Back in the saddle again

[germdoc]

I guess it is like riding a bike...

I have been out of the shop for quite awhile--haven't done a major project for over a year. I am now in the middle of making a draper's cabinet for my girlfriend, which is modelled on this:



Given that this piece costs $1900 from Sundance Catalog, and that the material from Menard's cost me $250, I guess I'm saving about $1650.

The shop is now back in business--not quite as clean as Rod's, but whose is? I realize that some of my skills are a little rusty, like freehand sawing with a jigsaw and setting up the dovetail jig, but it comes back pretty quickly. Now doesn't that look like a happy saw??

...

[pelligrini]

That's a pretty cool cabinet design. You going to do the same type of color scheme?

[cgallery]

Looks great, it will be fun watching your progress.

[Bill in Buena Park]

Jeff, looks like you're off to a good start. What materials are you using?

[germdoc]

Pine for the shelves and base, maple for the wooden slats across the front and the drawer fronts, plywood beadboard for the back. I am going to paint everything but the maple pieces in vintage claret red, then coat the shelves and sides in black and "distress" it. I found an old swingset chain today that should come in handy for that...

[dbhost]

Okay, my interest is piqued... This should prove interesting...

[final_t]

Agggh, shop too clean!!! Here, let me send you some sawdust to make it look real.

[eccentrictinkerer]

Pine for the shelves and base, maple for the wooden slats across the front and the drawer fronts, plywood beadboard for the back. I am going to paint everything but the maple pieces in vintage claret red, then coat the shelves and sides in black and "distress" it. I found an old swingset chain today that should come in handy for that...

Great project and a great looking shop, too. May suggest MDF beadboard for the back? The plywood stuff I've found has been really bad.

I built LOML a pair of floor to ceiling bookcases for her office using the beadboard for the backs and they turned out great.

[germdoc]

Apparently it's also like riding a bike in that you can still fall off...

I made a miscalculation. I made the base 48 x 12", since I was using 1 x 12 boards. Unfortunately AFTER I had made the base and the drawers I realized that 1 x 12 boards are really 3/4" x 11 1/4". So now I have to glue up the boards for the shelves to add an extra inch. Oh well.

I did not see any MDF beadboard at Menard's but I'll check it out. The plywood stuff is 3/8" thick and looks "OK". In the past I have used leftover Pergo flooring for the back, and it looked really sharp.