My wife is a scrap booker and used to sew, but her craft table was my one of
my first WWing project, a large coffee table. I wanted my table back and
she wanted a craft center. I like these projects because she usually has
specific needs and always draws up something for me to work from. I fill in the
dimensions and figure out how to build it.
I like to use Sketchup so I can play with the dimensions and so my wife can
give me the signoff once she sees what it will really look like. I also have the
Cutlist plugin so generating my cut sheet is a breeze.
I used a vacation day today and took a trip to HD for 4 sheets of melamine. I
built this dolly for something else but it came in handy today. Man, melamine
is heavy! I muscled the sheets onto my sawhorses and chopped them to size
with a circular saw.
Breaking down the boards to their requisite sizes took the better part of the
morning. I got back from HD at 10am. Was having lunch by noon and dawdled
a while because Maury Povich was doing another paternity show. Sad, but
funny, too.
Anyway, before I headed to lunch, I setup my dado stack for 3/4" width and
1/8" height. Here, I've got the TS setup with a sacrificial fence to rabbet
the edges of the top and bottom panels.
Cutting all the dadoes and rabbets went pretty quickly. I've got one of my
boards laid down on my lift cart assembly table. Dadoes and rabbets really
help to keep everything from sliding around. I only had to use a few clamps
to keep it together.
These units are 3' tall so having the cart to lower them all the way to floor
made assembly easy. Here I've got the main unit assembled and I'm about to
drill pilot holes for drywall screws.
After making sure everything fit together, I drilled all the holes for adjustable
shelves using my Rockler Jigit (love it!), I disassembled everything and brought
it down to our finished basement where my wife has her craft area. All the
pieces were reassembled and I screwed on the bases with pocket screws. The
cabinets are simply screwed together, no glue. I might have to take them
apart someday.
First assembled view as you enter the basement. It may help to refer back to
the original drawing. All the shelves are cut, just not in the basement yet. The
chair is where my wife would sit. There is a TV on the opposite end of the room.
This is the guest side of the center. Less storage but supplies will be close by.
Finally, the sewing machine makes an entrance. I would have liked to have
made that space wider, but because of the other more important requirements
that's all I could spare. I may put the machine on a pullout drawer.
The top sheet is from the scratch and dent from IKEA. We bought it more than
4 years ago, and my wife has been waiting for the right project. It's 3' x 6'.
Clearly, I'm not finished, but I'm happy I got this far in one day. I am sore
from having to move that melamine around as well as standing most of the day.
I decided to edge band after assembly. I also have to edge band all the
shelves I cut. There are also 2 drawers to build as well as several slab doors
which will be inset.
Paul
my first WWing project, a large coffee table. I wanted my table back and
she wanted a craft center. I like these projects because she usually has
specific needs and always draws up something for me to work from. I fill in the
dimensions and figure out how to build it.
I like to use Sketchup so I can play with the dimensions and so my wife can
give me the signoff once she sees what it will really look like. I also have the
Cutlist plugin so generating my cut sheet is a breeze.
I used a vacation day today and took a trip to HD for 4 sheets of melamine. I
built this dolly for something else but it came in handy today. Man, melamine
is heavy! I muscled the sheets onto my sawhorses and chopped them to size
with a circular saw.
Breaking down the boards to their requisite sizes took the better part of the
morning. I got back from HD at 10am. Was having lunch by noon and dawdled
a while because Maury Povich was doing another paternity show. Sad, but
funny, too.
Anyway, before I headed to lunch, I setup my dado stack for 3/4" width and
1/8" height. Here, I've got the TS setup with a sacrificial fence to rabbet
the edges of the top and bottom panels.
Cutting all the dadoes and rabbets went pretty quickly. I've got one of my
boards laid down on my lift cart assembly table. Dadoes and rabbets really
help to keep everything from sliding around. I only had to use a few clamps
to keep it together.
These units are 3' tall so having the cart to lower them all the way to floor
made assembly easy. Here I've got the main unit assembled and I'm about to
drill pilot holes for drywall screws.
After making sure everything fit together, I drilled all the holes for adjustable
shelves using my Rockler Jigit (love it!), I disassembled everything and brought
it down to our finished basement where my wife has her craft area. All the
pieces were reassembled and I screwed on the bases with pocket screws. The
cabinets are simply screwed together, no glue. I might have to take them
apart someday.
First assembled view as you enter the basement. It may help to refer back to
the original drawing. All the shelves are cut, just not in the basement yet. The
chair is where my wife would sit. There is a TV on the opposite end of the room.
This is the guest side of the center. Less storage but supplies will be close by.
Finally, the sewing machine makes an entrance. I would have liked to have
made that space wider, but because of the other more important requirements
that's all I could spare. I may put the machine on a pullout drawer.
The top sheet is from the scratch and dent from IKEA. We bought it more than
4 years ago, and my wife has been waiting for the right project. It's 3' x 6'.
Clearly, I'm not finished, but I'm happy I got this far in one day. I am sore
from having to move that melamine around as well as standing most of the day.
I decided to edge band after assembly. I also have to edge band all the
shelves I cut. There are also 2 drawers to build as well as several slab doors
which will be inset.
Paul
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