The Shop Table - Face Frame

Well, I didn't get out to the shop last night, so we'll get started with the face frame installation tonight. The process is pretty simple.

I start by flipping the carcass on its back...again.







Then I install a simple cutting jig for the miter saw. This jig prevents blow-out on the back sides of the piece. It's made from two pieces of 1/2" MDF brad-nailed together to form a 90 degree 'sled'. I then position it just under the blade, clamp it to the saw fence and cut the end.



I measure the carcass, cut and install the left and right vertical pieces of the face frame flush to the outside of the carcass. After that, all the pieces are marked and cut the same way. I start with the top and bottom horizontal pieces. Square-up one end at the miter saw, then take the piece to the carcass. As shown in Fig.2, I lay the working piece on a spacer and butt it to the installed piece then go to the opposite end and mark for the length as shown in Fig.1. I then apply a bead of glue to the carcass and the ends of the working piece and pin nail it in.

Pin nails? For those who aren't familiar with these little jewels, here's a picture. On the left is a 23 ga. headless pin nail that I'm using. Next to that is an 18 ga. brad nail, then a standard finish nail and lastly, a 15 ga. finish nail. All of these are for use in an appropriate nail gun except for the standard finish nail (I threw that in there just for comparison). I like the pin nails for face frames and trim work because they leave a very tiny hole after they've been shot. The hole is so small, in fact, that is rarely needs filler. The brad is the next largest size, but it almost always needs to be filled if the location of the brad is visible.

The face frame has now been installed and I want to try to clear up my rambling at the beginning of the last post. I was going on and on about the drawer slide shim and how I came up with the size. Well, a picture is worth a thousand words. Fig.3 shows the face frame with the shims sticking out of the sides. Fig.4 shows a small sample of the door hinge (I've had this sample for while, sorry about all the dust) in relation to the extended drawer slide. The gap between the door and the slide is about 1/8" as planned. Fig.5 shows a different perspective of the whole situation. So there you have it.


It's been one week since I started this project. I think things are moving along quite nicely. The next step will be marking the locations for the drawer slides and making/installing the base. After that, we'll do the drawers then the drawer fronts and doors. That's the really interesting part.

The Shop Table - Shims For Slides

Now it's time to add some detail to the inside. Because the face frame is wider than the panels (1-1/4" versus 3/4"), the drawer slides cannot be attached directly to the panels. You can purchase kits that allow you to attach the drawer slide to the face frame and a bracket which is mounted to the back panel. But why buy those when you can simply install a shim. Since the face frame material is centered on the panels, the face frame with overhang 1/4" on each side. To allow for clearance, we could use a 3/8" shim, however, there's another design consideration: the doors. I'll be using europeon style hinges that are mounted to the edge of the face frame. When the door is open, the inside edge of the door protrudes into the face frame opening about 3/8". So now what we actually need is a shim that is 5/8" minimum. We'll use a piece of 3/4" plywood to give us about 1/8" clearance from the drawer slide to the door. This only applies to the hinge side, but to make things easier, we're going to use the 3/4" thoughout.

Here are the shims that I cut last night. I've pre-drilled them for the screws. The holes are located to miss the mounting holes for the drawer slides. Also, you'll notice that there are two different sets of shims. They differ because the holes on one set are slightly offset from the holes on the other set. This is to prevent any in-wood screw collisions.

The shims for the bottom drawer slides will be 3/4" up from the bottom and the top drawer slides will be 1-3/4" down from the cleats. To make it easier to position the shims, I cut a spacer to 1-3/4" wide from a scrap piece of 3/4" plywood.

Laying the spacer flat properly positions the shim. I put a clamp on the front end to hold the shim in place while I pre-drilled the very hard white ash using the holes in the shim as a guide.




After the screws are installed, the spacer is removed and we move on to the rest of the bottom shims.





After the bottom shims are installed, we turn our attention to the top shims. You can see the spacer in place, turned to the veritcal position, against the top cleats. Once again, I pre-drilled and installed the screws.

The clamps and spacer are removed to be used on the remaining top shims.

This pretty much completes the woodworking for the cascass. The next step will be to add the face frame, which I will probably start tomorrow.

The Shop Table - Face Frame Backers

I didn't get as far along as I wanted to tonight, however, I did make some progress. I needed to install backer pieces to support a few face frame pieces. These are located near the top of the carcass, between the drawer space and the lower compartment.

The backers are 3/4" plywood, 3-1/4" wide and 17" long. They get attached to the end and interior panels with pocket screws on the underside of the backer. Here you can see the completed piece. It's actually upside-down to illustrate the pocket holes.



Here you can see the holes for the pocket screw are slightly offset from each other. This is prevent the screws from interfering with each other and really only affects where the backers meet the interior panels.




The backer is installed using two pieces of scrap plywood cut to 5-1/4" long. They are placed tight to the top cleat and the panels. It's also important to align the front edge of the backer with the panels.



Here is the carcass in its current state. You can really get a sense of the space definition now. The top areas for drawers and the lower areas are compartments to house 3 bench-top tools. The lower compartments will have pull-out trays at the bottom to make it easier to retrieve the tools.

I took the time to cut the pieces for the slide shims before I called it a night. I'll install those tomorrow.

The Shop Table - More Assembly

Now that the sides have been assembled, it's time to add the interior panels.

I started out by cutting 4 pieces from the scrap pile 17" long to be used as spacers. These are placed in the four corners of the interior panel and provide a consistant opening size. The clamps are strategically placed to insure an even dimension.




Here is the left side interior panel ready for the fasteners. If you look close, you'll see I've also added the top-front cleat. It's clamped in for now and will be permanently fastened later. Once the panel is in place, I attach it to the back using 1-1/4" screws. No glue.



And here's the right interior panel treated the same way as the left side.






After the panels were screwed to the back, I flipped the carcass onto its back and installed 2 of the spacers - one against the top cleat and one against the bottom. Clamps were added and then 1-1/4" screws through the bottom. Again, no glue. Now's the time to attach the top cleat to the end panel and left interior panel with two 1-1/4" screws at each panel making sure it's flush to front face of the panels and firmly seated in the rabbet.

The process is then repeated for the right side.

Well, we're gaining on it now. That pretty much wraps-up the bones of the shop table. Next time, we'll get started on the guts.

The Shop Table - Starting Assembly

To start off this session, I reduced the 4x8 sheets of plywood and mdf down to manageable sizes. I do this by laying the full sheet on a few 2-bys, measure and mark where I want to cut, then back off the distance from the edge of saw's base plate to the blade and then attach a panel clamp and make the cut with a circular saw. I only reduce them enough to be able to handle them at the table saw. I don't have any pictures depicting this process, however...

...here's the result. The bigger piece (on the bottom) is the 1/2" MDF back. The 3/4" plywood bottom and the two top cleats are sitting on top of that. All of these pieces were cut to final length as described above then ripped to final width on the table saw. The two end panels (made in the last session) will require rabbets in the top, bottom and back to accept the cleats, bottom panel and back panel.



Something to note is that the end panels are opposite hand (or mirrored) from each other. This is because the front and back stiles as well as the top and bottom rails are all different widths due to design considerations. All of the rabbets are cut on what will be the inside of the case or the back of these panels. Once the panels have been oriented, mark the locations for all of the rabbets.


I'll start with the rabbet for the back. I've installed a sacrificial fence clamped to my table saw's fence. The clamps have been set far enough above the table to clear the panels as I run them though. I've also install my dado blade as set it for a 1/4" height and 1/2" width.



I then run both panels. After I confirmed the rabbet was sized properly, I moved the fence out to 3/4" and left the height set to 1/4". I then cut the top and bottom dadoes on both panels. After I confirmed those rabbets...





...I ended up with this. Now we're ready for some assembly.









I started by laying the back panel horizontal and temporarily clamping the end panels to it, making sure the back panel is completely seated in the rabbets and is flush with the top of the end panels. I then applied some glue in the rabbets on the bottom of the end panels (the picture is looking into the bottom of the carcass).



I then set the bottom piece into the rabbets and against the back panel, aligning the front (up in this picture) flush with the end panels, then tightened the clamps. The bottom is attached to the end panels with some 1-1/4" screws.





The carcass was then flipped so that it sits upright (the bottom is now on the bottom). The back was removed and glue was applied to the rabbets in the end panels and to the back edge of the bottom. It was then reinstalled, aligning the top to be flush with the end panels, and attached to the end panels and bottom with 1-1/4" screws.


This is a good stopping point for now. The next thing we'll tackle is installing the interior panels and the top cleats.

Shop Table - Making the panels

Well, now that the stock has been prepped and the sheet goods have been purchased, it's time to get started with the woodworking. I started by cutting the pieces for the four panels that will make up the 'bones' of the carcass. There are two identical interior panels and two end panels that will be opposite hand from each other.

After cutting the rails and stiles to length, I cut the field panels from 1/4" plywood. Each of the rails and stiles received a groove along one edge to accept the panel. This was made using the table saw with a standard kerf blade. I set the fence to a little less than a 1/4" and ran the piece on edge, using a feather-board to keep the stock tight to the fence, then flipped the piece around and ran the other side, forming a groove approximately 1/4" wide. I then checked the fit of the 1/4" plywood in the groove and adjusted the table saw fence slightly and ran the piece again the same way as before. I repeated this until the plywood was able to slide in the groove, but not be too loose. After I reached the proper groove size, I ran all the pieces.


The next step is to make the tenons on the ends of the stiles. I plan on cutting the tenons with the standard blade in the table saw. I could use my dado set which would probably be simpler to setup, but I've found the 2-step tenon cut to yield better results and I've made several like this and am more comfortable using this process. It starts with the shoulder cuts. I used a shop-made cross-cut sled and a stop block set to 1/2" which defines the length of the tenon. The depth of cut is equal to thickness of material from the face of the stock to the groove (about a 1/4"). I make this cut on each face and each end.

Now that the shoulder cuts have been made, I'm ready to make the cheek cuts. I use a tenoning jig for this, which is the reason I like to use the 2-step method. If you make alot of tenons, this is a must own table saw accessory. Set the blade height to match the shoulder cut made in the last step. Push the jig forward until the stock touches the blade then align the blade with the side of the groove using the micro-adjustment on the jig. I then turn the micro-adjustment back about a 1/4 turn to make the tenon slightly bigger. Run the stock though, flip the stock around and run the other side. Check the fit and make adjustments as necessary. Remember to make minor adjustments when going back to the tenoning jig. Since you cut on both sides of the stock, the distance you move will actually be doubled.

When all is said and done, you'll end up with something like shown here. Nice smooth sides on the tenons and all are identical.







Now that we've made all this sawdust, it's time for some assembly. All of the panels are assembled the same way. This picture shows one of the panels dry-fit (the inset photo shows a close-up of the tenon at work). I put glue in the groove where the tenons will go and on the tenons themselves. The panel goes in dry - no glue. After the panel is checked for square (by measuring the diagonals), I put a few 5/8" brads into all the tenons to hold them until the glue sets up, remove the clamps and set aside.

Here's a picture of the completed end panels (one is behind the other). The interior panels will join these as soon as they are assembled.






That's enough for now. Next will be cutting the back and bottom pieces and the 2 cleats for the top. But that's for another night.

The Shop Table - Phase 1

This is a project I've been wanting to do for awhile now. I've been needing another work surface and more storage and this will provide both. I have a relatively small shop that occupies one bay in our garage (approx. 12' x 24') and storage has always been an issue. This table will provide storage for 3 bench tools: the oscillating spindle sander, Jet wet sharpener and mortising machine. It will also have 3 medium sized drawers and a top that measures about 30"x77". It, like most of the large things in my shop, will also have casters.



This is a picture of the shop in its current state...messy. The big plan is build and/or redo portions of the shop to accommodate more storage and more usable horizontal surfaces. I say usable because most of the horizontal surfaces I have now are covered with things that need a home.






Here is the old 'shop table' that is about to be retired. It's actually an old office table that got re-purposed about 8 years ago. Believe it or not, this used to be my workbench. I built my new super-deluxe workbench about 2 years ago and this became a shop table. It's worked well for a long time, but it's become somewhat unstable and offers very little storage.




This is the prepped white ash pieces for the shop table. I bought the rough lumber about a year ago for cheap. It's no. 2 common. I wouldn't necessarily use this for fine furniture, but it'll work well for the shop. It has been thickness planed to 3/4" and cut to finished widths for this project. I like to cut and prep all the lumber for the whole project before I really get started. The final lengths will be cut to fit as I go. Based on my plans, I know all the lengths. However, I've found it's sometimes better to wait on some dimensions before committing with a cut.


I will try to post the plans as soon as I can figure out how to convert them to pdf. That way, those who want to play at home can do so.

Gotta Start Somewhere...

Welcome to the first posting of CS Wilson Woodworking blog. I've been meaning to start one of these things for awhile. I been doing woodworking as a hobby for a few years and have a small shop set up in the garage. The bulk of the projects I build consist of funiture, boxes, picture frames and unique items not generally found in stores.
I plan is to post techniques and thoughts about the projects I'm currently working on, hopefully including pictures and maybe some detailed drawings. It should be interresting....let's see how it goes.