Sorry it has been a while since my last post. We took a family vacation and then moved my son into university out of state, so the project had taken a back seat for a little while.
We had left off after I installed the 1st of 2 upright cabinets and now I am working on the 2nd. I wanted to take a little time to highlight some of the techniques I used to construct these cabinets. First, these upright cabinets are rather large, with one side measuring 73.5" x 30". A panel this size is not easy to move through a small house with narrow doorways and stair wells... This often requires cutting in one room but the final assembly and glue-up must be done in the final location/room as one of these assembled cabinets will NOT fit through any of my doorways never the less up my stairwells.
On the flip side, it would be very difficult to assemble the full cabinets piece by piece in the install location due to size and weight of all the parts. One decision I made early on that really helped managing the assembly process in a cost effective and efficient way was to add a return wall to each side.
Adding a 6" return wall to each side panel for both cabinets helped in multiple ways.
- The main support for the back of the drawer glides.
- It flattened out any slight warp in the side panel
- allowed the shelves to be dry assembled and maintain its structure
All in all - the return walls added a lot of rigidity to the panels without a lot more material.
Here is a quick review.
I started by using my router and plunge attachment to route multiple dado grooves in the side panel to hold the return walls and shelves that are made from the same 3/4" plywood. Since this was my second build of this cabinet, I tended to move faster. One word of caution, don't move too quickly when using power tools. No one was injured fortunately, but as you can see this 3/4" carbide router bit did not fair as well. In any case, I went an purchased a new 1/2" shank bit (as opposed to the 1/4" shank).
Cutting dados with a router is easier to manage than cutting using stacked dado head on your table saw. For one, you would need a very large shop and table to cut these on such a large piece. So using a straight edge clamp, router and plunge router attachment was the way to go. Also, the cuts by the router are more precise that using a table saw.
To start using the plunge router I first set the router bit to be aligned with the base of the router - meaning the bit is positioned directly flush with the work piece as shown here:
Then I zero out the stop on the plunge attachment:
Then I move the stop pin up the the 3/8" mark on the scale. Now when I plunge the bit, it will not go lower than the 3/8" depth set by the stopper. I usually take 3 or 4 passes at gradual depths (not more than 1/4") before reaching the desired 3/8" depth.
Next I assembly one of the 6" return wall plywood boards into the back groove of one side panel. I don't use glue, but just use 3 screws to hold it in place while I mark where the new grooves need to be cut.
Next I remove the plywood return wall and clamp a straight edge (scrap piece) at the proper offset distance for my router.
I always make a paper thin cut to check that my alignment is correct:
If not aligned correctly, I will adjust the fence, but otherwise I remove approx. 1/4" of material on each pass until the plunger bottoms out at the desired depth.
Once I have cut each of the 3 dado grooves, I reassemble back to the side panel - this time using glue and screws.
The next step is to cut the notches out of the back of each shelf so that they fit properly with the return walls and dado grooves.
Again, maybe I didn't plan it this way, but having the 6 inches of return and with the dado grooves and notches in the shelves - when assembled with no glue or screws is extremely strong. I do not want to glue and screw the shelves before I move the side panels (with returns) upstairs to the final location.
Once I moved into the upstairs room, I permanently glued and screwed the shelves into place.
Just like the other cabinet, I cut and installed 3 back braces to further strengthen the cabinet and give more structure to the back where it will be anchored to the wall studs.
The back braces have a chamfered edge on the open side to more easily receive the other side panel with return. This worked nicely on the 1st upright cabinet install.
In the gif below you can see how these wood braces flex open to more easily receive the return walls on the other side of cabinet.
My wife and I were easily able to stand the assembled side with shelves into place and secure it to the wall. Here I am just about to add some trim pieces in the void between the plywood returns and the wall.
The last step is to attached the other cabinet side with return and use glue and screws. We positioned the last side roughly in place, then added glue to the dado grooves for each shelf and quickly pushed the cabinet together using brute force and a rubber mallet. Once closed completely, I screwed in the spax screws to make it permanent.
Here is a wider shot showing all of the cabinets so far - 2 upright cabinets and 3 overhead shelves. As you can see we already have primed and painted the outside faces of the cabinets too.
Next steps:
- Install drawers
- Install flooring
- Start on trim
