Gaucho Woodworking
Member
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2009
- Messages
- 17
Yesterday I was playing around with some square pieces of pre-finished plywood. The idea was to make storage boxes for my shop. So I built a mitre drawer joined with Dominos. The Box is all 3/4" material and used 5mm x 30mm dominos.
Great, done and square. This got me to think.
As a cabinet maker and ex hardware salesman I am paranoid of my boxes being perfectly square and I don't subscribe to the idea of using a sissy 1/4" back (although the industry uses this all the time). My construction idea was to use 3/4" backs screwed not nailed ... great, it works.
There is only one problem, which is now my box grew by 3/4".
The other thing I like to do is to stick a 3/4" pseudo face frame attached with ... yes ... you guessed ... domino's.
Now my cabinet is 25-1/2" deep if using inset doors of 3/4" and 26-1/4" plus the 2mm of the door space and that is too big.
I thought about this for a long time until this morning while walking my dog in the horse trail and thinking of my mitre drawer.
With a mitre box. And consider this is for an almost cheap cabinet with no finished panel, the box is the finished panel.
1. The side panel looks decent in the back because the joinery is hidden.
2. I gain 3/4" of depth.
3. With a true 24" deep cabinet I can use 24" drawers if I use Accuride ballbearing slides and some European manufacturers sell undermounts slides of 23-5/8" and we use the entire cubic space (many cabinetmakers use 21" slides).
4. For a low price you can veneer the side panel and make it look like a frame and panel door.
5. As a drawer you can also add screws and plugs and will look great ... or you can add keys to the edges.
6. I would route the corners and add a 3mm x 3mm corner to strengthen the edges, then sand it.
I grant that assembling these boxes are more involved but I noticed a few features that made me think that assembling boxes with mitres are not such idea.
The idea is to find a way to deliver rock solid construction to compete with the crap that is sold out there and providing square and durable cabinets.
Great, done and square. This got me to think.
As a cabinet maker and ex hardware salesman I am paranoid of my boxes being perfectly square and I don't subscribe to the idea of using a sissy 1/4" back (although the industry uses this all the time). My construction idea was to use 3/4" backs screwed not nailed ... great, it works.
There is only one problem, which is now my box grew by 3/4".
The other thing I like to do is to stick a 3/4" pseudo face frame attached with ... yes ... you guessed ... domino's.
Now my cabinet is 25-1/2" deep if using inset doors of 3/4" and 26-1/4" plus the 2mm of the door space and that is too big.
I thought about this for a long time until this morning while walking my dog in the horse trail and thinking of my mitre drawer.
With a mitre box. And consider this is for an almost cheap cabinet with no finished panel, the box is the finished panel.
1. The side panel looks decent in the back because the joinery is hidden.
2. I gain 3/4" of depth.
3. With a true 24" deep cabinet I can use 24" drawers if I use Accuride ballbearing slides and some European manufacturers sell undermounts slides of 23-5/8" and we use the entire cubic space (many cabinetmakers use 21" slides).
4. For a low price you can veneer the side panel and make it look like a frame and panel door.
5. As a drawer you can also add screws and plugs and will look great ... or you can add keys to the edges.
6. I would route the corners and add a 3mm x 3mm corner to strengthen the edges, then sand it.
I grant that assembling these boxes are more involved but I noticed a few features that made me think that assembling boxes with mitres are not such idea.
The idea is to find a way to deliver rock solid construction to compete with the crap that is sold out there and providing square and durable cabinets.
