BooTENDS TnRoITIoNAL SuurTERs STEp TooI Box ... - Wood Tools

Building The JigI wouldn't call myself a stickler,but having the top and bottommatch perfectly was important tome. Tb guarantee their uniformity,I made a jig for shaping thecurved front edge of each piece.#6 x 17+" FHWSShape the arc by bending a piece of flexiblewood (or a mehl straightedge) between twofinishing nails. Position the nails 20" apart.an old millwork trick: bending aflexible piece of wood between twofinishing nails. You can use thistechnique to lay out the arcsdirectly on the workpieces, or youcan make a routing jig to haveabsolute consistency (see BuildingThe Jig). The jig is especiallyhandy if you plan on building severalofthese CD cabinets.Once you have the jig made, setthe top into position and trace thearc onto it. Do the same for thebottom. Now carefully cut just outsidethe lines with a band saw.This will remove most of the wasteso you can make a light, chatterfreepass with the router.To make the router pass, put thetop into the jig. Make sure the topis all the way in the jig, touching allthree cleats. Next, with a bearingguidedflush-trim bit chucked inyour router, trim the remainingwaste off the front edge of thepiece (Figure 3). Repeathis procedurewith the bottom.Clamp the jig to your workbench, slip thetop or bottom into position, and rout itsfront edge with a flush-trim bit,Choosing SidesEnviron's faux-granite appearancehas a great look, but I wanted toadd a little contrast by using solidcherry for the sides.Cut the sides to size, then formthe tongues centered on both endsof each piece (Figure 4). Clampinga wood face to the fence will preventthe blade from cutting intothe fence. The tongues will fit intothe grooves in the top and bottom.Check to see that the tongues fitthe grooves - you want the fit to besnug, but not tight. Next you'll needto cut a rabbet along the back edgeof the sides for the back (Figure 5).Unlike the stopped rabbets in thetop and bottom, these rabbets gofrom end to end.The front of each tongue needsto be cut away to form a shoulder(Figure 6). For safety, support thesides with the miter gauge duringthe cuts.To blend with the curve of thefront edge on the top and bottom,I chose to bevel the front edge ofeach side (Figure 7). Replace thedado blade with a standard sawblade, tilt the blade 13o, and setthe fence so the blade splits theinside corner of each piece.Besides cutting the back fromI/+rr tempered hardboard, the lastmachining step is routing chamferson the top and bottom panels(Figure 8). I also used a handplane to form similar chamfers onthe front edges ofthe sides.And there you have il five easypieces for one CD cabinet.Form tonguesthe ends of the sidesusing a 1/4" dado blade. Be sure to protectthe fence by clamping on a wood face.Leave the table saw setup unchanged to,,1xtlo" x1la" nabbet along the backinsidedge of each side.After completing the tongues and rabbet,raise the blade to 1/2", and stand each sideon edge to cuthe front shoulder.44W'orkbench t June 1997