The sides are next and once cut to width and length there
are a pair of cuts to make a notch to provide clearance for the bottom
hinges. The rendering below shows the
mottled gray hinge. I know they don’t
look like regular hinges and that’s because they are a two-piece European
style. Not shown is the door mounted
half.
There are two different setups to make the cut. One has the cut line on the outboard side of
the blade shown below which means keeping the side to the left of the blade.
The second cut is a traditional setup with the side to be
kept between the blade and the fence. In
the bottom photo you can see how the cut goes just deep enough to intersect
with the first cut.
You may be wondering why the blade is set so high for
these cuts and it has to do with the amount of arc the saw blade cuts at
different heights. What I want is a cut
as near vertical as possible. The top
photo below shows my typical setup where the blade is set so the bottom of the
gullets between the teeth is just above the top of the piece of wood being
cut. The bottom photo shows the much
more vertical cut when the blade is extended fully upward. 
This is what the two sides of the cut look like. In this case the bottom piece will be what’s
seen from the inside while the top piece will be from the outside. That’s because the new oak drawer cabinet
will be inserted into the existing cherry cabinet and the overcuts on the
outside will never be seen.
Next is to clamp the outer frame together to check and
make sure when assembled it will fit in the cabinet OK.
Drilling holes for screwing it all together is next. The bottom is held in place with #6 x 1 ½”
screws run in from the outside. Same
method for attaching the center piece to the bottom. The side to top and center to top are done
differently by using pocket holes. They
are made using a jig and a step drill to create a flat-bottomed angled hole for
the screw to go into. The top photo shows
the jig and to its right a couple of already drilled holes along with the regular
countersunk holes for attaching the bottom near the top of the side. The bottom photo shows the stepped drill.
Here are the case pieces drilled and ready for assembly
with one exception. The center needs to
be cut to length and I won’t have that exact measurement until the bottom and
sides of the case assembled.
The photo below shows how the sides, bottom along with a
set of spacers at the top are clamped together so they can be screwed
together. Using moderate clamping
pressure allows me to make any tiny adjustments in alignment needed to bring
everything into position. Once
everything is in the right place and the case is square the screws are run in.
Once the bottom and sides are assembled measurements for
the center support are taken and it is cut.
The case is then flipped over onto a set of risers so the top can be
installed. Here the top has been
centered, clamped and screwed in place with the pocket hole screws. Also shown is a close up of the screw set in
the pocket hole and the screw itself.
Installing the center comes next. Screwing it in from the bottom is first and
here is what the clamping and spacer setup looks like.
Because I will be using side mounted full extension soft
close metal slides for the drawers the center piece really needs to be exactly
in the center. This is because the width
tolerance for the slide between the case and the drawer is plus or minus 1/32”
and all of the drawers will be made the same width. As an aid in centering the divider a couple
of identical spacers are made by cutting them at the same time until they are a
snug fit between the center and the sides.
With them in place I can screw the center down without it being able to
shift one way or the other. Here is a
closer view of the top and bottom spacers in place.
Now that the cabinet case is assembled it’s time to see
if it fits in the side cabinet. It did,
just barely, that is after I removed the adjustment parts of the lower hinges
but it does fit.
Setting the case aside it’s back to working on the drawer
sides. I had left them flat and straight
but with varying thicknesses from 1/32” over to almost 1/16” over. Checking the
ripped planks to see if they were still flat it’s mostly good news. Nearly all of them are. Those that aren’t had only a tiny bit of cup
and since they are all a little thick it could be easily removed when bringing
the sides to the final ½” thickness.
Starting with 36 grit on the thickness sander for bulk material removal
I worked though progressively finer grits 80 then 150 finishing with 220 ending
with all the planks just a shade over ½” thick.
No photo here since they look the same as they did in the last post when
I set them aside to work on the case.
Next is to cut the planks to the drawer side blank length
plus about an inch. Right now, all the
blanks are roughly the same width and length. Deciding which blank gets cut down for which
drawer takes a little time as there are a lot of cracks, splits, knots and bark
inclusions to work around. When done
here are all the marked pieces ready to be ripped to rough width.
After taking the plywood blade off the table saw and
installing the rip blade the flaws are cut away. The sides are then ripped to their final
width plus ¼” which gives me this stack of pieces for the drawer sides.
Next Up – Starting the Drawer Fronts
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