Walnut Drawer Cabinet Part 1

I got the idea to build this cabinet from one of my all time wood working favorite videos by Frank Howarth.  The design is almost identical except that instead of a bookshelf, I will make a drawer cabinet.

Jigs

I used my big sled to cross cut all the bigger boards.  I also used this to cut some of the leg pieces that need to be cut at certain angles.

Then this miter jig for some of the miters, for example for the edging of the box:

And this other miter jig for the miter joints for the box walls:

And of course, my trusty smaller sled which I use for about every cross cut that fits in it:

The box

I used 3/4" walnut plywood for the box with miter joints and biscuits.

I used a band clamp and pipe clamps to hold it in place while the glue dried:

I didn't take pictures of it but the back of the box is 1/4" walnut ply.  I cut rabbets on the walls to make room for it and then used a staple gun to affix it and complete the box.  I finally trimmed it with a trim bit in the router.

The edging is done with strips of solid walnut cut on the table saw at 1/4" and then glued to the ply.

A great trick to fill in the gaps that may remain in the joint is to make some fine walnut sawdust and mix it with glue then smudge that in the gaps, and sand it.  I make the sawdust with either a 180 grit sandpaper or by cutting some scraps with my dovetail saw which also makes very fine sawdust.

The legs

The legs are almost identical to these in the Frank Howarth video except I didn't cut them to be curved in the band saw, I made them straight instead.

I cut all the pieces and joined them with biscuits first.  I used the miter jig to make the miters and I cut the angle on the legs using the larger sled and clamping them down at the angle.

There's a strip of wood that the box actually sits on top of that's glued and stapled to the legs.  I cut the rabbet using the dado blades on the table saw.

Once everything was glued together, I cut it at a 45 degree angle using my miter sled.

Since the 1/2 " walnut I was using was too thin to cut biscuits on at an angle I glued an stapled another strip inside each leg to make it 1" thick in total.  Then I joined these using biscuits.

It's very important to double check the miters in dry before gluing to make sure they make a 90 degree angle.

I ended up clamping it all in a fairly complicated way.  I am sure there are better ways to do this.

Finally there's a strip that goes in the back that's just glued.

The legs attach to the box using these squares of wood that clip the bottom rail.

After a lot of sanding with 180,  220 and 400 grit, here's the finished product.  Next making the drawers.