Last year,
my youngest daughter began working at home for an accounting firm based
on the east coast. The position required that her home office be
equipped in such a way that she could have three different computer monitors
on her desk. That turned out to be easy enough to accomplish but
left her without any room for her printer (which was also required).
Her
desk is made out of hard maple and had a style to it that she really liked.
She wanted to keep this desk at all costs but wanted a printer stand to
match the desk. That's where her Dad (Ol' Dave) comes into the picture.
I told her that I would attempt to make her a printer cabinet to match
the overall height, depth and appearance of her desk. The project
described below is the build process description and photos of that cabinet
project.
I began the project as I have
always done by taking measurements of the height and depth of her desk
and made the drawings on Autocad to work from. She wanted the cabinet
to have a slim top drawer to hold pencils, paper clips, stamps and all
the other small office supply stuff that you will find in the typical office
desk. She also wanted the cabinet to hold printing paper and the
main computer CPU tower. So, I designed the cabinet to accomodate
those requirements and still end up looking like the cabinet was part of
the same office suite.
After
I completed the drawings, I began to cut the panels required from 3/4"
thick veneered maple plywood. I started by cutting the top which
was to be surrounded by 3 inch wide solid maple to give it a nice looking
edge. I then moved on to cutting the rest of the panels required.
You can see a couple of these panels in the photo on the right as they
lay on my table saw.
After the top panel was cut,
I ripped some pieces of 3/4" thick hard maple down to 3" widths to make
a solid edge completely around this top. Working from my drawings,
I made 45° cuts on the ends and used my buscuit cutter to make the
slots in both the edges of the tops and in the surrounding pieces.
These pieces were then glued around the top panel and clamped into place.
See the photos below:
Cutting Biscuits
In
Surrounding Top Pieces.
|
Top Being Clamped
After Glue Up.
|
When
I removed the top from the clamps, I took it to my router table to route
a 3/8" bevel around all the edges. This didn't exactly match the
way her desk looked, but I thought it would keep the edges from chipping
in the future. When all was said and done, and the cabinet was placed
next to her desk, it was not so much of a difference in appearance as to
detract from the oveall look (see photo at the end of this project article).
The photo on the left side of the page shows this routing operation after
setting the depth of the router bit.
After the top was completed,
I moved on to cutting dados in the side panels to accomodate the panels
that would separate the top drawer, shelf to hold print paper and the bottom
(or floor) of the cabinet. In the two photos below, you can see on
the left, the side panels being marked where the dados would ultimately
be cut. And, in the right photo, the dados actually being cut to
a 3/8" depth with the router.
Marking Dado Positions
|
Cutting Dados In
Side Panels
|
The
next step in this project was to dry fit the shelf and bottom panels into
the side pieces to make sure that the pieces would all fit together nicely.
You can see the base cabinet with the shelving and bottom in place after
dry fitting them in the photo here on the right side of the page.
After making sure they would fit, I removed the shelves and bottom
and layed the sides on my fancy assembly table to make pockets for mounting
the top to the cabinet. I completed this procedure then because it
would have been impossible to do after the base cabinet was glued up.
After making the pocket holes, I reassembled the case sides and bottom
and glued them in place.
Upon completion of the main
cabinet case, I moved on to cutting the parts for the face frame and sanded
them to a final 220 grit finish. I used solid 3/4" thick hard maple
for making the face frame. The left photo below shows the parts after
they were cut to size and laying on my table saw. The center photo
shows how I clamped the pieces between two bench dogs at the end vice position
of my work bench. The right photo below shows a view of the pocket
screw operation to assemble the face frame after sanding the pieces.
This is my favorite method of joinery for face frames in working with this
type of cabinetry construction.
Face Frame Parts
|
Sanding The Parts
|
Pocket Screw Operation
|
Just
a note for those of you who have followed this project so far...... As
I mentioned above, I also used pocket screws to fasten the top to the case
and drilled those pocket holes in the top of the side panels prior to their
final assembly and glue up. I don't have a photo showing the assembly
process with the pocket screw holes in place and in the proper sequence
in this project article, but I did take a photo showing the pockets being
drilled in the top of those case panels in the photo on the left side of
the page.
Wow! At this point,
I'm getting tired! However, I proceeded next to mounting the face
frame to the cabinet. I used my biscuit cutter to make slots into
the back side of the face frame and into the front edges of the base cabinet,
shelves and the bottom panel. (I again dry fitted the shelves into
the cabinet to mark where the biscuit slots were to be cut and then removed
the shelves to cut the slots).
-
After
cutting the biscuit slots, I laid the top upside down on the assembly table
and set the base cabinet upside down onto the case top. This was
done so that I could square up and mount the case to the top with the previously
drilled pocket holes and screws. This had to be done before mounting
the shelving into the case because there would not be enough room to do
it if the shelves were installed first (I learned this the hard way some
time ago). I then screwed the top to the base cabinet, glued the
face frame into place and clamped it all up. A photo of the clamped
and glued up cabinet without the shelving can be seen in the photo on the
right side of the page.
-
-

-
At this point, it was time to
slide the shelving into the cabinet and using the biscuits again, I glued
them into place. I only glued the first 5 or 6 inches of the shelves
in the dado groves (just behind the face frame) to insure that there would
be some movement for them during expansion and contraction caused by humidity
changes (I previously learned this the hard way, too). You can see
here on the photo on the left, what the assembly looked like after the
glue up and with the clamping installed.
-
-
The
next step was to build the top drawer for the cabinet. Again, I used
3/4" thick maple hardwood to make the drawer front, back and sides.
I used 1/4" thick veneered birch plywood that I had available for the drawer
bottom. I used half lap joints on the corners of the drawers and
dadoed slots in the back and sides to accept the bottom piece. The
drawer front was designed to be wider than the drawer isself so that I
could use side mounted full extension drawer slides. The picture
on the right side of the page shows what the drawer looked like prior to
installing it in the cabinet.
-
-
-
After
mounting the drawer in the top of the cabinet, I made a 1/4" thick back
for the case and cut a small opening at the lower rear section to accomodate
cords going to the computer CPU. I also finished off the cabinet
by installing some molding just beneath the top (under the overhang) and
around the bottom outside of the base to make the unit more attractive.
The picture on the left is what the whole thing looked like after applying
a couple coats of clear urethane finish.
-
-
Thats about it! I had
a ton of fun doing this project and after finding a drawer handle that
was not exactly like my daughter's desk, it was close enough not to be
distracting. Below is a photo of the finished cabinet sitting on
the right side of her desk in the home office. It turned out to be
exactly the same height and depth as the desk (miracles never cease!)
Anyway, she loves it and I must say...... it does look fairly close to
the color and style of her desk and is a welcome addition to her office.
-

Dave
dave@oldaveswoodshop.com |
|