With all of my material in hand, I got to work cutting the sheet goods down to size. Since the shelves were to be 18" deep, everything was ripped down to 18" and cut to their respective lengths.
For increased strength, I used my router to route a 3/4" x 3/8" rabbit along the top and bottom edges the ends of the box side pieces where the tops and bottoms would fit.
The insides of the boxes, the parts that were going to be seen and touched, were sanded down with 220 grit and then two coats of rub on polyurethane were applied for protection. Once these pieces were dry, I got to work on the drawers.
First, all of the stock was cut down. My needs called for 12 drawers total, 2 at 7" deep, 8 at 5", and 2 at 3" - this ended up being a lot of cutting. Once everything was cut down to size, I had to cut out the pulls for the drawer face. To do this, I took a roll of tape that had the diameter I wanted and traced out an appropriate sized cutout on a piece of scrap birch ply. I then took a route plate, put tape over the middle and poked a small hole in the center. Following the semicircle cutout with the center of the router plate, I traced the perimeter of the baseplate moving at small increments until I had a trace of the entire cutout, from the radius of the baseplate. Using a jigsaw and a steady hand, I slowly cutout this part to make the jig seen below.
In this jig, the piece to be cut sat below the jig and against a fence to the left and right, to center the piece on the template. different sized blocks were placed for the different depth rails of the drawers. Once everything was set, all I needed to do was route the baltic stock using a spiral cutting bit. With some light sanding to get rid of the burn marks, the finished cut looked pretty good, and was quick to make.
Now it was time to cut the dovetails. Having cut dovetails for the drawers last time, I knew that organization was key to minimizing mistakes. Thus, all of the wood was laid out in groups of 4, 1 front, 1 back, and 2 rails. and marked in the order and combination in which they were to be cut.
On my third set of dovetails, I realized I had made a mistake. I cut a back piece as a rail and vice versa. I was furious and frustrated because the first two sets had gone so well. I knew also that one has to have a sharp mind to eliminate these kinds of mistakes so I called it a day. The next day, refreshed and ready to get to work, I got started again on the dovetails. This time, i got into a great rhythm and cruised through all 9 remaining drawers, no mistakes. The datoes to accept the 1/4" birch bottoms were cut and the wood again laid out for assembly.
Assembly did not go as smoothly as I thought it would. While cutting the 15" x 17" bottoms for the drawers, the wood got squeezed between the blade and the fence, whipped back and slammed into my pelvis. After the initial shock had wore down, I realized that I was fine, just a bruise on my thigh and a couple scratches. This is only the second time that I have had something like this happen, reminding me that the table saw, while incredibly useful, is also incredibly dangerous. For the rest of the cuts, I made sure that I had a sure hand on the material.
Then, I noticed that I was 2 bottoms short, one of them being the piece that was destroyed in the "incident", the other a piece i accidentally cut to 15x15. Again I was really frustrated so I called it a day and returned the next with a new half sheet of birch ply to finish the job. I have learned that it is always best to just call it when mistakes start happening, because sure to follow are more mistakes.
The next day the drawers were assembled, and the boxes were ready to be put together and brought up to my room for final assembly. This part took two days and some help from my family and I think came out pretty well. The boxes lined up perfectly and everything fit into place. Since all of my stuff had been sitting on the floor for close to 3 weeks, I was more than ready to get everything put away. Below are pictures of the final product.
Pullout tie and belt rack
Hanging space, very useful
Bank of drawers
The whole thing. Note: I am going to put a mirror in the big empty spot asap
Summary:
This project took just over two full weeks to finish, amidst a somewhat busy class and training schedule, a lot shorter than my parents closet. A big goal for this project was to set a deadline and finish it by then. I came reasonably close, a lot better than I have in the past, and is a goal i will work towards until I get it down, all of the while maintaining the highest level of craftsman ship possible.
Cost: $200 for plywood, $100 for the baltic birch, $150 for the drawer slides/hanging bar/holders
