Making The Coolest Toolbox Ever - Woodworking

the first phase of this project will be building the cabinet itself and i'm using a good quality three-quarter inch plywood for that although you can definitely do this using a cheaper grade i'm going from the plans that i made for all the dimensions and rough cutting out the pieces to begin with and then i can take the smaller pieces to the table saw and make better more accurate cuts [Music] [Music] the three pieces that i just cut out are the two sides plus the middle divider and i'm actually using that divider to mark out where the rabbets will be on the side panels this is more accurate than measuring because plywood is very rarely the full three quarters that i have marked in my plan and there are lots of ways to cut those rabbets you can use a router or you can set up a dado stack in your table saw my preference if i don't have a lot to do is just to use a single blade and do it in two cuts along with those rabbets i need to cut some dados on the side panels on the inside and i'm using a simple guide that i made up quickly for my router i've got a three quarter inch bit in the router to route the slot and i made this opening in the guide so it's the same size as the base on my router this dado doesn't go all the way across it stops about six and a half inches in and because it's on the inside it doesn't have to be perfect is for a stretcher that goes from the divider to the side on both sides to keep the cabinet from spreading apart now that i have all the three-quarter inch plywood parts cut out for the cabinet i need four solid wood cleats as well these go in the top corners to fasten the top to the sides and also the divider and i'm cutting these from a scrap of 2x12 just about any solid wood will be suitable for this these add a lot of strength to the cabinet and make it easier to put together and i'm fastening them to the side panels with glue and then driving in a couple of brads to hold them until i can drill pilot holes and drive in one and a half inch screws and like i said these also get fastened to the divider panel up at the top on both sides i probably should have done this part before i fasten the cleats and that's marking out the location for the runners for the drawer slides that i'm using you can use a measuring tape to do this but what i find is most accurate is to make what's known as a story stick and that's where you mark the dimensions right on the stick and use those to mark on the panels and that way you wind up with each one being exactly the same next i can get the runners for the drawer slides installed that's the beauty of working from a plan you know exactly where those runners go and you can put them in before you put the cabinet together which can save a lot of aggravation the lines that i marked represents the top of the lower runner and i'll get those installed first then i'll use my spacer stick that i made to install the ones on the top at the correct distance and then to drill the hole for the number 10 screw i made this simple drilling guide to work with the right size bit and drill to the right depth and also keep it 90 degrees to the panel now that i have the runners installed i can put on a couple of coats of water-based polyurethane put the first one on let that dry lightly sand it and put on another one and this actually makes the slide work better a lot smoother a lot slicker think of it like wax without the wax while i'm waiting for that first coat to dry i can get some edge banding on the top i let the urethane dry for about two hours and now i'm putting slides in and to do that for the outside panels i'm just driving in number 10 screws that are three quarters of an inch long however for the center panel that hole goes all the way through so i'm going to use a longer bolt this one's actually inch and a half and i'm going to put a nut on the other side and then lock that in place with some super glue now that i've finished with the drawer slides i can start putting the cabinet together i'm going to put the top on the workbench upside down and then i can install the panels using those cleats that i installed before except this time i'm not using any glue i'm just going to use screws three in each cleat [Music] i have to spend a little bit of time making sure that i'm locating the center panel exactly uh centered between the two outer panels and that's just a matter of taking measurements nudging it over a small amount and then when you finally get it there make marks that show exactly where it should be also important keep in mind that it lines up on the front and it's actually pushed in on the back to make room for the back panel next i'm going to fasten the bottom panel but first i really need to make sure that it's the right length i cut it to the right length and i was very careful with how deep i made my rabbets but it doesn't take very much to throw that off so better to check it i'm going to clamp it in place measure the top and compare it to the bottom and here i can see that i'm a little bit short so i'm just going to put a piece of edge banding in one side and check it again and see how that looks to fasten the bottom i'm using two inch screws and i'm driving them on a bit of an angle up into the side from the bottom you can see that angle here next i need to cut the stretchers that go between the center panel and the outer panels i intentionally left these long because once again it's better to get a measurement after the cabinets put together to make sure that is a good fit [Music] with the cabinet mostly finished i can start building the drawers there are 10 of these and i'm cutting out the side panels first i want to get these done so that i can cut out all of the rabbets at the same time on the front the back and the bottom of each panel [Music] so to figure out exactly how wide the front bottom and back panel need to be i'm actually going to measure it with the side panels in place first i'm going to put it in a couple of runners to get the correct spacing off the sides and then put in two side panels and measure between the rabbets now i'm not going to make this super tight i'm going to subtract about a 30 seconds of an inch from this measurement and that'll be the width of the front the back and the bottom panel i'll be able to cut all of those parts the same width [Music] [Music] i gave each drawer two coats of water-based polyurethane and that's especially true in the slide area and now i can get them installed in the cabinet and very much like putting the slides on the side panels it's just a matter of driving in the number 10 screw [Music] so now that the drawers are installed i can move on to making the drawer fronts and i'm using half inch maple veneer plywood for this cutting the piece off to 24 inches and then i'm going to cut it into two pieces for the two banks and before i cut those into individual drawer fronts i'm going to edge band the edges on both sides on both blanks and that'll cover the plywood that shows very much like installing the edge banning it's also a good idea to get a couple of coats of finish on here before i cut it into the individual drawer fronts after the handles i'm actually going to get extra fancy here and use a piece of cherry to make those [Music] [Music] [Music] these handles get fastened directly to the top of the plywood drawer front with glue and one and a quarter inch brads to install the drawer fronts i've tipped the cabinet over onto its back and i'm going to use spacers and hot melt glue to get them in place and then drive screws in from the back [Music] and that's it the toolbox is now finished and ready to load up like i said in the beginning of the video plans are available for this project and go to my website there's a link in the description that'll take you right there you can buy the plans and get started on making your own right away and make a real improvement to your workshop [Music] you

Channel: John Heisz - I Build It

Views: 742,731

Rating: 4.9445915 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, how to, diy, jpheisz, ibuildit

Id: c8cV3cHVf-w

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 08 2020