corner hutch cabinet for dining room
hi everybody! i'm mike mccrory and thisis wood u make it. friends of ours have recently renovated their house andit was a pretty major renovation. they had an indoor pool that they've removedand they've transformed that into several rooms and they've asked me tomake some cabinetry for that renovation. the first thing i'm going to make is amudroom cabinet so, let's get started! [theme music playing] i'm working in pretty tight quarters todaybecause i have all this plywood to cut up and, to make matters worse, i justbought a new table saw and i still have
the old table saw that i have to sell. i wish i had a track saw to cut these, but i don't, so i'm using a straight edge anda circular saw. now, circular saws tend to to tear out the wood so i've taped it. itwon't matter that much because this is going to be along the back of thecabinet but still i like it to be nicely cut. so, here we go. i have the plywoodsitting up on top of other pieces of plywood so that i can cut right throughit while the piece that i'm cutting remains fully supported.
i've planned my cuts to maximize the useof the plywood so in this case i'm able to get one back of the cabinet and oneside out of one sheet of 4x8 plywood. after cutting the edges with a circularsaw and a straight edge, i can't be absolutely sure that i have a perfectlystraight edge so i'm gonna clean up those edges on the table saw and theni'll flip them over and i'll clean up the factory edge as well so that i knowthat both edges are perfectly parallel and smooth. i'm reallyglad that i still have this table saw because my old table saw has a rippingcapacity of almost 37 inches whereas my new table saw can only rip up to 26inches to the right side of the blade.
so, i'm gonna use this to cut the widepanels for the back. the back is gonna be 33 3/4". i could use a straight edge but it's just not that precise. it has a little bit of a flex in it. it's a straight edge that's really meant for cutting drywall not for woodworking. the saw that i bought was the grizzly 1023rlw and i really like it. it's a 3hp saw and it's got a lot of power but it tends to be a little bit less practical than the ridgid saw that i was used to just because ofthe ripping capacity that it lacks. this is the side piece that i'm cutting nowand this cabinet is comprised of a cabinet that sits on top of a bench andthen there's a center cabinet that has
drawers that goes in between those twoside cabinets. here i'm cutting the pieces for thebench. i cut the leg piece and now i'm cutting the top and the back pieces. nowi'm marking the position of the dados that i'm going to use to hold theshelves in place. i've made this jig so that i can be sure that the dados that i'm cutting into the sides are going to align perfectly with the dadothat i will cut into the back of the cabinet. this is a jig that'sadjustable so i'm going to make this first cut and i'm using a board on theother side.
i used my other router base to helpposition the board so that it was just perfectly fitting. this is the back of the cabinetso i'm using the jig with the same position and then after i cut this i will adjust it so that i can rout the dado for the second shelf. i do thatjust by loosening the nuts on the bolts that i have. then i can extend it tothe line that i have for the next dado and then lock it in place again. i have a piece of steel that i've screwed into the end piece that router glides against. that way it minimizes any possibility of flex. after i've tested that now i can confidently make the cut.
now i'm routing a rabbet along the backedge of the side pieces. i normally would have done this on the table saw butbecause i have the router already set with the depth i want the depth to beexactly the same as it is for the shelf pieces. so, i managed to sell my table sawafter only one day on craigslist so i was pretty happy with that. but, before ipack it up, i thought i would use it to cut some of the wide pieces for thecenter drawer unit. i need to rip the pieces to 29 1/4" and mynew table saw won't rip that wide, so this is a perfect use before i pack it up. the pieces that i'm cutting now are
for the middle cabinet -- the cabinet thatholds the drawers -- and that's the cabinet that goes between the two cabinets oneach side with the benches. it's a good practice as sand the insideof the cabinet before glue up. it's a lot easier to sand this way so that thereare no corners or edges that you have to deal with. now i'm gonna glue it up.i've got a couple of helpers -- my wife and my daughter -- that are gonna help to holdthings in place and it's simply a matter of gluing and clamping. now for the cabinet that holds thedrawers, because i haven't used the router already, i can switch over at thetable saw to create the dados on the rabbets.
for the side pieces i'mcreating a rabbet at the top and the bottom and the backside and then the topthe bottom and the back will fit into those rabbets. this cabinet is small enough that i canhandle it on my own. it's about 24 inches deep and 42 inches high. now i'm milling up some poplar to be3/4" thick and i will use this for the face framecomponents. before attaching the face frame i haveto get the beadboard installed. if i put the face frame on first, i wouldn't be able to get the beadboard in to attach to the back of the cabinet. so, i finally broke down and bought a
track saw midway through the project. ikind of wish i'd bought it right at the start but the reason i bought this isbecause this beadboard has to be cut very precisely. it has to be exactly theright size to fit inside the cabinet. because this is going be painted, iprobably could have caulked it to mask any issues but i really wanted to get itright and it fits really well. so that's the test fit and then i'm gonna removeit and i will glue it in place. then i'll put some weights on top tomake sure that it adheres completely. i'm putting beadboard also atthe back of the bench. so three places i'm using it: at the bottom of thecabinet,
underneath the bench, and behind thefirst shelf compartment. while i'm waiting for the beadboard to glue up ican cut the poplar into 1 3/4" strips. that's what i'm going to use for the face framing. i've created thiszero-clearance jig so that i can line the cut marks up with the cut on the jig and that way i can get very precise cuts for the face frame. i'm going to use pocket hole joinery to attach the face frame components to themselves. i'll use the pocket hole screws and glue to make sure that it's a very solid joint. using pocket hole joinery is a prettyquick way to get the face frame all assembled. i think it's very unlikely that someonewould stick their head behind the face
frame and take a look but just in case idecided the plug to the exposed pocket holes so that there would be noindication of how this thing was put together. i just used a little bit of clamping pressure to hold them in place while the glue is curing. then, after the glue has dried, i can sand them flush to the face of the face frame. a really useful technique for attaching the face frame and getting it all aligned withoutit slipping around and moving while you're trying to clamp it, is to use asmall nail and just clip the head off and then when you press the face frameonto it, it will hold things in place. because there's no bottom in thiscabinet i'm using a spacer that is
precisely cut to the inner width of thecabinet. that will hold it in place to the proper dimension so that i canattach the face frame and the face frame will help to keep it from warping. now i'll clamp it up and let it sit overnight. i attached the face frame so that it was overhanging just slightly. now i'm using a flush trim bit to clean up the edges. then just a little bit oflight sanding on the edges and the corners to make sure that it's nice andsmooth and just nicely rounded over. i decided to spray the cabinets so thati wouldn't end up with brushstrokes and i did a little bit of research anddecided to use sherwin williams kem
aqua plus. it's a water-based system soit's easy to put on and easy to clean up. it's very durable and it dries very, veryquickly so it's very easy to work with and it saves a lot of time when applyingthe finish and not having to wait in between coats. it's a two-part system: aprimer and then the finish that goes on top. kem aqua plus is really not suited for applying on top of pre-existing paintbut in this case i'm applying it to bare wood. the only place where i had paintalready was the beadboard, so i wiped it down with a deglosser and that helpedthe finishing system to adhere better. after the primer had dried i'm sprayingit now with the colored finish
which is kind of a grayish greencolor. because of the size of this project with the quantity of doors and drawers -- not just for this set of cabinets, but for others that i'll bemaking -- i decided to purchase the drawers and the door fronts and the drawerfronts. it's just a more economical solution and the quality is pretty good.i'm using undermount drawer slides. these are the blumotion soft closed slides.and these are the quick release mechanisms and then the slide just clicks into that. now, inside the cabinet the drawer slides attach tothe back of the cabinet with this little clip. i've made a little piece ofwood to make sure that the spacing is consistent.
because these are face-frame cabinets, you also have to attach blockson the sides of the cabinet so that it pushes it out to have a place to screw it into and i'm using the same spacer bar flipped up 90 degrees to set thedistance from the front of the face frame so that it'll have the proper set-back and then i'll just screw it into those blocks. i'm using european softclose hinges also from blum and i will use my drill press with a forstner bit.the drill press is set to the proper depth so that the holes will be drilledexactly according to the specification.
next i need to make the seats for thetwo benches and also the top of the drawer cabinet and i'm using hickory. thehomeowners wanted me to use hickory because they're having brand new hickoryfloors installed so they want the tops and the bench to match the floor andi've concocted a mixture of stains to match the color of the floor as well. i've laid out the pieces of woods so that there's continuous grain. even though they're going to be three separate sections, i think it will justlook better if i take care to do that. i'm gonna glue the pieces up and i don'tthink there's any need to use biscuits to help align this. i'm just gonna gluethem up together and then use cauls to
apply sufficient vertical pressure tomake sure that everything is lined up and flat. i just put a little bit of waxpaper underneath and on top so that the cauls don't stick. that's a lot of clamps. i'll let thosethree sections sit overnight and then i will clean them up on the drum sander. mygoal is to have at least an inch of thickness when i'm done and that'spretty much what i ended up with. now using my crosscut sled. i'mtrimming up the edges to have the exact length of the benches . the top piece is going to be overhanging at the front edge of thecabinet so i'm using my table saw to get a
nice straight cut and then for the finalcut -- the final part of the cut -- i'm using my jig saw and of course i want to bevery careful because if i make a mistake here there's not a lot i can do to fixthat. i'm using a 1/2 inch roundover bit. i'vegot one inch of thickness so with a half inch roundover i'll end up with acircular front or circular nose on the top. now i'm applying the stain. i'm justrubbing that in using a paper towel and then after letting that dryovernight i'm spraying on some polyurethane and this is polyurethanewith a satin finish. just to give you an idea of what it'sgoing to look like, i've staged the pieces in the garage.
it's not fully assembled but this gives you an idea of how it's going to look. now it's time for delivery. our friends live out in the country and they have the longestdriveway i've ever driven on. i didn't record the installation especially becausein the mudroom it was very tight quarters so it was very difficult torecord any type of quality video but here are some photos. it's not fullytrimmed out yet but that's basically what the cabinet looks like. i also made a tv cabinet using a similar style of construction. it's just a little bit different shape with drawers on the side and drawers inside the cabinet.
so i gotta ask.... wood you make it?