How To Make A Shaker Wall Cabinet | Woodworking Project

hey guys in today's video we're gonna be building this shaker inspired wall cabinet this is gonna be out here in my shop and it's gonna be holding all of my PPE equipment as well as some camera gear the cabin is made out of solid cherry and the panel is a beautiful book matched curly figured panel again cherry and it's finished with a traditional shellac finish it's a beautiful project that I've been needing in my shop for a while so let's get to building it simple Cove is proudly sponsored by bits and bits company use simple Co 15 to save 15% off your next order the cabinet is made using a few scrap boards that I had in the lumber rack since it didn't require but a few board feet opted to use cherry now the darker cherry board that you see in the middle is a nicely figured board that I've been saving for a couple of years now and it's gonna be perfect for the book match door panels now we have to process the rough stock by first cutting all pieces close to their final length at the miter saw and then the width at the table saw next we flatten one face and get a square edge at the jointer before planing the pieces down to three-quarters of an inch in thickness [Music] so why building this project to actually sold my bandsaw so before the new owner picked it up I needed to resaw the book-matched door panels and let those set and acclimate before meeting them all of the parts of the cabinets are milled to the final thickness so next I'll just need to cut them to their final wit's and linked at the table saw the joinery for the cabinet our finger joints each finger is one in nineteen thirty seconds wide for a grand total of three fingers on the side panels and then two fingers on the top panel to be able to see those lines while cutting the finger joints using the miter gauge I extend those down about a couple of inches and so you don't make the same mistakes I did make sure to mark your waist so that you know what you're removing and what you're keeping next I installed a dado stack and I set the height to the thickness of the board the finger joints are cut referencing a curve in the MDF miter gauge fence next I extend that line to the top of the fence to make it easier to line the marks up with the ones that I made on the side panels a couple of Clips earlier how you stop blocks to make the cuts repeatable and you'll also notice how the lines that I drew earlier are up above the top of the fence making it easier to see it's pretty straightforward just put it up against a stop block remove the waste from the finger flip the board over and repeat the same action now to remove the waste clamp the board in place on one side using a trigger clamp and then on the other side I'm just using my hand to hold it up against the stop block it's also very important to note that the board needs to be seated flat against the top of your table saw that way you're going to get consistent cuts just like when cutting dovetails I like to put these little stickers on the corners just so that I know which piece goes with which piece so that when I'm laying out the other fingers I'm actually gonna be referencing the board as you can see here that I just cut and the little stickers are gonna make sure that I put these back in the right place and now I'm just gonna remove the waste the same exact way that I did before and you should have nice clean fingers if you find that the fingers are too tight you can remove a little bit of waste using the dado stack if for some reason you make them too small it's really easy to fix just glue on a couple of shims and then cut those again until your fit is just perfect okay now we're ready to lay out there through mortises on the side panels the first thing that I did was mark the outside of the board just so that when I'm chiseling I'm gonna start on the inside and finish on the outside just so we don't get any tear-out so to begin look at the plans but the mortises start at 12 and 1/8 from the very top and then I got a combination square that I'm gonna carry this line all the way to the edge and around to the other side and next the mortises are a half of an inch thick so go down a half inch and again use the combination square to bring that all the way to the edge and once you get this set up you can use this one board to mark your other boards so that way you only have to do this once and now with a marking gauge set to one in nineteen thirty Seconds I'm going to mark the edge of the mortise and I'm just going to rotate the board and do the same thing and now before I change that marking gauge I'm going to carry this lawn around to the back side and Mark the other side now we're going to switch the marking gauge to three and three sixteenths again if you're off what matters is that you're consistent on both sides now that we have the outer walls marked we need to go ahead and inscribe the top and the bottom walls so I'm going to put my marking knife in the edge that we described and make a few light passes one final thing we need to do is mark a centerline of these mortises because I'm using a brad point that that way I can line that tip up with the center line and know that I'm going to be drilling in the center of my mortise so I'm going to mark a quarter of an inch and then just bring that line all the way to the edge since I'm cutting half-inch mortises put in a 3/8 of an inch Brad point bit to remove a majority of the waste and that's going to leave me about a sixteenth of an inch on both sides to chisel after I'm done drilling all right we're gonna start chiseling out the waste and I've got the board so that I'm gonna be chopping from the inside face flipping it over and finishing on the outside face and I'm gonna start by removing the waste in the center and keeping the chisel nice and vertical perpendicular to the face again just going down halfway and then we'll flip it over and finish it and then move to this proud lunge and this is the outside face nice and crisp now to cut the Tenon's on the bottom shelf or the bottom of the cabinet whatever you want to call it we're gonna need to do a 1/8 of an inch cheek on each side so I've got the dado blade installed and raised to an eighth of an inch and you're going to want to measure for each of your side pounds because we hand cut these so they could vary in the in the width or the thickness rather so take a scrap piece run it through and get it to fit and now to mark these there's something that we need to do and the first thing is we need to put a sticker on the side of the board so that when I cut these I know that it matches the red side and that way well so know which side faces out so I'm gonna put a red sticker on the edge of the board and raise it up enough so that when we cut this out it's not gonna be removed here's a tip for you that I didn't do you need to use a longer auxilary fence with a stop block to cut these shoulders so that you know they're in the same exact location now to transfer the lines I've got the right angle clamping jib on the back and I'm gonna make sure that it's square this board has a little cup in it so I'm gonna make sure that the space on this side is the same it is on this side I can't mill this down and flatten it because it's already too to thickness so I'll just have to work around it not that big of a deal make sure it's flush on the front and then just transfer your lawns and believe it or not it's the same exact method to cut these Tenon's as it is to cut the finger joints they're essentially the same thing [Music] so I did a dry assembly of the case just to make sure that all the finger joints seat properly and that there's no gap or anything like that on this bottom shelf so now the last operation that we're going to do utilizing the dado stack is to cut a groove on the back and that is a 2 inch wide 3/4 of an inch deep groove for the bottom stretcher in this stretcher it is gonna house probably three or four shaker-style pegs to hold stuff over when it's mounted on the wall so I'm gonna disassemble the case and then lay out the groove for those dedos and then cut them the same exact way to help make this a repeatable operation I've actually clamped to stop blocks in place one against the miter fence and the other one against the table saw fence and I want to mention that the table saw fence that stop block will not be in the way when I'm making this cut with the joinery cut I can now cut the bottom stretcher to width and length and then I'm just gonna use my jointer plane to clean up the edges and make the fit perfect I've got this thing dry assembled partially just so that I can mark the faces for the groove that I'm gonna cut at the router table now the groove is special in that it's inset 3/4 of an inch before it even starts nest because we're going to be gluing and screwing the French cleat to this now that's top and the bottom panel or vice versa are gonna have this cut all the way through because we have these shoulders that are gonna be hidden by the side panel so that's not that big of a deal now these side panels are gonna have a stopped groove on one end you can come all the way through the front or the top of this because remember going to be putting a we're going to be gluing another top on here so if you have this hole that's not going to be an issue it's gonna be covered now we're gonna have to do a stopped groove down on this end that's going to be a quarter-inch past this this shoulder that way it lines up with that so mark your faces so you know when you go to the router table of what you're cutting and then also mark for your stop groove on the mid section where the through mortises are but on the top you can go all the way through that with the slots cut I can now cut the quarter inch plywood to size for the back panel to cut the curves in the sides I've got a quarter inch plywood template the plans come with a printable pdf file and I just use some spray adhesive to attach it temporarily to this plywood and then I used my jigsaw to cut it out I've recently just sold my bandsaw so I'm using the jigsaw until I pick up the new one but and then I use a spindle sander to take that down and make it a nice smooth curve before you transfer this template on your side pieces you need to make sure of one thing this is the bottom panel and I've got this loosely fit on the case you want to make sure that your curve does not go up under or above the the bottom of this bottom panel even though we're gonna have doors that are going to cover this you don't want to curve to disapear underneath the doors so what I've done is I put this panel back on there and then I transfer the line to the side of the cabinet so let me know where the bottom of this edge ends so that when I'm placing this plywood template on the board I'm not going to go above that line and if you have to move it down just a little bit that's no big deal you just don't want this thing to tuck under the doors so I'm going to move mine down it's probably about a sixteenth of an inch off the bottom this is handmade so numbers are not always exact double-check and then I'm just going to transfer it I've got a flush trim bit over in the router table that's going to give me an exact copy but to remove a majority of the waste I'm going to use a good the bit that I'm using is this ultimate combination trim bit this is from white side and it's Astra coated from bits and bits company and it does a fantastic job and it stays sharp a whole lot longer because it's Astra coated and it cleans up really well the bit stays nice and clean highly recommended before going up the case I sand everything up to 220 grit and this is gonna prep me for pre finishing the inside of the cabinet before we blew up the case I'm going to apply two coats of a silicone shellac on the inside of the case and this is gonna help me in case I have any squeeze out I can just pop it off with a with a chisel I'm not too concerned about squeeze that on the outside because I can always sand that away when this case is glued up so again I'm just gonna be applying two coats of full strength seal coats shellac this is a DIY shellac and I'm gonna be brushing it on using an ox hair brush I've got these critical areas taped over just so I don't get any finish on them and if I get any down in this groove that's fine because we're not too concerned about that we're not gonna be gluing that panel in so it's been about a day since I applied the two coats of shellac on the inside and shellac has had enough time to set up that if I need to wipe anything away with some water it's not gonna be that big of a deal whoops and so how I'm gonna do this is I'm going to put glue on the fingers and I'm using liquid high glue and that's going to lubricate the joints instead of causing them as well like traditional wood glue does so I'm just going to put some glue on all the fingers and then put it together and I'm sure you'll see that how simple it is to put that together and we'll have access I'm just gonna wipe away any squeeze out using a wet paper towel and I'm not going to put any glue on the plywood bottom it's just going to be sitting in place there we go after tapping the side panel in place I ended up putting about four clamps on the case and let it set overnight to dry now we can focus on the bottom stretcher but before installing that stretcher we're going to mark and drill for four pegs I felt that the shaker pegs were just a little too long for my comfort so I ended up cutting off about an eighth of an inch and then drilling about 1/2 of an inch deep to mount the cabinet on the wall I utilize French cleats it's pretty simple to make just take a scrap board tilt the blade to 45 degrees and make a cut you've got both pieces with one cut essentially now you can see the offcut I had to make that a little bit narrower but both pieces are three inches in width now when it comes to the length for the piece that goes on the wall I actually make that a little bit shorter so that I can slide the cabinet left and right now since we pre finished the inside of the cabinet I'm gonna have to sand some of that away before applying the glue now I'm not only using glue to secure the French cleat to the case I'm going to be installing four screws through the top into the French cleat the main top of the cabinet receives a little edge treatment I installed a 3/8 of an inch roundover bit to put a round over on the top and the bottom edge of the two ends and the front edge of the panel this softens the look at the panel and makes it look a whole lot better I applied glue to the bottom face of the top panel to attach it to the cabinet and this is where I made a really dumb mistake it's not really a mistake but it's a poor choice of guest applying the glue don't apply the glue to the top apply it to the cabinet that way as you can see I had a wipe away a bunch of glue you don't really know where to not put glue but if you put it on the top of the cabinet you can put it all over the whole panel but it's no big deal just wipe off a little excess after applying a few of these trigger clamps and f-style clamps while milling the stock for the cabinet they also included the stock for the doors I cut the pieces to width and then using my crosscut sled I cut the rails and stiles to length stop locks are a must when cutting such critical components to size the joinery method I chose for the doors are loose tenon joinery that I cut using the Domino but if you don't have a domino a cheap self centering doweling jig works perfectly I make a center line for the Domino and then I route the mortises to cut the grooves for the door panel I install a quarter inch spiral bit in the router table and then I set the fence back a quarter inch raised the bit a quarter of an inch and then I make the pass the rails get a third groove but the Stiles get a stopped groove I use the same mark on the fence that I said earlier for the back panel of the cabinet before blowing the door up this is the perfect opportunity to clean up the inside edges of the rails and the styles I just use my number for smoother few passes and they're ready for finish before installing the door panel I like to put a couple coats of finish and that's just in case the door shrinks during the seasonal changes you don't see an unfinished portion of the panel since I'm using shellac for the finish I just applied three or four full strength coats from the can just to darken it up a little bit the glue up the doors couldn't be any easier since I'm using a loose tenon joinery I just put glue on the dominoes insert those into the mortises and clamp everything up since I'm doing a book matched panel on the door I did want to make sure and double check that the panel is in the correct orientation just so that it flows perfectly from one door to the next I'm using euro style door hinges and to install them I made a mark three inches down from the top and then three inches up from the bottom of the bottom panel to install the hinges I like using templates the one in the video was purchased from Rockler and that was actually made for bloom hinges but it worked for these cheaper hinges as well next I placed the doors on the cabinet and then I shim the top using 1/16 inch shims and then I transfer the marks I used the Craig hinge jig on all of my cabinet door projects and it works great now I'm all for using jigs but the holes drilled I can install the hinges and then install the doors and we can now apply the finish but I first started by sanding everything including the doors up to 220 grit and I'll send you through the 220 grit to lightly break the edges on the doors and I'm more aggresively broke the edges on the inside of the cabinet using that 220 grit I brushed on the three coats and in between each coat I would lightly sand using the 400 grit sandpaper and the only thing left to do is to install the cabinet on the wall and this is where you'll notice that I cut the French cleat on the wall a little bit shorter than the opening of the back and this is gonna leave me some room to slide the cabinet a little bit to the left and the right to find the perfect position thanks for sticking around to watch the build I hope you picked up a thing or two I'll have plans available for this again it's going to be keeping stuff like my camera gear clear of dust and my dust mask so that when I'm not out here in the shop it's not just laying around collecting dust and it gives me an awesome place to hold the rest of my gear my hearing protection eye protection as well as my vest so this is a project that I've been needing for a while and you know why can't we get to finer things out here in the shop as well with this beautiful cherry it's gonna age really well I'll probably update you a year from now I'll show you how it's darkened and just turned even more beautiful eventually what I'm going to do is end up turning some knobs and I'll probably make another video showing you how to do that I'm not a very good Turner but I think I can probably knock out a couple of knobs for the cabinet and I may go with a nice contrasting wood such as you know walnut or something something dark most likely but I'll have another video on that hope you guys enjoyed watching this one if you did subscribe and hit the thumbs up and leave a comment let me know what you think which you would change or we think of the overall project again I'll have links to the two the plans on this one in the description below thanks for watching I'll see you in the next build video

Channel: SimpleCove

Views: 15,793

Rating: 4.9433069 out of 5

Keywords: simplecove woodworking how-to diy handmade jointer planer, custom furniture

Id: 3wys9bzpcbQ

Length: 21min 39sec (1299 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 13 2020