Built-in Cabinets

[legenddc]

Office Built-in Cabinets Part VI

One of the requirements for this cabinet was the bottom drawer needed to fit a basketball. I'm proud to say I managed to achieve that and don't need to redo any drawer sizes.

Blum undercount drawer slides on

I somehow managed to make all of the dovetails in the drawers without messing any up. I did take the time to label everything and draw rough lines for the grooves to help me ensure nothing got flipped.

I'm waiting on someone now to come buy the old planer and then I'm heading down to the shop to work on the grooves and plywood bottoms. Then I will sand all of the insides before I glue them up.

Any recommendations for finish on the drawer boxes? The bottom is pre-finished plywood. I don't want to use Arm-R-Seal as it smells forever in an enclosed space. I don't think Rubio will match the bottom. I was thinking of using clear shellac. What grit do I need to sand to for shellac?

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 12/21/2025 at 11:38 AM, legenddc said:

Office Built-in Cabinets Part VI

One of the requirements for this cabinet was the bottom drawer needed to fit a basketball. I'm proud to say I managed to achieve that and don't need to redo any drawer sizes.

Blum undercount drawer slides on

I somehow managed to make all of the dovetails in the drawers without messing any up. I did take the time to label everything and draw rough lines for the grooves to help me ensure nothing got flipped.

I'm waiting on someone now to come buy the old planer and then I'm heading down to the shop to work on the grooves and plywood bottoms. Then I will sand all of the insides before I glue them up.

Any recommendations for finish on the drawer boxes? The bottom is pre-finished plywood. I don't want to use Arm-R-Seal as it smells forever in an enclosed space. I don't think Rubio will match the bottom. I was thinking of using clear shellac. What grit do I need to sand to for shellac?

Shellac is good, and also, a water based poly will cure quickly and with much less smell. 

When i use shellac, which is most of the time, i only sand the final coat - assuming reasonable care was taken on previous coats to get them uniform, etc. I start with heavily thinned shellac (1 part shellac, 3 parts alcohol) and make the mix thicker in subsequent coats. 

I usually sand it in the 300-400 grit range, with the paper on a sanding block. And a bit of finishing wax over the final coat makes it very smooth. 

 

Looks like you're doing a great job!!

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 12/21/2025 at 11:30 AM, legenddc said:

Office Built-in Cabinets Part V

It appears when my phone ran out of space I deleted a lot of the cabinet pictures so some imagination is required. I finished sanding all of the lower doors. I filled in any larger holes or gaps with Durham's Rock Hard, sanded it smooth, and then sent it off to the paint shop.

Of course the paint shop is just our dining room. My wife volunteered to paint as her job was slowing up. She did a coat of primer and then I brought them back to my shop to sand and fill in any small holes with 3M glazing putty. Then back up to be primed and painted. Since my wife had time to paint, I hoped right onto the upper cabinet doors and she painted them as well.

Now my basement is filled up with cabinets, face frames, and 14 painted drawer/door fronts. I have been working on milling the lumber for the drawer boxes. It takes a lot of time to go from 4/4 rough wood down to 5/8" boards. Add in more time to glue up boards for the wider drawers. Last Thursday I went down to try and get the bottom drawers to final thickness but my planer was acting up. It's been randomly slowing down on wider boards, resulting in them having to be pushed/pulled through. Not a very safe or fun activity.

I could try cleaning the rollers again but that didn't last very long the last time I did it. The fix is new roller but they cost over $100. Option 3 is what I chose.

Mostly I went this route as it would be here this past Sunday in time for me to have a week off of work.

And then the shipment was delayed until Tuesday. I borrowed my dad's planer to keep moving Sunday/Monday. Monday morning I realized his planer blades aren't aligned properly and were planning the boards on an angle. Fortunately, I realized this before anything was too thin.

It was then I walked out of the shop and noticed the floor was wet. Long story short, the water heater pressure relief valve went off. Apparently they can go bad as they get older. After 27 years ours has had enough. In case you're bad at math, it was manufactured around the time the Chicago Bulls won their final championship.

Back to our scheduled programing, with the new planer in hand, I was able to get some drawers made. I used the Rockler dovetail jig for these because my dad has one and it's free to borrow.

I'm happy the dovetails are done on all of the drawers. The jig works well, but it's a lot of trial and error to set up. I bought some poplar and milled it up so I wasn't messing up the actual pieces. Initial tweaking of the setup was almost 2 hours. Once that was done changing the jig to the different box sizes was very quick.

After the first box was made I cut the plywood bottom, made grooves in the box and installed it. Had to make sure the measurements were correct before I finished the other 6.

Nice job on your dovetails. I know that jig well and absolutely agree it can be a pain to get dialed in. Yours look flawless. Well done. 

[legenddc]

On 12/21/2025 at 12:50 PM, Ron Swanson Jr. said:

Shellac is good, and also, a water based poly will cure quickly and with much less smell. 

When i use shellac, which is most of the time, i only sand the final coat - assuming reasonable care was taken on previous coats to get them uniform, etc. I start with heavily thinned shellac (1 part shellac, 3 parts alcohol) and make the mix thicker in subsequent coats. 

I usually sand it in the 300-400 grit range, with the paper on a sanding block. And a bit of finishing wax over the final coat makes it very smooth. 

 

Looks like you're doing a great job!!

Maybe I should have rephrased my question. What grit do you sand the wood to before applying the shellac?

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

On 12/21/2025 at 12:24 PM, legenddc said:

Maybe I should have rephrased my question. What grit do you sand the wood to before applying the shellac?

Oh, i gotcha. I don't go any finer than 320. 

[Coop]

Great work and good description of carrying us thru each process! 

[legenddc]

Office Built-in Cabinets Part VII

I left off with the dovetails done and needing to create the grooves and dados for the drawer bottoms. Since I had already made a test piece and completed one drawer it was easy enough to reset the table saw blade height and fence. With that out of the way I fine tuned everything to fit. I find it a lot easier to use a shoulder plane to get the bottoms to fit.

With the bottoms in, it was time to install the drawer slides. I purchased the Rockler jig for Blum hardware a few months ago. I feel like it was simple enough not to need it but since I had it, I used it.

I did manage to snap one of the 2.5 mm drill bits.

And here we have 6, fully functional drawers.

Been spending a lot of time sanding since that picture. I sanded the inside of the bottom four drawers and glued them up. The middle drawers needed a whole patched from the drawer grooves.

I should have spent more time thinking ahead with the middle drawers and shifted the dovetail jig. Live and learn. Still working on sanding the bottom 4 drawers and the inside corners where I got some glue squeeze out.

[legenddc]

Office Built-in Cabinets Part VIII

I have spent a lot of time sanding over the last week or two. The bottom four drawers are ready for finish. I still had some work to do on one of the top drawers. When my wife and I dreamed up this project, we decided it would be nice to have a place to charge our devices. Installing an outlet in the upper cabinet would have been a lot easier but taken up a lot of real estate. I found this outlet that moves in and out with the drawers and decided to give it a try. For some reason ordering it with 4 slow USB-A outlets was significantly cheaper than ordering it with 2 standard AC outlets so that's what I ordered and I will swap out the outlet before final install.

It needs 2 inches of clearance behind the drawers and I only have 1". I was thinking I would need to step this drawer down from 18" slides to 15" but found another option. Adding a spacer to the back of the drawer allows necessary clearance without losing space. I did have to notch the back of the spacer out some, but everything tested fine.

Finally with that out of the way I was able to start installing the cabinet upstairs and make our basement usable again. Leveling the base was shockingly simple.



And then it was just a matter of bringing up the cabinets, cutting a whole in the one for the outlet, scribing the face frame, attaching them together and attaching them to the wall.



I realize that I'm going a bit out of order, but I wanted to be able to watch a movie again in our basement. I also don't want to stop making sawdust waiting for finish to dry. I can apply finish this week and let it try while I'm working or sleeping. Also, I really needed to see some visual progress. This project has been dragging on for a long time and I was starting to get a bit burnt out on it. Looking back at my notes, I think I've spent around 27 hours so far sanding.

The final thing that I need to figure out is how to keep air flowing to the return vent on the left. The topmost cabinets are 4" shorter than the middle ones so there will be a 4" gap behind them. I think I will need to have a vent on the right side of the cabinet, it's just a matter of how to connect it.

[pkinneb]

On 1/4/2026 at 5:52 PM, legenddc said:

The final thing that I need to figure out is how to keep air flowing to the return vent on the left. The topmost cabinets are 4" shorter than the middle ones so there will be a 4" gap behind them. I think I will need to have a vent on the right side of the cabinet, it's just a matter of how to connect it.

Given it is just a return I would add a vent to the side something like the pic below and you will be good to go.

[Coop]

@legenddc, looking really fine. Question about the electrical receptacle/docking station. The pic you provided looks like the wire runs alongside a jointed/pivoting arm, for lack of a better description. Your wall outlet is behind your middle drawer and the top drawer contains your device. When you get the connections made, can you take a pic of behind the top drawer, before you attach the top of the cabinet, please? 

[gee-dub]

Something like this can b handy if the power outlet will be accessed regularly.

It comes pre-wired with a regular grounded cord.  It could go on the sidewall under th couch seat level.

 

[legenddc]

On 1/4/2026 at 7:21 PM, pkinneb said:

Given it is just a return I would add a vent to the side something like the pic below and you will be good to go.

I like the way you did that. I'd like to avoid having to run ductwork 5' behind the cabinet if I can.

On 1/4/2026 at 8:26 PM, Coop said:

@legenddc, looking really fine. Question about the electrical receptacle/docking station. The pic you provided looks like the wire runs alongside a jointed/pivoting arm, for lack of a better description. Your wall outlet is behind your middle drawer and the top drawer contains your device. When you get the connections made, can you take a pic of behind the top drawer, before you attach the top of the cabinet, please? 

I will take a picture for you once I get it installed. There are three pivots, one at the drawer, wall and of course the middle one.

On 1/5/2026 at 6:42 AM, gee-dub said:

Something like this can b handy if the power outlet will be accessed regularly.

It comes pre-wired with a regular grounded cord.  It could go on the sidewall under th couch seat level.

 

I was hoping I could just install one of those and call it a day but we're trying to put our phones away and stay off of them so in a drawer it is. I might put something like that behind the bench or under it so we can charge a laptop while at the table.

[Mark J]

Whatever vent solution you come up with, try not to restrict airflow to the return.

[legenddc]

On 1/4/2026 at 8:26 PM, Coop said:

@legenddc, looking really fine. Question about the electrical receptacle/docking station. The pic you provided looks like the wire runs alongside a jointed/pivoting arm, for lack of a better description. Your wall outlet is behind your middle drawer and the top drawer contains your device. When you get the connections made, can you take a pic of behind the top drawer, before you attach the top of the cabinet, please? 

[Coop]

Thanks!

[gee-dub]

On 6/8/2025 at 7:23 PM, fcschoenthal said:

I at least have a covered glass when sanding or finishing. Nothing like getting an extra head layer to remind you.

Yeah, I have a few peanut butter or other large plastic lids laying around to use to cover my coffee.  I have one with a skull and crossbones felt marked on it that I use to cover finish jars between coats.  Don't want to use that one to cover anything you are going to drink 

[curlyoak]

On 6/3/2025 at 11:38 AM, legenddc said:

how one breaks down 4'x8' sheets of plywood in a 12'x14' shop,

The work on this thread is amazing, due to the fact that it is done in a 12 x 14. You qualify for a bigger shop. Later on when you get the shop you are worthy of you will remember your struggles when doing various tasks in the future, in your bigger shop. I have built in a tiny spaces years ago. It was harder to turn out good work. If you did not divulge about your shop I would assume you had more space. I believe that there is a direct correlation between size and productivity. I also believe that the easier it is to complete a task the more likely it will have elegant results. And you show dam good results!

[legenddc]

On 3/2/2026 at 12:32 PM, curlyoak said:

The work on this thread is amazing, due to the fact that it is done in a 12 x 14. You qualify for a bigger shop. Later on when you get the shop you are worthy of you will remember your struggles when doing various tasks in the future, in your bigger shop. I have built in a tiny spaces years ago. It was harder to turn out good work. If you did not divulge about your shop I would assume you had more space. I believe that there is a direct correlation between size and productivity. I also believe that the easier it is to complete a task the more likely it will have elegant results. And you show dam good results!

Thanks Curlyoak. I'm fortunate to have the shop at all so I make due with the space. Having to move machines around every time I need to do a different task definitely slows things down. I've had my bandsaw shoved in the closet behind my shop for this whole project and I'm leaning towards leaving it in there. I also desperately need to clean out the scraps and stop leaning stuff up against the walls.

[BillyJack]

Time consuming, but it’s the only way to learn…

[legenddc]

Office Built-in Cabinets Part IX  

At the start of the year I was whining about sanding. Back then I finished sanding the 4 larger drawers and once that was complete, I jumped onto the top. Since you only see a few inches on the top and I was out of maple, I decided to burn up some scrap. There's at least 3 kinds of plywood in this top with the front lip being some scrap cherry and the right side a scrap piece of maple. No reason to make a solid top as it will be covered.

Top assembled and I brought it upstairs to get painted while I coated the drawers in shellac. My first time using shellac, I think it went pretty well. The inside corners were the hardest part. With 4 drawers completed, I installed them into the cabinet.

Installing the drawer fronts brought it's own set of challenges. The face frame needed some straightening. I cut more scrap plywood and screwed them into the horizontal pieces. From there, I really struggled with getting the drawer fronts lined up. Every time I removed the cards I was using as spacers, the drawer fronts seemed to shift. I finally bought some new screws and installation went a lot easier for the final drawers.

It was around this time life started kicking out butts. We had a few weeks where someone was sick, the kids got lice, a weeklong virtual kickoff at work and our fun Snowcrete took a lot of energy.  

Somewhere along the way I started sanding the final two drawers and got them installed. Hardest part may have been the drawer outlet installation, but really with a second set of hands it went quite quickly.

I replaced the outlet with a conventional outlet instead of the 4 USB-A one that came with it. For some reason it was significantly cheaper to buy it with the USB-A charger. My first time using Wago connectors as well.

 Here are a couple of pictures with the bottom drawers installed and I'm test fitting the top fitting.

[wtnhighlander]

That's a lot of interruption,but the results are looking great!

[Mark J]

+1

[legenddc]

Office Built-in Cabinets Part X  

Quick update on the cabinets. A few weeks ago I spend some time tweaking the drawer fronts. Had to move a couple of the drawer slides back or back and down a smidge. Everything seems to be fitting a lot better. The bottom right drawer might need the top slightly trimmed, but we'll see how it does with some weight in it.  

I also installed all of the uppers after scribing the face frame. Getting the face frame installed was challenging with all the pocket holes. Ended up taking out the drawers and sending my son inside the cabinet to secure the bottom part of the frame. He loved it. Said it was something he would remember for his entire life.

Both uppers needed an inch and a half trimmed from the depth. The upper left cabinet needed some modifications to fit the air return duct. Whatever goes up here will be infrequently used because I'm the only one who can reach it without a stool. 

Here's how the return duct comes out at the moment. The foam and wood blocks are just temporarily placed there.

[Ron Swanson Jr.]

Wow! This is really shaping up beautifully!