Computer Cabinet - #10 Final Assembly

Assembly starts by putting the drawer slides on.  Since they have already been mounted before finishing it’s straightforward to reinstall them and a lot easier too with the cabinet apart.  That said once everything is put together and the drawers adjusted so they are centered in the case I will have to come back and install the final screws in the non-slotted holes to lock the slides in place.

Putting the slides on the drawers is next.  To help get them in the correct position the original spacers are used just as when they were originally installed.

That’s followed by sliding the bottom in and securing it to the back with three screws.  Besides screwing the drawer bottom to the drawer back pin nails are put in at an angle through the bottom from both sides and the front.  The bottom photo shows how small in diameter the ¾” long pins are.  It also shows an installed pin circled in red.

After the slides are in place the case is screwed back together and the drawers are installed.  Here the top two are in but have not yet had their final adjustment.  That will happen after they are all installed.

Spacers made when the drawers were test fit are used again to make the final adjustment of the drawers.  I want an even gap around and between the drawers.  In the photo it looks like the drawers are sticking out in front of the case and that’s true.  It’s because after the case has its final fitting in the side cabinet, I will be adding trim fitted to cover the raw edges of the plywood.

Once the drawers are all set one more screw is installed in each drawer and cabinet slide.  The photo below shows the drawer slide with the pilot hole drilled (left) and the screw installed (right).  The slots are used when doing the initial install of the drawers and which set used determines what direction of adjustment you have.  I use the vertical slots on the drawer mounted slide for up/down adjustment.  The horizontal slots are for front/back adjustment and I use them on the cabinet mounted slides. There are several sets of the slots.  This one just happens to be in the center of the drawer and because I used the slots and the ends of the slide these slots were not used.  What is used here is a non-adjustable hole to lock the drawer in place.

After all the drawer slides are adjusted and locked in place the back is removed for easy access to the rear of the cabinet slides.  Once off the drawers are opened and a screw is added at the very back of the cabinet slides.  If you are wondering why the bottom slide is a different color it’s because it comes from a different production run than the others, it’s the same slide as the rest.  Once these 12 screws are installed the back is put back on and the cabinet is ready for its final test fit.

The drawers are removed from the cabinet to lighten it up some then it’s slid in place and the hinges installed.  The side cabinet’s doors were then installed, the drawers were put back in and all the clearances were checked.  Everything fits and goes together fine.  The one small problem I ran into was regarding the adjustment of the right-hand door.  For the new cabinet to slide in the right-side hinge plates have to be removed then reinstalled after the cabinet is in place.  After the new interior cabinet is partly slid in the bottom plate can be installed.  That’s followed by setting the cabinet in its final location and then the top hinge plate can be installed.  The problem is the lower adjustment/mounting screw is now covered by the cabinet’s side and can’t be adjusted for a proper door fit.  The workaround is to make a spacer the distance from the bottom of the original cabinet to the bottom of the hinge plate and use it to locate the hinge while the adjustment/mounting screw is still available.  The photos below show the door and hinges, a close view of the spacer and hinge plus one with the door taken off and the hinge plate removed.  With that problem resolved the new cabinet is removed from the old side cabinet and taken back out to the shop to have the oak trim pieces put on to hide the plywood edges.

For the trim I will be using leftover pieces of oak cut down to ¼” thick and ¾” wide.  Process to make them starts by ripping blanks about an eighth inch wide on the table saw then cutting to 3/16” thick on the band saw.  The thickness sander is used to bring them down to 1/64” over ¼”, followed by ripping to final width on the table saw.  Last, with 220 grit sandpaper in the thickness sander the last 1/64” is taken off ending up with nearly a finished surface.  The top trim piece has a small radius routed on it followed by the exposed faces and all the edges lightly sanded to soften them.  All this has been covered in previous posts so I won’t go through it again.

Before the trim blanks get sprayed with lacquer, they need some risers to hold them up during the spraying.  Since they are only ¾” wide most the methods normally used won’t work.  In this case I used the pneumatic pin nail gun loaded with ½” pins and a 3/16” thick spacer to hold the gun up off the surface of the trim pieces.  End result is little legs sticking out 3/16”. 

Now using the air brush, they can be sprayed with lacquer.

After the blanks lacquered finish is complete, they are cut to length using the chop saw then glued and nailed on with the pin nail gun.  This competes the work on the new cabinet and drawers.  All that remains is to slide the new cabinet into the existing one, remount the door hinges and put the drawers in.  Here is what it all looks like when complete.

Here is what the outside and inside of the cabinet looked like before starting.  The outside looks the same as no changes were made.  The inside does look different though and gives me a lot more usable storage space.  Right now, I have stuff in just three of the drawers so there is some growth room.

Post project completion.  While cleaning up the shop I came across a couple of pieces that were used as tests to see if any stain was needed.  This is one of them.  It is the drawer front to side sample with the cherry pegs.

They are of no use now but before throwing them away I decided to do a little destructive testing to see just how strong the glued and screwed drawer front to drawer side connection was.  Pushing, pulling and twisting by hand even when mounted in the vice caused no damage.  Moving up to more and more energetic methods I finally got the joint to fail.  What finally caused failure was with the drawer front mounted in the vice and me pounding on the side piece with a hammer.  Here is what the pieces looked like post failure.  I find it interesting that none of the pegs came loose and that the far right one split.

This is another sample.  To break it I set the piece on edge then using a cold chisel set right along the center of line of the screw and hammered away until it split.  Once again, the plug split rather than the glue failing.  Not really a fair test but it certainly gives a good idea of what a cross section looks like.  If you are wondering before throwing the broken pieces away, I did take the screws out and put them back in the bin to be used in another project.

After using the cabinet for a while, I find it is a great addition as the drawers give me places to store things close at hand but not piled up on the desk.

Computer Cabinet - #9 Mounting Drawer Slides, Drawer Adjustment & Lacquering

Installing the cabinet mounted sides is next.  Here is the process starting with the small drawer at the top left.  It’s being installed with the cabinet upside down to make it easier.  The slide on the left has been installed and the one on the right has just had the installation screws run in.  Below the slide you can see the spacer that sets the guide level and at the right height.  Getting the width of the spacer involved quite a bit of measuring so the cabinet mounted slide matches up with the drawer mounted slide.

After the slides are screwed in place the drawer is installed and the gap at the top adjusted.  One down and five to go following the same process except the spacers will register off the bottom of the cabinet.

Well, almost the same process.  After the first drawer I changed things by setting the drawers in place with the shims.  From there the center of the drawer mounted slide was transferred directly to the cabinet.  The cabinet half of the slide was centered on that mark eliminating the measuring.

Here is the cabinet with all six drawers installed and the gaps 99% adjusted.  Final adjustment of the drawers will be done after everything has been lacquered and assembled.

Now with almost all the woodworking done the drawers are removed from the cabinet, the slides taken off and the cabinet disassembled so the final sanding can be done.   During the sanding all surfaces are checked for any dings or small dents that need to be addressed.  Once the sanding is done it’s time for a major cleanup and dusting of the shop to minimize the amount of dust kicked up in the air while the lacquer finish is being applied.  Here is the stack of the pieces that make up the cabinet along with the drawer bottoms.

I have given considerable thought to the finish.  The wear coat will be three coats of lacquer which was really never in doubt but the color of the stain was.  I have kept samples of a lot of different stain combinations and in going through them nothing really seemed like a good fit.  Undecided I took a couple of the sample pieces used for joint testing that had the cherry plugs installed to see what a straight lacquer finish looked like.  The lacquer is not colorless but has a slight golden tint and when finished the piece set next to the cherry side unit looked good together.

With the stain question resolved applying the lacquer is next although before that I need to work out where all the pieces will be put in the shop once they are sprayed.  Some will go on riser blocks and some like the drawers will have built-in risers.  On one end tacks are driven part way using a pair of needle nose pliers to hold them so I don’t mash my fingers.  The pliers also control the depth the tacks are driven in so the drawer does not rock.  The inset shows the tack in place.

The other end of the drawer has screws run part way into the holes that are for the bottom’s mounting screws.  The previously installed tacks are visible at the top of the photo.

As mentioned before the finish is lacquer or to be more precise a nitrocellulose satin lacquer.  It is my go-to finish I use on most of my projects and is applied using an air brush or a HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure) commercial spray gun.  This type of lacquer has to be sprayed, a brushed or wipe-on method is not an option.  Here is my typical set-up for mixing.  The can on the left is the lacquer, next to it is the thinner and to the right is the flow enhancer.  The plastic cup on the can of lacquer it is used for mixing, the plastic bottle in the center is for thinner from the can since it’s easier to measure into the mixing cup from it rather than the gallon can.  The bottle on the far right has some mixed finish ready to be used.  Here in the desert the mix I use is 16 ounces of lacquer, 8 ounces of thinner and a capful of flow enhancer.  The mix in Illinois was different due to the higher humidity.

This project is way too big to use the air brush so the HVLP system will be used.  It consists of a three-stage turbine that puts out only about 6 pounds of air pressure but a whole lot of volume and a spray gun.  That’s in contrast to a tank type compressor that can easily generate 100 pounds per square inch but at a much lower volume.  The photo below shows the turbine, hose and sprayer.  For comparison on the far right near the top of the photo is a much smaller orange hose.  That’s what goes to the tank type air compressor.  The HVLP needs a much large hose due to the volume of air needed.

Here is the setup for spraying the drawers.  What you can’t see is between the piece of plywood on the saw horses and the cardboard covered piece of MDF is a 12” diameter lazy-susan.  It allows me to stand in one spot to easily rotate the drawer and spray all sides of it.

For this project everything except the drawers got one coat on the inside face and by the time that was done they had dried to the touch.  Fast drying is a nice characteristic of lacquer.  I could then go back and give them a second coat followed by giving the drawers exterior their first coat.  By then it was time to quit because my shady spraying spot was getting into the sun and it’s time for lunch.  Once sprayed the pieces need to be set out so they get spread out all around the shop on all sorts of flat surfaces. 

The next day everything was wet sanded with a fine grit pad to remove any dust nibs which finished up the inside face of the case pieces.  Next the outside faces get their first coat sprayed followed by the exterior of the drawers getting their second coat.  By then my spraying spot was getting into the sun and it’s time to quit.  After an overnight cure the case’s outside faces are wet sanded and given their third and final coat.  They get three coats rather than two for greater wear ability. 

Next up is to give the bottom edges of the drawers a couple of coats using the air brush which you can see at the far right.  Since the bottom edges are only either ½” or 7/8” wide using the HVLP sprayer would be way overkill.

Next morning the outside case faces get their final wet sand with a 4,000-grit pad and are set aside.  Two more coats of finish are sprayed on the drawer inside faces using the HVLP sprayer completing the morning’s work.  After another overnight cure the inside drawer faces are dry sanded with 320 grit paper.  Dry rather than wet is used here because I don’t want to risk water getting into the joints and potentially causing a problem when the lacquer is sprayed on.  When done sanding the drawers are wiped down with a tack cloth to remove any dust then the third and last coat of lacquer is sprayed on.

After curing overnight both the inside and outside of the drawers get their final wet sanding with the 4,000-grit pad and set aside for a few days before assembly so the lacquer can gas-off and harden. 

Next Up – Final Assembly

Computer Cabinet - #8 Milling, Installing & Flushing Plugs – Drawer Test Fit – Mounting Drawer Slides

With all the cherry plugs cut their installation can begin.  Just because the plugs are cut does not mean they are ready to glue in.  When the plug cutter starts making the plug the roughly first 1/8” of the cut is tapered as in the photo below.  Normally that’s a good thing as it helps the plug get started in the hole.  However, here because the holes are not very deep it is a problem.

The fix is a two-step process.  First, the peg is chucked up in the lathe and while running the end is squared with the long axis of the peg with a Dremel tool. 

Second, also with the lathe running a small bevel is ground using the Dremel tool.  I want just enough to get the peg started in the hole.  The enlarged area gives a better look at what I mean.

To install the peg a little glue is put in the peg hole.  Not too much since the glue is mostly incompressible and I want the peg to bottom out on top of the screw.

The peg is then hand started in the hole and a block of plywood slightly larger than the peg is set on the top and the peg is driven in.  I use the plywood block as a cushion and to provide a spacer so I don’t hit the edge of the drawer front.  If you look close to the left of the bottom peg where the side and the drawer front come together you can see a tiny drop of glue.  That appeared when I drove the peg in.  There was a little more glue in the hole than needed and because the pores of red oak are open the glue under pressure from the peg being driven in traveled down one of the pores and came out there.  Off topic point of interest, unlike red oak the pores of white oak are typically plugged with tyloses which makes it almost impervious to water.  That’s one reason wine and whiskey barrels are made from white oak rather than red oak.

Here is the setup for installing the pegs.

After letting the glue cure overnight it’s time to bring the pegs flush with the drawer sides.  It starts by laying down a playing card as a spacer then using a very thin no-set Japanese pull saw to cut the pegs off.  The card is about one-hundredth of an inch thick so it holds the saw just above the side’s surface keeping the saw from scratching the side during the cut.

Next the peg needs to be brought flush with the side.  I tried a handful of different methods to do that from rasps, rifflers and hand sanding but ended up using a 2” diameter 60 grit sanding disk mounted in a drill.  The blue tape gives me a visual guide as to when the peg is flush along with if I am taking too much off one side or another.

That is followed by a detail sander with 220 grit paper to remove the 60 grit scratches and further bring the pegs and sides flush.

The final sanding is with a ¼ sheet pad sander loaded with 320 grip paper.

Once the pegs are finished the top and bottom edges of the drawer are sanded smooth.  This is followed by adding a small bevel to the exposed edges so they aren’t so sharp.  The top photo below shows the sharp edge and the white line on the bottom one is after the bevel is added.  The white line is sanding dust that got blown off after I took the photo.

Beveling the edges is done with a hook and loop (Velcro) 220 random orbit sander disk stuck on a MDF block that has had the hook fabric attached to it.  Here is the loop side of the sander disk and the round block showing the hook fabric.  Last bit of sanding on the drawers are the bottoms where the underside gets sanded with 220 grit while the inside surface goes to 320 grit.

Installing the drawer slides is next and that begins by spacing out the drawers within the case using identical thickness shims.  They were made from scraps that were just a little oversized then running them through the thickness sander until a snug fit was achieved.  After that the tops and bottoms of the drawers are marked using a scribing knife and square for the exact location.  The knife is the bottom photo below.

For slides I am using side mounted, soft closing ones.  They consist of two pieces; one gets mounted to the drawer side and the other to the inside of the cabinet.  The bottom slide is assembled while the top two pieces show its parts.

As the drawers are different heights the slides are going to be located at different points on the drawer side.   For the top drawer shown I decided to center the slide.  After some measuring a spacer was cut and clamped in place to align the slide in its proper location.  A second spacer not shown here sets the setback from the inside lip of the drawer front.  Another clamp holds the slide in place while two of the three mounting screws are installed in the vertical slots (bottom left photo) which will allow for some up/down fine adjustment after the drawers are installed.  A pilot hole is drilled using a self-centering drill bit assembly (bottom right photo) which centers the pilot hole side to side in the slot.  The third screw will be installed in the center round hole just to the right of the center clamp once the drawers are finished and final vertical adjustments have been made. 

I did make a change to the process after the third screw twisted off while screwing it in.  I had wondered about the quality of the screws as I had noticed that a fair number of them had partially filled Philips slots in the head making them difficult to install.  They might work just fine in a soft wood or plywood but not so well in red oak.  Anyway, to get around the problem a higher quality self-tapping screw (top screw below) that’s the same diameter and whose threads match the ones supplied gets screwed in then removed.  The supplied screws threads (bottom screw below) are then rubbed across a piece of wax to act as a lubricant and installed.  The process for the rest of the drawers is the same with the exception of the spacer that aligns the slide changes as the drawers get deeper.

Next Up – Mounting Drawer Slides, Drawer Adjustment & Lacquering

Computer Cabinet - #7 Drawer Assembly & Cutting Plugs

Now that all the drawer parts are made assembly can begin.  The photo below has all the tools needed for screwing the drawer fronts and sides together. 

The first step is to clamp the drawer front in the vice so the bottom of the rabbit is raised above the bench.  Here I use a scrap of ¼” plywood.  Second, is make sure the side and front are flush top and bottom and don’t shift by using an “F” clamp.  To make sure the side is tight against the front a pair long clamps are used.  This is where the of ¼” plywood spacer comes into play.  It gives me a little room to get my fingers around the clamp’s handle to tighten the clamp. 

Third, striking the awl which is the same diameter as the pilot hole with mallet gives me a marked center to use when drilling the pilot hole in the front with the silver drill in the upper right.  The blue tape on the drill bits are my control for depth.  The plywood spacer between the drawer front and the clamp provides clearance when drilling the pilot holes.  Last is using the yellow drill to enlarge the pilot hole in the side to its proper size.

Fourth, is using the impact driver to run screws in almost all the way in.  The final seating of the screws is done by hand because the impact driver easily runs the screws in but if you’re not careful it’s also easy to overdo and strip out the threads. 

Fifth, with one side done the clamps are removed the partially assembled drawer flipped over and the other side installed following the same process completing the drawer as shown.  When that’s done the back is slid into place followed by the bottom. 

Sixth, screwing the back in place is next and follows almost the same process as the sides.  The one change is that the shank pilot hole in the side is already sized and does not have to be drilled out.   However, the punch is the wrong size to mark pilot hole in the back and none of the ones I have fit either.  I did find a nail that fit but the point was too long so it got chucked up in the lathe and the end filed down to a short conical point.

With punch in hand the holes could be marked, drilled and the screws installed.  The photo below shows the back clamped in place and the screw started.  One other difference is the impact driver is not used to run the screws in.  For control the variable speed drill is used plus as you can see in the photo the clutch is set very low at #3 so not much torque is applied to the screw.  Once the clutch stops the bit from turning I quit and run the screw the rest of the way in by hand.

Seventh, is to attach the bottoms to the backs with some screws which starts with checking the diagonals of the drawer.  If they are the same the drawer is square if not some adjustment will be required.

I like consistency in screw location so using a couple of combination squares easily allows me to mark the screw locations the same between drawers.

Drilling the countersunk holes are next.  Like previously done the fence keeps the holes the same distance from the back edge and the depth the bit drills is controlled by a stop on the drill press.

The bottom is then slid into place and clamped so the bottom is fully set into the groove in the front.  A new punch sized to fit the holes is used to mark the pilot hole in the back.  If you look close at the lower left corner the bottom is marked as “6R” identifying the 6” deep right-hand drawer.  Once the pilot hole is drilled the screws can be installed and the bottom is secured in place.  There is a little more work to be done during final assembly after finishing but that comes later.

Here is the stack of completed drawers ready for the next step which is to disassemble them one at a time then reassemble with glue at the front, back and sides joints.  The bottom is not permanently secured in place because I want to finish the drawers without them installed.  If you look at the first two small drawers near the back are a couple of light-colored pieces.  Those are the dowels that held the mantel together and were cut in half when the blanks were resawn down for the drawer sides.

Next is to remove the bottoms and set them aside to be reinstalled after finishing.  With them removed the bottomless drawer is clamped to the work bench, the side is removed, glue added to the side, front and back joints then screwed back into place.  Here the side has had the glue applied and is ready for the screws to be tightened.  This is done to both sides for all six drawers.

Before I committed to countersinking the screws in the sides and filling them with plugs, I did some testing using scrap parts from the drawer fronts and sides to work out the process.  Below are some of the test assemblies. 

Searching through my scrap bin I came across a couple pieces of cherry about an inch thick for making the plugs.  There are two sizes of plugs 3/16” and ¼” diameter and I need 32 of each size.  Since the plugs represent pins, they need to be cut out of end grain and not face grain.  Here is the setup at the drill press with one of the blanks and the plug cutter.

Once drilled the blank is run through the bandsaw to cut the plugs free, that’s shown below.  That’s 5 down and about 65 to go so I have some extras.

Next Up – Milling, Installing & Flushing Plugs – Drawer Test Fit – Mounting Drawer Slides