Apothecary Media Console Cabinet: Part 1

We are mid-way through the first week of our 4-week planned building of our new apothecary-style media console.  

 

Lucy has begun turning over onto her tummy very reliably and looks to be only a few weeks from crawling, so the heat is on for getting the cabinet all built and baby-proofed before she gets mobile.



After drawing out all the cuts we'd need, we went to the big orange box to get our plywood. We're using oak-surfaced 3/4 inch plywood for the carcass of the console and oak-surfaced 1/2 inch plywood for the drawers and top of the console.  Funny - the guy who works at Rockler and helped us the other day was also at Home Depot buying wood!  So he helped us Daniel get our plywood (while I held Lucy) and then we helped him get his.  If you don't know, plywood is sold in 4x8 foot pieces and is too huge for one person to mess with.



So then we had our boards (thanks for the use of your mini-van so we could get them home, Mom :) and it was time to start on the cabinet.



On our first day, we spent about 6 hours cleaning up and de-cluttering the garage.  When we finally had a usable work space and table surface, the first thing on our to-do list was to make something called a "fence." 

 


The fence, I learned, is a most helpful accessory when it comes to sawing boards with straight lines.  You make a fence by screwing two boards together, like this:



Daniel got some new special counter-sinking bits last week that are awesome. 

 

Whereas usually you have to use two different bits (one small, one large) to make this pilot hole, the counter-sinking bit does both jobs.



See how nice and flush the screw ends up being in the board? Nice.



With the fence built, it was time for some plywood cuts.  We used a circular saw to make straight cuts b/c the pieces we were cutting were way too big to be cut with the table saw.  Here was our process:





1.  Remove any infants to an indoor setting.



2.  On the plywood: mark where the cut would be

 

3.  Align the fence 1 and 3/4 inches away from the mark where the cut would be (the circular saw obviously does not cut exactly where the fence is, but rather there is a metal perimeter that surrounds the blade.  The perimeter is what actually maintains contact along the fence).

 

4.  Clamp the fence to the board.

 

5.  Saw the board with the circular saw, going along the fence to maintain a straight line.

 

6.  Shop-vac up all the sawdust.

 

7.  Repeat steps 2-6 until all the boards are cut.

With the boards all cut, it was time to start assembling the carcass.



This part took a long time, b/c we wanted to make sure all the boards were at perfect, 90-degree angles from each other.



We used Daniel's new Kregg Jig to make pocket holes.



The pocket holes allow for hidden screws (drilled at angles) to make nice, neat joints between boards.  Otherwise, screws can end up messing up the appearance of the finished cabinet.





All of the above represents 2-3 days of work.  I think we have many days left.  But at least we've made a good start!