Miter Bench and Storage #4: Miter Box and Drawers

Got back on the project this weekend. The goal was to get the Miter Box assemblies completed. With some inspiration from Scott Bryan, I decided to make a modification to Norms plans. The Miter Box plans call for the box front to be enclosed by plywood. I decided to put drawers in place of the plytwood instead. I had previously completed the build out of the left box and went ahead and completed the right box.



This is the first time I got to use my new Jet 90 Degree Miter Clamps which work great. This is also the first time that I really got to put the new Wixey digital fence though its paces. All I can say is wow. The nicest thing about it is that you can setup a cut and (if you make notes) you can come back and set the same exact cut up again if needed. I was able to dial in the groves for the drawers nice and tight a 100th” at a time. The other nice bit is if you are using an auxiliary fence you can zero off of it and then use the digital readout to accurately set up your cut. All in all a great gift.
Here is the completed right Miter Box with the first(protype) completed drawer.

The plans and video have the drawers being made with a dovetail jig (Norms was fancy). I do not have one and was not able to convince SWMBO that I “needed” one. So I opted for a drawer locking bit from Freud that has worked very well. It took a bit to learn how to set it up (I am going to do a quick review shortly), but after that I was able to quickly build the drawer fronts/backs/sides with only one problem. Here are my setup blocks.

Here are a couple of pics from the milling process:


Here is a pic of one of the drawers with its milling comple:

And it together with its drawer front attached:

So all of the drawer boxes for the Miter Box are completed and the drawer fronts for the left miter box are milled (3/4” red oak with a 3/8” roundover) and attached. I didn’t have time to complete the drawer fronts for the right hand box.


All that is left is to complete to dividers for the drawers and attach the handles on the left side. The same on the right along with attaching the drawer fronts. After that I need to make the clips to hold the miter boxes to the benches then mount the boxes to the bench. I also have two red oak trim pieces to mount above the drawers, and then red oak strips on top of the rear of the box where the stop and measuring tape go. I plan to use these small drawers as bins (I got 24 of them) for screws and such. I left one (the prototype) without groves, I will use it to hold the wrench and such for the miter saw. By the way the plywood is that cheap birch ply from the orange box (not going to do that again).

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"