The following class I brought with me dimensional pine lumber for my project. I had 1-inch-thick pine for the face frame, sides, drawer, and shelves. I needed to bring in 5/4-inch stock for the cabinet top. I would work on the top in a later class.
I got my first chance to use the table saw. What a wonderful piece of equipment. The blade was very sharp, and the side guide was very accurate. Far better than my table saw. I gathered the wood from my work bench, measured them up and made my cuts. Soon I had all the pieces cut that I needed for the day. I brought the wood back to my work bench to assemble it.
My first pieces I needed done were the two side walls and shelf. The walls and shelf consisted of six-inch-wide pine boards that needed to be glued together. I took the boards to the joiner and squared up the edges on each. More fun on big powered equipment. At my workbench, I had the pipe clamps and laid out the walls and shelfs to glue up. I glued and clamped down all the pieces. I set the glued items aside as I laid out the face frame. I lined up the pieces for the face frame and glued and clamped it up. I was hoping that the glue would be dry enough so I could remove the clamps and take the components home.
I carefully placed the components in my car and took them home. I would finish the face frame, shelf, and sides during the next class.
The following class, I put the sides, shelf, and face frame through the drum sander. I had already cleaned up the excess glue from the joins and sanded down the flat surfaces just to clean them up. Again, another opportunity to use big powered machinery.
Next, I needed to cut dados into the side walls for the shelfs and rabbets for the 1/8-inch back wall. The instructor helped me install the dado blades in the table saw and provided me with some instruction on its use. Once I set up the table saw for the dado cut, I ran both side walls through the saw. I reset the table to cut the rabbets for the back.
On to the band saw. I needed to cut the curve on the bottom of the face frame. It was a little cumbersome trying to move the 3-foot by 4-foot face frame around the blade. Another big piece of equipment conquered.
I cut the rails, stiles, and panels for the doors. I cut a dado for the panels. Using the kerf of the saw blade, I was able to cut the dados for the stiles and tendons for the rails. I dry fit the doors and I was satisfied with the fit. The fit was tight enough that I did not need to disassemble the doors to get them home.
All the components were home and ready for assembly.
The next class I glued together the cabinet top. As this was the last class, I needed to cut the top to size. I would save it for near the end of class and I started working on the bottom drawer and VCR shelf. I cut the drawer parts to size and cut rabbets for the drawer sides, back and bottom.
Near the end of class, I cut the top to size. I got my first chewing out by the instructor. As I was cutting the top on the table saw, I was using the side guide and miter guide at the same time. I was sliding the top towards the blade, I heard someone yelling my way. I stopped and looked up and it was apparent he was yelling at me. I heard something about kickback and binding up the blade and being unsafe. I turned off the saw and with a wave of my hand, I replied, “Sorry.” I somewhat felt over time he was not happy with me. Maybe it was his impression that I was arrogant because I did not request his help much throughout the class. Or it was that he knew why I was there. He probably surmised that I took the class to just use the big pieces of equipment. He was not wrong.
At the end of class, I told him I appreciated his instruction and the independence to use the equipment as needed. He said to me to send him a picture of the finish project when I completed it. I said I would, but I never did. Nonetheless, I got to use some power machinery that I would never own. It was definitely fun.
I finished the cabinet over time. I did not use any metal fasteners to assemble the cabinet. I did use screws to attach the back wall and metal clips to attach the top. Since I did not want to carry the cabinet up from the basement, I built it in the family room.