Popular Post Cliff Posted May 25, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 (edited) I finally decided to build a miter station. Despite not really having room for one, I realized I can't afford to go without the storage it provides. I have so much stuff that it's just impossible to stay organized and clean. I started this a couple of months ago, after my somewhat traditional winter break from the shop (I still have a project in limbo that I started in November as well!) I really couldn't see a way to get a full 8' to the left, but I rarely need to cut anything like that anyway so I went with 6' to the left and 2' to the right. I am using a lot of what Marc did in his miter station guild project, but didn't really follow his cabinet techniques. I also consider this a primer for making my desk and maybe some kitchen cabinets. I got a lot of mistakes out of the way on this project so hopefully future ones will go smoothly. One problem I ran into is that I bought the plywood 2 weeks apart. So they ended up not being the same size. Also I forgot to trim the cabinet stock to consistent size at the table saw after breaking them down with the track saw. As a result, my first cabinet was 1/8" out of square. The next 3 ended up perfect though. You can see the saw that I bought in February and still haven't even plugged in. It gets moved from spot to spot as I work on this project. Bought out the stock of all Home Depots drawer slides, then Lowes as well. I wanted good slides, but not top of the line. I paid around $20 per set. They aren't self close, but that is ok. Not sure it needs to be My tops are 2 doubled up sheets of plywood with a layer of hardboard so it's nice and smooth. Just a preference really, no real reason for it to be that way. Used brad nails to act as clamps (because I just had to use my new California Air Tools compressor that I got that same day - that thing rocks) Drawer stock, not very exciting. Very few of my drawers were the same size. Part of that is just inexperience in making drawers. One cabinet in particular I wanted difference sizes for different kinds of tools though. This is only about 1/2 the drawers, as I just don't have room to build more than 8 drawers at once. Top together without the trim, drawer boxes installed in a couple of cases.You can see the inconsistency in my spacing there. Some of the drawers I ended up moved when I wasn't satisfied with how they looked. Oh and in the background you can see my foam board that I cut the cabinet plywood on. As I was cutting the last piece, the wind caught the foam board and made it explode into four pieces. Almost like it shattered. I guess that foam was end of life anyway. False front stock. I ended up using true Uncle Cletus wood. I bought a couple of 14" wide, 11' long 8/4 walnut boards from a local guy 3 years ago. The plan was to use them for my desk. Unfortunately they were just too warped for any pieces longer than a few feet, so I used them for this. Here is an example of how bad these boards were. In some cases I couldn't even get 3/4" First false front in Learned a lot of valuable lessons here. I'm not confident in my cabinet squareness or my ability to cut the drawer fronts to perfect width. So I went long on every one of them. Figured I'd just trim them magically to be flush. In fact I bought the Festool RO90 to help with this, but truthfully it didn't prove to be incredibly effective on walnut end grain. As a result I built a shooting board and will try that later. I definitely made some alignment mistakes. This one I held it in place and put brads in it, and it had shifted. So I glued a piece on to the short side that clearly doesn't match. It's shop furniture. If it was for my house I'd have found matching grain or pulled the front off and fixed it. It went smoother after that. I tried to replicate what Marc did by putting the fronts on while the cabinets are laying on their back. When I tipped them back up right, the spacing was off on all of them because there is a little bit of travel in the up and down motion of the slides. So I pulled them all off and did it with the cabinet right side up. However, since they were measured, cut and positioned to the laying down orientation, to get the right gaps between drawers I ended up with the fronts being screwy. In some places they were just a hair lower than the drawer box. Also I forgot that my drawers were all different sizes on the other cabinets and didn't change the template to match. So I ended up using wood filler to fix errant drawer pull holes. This is the one I finished up today, it went great. And it was actually an accident that the bottom two drawers are bookmatched, and the top drawer was cut from the exact same board as the 2nd drawer so it has grain continuity. Obviously the top wasn't big enough so I had to glue up another board. I did a horrible job with grain matching. But again - shop furniture. I still have a bit to do, but I'm really really hoping to get these done on this long weekend. Edited June 16, 2019 by Cliff Marking topic as finished 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted May 25, 2019 Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 I think this came out great! As far as the drawer fronts. Evey one tries to shoot for perfect square but i'd be a lot of people's cabinets end up a hair off. Personally i make doors and everything a hair oversize and then scribe and cut to perfect size. If that cabinet is 1/64" out of square it gets reflected perfectly in the door or drawer. It's maybe too bad the Cletus wood ended up here but hey your shop cabinets look great!. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 25, 2019 Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 Quiet nice dude! Will it live where it’s at in the 5th pic? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted May 25, 2019 Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 My kind of shop furniture!! Awesome job!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Posted May 25, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 25, 2019 12 hours ago, K Cooper said: Quiet nice dude! Will it live where it’s at in the 5th pic? Yeah right in front of garage door. Easiest place because the dust collection runs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cliff Posted May 28, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted May 28, 2019 Built a pull out shelf that I was planning to put my track saw on to get rid of the insanely too big Makita systainer. Of course, it doesn't fit in that space. But with the spindle sander down below I couldn't have done any better. I'll have to figure out what tools to put there. I know at some point I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get rid of Festool systainers, I just don't have room for them it seems. Put trim on the tops. Went pretty well. First time doing mitered trim. Also first time using the new SCMS. I made the trim about 1/4" taller wider than it needed to be in case there were undulations or bowing in my tops because the plywood sucked. There definitely was on the long top. But on the two smaller ones it just left me with tons of extra material. First I tried to use a flush cut bit. It didn't work that well for me. I think my bit is dulling. This walnut is insanely hard too and tears out easily. It's the most difficult walnut I've ever used. So I switched to the painful way. Once those were done I sanded them and put a first coat of finish on. Also put first coat on 4 drawers that were sanded previously. Then opened the garage door and water dripped right on them because it's hurricane season in IL somehow. Whatever. First coat so they'll be sanded. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 28, 2019 Report Share Posted May 28, 2019 Great recovery Cliff! I think maybe I’ll never have the problem of too many Festool systainers unless I come across with the winning NJ powerball ticket and I’ve never been to Jersey. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Posted May 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2019 7 hours ago, K Cooper said: Great recovery Cliff! I think maybe I’ll never have the problem of too many Festool systainers unless I come across with the winning NJ powerball ticket and I’ve never been to Jersey. Hahaha. Well it's definitely a space issue. Unless i can figure out a good way to store them in the place that I use them most I'm working on some ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted May 28, 2019 Report Share Posted May 28, 2019 On 5/24/2019 at 6:23 PM, Cliff said: Bought out the stock of all Home Depots drawer slides, then Lowes as well. I wanted good slides, but not top of the line. I paid around $20 per set. They aren't self close, but that is ok. For $20 per slide, you could have gotten Blum soft close and had money left over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drzaius Posted May 28, 2019 Report Share Posted May 28, 2019 If you don't have access to wholesale sources, Lee Valley has a decent selection of slides at good quality/price ratios. For example, they have 16" full extension self closing slides that are very good for less than $15/pair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted May 28, 2019 Report Share Posted May 28, 2019 wwhardware.com is where I get most of my slides. They ship quick and being less then an hour away I get them next day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llama Posted May 28, 2019 Report Share Posted May 28, 2019 2 hours ago, drzaius said: If you don't have access to wholesale sources, Lee Valley has a decent selection of slides at good quality/price ratios. For example, they have 16" full extension self closing slides that are very good for less than $15/pair. Everyone has access. I've posted several times here where to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drzaius Posted May 29, 2019 Report Share Posted May 29, 2019 1 hour ago, Llama said: Everyone has access. I've posted several times here where to go. I don't recall, but even so, by the time I pay shipping & import fees that usually pushes the prices into the unreasonable range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cliff Posted May 29, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted May 29, 2019 Well, I had 2 requirements, 22 inch slides and wanted them the same day. The ones I had to order after I bought out all the stock were just because they were the same exact ones I had already bought. It doesn't really matter. They are great for what I need them for. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Bob Posted May 29, 2019 Report Share Posted May 29, 2019 Just a FYI for your next shop project, these slides are $6 and change per pair with free shipping. They are nice quality slides. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MZ1UJ1L/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Posted May 29, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2019 10 hours ago, Just Bob said: Just a FYI for your next shop project, these slides are $6 and change per pair with free shipping. They are nice quality slides. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MZ1UJ1L/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza Thanks I may pick some up because I'm going to put pull out trays in my outfeed table for the festool stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekMPBS Posted May 29, 2019 Report Share Posted May 29, 2019 I bought the Promark slides from Amazon on the recommendation of James King from King's Fine Woodworking. They were $75 for a 10 pack of 26", full-extension ball-bearing slides rated for 100 lbs. They are pretty nice slides, especially for the price. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cliff Posted June 1, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 1, 2019 Slowly sanding and finishing my way through this. Other than that, all I have left is to route grooves for the t-tracks and slap on some pulls. I got one completed (only went with 2 coats of finish, I'm just too impatient to do more.) This gap displeases me. It wasn't nearly this bad before finish. The two drawers rub. So I will have to address that issue before I'm truly done. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted June 1, 2019 Report Share Posted June 1, 2019 Nice!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cliff Posted June 1, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 1, 2019 Used the jack plane to improve the gap. And, somehow, managed to chip the drawer face above and to the right of the pull. Not cool. Routed the grooves for the t-track. The one side pictured went poorly. Track slipped. But I think I can repair it by putting walnut strips in there. It won't look perfect though. Also despite my best attempts, I hit brad nails. I picked this thing up yesterday. I absolutely love it. I have a lot of issues with my arms. Tendenitis, nerve pain and tennis elbow, so the much heavier dewalt impact driver (18v, non brushless) is a real pain in the butt. This little m12 is amazing. I'm definitely moving into Milwaukee hardcore. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Cliff Posted June 13, 2019 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted June 13, 2019 I was out of commission for a week+ due to medical issues. In fact I'm still not supposed to be on my feet til Monday-ish but it was 70 degrees out and I was about to go nuts sitting on the couch. So I started my door. Rails and stiles panel 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeslayer Posted June 13, 2019 Report Share Posted June 13, 2019 21 minutes ago, Cliff said: So I started my door. Fill me in a little bit Cliff, interior or exterior door? I've been pondering building a couple of exterior doors is my reason for asking, good to hear you're on the mend, don't push it to hard but i understand its tough to be out of the shop for any length of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Posted June 13, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2019 1 minute ago, treeslayer said: Fill me in a little bit Cliff, interior or exterior door? I've been pondering building a couple of exterior doors is my reason for asking, good to hear you're on the mend, don't push it to hard but i understand its tough to be out of the shop for any length of time. Just a simple interior miter station door. It is not inset though if that's what you meant. This is my first door of any kind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeslayer Posted June 13, 2019 Report Share Posted June 13, 2019 looks great for a first door, nice progress sir! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark J Posted June 13, 2019 Report Share Posted June 13, 2019 That's a fantastic grain pattern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.