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#6 x V Fh W00DSCREW

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building the

Bins

▲ Confirmat Screws. These screws are perfect for assembling MDF projects. The countersink bit helps the thin screwhead sit flush with the worksurface.

There's nothing complicated about building these storage bins. Each bin is simply a box made from inexpensive MDF and hardboard, and assembled with dado and rabbet joinery. Once you've set up your table saw for one type of cut, you can make all the corresponding cuts at the same time.

The Cases. The first step is to cut the MDF parts to size. Ln Figures 1 and 2, you can see the top, bottom, and shelf of each bin are the same size. The sides are wider to hide the back.

THE JOINERY

At this point, you're ready to tackle the joinery. I like to use rabbet and dado joinery for this type of project because it's simple to cut and it's strong. And the joinery for the bins is basically the same.

Rabbets. I decided to start with the rabbets in the case sides. An auxiliary fence arid a dado blade help this task go fairly quickly.

Once that's done, you can adjust the auxiliary fence to cut rabbets along the back edges of the sides. These rabbets will hold the hardboard backs. Not only do the backs add rigidity, but they keep the cutoffs from falling out the

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NOTE: EASE EDGES WITH SANDPAPER AFTER ASSEMBLY

back of the bins (Figures lb and lc). You'll install the backs later.

Centered Dadoes. After the rabbets are cut, all you have to do is adjust the fence to cut the centered dadoes for the shelves. Since the sides of all three bins are the same height, the centered dadoes will be in the same place in each side.

Divider Joinery. With the case joinery complete, you can

FIGURE

BOTTOM

now turn your attention to the joinery for the dividers. To create the storage bays in each bin, the dividers slip into dadoes cut into the tops, bottoms, and shelves (Figure la). Here again, once you have the fence adjusted and the dado blade set, you can cut them all at the same time.

Bolt Holes. With all the rabbets and dadoes complete, you're just

ShopNotes No. 94