just practice runs
from the box joint setup.
You could glue the whole thing together at once,
but you better use a slow-setting glue
that doesn't contain water, such as,
polyurethane glue or epoxy.
Otherwise, you'll never get all
those joints to seat correctly.
Even though I'm doing one joint at a time,
I'm still going to use Titebond Extend
for additional working time.
(banging)
The sliding dovetails are also best glued
with a slow-set non water-based glue.
It'd be great if every joint was 100% perfect,
but in my shop, that's just not gonna happen.
So, I'll use a little bit of filler here and there
to create the illusion of perfection.
Now for the drawers.
We'll have walnut fronts and poplar sides and backs.
I used shims to help me get the fronts cut
to the exact dimension.
No tape measures needed here.
The sides will connect to the front
and back with sliding dovetails.
Now, this isn't really a common way to make drawers,
but I think it's a nice change of pace.
Now for the bottom panel grooves.
The bottom panels will be made from quarter inch ply.
Now things start to get pretty fun.
I need to route a recess for the drawer pulls
that I want to use.
They're not really intended to be totally flush mounted,
but I think they'll look much better this way
and nothing will ever get caught on them.
So, we do the work.
To make the drawers pop,
I'll do a little string inlay using thin strips of maple.
The groove is cut with a sixteenth inch straight bit
and the stringing is cut to fit.
While this work is kind of tedious,
it's also very meditative and soothing.
Like a warm bubble bath.
Or a walk on the beach, not really.
The corners are carefully mitered using a chisel
and the pieces are inserted with glue.
Once the glue is dry, the stringing is flushed
to the surface.
Snazzy. (tinkling)
To provide clearance for the drawer slides,
I'll need to notch the drawer backs.
To glue up the drawers, I'll use polyurethane glue.
The advantage of using poly glue here is that,
it not only gives me lots of working time,
it also doesn't add any water to the joint,
which would swell the wood
and make it difficult to assemble.
The bottom panel is then inserted
and the drawer is squared up.
Once dry, we can drive the screws
through the bottom panel into the back.
Now for the hardware.
I'm using black full extension slides.
There are lots of other slide options out there,
so, if you're wondering why I went with these,
remember that this project started
as a simple utilitarian piece.
By the time I realized I was getting way more involved,
I've already purchased my hardware
and just needed to move forward.
I like to use spacers to install my slides.
It makes it pretty dummy proof,
especially if the spacers are cut to the correct size.
A quick test fit, looks pretty good.
So lets make a door.
The door will be a simple mitered frame and panel.
We'll have to route for yet another pull here.
To dress up the door,
my buddy Brian Benham suggested a fairly ornate pattern
that travels around the hardware.
It's a lot more work,
but it will look pretty, pretty, pretty good.
To reinforce the miters, we'll cut some keys.
The keys themselves will be made from maple.
The hinges are simple mortised butt hinges.
I cut the mortise with the router
and then clean it up with a chisel.
The mortise locations are transferred to the case
and the mortise process is repeated.
As a door stop,
I'll make a small magnetic block using rare-earth magnets.
A bank of drawers nearly always needs some finesse work
to make sure that the gaps are all perfectly even.
I'll use a hand plane for that work
and then add some nice subtle chamfers to the edges.
The case also gets some subtle edge treatment,
including a large chamfer on the outside.
The finish is a hard wax oil.
More than any other wood, I think walnut's transformation
with finish is absolutely amazing.
And now for the final hardware installation.
The box is then carefully placed onto the bench rails.
And secured in place.
It's more than it needs to be,
less than it could be,
but probably more than I deserve.
But, I'll tell ya, I'm going to love going
into the shop everyday and seeing this under my bench.
(fun music)
Remember, WoodWhispererGuild.com if you want
to see the full series and get your hands on those plans.
Thanks for watching.