Popular Woodworking 2002-08 № 129, страница 39

Drill a hole for the bench bolt using a doweling jig and a V2"-diameter drill bit. It's a deep hole, so you might need an extra-long bit to do the job.

To accurately position the hole for the brass nut shown in the photo, build a simple jig like the one shown here using V2" dowel, a scrap of wood and a nail. The nail is located where you want the center of the brass nut to go (top). Insert the dowel into the hole in the rail and tap the nail (bottom). Now drill a 1"-diameter hole there and your joint will go together with ease.

through the tenon at that second mark. When you are ready to assemble the ends you will glue and clamp up the end rails between the legs, put some glue in the holes and then pound in some ameter dowels. The offset holes will pull the joint together instantly. Hold off on this final assembly step until after the bench bolts are installed.

Bench Bolts are Forever

The set of bench bolts for this project cost $20, but they are worth it. They are easier to install than traditional bed bolts. And they are much easier to install than using off-the-rack hex bolts, nuts and washers.

Begin installing the bench bolts by drilling a

lV -diameter counterbore in the legs that's V2" deep. Then drill a ¹/2"-di-ameter hole in the center of that counterbore that goes all the way through the leg and into the mortise. Now dry-assemble the ends and the front and back rails and clamp everything together. Use a ¹/2" brad-point drill bit to mark the center of your hole on the end of each tenon.

Disassemble the bench and clamp the front rail to your top or in a vise. Use a doweling jig and a ¹/2" drill bit to continue cutting the hole for the bench bolt. You'll need to drill about 3¹/2" into the rail. Repeat this process on the other tenons.

Now you need to drill a 1"-di-ameter hole that intersects the ¹/2" hole you just drilled in the rail. This 1"-diameter hole holds a special round nut that pulls everything together. To accurately locate where this 1" hole should be, I made a simple jig shown in the photos at left that I picked up from the instruction book for the vise. It works like a charm. Sometimes drill bits can wander - even when guided

by a doweling jig - and this jig ensures your success.

Plane or sand all your legs and rails and assemble the bench's base. Attach the top to the base. You can glue dowels in the top of the legs and drill holes in the underside of the top, or you can use metal desktop fasteners with 2¹/2"-long screws. Either way, be sure to leave some way for the top to expand and contract.

The Modern Toolbox

After all that traditional joinery, I was ready to fire up the biscuit joiner. You can build this toolbox using one sheet of ³/4" plywood and one sheet of ¹/2" plywood. I've posted optimization charts for these cuts on the Popular Woodworking web site at http://www.popularwoodwork-ing.com/features/mag.html.

Cut your parts to size and start construction by cutting a ³/4" x ¹/2" rabbet on the back edge of the sides, top and bottom to hold the back. The best way to do this is

on your table saw. Cut biscuit slots to join these four parts, then glue and clamp up the case. Once the glue is dry, cut the case divider to its finished size, position it inside the case and nail it in place. Screw the back into its rabbet and iron on birch edge tape to cover the plywood edges. Screw the toolbox to the front rail and legs of the bench's base.

Build the drawers using ¹/2"-thick plywood. Most drawers have ^1/4"-thick bottom panels, but because these drawers have to stand up to extra abuse, I chose to use ¹/2" plywood instead.

With the drawer boxes built, it's time to hang them in the case. Installing drawer slides is easy if you know a couple tricks. Most professionals simply will scribe a line on the inside of the case and screw the slide there. You'd do it this way too if you installed slides every day. For the rest of us, it's easier to make spacers using scrap plywood that hold the slide in position as you screw it to the

I nailed the divider in place in the toolbox so I could check and double-check its position before fixing it in place.

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Popular Woodworking August 2002