Once the carcass was glued up I could start working on the door and drawer. The drawer was fairly straightforward since there weren’t a whole lot of design or other considerations that go into a drawer (for me, on this project).
I opted for dovetails (obviously) for the drawer box. I had decided from the start that a pure pine cabinet would be a little boring for my taste so I decided to use cherry to contrast for some visual interest on the door frame and drawer front.
I bought a dimensioned board of cherry from the hardwood dealer. I mention this because my only “consideration” for the drawer was the front. I knew I would use cherry but spent some time selecting a piece that was somewhat interesting – not overly loud, but not completely plain either.
Before getting into the joinery, I had to dimension the pieces to fit the opening. I started with the sides, planing them to width (height) and checking frequently for fit. I was aiming for snug but smooth movement all the way in and out. The thickness wasn’t a real concern, neither was the length from front to back at this point.
Once the sides were fitted I dimensioned the front and fit it precisely to the opening width and height. Once this was snug I could cut the half-blinds on the front.
The half-blind dovetails were smooth and uneventful. I ran a small rebate on the inside of the tails to help with placement and marking the tail recesses, then treated them as normal dovetails. Mark, saw, chisel out the waste. Mark the tails onto the ends of the front, saw down the lines and chisel out the waste. They fitted great with almost no gaps, and I left the tails just a hair proud so I could plane them down flush with the ends of the front.
Once they were fitted I could cut the sides to length and start the joinery on the back. I waited until this point to cut the sides to length because I needed to account for the space in front of the half-blind dovetails; the sides don’t extend all the way from front to back. There is about 1/8th of space from the front and I wanted to wait to get the exact measurement from the completed dovetails. Now I could trim to length by taking the actual depth of the opening and subtracting the clearance needed for the half blinds.
Once the sides were trimmed and shot square, I could lay out the dovetails for the back. The back will have an opening for the bottom to slide in so the joinery doesn’t extend all the way across the sides. Taking this into account, the dovetails were standard.
Once the box joinery was complete, I ran a groove for the bottom and glued up a small panel to fit.
Aside from the glueup and final fitting, the drawer was complete.
The door was a whole different animal, being the first time I’m building a door.
My first challenge with this was wrapping my head around the construction, design, ratios and how to put it all together. How thick should the frame be? How wide? How deep should the tenons go and how does the width/thickness of the frame affect the joinery decisions?
I had a lot of questions and no single quick place to find an answer so I quickly sketched some ideas and just went for it.
I stuck with the thickness of the cherry as it came and decided to make the frame 2″ in width. I thought this was a good balance visually without making the frame too narrow so as to make the mortise and tenon joints too shallow and sacrifice glue surface area. I have no idea what these ratios should be nor do I know if there actually exists a magic formula to give the “overall door size : frame thickness : joinery width and depth” dimensions.
Once I settled on the width of the frame pieces I had to rip them from the board and plane them to size. I took my time to dimension the four components precisely and make sure they were flat, straight and free of twist. I took the dimensions off the carcass but at this point only the length of the stiles really mattered so I fit the length snug to the opening – this made sense at the time but a better practice would be to leave them oversized and trim the excess off the ends when all the joinery is complete (see Paul Sellers” tutorial on door making).
First I ran a ¼” groove with the plough plane on the inside edge of the four pieces for the panel to sit in. Once that was done I could start working on the mortise and tenons. From top to bottom, I could position the rails right at the end of the stiles, and from left to right I marked how long my tenon would be on one end, measured it against the cabinet with the other stile in place and marked the opposite shoulder off that. If it’s too snug then I can plane it to fit when it’s complete. Once I had the shoulders marked on one, I could transfer the marks to the other rail.
The mortise and tenon process went well. I chiselled out all the mortises with a ¼” chisel in the groove, sawed the (haunched) tenons, slowly pared them to fit. A couple of them went in on a slight angle which meant I had to pare one mortise wall square to bring it into alignment. I also had some gaps on the shoulders but put them on the inside never to be seen, and added a slight chamfer to all the edges to hide any inconsistencies.
With the joinery together I could plan the panel for the middle. I opted for pine to contrast again and resawed a piece of clear pine, glued it, planed it to height and width and raised the panel to fit in the groove.
With all the pieces ready, I dry fitted a couple of times checking how everything seated and checking the fit in the carcass opening. I assembled the door, planed the faces and edges to remove any discrepancies and started to fit it to the carcass.
It fit snugly but after planing the top and bottom flush it turned out there was a heavy 16th inch gap at the top and bottom – this is a good reason to leave the stiles oversized – and it wasn’t the end of the world but a bigger gap than I was planning. Once it was fitted top to bottom I could plan the hinges. I used two cheap brass hinges from the hardware store and they worked just fine.
I marked them on the door in line with the rails, chiselled out the recess and screwed them in nice and snug.
Now, because these hinges are not swaged, if I simply recess them flush with the surface of the side of the cabinet there will be a huge gap caused by the gap in the hinge when they are “opened” to parallel. Because of this, I wanted to recess the hinges further into the cabinet side to reduce the gap along the hinge side. I marked it out as normal but for the depth of the recess, I set my marking gauge to the thickness of the hinge plate plus the depth required to leave the preferred gap. I chiselled out the recess, a little awkwardly on the assembled cabinet, and used the router plane to bring it to final depth. I tested the hinges and fine tuned the depth.
Once the door was hung I could work on the opposite side which was slightly out of parallel, so I planed it for an even reveal top to bottom, matching the gap on the hinge side (yes, this means the door is sliiightly out of square but it’s not even noticeable once it’s hung and fitted in the carcass).
I wanted very simple wood pulls for the door and drawer but hadn’t designed anything in advance so somewhat freehanded this one. I opted for pine and went for a simple trapezoidal profile using a block plane and some files / sandpaper. I glued them on the fronts and I’m happy with how they turned out. They’re simple, feel comfortable and fit subtly and unassumingly.
With all the major components complete, it was time for final shaping, sanding and finishing. I chamfered any hard corners, gave everything a final planing and sanding and finished it with a coat of Danish oil and paste wax.
Oh and I can’t forget, I made a small French cleat and screwed it into the back at the top, with a spacer screwed to the bottom of the back as well with a reveal of about 1/8th inch from the wall.
This was a fun project, I loved the combination of joinery and trying new things – especially when the processes run smoothly with no major surprises or mistakes. This cabinet involves the widest array of techniques on a project so far and each one is familiar and straightforward, but putting them all together in new combinations – and everything fitting and working – is another level of satisfying.
The door and drawer turned out great and I learned a lot; plenty to take forward into the next ones.
Now, I did mention that I had more to say on the lack of function on this cabinet. I think it turned out fantastic but after hanging it on the wall and proudly gazing upon it, I opened it, scratched my head on what to put in it and realised: not much will fit. It’s shallow and short, the drawer small, and while there are objects in the house that need storage, this isn’t the size for them. Well, it wasn’t built for a particular need, to fill a particular void or house a specific thing or collection of things. This one was sheer self indulgence in the process. And a nice show piece on the wall.
Leave a Reply