My girlfriend asked me to make her something to store clothes in that don’t really have a place right now(e.g. Gym clothes and bras/lingerie that do not fit in our current dresser.) She wanted it to go in the closet, and have some pull-out bins in which to store the clothes. This is what I came up with. I found some canvas storage bins online that were a good size (13×13x10) for the project. I ordered them and began putting some ideas together in SketchUp. I didn’t buy or cut any wood before I had the bins in hand incase there was variation in actual size and given dimensions.

Once the bins arrived, I was happy to find out that they were exactly as stated, so I headed up to the big box to get some plywood. I found a good sheet of 3/4 oak ply at the big box that (amazingly) was not their usual Chinese plywood. It is made by Swaner Hardwoods in Burbank, CA. I was impressed with the quality of their plywood having not worked with ‘real’ plywood in quite some time.

The entire project is constructed from a single sheet of 4×8 oak ply, a single 2×4 sheet of 5.2mm luan plywood, some pre-milled cove moulding, and some 1×3 oak scraps I had. The top moulding is stain grade pre-milled solid oak cove, the base moulding was chamfered and rabetted on the table saw from 1×3 solid oak stock(second picture.) The solid edging was made by surface planing 1×3 stock down to 45/64ths (the exact thickness of the plywood) and then ripped to 9/64th” thick strips(putting it about 5/32nds back from the front edge of the cove moulding) As you can see from the third picture, I was able to get pretty good color matching between the plywood and the solid wood edging.

The sides and partitions are all set in 1/4” deep dadoes and rabbets in their mating pieces, the top/bottom/and shelf run the full width of the piece. The sides and top were cut from a straight line in the ply giving me grain continuity from side to top to side. The back is 5.2mm luan ply set in a 1/4×1/4 groove that is inset 1/4” from the back edge of the top and sides. The base moulding had a 1/4×3/4 rabbet that the carcase sits down in to. The four corners are re-inforced with 2×2 solid oak blocks that are glued/brad nailed in place from both the carcase and base moulding.

The stain is MinWax English Chestnut which is a little darker than I was intending, I was going to use either Golden Oak or Early American, but I didn’t have either of those on hand at the time. Looking at the completed piece, I’m glad I went with the English Chestnut, it was a perfect match for the edging on the bins which really helped tie the whole thing together.

The fourth picture shows it in it’s new home. I know it’s a little over the top for being in a spot no one but myself and my girlfriend will ever see it, but like most of my projects, I saw it as an opportunity to learn and explore new techniques. Besides, since we may be moving in the next two years, who knows what room of the house it will ultimately end up in. I may have to build another for my sons toys!

Complete dimensioned drawings, the 3D sketchup model, and a cutlist will soon be available on my website. www.AwlFreePlans.com

Thanks for looking.

Here are some photos of the table I am building to hold our printer. It is built entirely of 3/4” thick select pine from the big box. The top was glued up from 6” wide boards and hand planed to a nice flat surface, the base is constructed using hand cut mortise and tenons, and the top will be held on using “buttons” cut from hardwood that will fit into the grooves on the stretchers.

Like most of my projects, this was built more as a learning project than anything else, it is my first use of mortise and tenon joinery, panel lamination, leg lamination, and buttons. MY only rationalization for using pine on this project was price, as it is an experiment, I couldn’t justify spending money on, or hacking up perfectly good hardwood.

The finish is a minwax cherry gel stain with a layer of minwax classic oak polycrylic over that, it gave it a great warm, rich color.

Here are some photos of the shoe shelves I’m building to sit in our entry way. The project will be painted, so the pre-laminated 5/8” knotty pine boards from the local big box were sufficient. The shelves are 1/4” maple ply from the big box. The back is MDF set in a groove about 1/3 the thickness of the carcase stock.

The maple ply from the big orange is of VERY low quality… I’m talking voids, ultra thin veneer, and the dreaded red adhesive, I certainly won’t be buying ply from them again. I faced the shelves with some thing MDF strips I had left from cutting the back in order to hide the prominent voids. The MDF strips were attached with glue and 23 gauge pins.

The shelves are set in stopped dadoes created on the table saw and squared with chisel and mallet. The side are simple rabbet joints.

This project was my first project involving rabbets, dadoes, and a panel. It was more instructional than anything, and is a pre-cursor to the scrapbook organizer I will be building for my g/f.

The bottom will be receiving a 1/4 round moulding and the top will be receiving a small decorative moulding as well, then I’ll start on the painting.

The pictures shown are simply dry-fit I will be doing the glue-up tomorrow evening.

So I decided to try my hand at hand cut dovetails for the first time tonight, although I’ve only been woodworking for about three weeks now I have a thirst for knowledge and want to build a strong understanding and handiness with hand tools before moving on to the power tool side of joinery… Some may call me masochistic, but, I’ve always been a believer in learning from those that came before you, and how better to do that than by learning to use their tools? Anyways, above you will see some examples of my first two forays in to the hand cut dovetail. You criticism, comments, and guidance would be greatly appreciated! :-)

Hello All, So while constructing my first project I discovered the limitations of thin plywood and sawhorses for a work surface… So how better to continue my journey in to woodworking than by building a workbench?

After exhaustive research online I finally settled on a design, simple, seemingly sturdy, and easy to construct for a new comer to woodworking. The base is constructed from 4×4, 2×4, and 2×6 douglas fir and the top is a massive 36”x80” solid core door slab with a thin maple veneer. Above are photos of the progress thus far.

The next step for the workbench will be to add a top of 1×3 maple strips glued up to the proper width. Then an apron of either maple or red oak. Followed by the addition of a tail vice… I’m open to any suggestions for surface or apron materials.

EDIT: The third pic(just added) shows what I would eventually like to do to the workbench… maybe within a year? :-) we’ll see… gotta learn the techniques first, then I’ll tackle it!

Hi All, My girlfriends dad gave me one of those little combo sets of powertools from Craftsman for Christmas. As this is my first set of tools(that doesn’t include screw drivers, wire strippers, and RJ45 crimpers) I knew it was time to start building something. My girlfriend and I had been looking for a shelf to hold some knick knacks for quite some time, but it seemed everything we found looked too mass produced or was way out of the realm of what I would spend on a horizontal board stuck to the wall… That’s when it hit me…. why not just build it?!

So, I went up to the big box and started looking at their lumber section and decided on a nice stick of poplar I saw… It had a great grain pattern and it was straight as an arrow, and, the price was low enough for me to feel comfortable cutting it in bits with the possibility of needing to double the cost to finish the shelf :-)

The whole shelf is constructed of 1×8 poplar, with a 3/4 square lip around the top edge, no fancy joinery was used, just some countersunk brass screws. The design for the bottom was free-handed on a scrap of carboard from a package of one of my son’s toys(drew half the design and flipped it in the middle.) The finish is Minwax – “Golden Oak” applied in two coats followed by three coats of hand rubbed paste wax. This baby’s smooooooth…

So what did I learn from this project? Handheld powertools ultimately made this project more difficult. With the time it took to get everything set-up, aligned, get the makeshift fence in place, etc I probably could have crosscut the boards, used a coping saw to cut the details, aligned, drilled, and assembled the shelf… But, lesson learned.