Computer Cabinet - #2 Resawing & Smoothing the Oak plus Starting on Oak Plywood Parts

I wanted to work with pieces shorter than 8’ so after lots of measuring and layout fitting the various pieces around the flaws the long boards were cross cut into shorter sections.  As it happened one cut went right through a dowel.  Assuming they are all about the same length I now know about how deep they go into the boards. 

With the planks cut into shorter pieces, flat and cleaned up as much as I dared it’s time to rip them on the bandsaw for the 7/8” thick drawer fronts and ½” thick sides.  This is the setup for ripping the thicker board to give one piece for the drawer fronts and one for the sides.

While the bandsaw blade was definitely dulled when I hit the steel buried while breaking down the supports from the mantel for the Kumiko jigs it still gives a tolerable cut.  This is after the rip where the piece on the left is for the drawer fronts and the one laying down is for the drawer sides.

A closer look at one of the boards after being ripped in half shows the condition of the bandsaw cut.  It certainly needs to be flattened but the cut isn’t burned and is useable.

This is the stack of ripped boards ready to be stood on edge, spaced apart and left overnight to see if any of them will warp, twist or otherwise get all goofy.

Well after an overnight rest all the boards were still flat and straight, always a nice surprise.  Cleaning up the bandsawn faces is next.  For the drawer fronts that’s done with the thickness sander using 36 grit to get close followed by 80 grit leaving them at about 1/32” too thick.  The drawer sides thickness varied from a little over 1/16” too thick to a bit more than 1/8” over.  The close ones followed the same process as the drawer fronts while the thicker ones were flattened with the 36 grit in the thickness sander followed by a pass or two through the planer.  From there both sides are run through the sander again with 80 grit leaving them still a little too thick.  When they are ready to be used a final thicknessing and flattening will be done with 150 and 220 grit.  Here they all are ready to be set aside while I work on the case. 

The top, bottom and sides of the cabinet are ¾” oak plywood while the back is ¼”.  Over time I have accumulated a fair amount of quarter to half sheets.  That’s because when doing a project, I get what’s needed all at the same time so the sheets grain and color are really close.  The side effect is a stack of partial sheets from various projects.  For this project that’s not really a consideration as none of the plywood will really be visible when the drawer stack is slid into the existing cherry cabinet.  After going through the stack here are the pieces that I plan on using.

Going back to SketchUp I printed off a dimensioned plan of the plywood and solid wood edging pieces needed for the case. 

With the drawing in hand back in the shop the blanks are checked to see if the corners are square and of course some were not.  The good news is there is at least one square corner on each piece so that was my starting point for squaring them and cutting each panel about an inch oversize.  Here is the top, bottom, sides and center, all ¾” thick pieces. 

The veneer layer on hardwood plywood is very thin at only about 25 thousands of an inch thick.  Cutting with the grain is not hard to get a good edge but crosscutting is another matter.  The veneer can chip and leave a splintered edge that really does not look good.  To get around this problem the choice of what saw blade to use becomes important.  Over the years I have tried a whole bunch of different types of blades with different tooth counts, different amounts of rake and different grinds on the carbide tips.  So far what seems to work the best for me is a Freud® High Alternate Top Bevel, 80 tooth, 10” blade.  The grind on the carbide tips blade is different than most in that they are ground to a sharp point.  My guess is the sharply pointed tip does not put a lot of stress on the oak fibers when being cut.  The left photo below is the blade used to cut plywood and the right shows it against my combination all-purpose blade. 

Next is to start cutting the parts down to their finished size starting with the top.  Cutting its length and width is easy but there are a couple other operations needed.  One is to cut the rabbit for the plywood back to set into.  That’s done with a router bit set to the correct height then making three progressive deeper cuts by moving the fence back to expose more of the bit. 

The other is a stopped rabbit on the left edge for the cabinet door hinge’s adjustment screw.  Here is the hinge and the offending screw. 

It’s also cut on the router table although the bit is a smaller diameter so there’s not as much hand chisel work to square up the cut.  The depth and height of the cut are set then tested on a scrap.  Since it’s a blind cut the stopping point is marked on the router table fence to align with the right edge of the top.  Here is how that all looks when ready to route.

Below the top photo shows the rabbit after routing, note how the end of the rabbit is rounded matching the 3/8” diameter of the router bit.  That’s squared up with just a little work using a wood chisel.  The finished squared rabbit is shown in the bottom photo.  The squaring does not have to be perfect as it going to be hidden when completed.

Next Up – Making & Assembling Case Except Back – Cutting Drawer Side Blanks