WIP- Router table

[boban]

Background

Well I've bitten the bullet and broken my own promise to myself and started a new project before I finished the shed but I know the bloke, he'll get over it.

I'm using the plans I posted in my earlier thread. Unlike in my plans I am just going to use butt joints, nails and screws, then cover these with solid pieces of pine. Hopefully it will look like frame and flat panel construction when completed.

I've got about 2 sheets of leftover 17mm plywood flooring which I will use for the carcass. I also have some 9mm plywood for the back.

I'll be using metal runners for the drawers and probably melamine for the drawers. That way I wont have to finish them. Nothing fancy there either, just butt joints, nails and screws.

Anyway, time to start.:eek:

[boban]

Stage 1 is the cutting of the sheet stock for the carcass and applying the edging.

Photo 1- Cut the sides and internal dividers at 580 x 700. You will need 4 of these

Photo 2 - Cut the base at 580 x 1000. The base of the cabinet sits beneath the sides and internal dividers so that there is no shear force working against the nails and screws on the sides.

Photo 3 - The back of the cabinet is just there to provide bracing and will be nailed and screwed on. The piece I have is about 9mm and will cover the base,sides and internal dividers. It is cut at 717 x 1000.

Photo 4 - I hate throwing out timber, I knew it would come in handy for something. The bracing at the top of the cabinet

Photo 5 -At the top of the cabinet we will need to brace it as well as have something to attach the top. Since this photo was taken I changed the front pieces to one solid piece which will be 19 x 70 x 966. The balance of the pieces will be 2 @ 19 x 70 x 286 and 1@ 19 x 70 x 366

[boban]

Photo 1 - leftover fingerjointed pine strips which I will use to edge the board. Cut them oversized so that you can router the excess off with the flush trim bit. I allowed 2mm on either side, which is probably too much.

Photo 2 - All clamped up, in this photo at least. You can nail (and putty) the edges on as they wont be seen most of the time given that the drawer fronts sit over the sides and internal dividers. Then again, who cares, its a tool, not furniture.

Photo 3 - One to give the darksiders a woody. I used the block plane to plane the edges flush.

This whole process (stage 1) shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

[tinsmith2]

Good morning Boban, I was drawing the plans up and this morning I found the photos. Good luck, Who really needs plans in a shed.

[Cliff Rogers]

officer Obie has been here.

"Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one"

You trying to go one up on Midge?

Just stirr'n, keep up the good work.

[Groggy]

Yes officer Obie, I put that piece of paper under that rubbish! Gotta luv Alice's Restaurant.

[Scally]

Boban
I thought your shed had room for a router table.
That SCM should make short work of the cutout.

You could make it look smart with some of that Jarrah veneered mdf.

I look forward to seeing it finished.

[ozwinner]

officer Obie has been here.


Just stirr'n, keep up the good work.

I though Boban might have had a hand from Bob Dilon..

Keep em coming.

Al

[boban]

You're a merciless lot aren't you

Scally, you have a good memory. Sadly though I dont have enough of the Jarrah veneer boards left over to skin the cabinet. And you're right the panel saw makes light work of the panels although in this instance its all pretty much left overs/off cuts so I didn't have to handle any large panels.

Anyway Saturday is not a good day for me with the boys playing football (round) and me being the coach, so I only got a couple of hours in. I managed to finish the top drawers and prepare the cabinet for the slides.

I have changed the number of drawers from 4 per side to 3 per side because I already had metal drawer sides which were both 116 and 150mm high. I decided to use these instead of building the entire drawers from melamine.

Photo 1 - This is the sloping shelf which I failed to cut in Stage 1. Cut it oversize so that it can be trimmed later when you determine the correct angle.

Photo 2 - Cut out the notches in the internal dividers to allow for the top brace to go all the way across the cabinet. I nothed out 19mm x 70mm out of the internal dividers.

Photo 3 - I always set out the slides before nailing up the cabinets. Much easier this way. If I didn't have to finish the inside of the cabinet, I would attach the slides at this stage.

Photo 4 - Pre-drill the holes in the sides.

Photo 5 - Take note that with the white slides, they are marked CL, CR, DL and DR which are abbreviations for Cabinet Right and Left, Drawer Right and Left.

[boban]

Photo 1 - I marked the top of the sides and internal dividers to save myself becoming confused when I assemble the cabinet.

Photo 2 - Once I have drilled all the holes I sand the boards and get rid of the set out lines.

Photo 3 - I cut out the material for the top 4 drawers. With these metal drawer sides you only need to cut a bottom and back. The (drawer front) face is attached to the metal sides.

Photo 4 - Top drawers assembled and ready to go.

That was it for Saturday as we had to go out again.

[boban]

Photo 1 - This is the replacement top brace which will be a lot easier to attach and will provide a uniform look across the top of the carcass.

Photo 2 - The bottom drawers are assembled and the runners are attached. I haven't gone into great detail here as building a basic butt jointed drawer shouldn't be difficult for even a novice.

Photo 3 - This is the other reason I went from 4 drawers to 3. I made sure that my routers will be able to fit in easily.

Photo 4 - All the drawers finished and stacked.

Time to assemble the carcass.

[boban]

Photo 1 - To aid in the spacing and to save yourself valuable time in marking out lines, cut two spacers (283mm in this case) with your table saw. Attach the sides flush with the bottom board then use the spacers you cut earlier.

Photo 2 - The sides and dividers all attached.

Photo 3 - Top bracing is attached. You can see why the notch was made. Your spacer will come in handy again.

Photo 4 - You can see that the rear top bracing is oriented differently in the centre to the right and left braces to allow to easy attachment with the bradder and screws. You could easily use a biscuit joiner if you were inclined to do so. I obviously wasn't.

[boban]

You recall that the sloping shelf was cut oversize. Here it how I trimmed it down to a characterless finish.

Photo 1 - Mark the height were the sloping shelf will meet on the internal dividers and dry fit the shelf so that the top lip is almost flush with the front face. Mark rear overhang with a sharp pencil and remove the shelf.

Photo 2 - Place the shelf infront of the saw blade and line up the blade with your pencil mark. It's pretty easy if you have reasonably good eyesight.

Photo 3 - Creep up on the cut. Dont cut on the line. This way you will see if the angle is right. Adjust if necessary and cut as many times as you need to get it right.

Photo 4 - Look at that, a characterless (perfect) fit.

Photo 5 - I find it easy enough to plane off the solid edging at the front of the sloping shelf with my block plane. You could always use the saw for this if you wanted.

[boban]

Photo 1 - Before you attach the back, mark out the internals.

Photo 2 - The next step is to mark out the outlet for the 100mm dust outlet. I'm just using a readly available plastic adaptor I picked up at Hare and Forbes a while ago.

Photo 3 - Cut out the hole with a jigsaw and sand the back before you attach it to the carcass.

Photos 4 and 5 - The carcass is now assembled and ready for a poly-urethane finish on the inside.

That's it for another day.

[boban]

I had to work today, so progress was minimal.

First thing I did was to give the internals a coat of poly-urenthane.

I decided to cover the plywood edges, nail and screw holes with a pine trim. I went to the shed and found some old pine gluts that would be perfect for the task.

Photo 1 - The gluts just after they were ripped. There is so much of this crap available on job sites, its hard to pay anything for any pine lengths less than 2.4 m.

Photo 2 - The trimming pieces cut to size.

Photo 3 - I have allowed for a 20mm overhang at the front of the carcass so that the drawer fronts will finish flush with the trim.

Photo 4 - I've glued and clamped on the trim. You could easily nail this on but this will be seen.

Photo 5 - What it looks like without the clamps.