Dining Room Cabinets & Bookcase Part 1

Welcome back to the Papa Sheep Woodshop.™ It's been a few weeks since I made some furniture, so obviously it is time to make more! What we really need next is a bookcase and some cabinets for the dining room.

The original plan was to construct a built-in bookcase with some cabinets at the bottom....ultimately, we have decided to build two standalone pieces which are designed to be stackable. We need a lot of material for this project, so I arranged a delivery instead of making multiple trips with the RAV4. 

The first step is breaking down the panels on the cabinet saw.... 

All the panels were cut between 1/4" and 1/2" oversize and will be trimmed later.

I'm going to build the cabinets first, so the first panels to be trimmed to final dimensions were the five uprights:

The next step is to cut rabbits into the upright panels. The outside panels need a single rabbit, while the dividing panels need a rabbit at both sides. These rabbits will accommodate the base panels.

I also need to cut out a 2 7/8" square from the front of each panel to recess the plinth.

This can be achieved quickly and accurately with the band saw, once a couple of stops have been set up:

The four base panels were trimmed next, and then everything was sanded to 220 grit.

I stared the glue up by attaching the first upright to the first base panel.

The second step was to add another upright panel, although it's not obvious in the next photo because the cabinet is lying on its side:

Added the second base panel...

Turned the cabinet the right way around, and added another upright...

Rinse and repeat....

I used iron-on veneer when I made the TV console, and I had a lot of problems with the glue - sections of veneer would lift, seemingly at random, and I got fed up re-sticking them with wood glue. This time I'm making my own veneer from some pieces of walnut which will be attached with wood glue. 

Veneer production begins with cutting some 1/8" wide strips. In the past I've done this with the table saw, but I've discovered I can save a lot of wood and get a comparable result with the bandsaw.

 

I'm using this veneer at the two (2) exposed ends of the top panel and the plinth/kick panel:

This is the cabinet from the back with the top panel placed on top to check fit. It actually came out perfect. This level of accuracy is only achievable with the professional quality tools which I am lucky enough to have in my workshop.

To be continued....