Woodworker's Journal 2006-30-Winter, страница 25

Glue and clamp the drawers together, checking that they're square and flat before setting them aside. When the glue is dry, trim the top edges of the plywood drawers with solid hardwood (piece 45), gluing and nailing at 6" intervals. Fill the nail holes and sand the filler flush, then install a dado head in your table saw to mill grooves in the drawer sides for the slides. Test your setup with scrap, using three pieces to represent the three drawer sizes, and make any minor adjustments needed to ensure that the drawers will slide properly. After milling, test-fit the sides in the case to be sure they slide easily.

Building the Drawer Fronts and Door

John cut the drawer fronts and the door for his bench from a single wide board, to take advantage of a very attractive grain pattern. You may have to glue up stock for this process. Cut the faces (pieces 46 and 47) to size, then shape their front edges on the router table with a chamfering bit (see the Elevation Drawings for dimensions).

You can now return to the door and finish machining it. The grain pattern on John's door (piece 26) ran horizontally. To prevent cupping, he plowed three dadoes from top to bottom in its back and glued in three stiffeners (pieces 27). After sanding, he chamfered the door's front edges to match the look of the drawer faces.

European style hinges with a 1/4" overlay (pieces 28) are completely hidden when the door is closed. Follow the included instructions for mounting these hinges.

On your bandsaw, shape the walnut toolbox trimmers (pieces 29), then sand them smooth. Screw one to the legs at each end of the

toolbox top, to stop tools from falling off the shelf. Finally, chamfer the top and bottom edges of the feet and screw them to the legs.

Finishing Up

Disassemble the entire bench, then sand all surfaces with 120-grit, 180-grit and finally 220-grit sandpaper. Wipe it down with a tack cloth and apply four coats of natural Danish Oil to the legset and toolbox, and an additional couple of coats to the worktop. Sand each coat except the last, using 400-grit paper, wiping it clean before and after sanding. When the finish is dry, reassemble the bench and mount the knobs on the drawers and door.

Install a pair of bench dogs (pieces 18) by using the Elevation Drawings to locate their holes in the top of the vise jaw. Drill the right-hand hole vertically all the way through the jaw (back up the exit area with some scrap, to avoid tear-out). Drill the left hole to a depth of 4¹/", then use a bit extender or a long twist bit to drill a second hole in the bottom of this boring (see the Elevation Drawings for dimensions). This hole is for a brass pin that's actually a door hinge pin, available at most hardware stores. This pin is used as a button to push the top of the bench dog up above the surface of the jaw when you need to use it.

Pop the square dogs into their holes at this time, then fill the top drawer in the toolbox with all those project plans you'll need over the next few decades. After all, once people see the great job you did on building your workbench, they're bound to have all sorts of great ideas that will help you use it! ^

Step-by-step drawer joinery

Step 1: Install a 3/8" dado head and a zero-clearance insert in the saw and cut a rabbet at the end of each drawer front and back.

Step 2: Without moving the rip fence, switch to the miter fence to form matching dadoes in the drawer sides.

Step 3: Dry-fit the joints and then switch to a 1/4" dado head to cut the grooves for the bottoms.

Winter 2006

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