Tall Dresser // Woodworking // Free Plans

hey everyone welcome back to the channel today i'm building a tall dresser to replace the very first dresser that i ever built now that all dresser the drawers wouldn't open it was made with the cheapest plywood that i could afford but now i get to replace it and build something that i think is much nicer and it works better now this is a prime example why you need eight feet of outfeed for your table saw literally i can barely cut that a foot plywood panel now after i had my sides cut to width i went ahead and used my traxel to cut everything to length you can see here i'm butting them together so i can only make one cut and have them perfectly to be the same length and then usually when i cut things on the table saw big oversized panels i like to cut them a little bit wider so i can go back and then cut into the exact width on the table saw here what i'm doing is i'm cutting some uh plywood to be the supports the stretchers if you will now one of the things that i found out in building cabinetry and i learned this from people that know way way more than i know is to have two top supports two bottom supports and two back supports and then the face frame will add a ton of strength to the cabinet but here what i'm using i'm just using glue and brad nails i don't know about you but every time that i need to use my glute brushes they have dry glue so i get to peel them off really quickly and then get to to building so right here you can see i'm adding the two bottom supports and then the back supports again all with brad nails one of the designs that changed throughout the project is initially i wanted to used to have straight plywood panels but then i realized that it was just too plain and so i decided to add some some framing to the side of the panels therefore i went with the red nails and in this case with screws to add strength now i don't think it's necessary with the glue and the brad nails the cabinet is super strong but adding this the screws doesn't hurt and they will be covered with the the side frames you'll get to see that as we continue to build adding the site frames like i said was kind of like an afterthought and so what happened was i had more alder that i didn't have any use for really so i'm like okay i'm gonna build this and and it adds to the design of the piece and i think it actually does look great so here i'm starting to cut all my face frame sides and in my face face frame members so that i can assemble them later on now i think i realized that this is not the most efficient way to build the sides of the cabinet i should have used you know pocket holes and glue and create the frame and then attach it to the side of the the panel again because it was an afterthought i didn't think about it i was just kind of building as i was going and in fact here you can see me and leaving about a quarter inch of overhang in the back in my mind i was gonna put a quarter inch back but i ended up not doing that either so again i'm just making changes as i go uh it's for us for for our house so i think you know i have more freedom in what i want to do and what i decide to do now i'm going to have not necessarily plans but i'm going to have my cutting diagram and some of the images that i i use to to build these things now again they're not step by step but it's what i use so if you want to see those for free they will be on my website link down below that i'm trying to do is keep my my cuts as tight as possible uh you know i'm using same method of construction glue wrap nails and then clamps just to kind of keep things without moving [Music] using uh one and a quarter inch breath nails and that actually bit me later on and we'll get to that in a second but here uh uh the alder that i had it was two and a half inches and my design actually calls for two inch face frames and so i went ahead and i cut half an inch on the table saw and then i went ahead and used my pocket hole jig to get all those members all those stretchers all those rails pocket hole and here i'm using a 7-inch spacer to build my face frame now again some of you might not like pocket holes but the reality is that many professional cabinetry shops use pocket holes because they're such a great way to to build this thing now they're not for everything but for this case for face frames they are actually really good then here i moved on to build a top now in another video someone suggested that i should get a vacuum press and yes i should i just haven't so again same method of construction two pieces of plywood a ton of glue and then inch and a quarter brad nails and then a ton of clamps on the edges so i make sure that those are bonded well at some point i'll get a vacuum press and i'll show you that when i get it now this is essential right here i'm starting to to sand everything it is very important that the face frame it is as flat as possible so that when you attach it to the case it actually sits well so i sanded the face frame the back and also where it's going to be placed like the top of the case i guess or the front of the case and here i'm adding pocket holes to attach the case to the face frame now this will make sense in a second but yes pocket holes for the wind adding glue and the face frames now you can see the pocket holes on the side and then you can kind of see the design too again initially it was just a plywood panel but then i added the the side and i think that gives it a whole different look it makes it look very beefy and uh it looks it looks nice using clamps to to align everything and hold it temporarily and temporarily until i attach the pocket holes i usually build the face frames to be about uh an eighth bigger than the case that is so that i can center it and then use a floss trim bit to flush trim it now one of the things with routers is i never remember which side i should go so i started on one side i realized it was the wrong side quickly stopped and went ahead and did it the right way that's the good thing about building an oversized that actually was able to trim that flush and there's no mistake same idea here with the top the top is built oversized so that once it was dried i can go ahead and start cutting one side and then the other side and then the front and then the back so that's why you see me cutting here the top now i decided to frame the top so that there's no visible plies now before i've done like a miter frame i guess if you will but for this one i just decided to do a butt joint really so i added two sides and then i added the front and i actually like how that looked too so at this point you can see the frame or the case now here i make the huge a huge mistake so here i'm adding spacers to basically bring the sides of the case flush with it with the face frame now i'm using half inch plywood for those spacers and i still have inch and a quarter uh brad nails so if you do the math three quarters by half an inch is inch and a quarter now because the bretton hills usually go a little bit deeper than that you can see right here i'm shooting right through my case now at this point i didn't realize it and i went ahead i did you see three more sides and here is when i realized my big mistake yes come on bro you should know better well if you ever made a mistake put it down in the comments how will you fix it i mean again it was for us so i decided i'm just gonna put some filler and and i actually filed those bread nails flush and i added some filler but it really didn't fix it i mean i didn't know what to do and it was so disappointing but you know you just keep moving on you make mistakes because it was for us i didn't think much of it afterwards and actually once the cabinet is finished you can barely see it but uh yeah how would you fix it put it put it down in the comments below then i turned the cabinet on the side and i added the slide the the cabinet the drawer slides basically i'm adding into the bottom of each opening and an eighth in that's just the way that i do it now i've said this before on the channel i'll say it again my hardwood dealer has drawer sides basically or drawer stock what that is is a they have a different width but this one is six inch and it already comes pre-finished on both sides it comes with a ball nose on top and it comes with a quarter inch dado or yeah dado at the bottom you see it right here so i could make my own stock or i can just pay like six dollars for six feet or something like that is super cheap and so this is how i build my drawers why because we're pre-finished i don't know about you but i hate with a passion to pre-finish or to finish drawers because there's so many corners so i just buy this and this is how i do my drawers i create a little rabbet at the end of you know the front and the side and again blue and brad nails now i could use a different method of construction but again is for us so i didn't really mind having the the brat nail holes there but you can use different methods of construction here but this is the by far the best way that i found to build drawers because once i build this it's already done it's already finished like i don't have to apply finish to it and i'll also use for the bottom i use a quarter inch finish on one side that's what it's called i think i know uv on one side one of those things i can remember but this is how i build drawers and i'm never going away from this method because it's so easy now one of the things that you do have to do one of the things that you want to do is number one subscribe the but also you want to cut your back side of your drawer shorter so if you notice right here my backside is shorter than the front that is so that i can slide that quarter inch bottom and then i actually pin nail it to the back or to get to the back and also i add i think like a one screw one or two screws just to keep it uh there here i'm cutting my back again you can see it is actually finished on one side at the top so that allows me to once i slide that bottom in the drawers are done i love that drawer slides are attached to the cabinet at the bottom of each opening and the drawer boxes have the the slider at the bottom of each drawer what that does it provides a perfect spacing from the from the opening so for me i don't have to worry about you know how high or how low do i set the slide in the drawers like i just put it at the bottom of each and they just fit perfectly now i don't know if that makes sense it makes sense in my head but you kind of saw it on the picture here i am adding a very small round over on all sides now for the drawer fronts again i didn't show this but you'll see it towards the end i'm just using plywood that's what i did for my daughter's dresser again if you haven't seen that video is on my channel but i really like the look of that front you know veneer alder with the exposed plywood with a nice round over and then finish and so this is what i'm what i'm what i did now for the finish i'm using uh general finishes the water base my the name's escaping but i'll put it here somewhere i love this thing it's so expensive though but it does sprays very nicely i forgot the name okay to attach the drawer fronts man i'm i'm running out of breath but what i do is because the drawer drawer pulls that i'm using we're going to be right in the middle i lay the cavity on its back and then i drill a hole and actually not a hole i i screw a screw right in the center of each drawer what that does is it provisionally or temporarily temporarily attaches the drawer front to the drawer and then i sanded up the cabinet and then i measure to make sure that everything was spaced evenly and then from the inside i attach a one inch screw to permanently touch the drawer front to the drawer and then what i do with that is i go back take the screw that was in the center out drill a 3 8 hole and add my hardware and this is it i mean this is the easiest way that i found again to add drawer faces to a drawer once everything was done um i moved it inside you know i did the the mandatory i have to you know show you how every drawer opens and closes because i mean look at that stuff close so so nice but anyway if you're still watching thank you so much for watching i appreciate your time and hopefully you have learned something you have enjoyed watching and if you have any questions please let me know i love to answer any questions down below and share any of the knowledge that i have for those not much i'll tell you what i know and why i did what i did so if you make it up to this point feel free to subscribe like share bail i mean all those things that you're supposed to do because you know that's i guess what you're supposed to do but with that said we'll see you guys on the next one bye bye

Channel: Araya Woodworks

Views: 10,755

Keywords: woodworking, alder, dresser, mistake, plans, free, easy, project

Id: -1B_0FD0Ctw

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 05 2021