Weekend project

[Lee Ludden]

I have one of those shops that has a 2 car garage door on one side, so space is somewhat at a premium. This past weekend I built this little cabinet to fit under my drill press. It is approximately 24"x20" and is the same height as my table saw, so I can use it as support table when I am ripping plywood.

I built the carcass out of 3/4" and the drawers from 1/2" Baltic birch plywood, with a 3/4" MDF/melamine top. The edges were trimmed with some hard maple. I used 100lb full extension slides and casters from Woodcraft.

I'll throw a couple coats of poly on it this week after work and load it up next weekend. This was my first complete face frame cabinet, and while I didn't get the reveals all perfect, I learned a lot in the building process.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4137/4896197719_45d70f3f48.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4093/4896794370_7163d9bd0e.jpg

[Phillip Ngan]

Nice work Lee. I like how the grain in the baltic birch plywood is so prominent. Good idea to make the height the same as the saw bench. I've done the same with my workbench.

[Will Overton]

Great way to spend weekend with great results. It looks good, and I'm sure it will be extremely useful in the shop.

[John M Wilson]

Nice work! I am curious about the maple edge-banding on the melamine top. How did you sand the top of the edge band without damaging the melamine? Or, perhaps you did all of the prep work before attaching it -- if so, then how did you get the edge band to align so well with the top? I also need to build a few small cabinets, and I may shamelessly steal your design... :)

[Lee Ludden]

I cut the top slightly over sized and trimmed it flush with a router. Then I cut all of the edging and clamped the faces together and sanded the tops and bottoms and then glued it on. A little final touch up was done with a hand sanding block.

[Joseph Tarantino]

shop projects are the best way to develop and refine your skills in anticipation of projects that need to be (almost) perfect.

[Van Huskey]

Very nice and well thought out project, I may well steal the idea...:D