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Rolling shop cabinet
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Built to house a scrollsaw, this mobile cabinet was designed with comfort and storage in mind
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By Art Mulder, photos by Roger Yip, illlustration by Len Churchill
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Drawer slides ensure smooth operation. The drawer faces are fixed to the rabbeted plywood drawer boxes for style.
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Frame It
Before cutting the face-frame members to length, check the dimensions of the actual cabinet. Drill two pocket holes in the end of each rail and fasten the pieces together. Leave a four-inch gap for the top drawer and 7 3/4" for the bottom one. The pocket holes you made in the cabinet earlier should now be used to attach the frame to the front of the carcass.
I built my drawers with Baltic birch plywood. We tend to think of this material as being a half-inch thick, but its actual thickness is 12mm. Keep this in mind as you check measurements and set up the dado blade in the next steps.
Next, cut the pieces for the drawers. The drawer slides require a half-inch of clearance on each side of the drawer box. This design calls for the front and back of the drawer boxes to fit into rabbets in the sides. Therefore, the front and back pieces of the drawer box need to be 1 1/2" shorter than the width of the drawer opening in the face frame.
Get your drawer pieces ready to assemble by setting up a dado blade in your tablesaw. Set the width to match the thickness of the drawer plywood and set the blade to a depth of half that. Cut a rabbet around the bottom edge of all four sides. Next, cut a rabbet along the front and back edges of the side pieces. Apply a bead of glue in those rabbets and nail the front and back to the sides of the drawers. Then, apply a bead of glue in the rabbet of the bottom and nail it to the bottom of the drawer. These are simple drawers, just one step up from basic butt-joined boxes. The rabbets provide more glue surface and help square up the drawer.
The Euro-style slides that I chose have a 100-lb. (45.5-kg) rating, which is plenty for this application. In addition, they have an L-shape to them-they partially support the bottom of the drawer, which lends strength to this simple drawer construction method.
Before you install the drawers, screw 3/4"-thick support spacers to the inside of the cabinet, on both sides of each drawer opening. Use scrap plywood, as the actual width of these spacers isn't crucial. The only requirement is that they must be flush with the inside of the face frame, allowing you to attach the drawer slides. Follow the instructions that come with the drawer slides.
Cut the drawer faces from 3/4" walnut. They should be 1/2" wider and taller than the drawer openings, to provide a 1/4" overlap on all four sides.
Raised Panels
If you have a panel-raising bit for your router, you can use it in a router table to turn your drawer fronts into raised panels. Raised panels can also be made on the tablesaw with the following simple jig. Cut a piece of plywood four to five inches wide x 14" to 18" long. This is the base and will ride along the saw fence. Cut another piece about six inches tall x 12" to 14" long. This will be the face to which the drawer front is clamped. Finally, cut two vertical supports about three inches wide x six inches tall, but cut one of the tall sides at an 80º angle. Fasten the vertical supports to the base and the face to the vertical supports. The face board should now lean back at a 10º angle. Leave the tablesaw blade at the standard 90º as the jig features the needed built-in angle.
Clamp the board to be cut to the face of the sled, set the fence width, raise the blade to about 1 1/2" and make the cut. In order to leave a ridge, which defines the edge of the raised panel, the left side of the blade should just clear the board, while the right side should remain embedded. Test cuts are crucial as you set up for this cut. Hold the sled tight against the fence as you push your stock through the blade.
You may find that the end grain burns a little bit with this jig. This is easily remedied. After making the first cuts on all four sides of the panel, loosen the fence and tap it a smidgen closer to the blade, about 1/32". Run the end grain parts of the panel through the saw again. Just a tiny amount of wood will be removed, and the burning will be almost totally eliminated-anything left can be sanded out.
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