Cabinets & Storage Solutions. Bill Hylton

      I used lap joints on the front, back, and side frames, and rabbet and dado joints on the corners, as shown in the corner detail drawing on page 10. There are two reasons for using lap joinery: It does a great job of securing the stiles to the rails, and at the same time, it creates recesses for the cherry panels. Since I’m using molding to hold the panels in place, a traditional mortise is not necessary.

      To make the lap joints, insert a dado head in your table saw, and set the blade height and the fence for a ½" x ½" cut. Mill rabbets on both edges of the side stiles and on the tapered edges of the front and back stiles, as shown in the detail drawing.

      This same rabbet is milled on one edge of the front, back, and side rails (pieces 5 and 6) and on both edges of the interior stiles (pieces 7). The second half of the lap joint is a ½"-wide tongue that is milled on the ends of the rails and interior stiles. To make this tongue, decrease the blade height to create a ¼"-deep cut, and use your miter gauge to maintain squareness.

      With the dado head set up, you can now create the tongue, which runs around the edge of the bottom panel. Set the depth of cut to ⅜", and form the ¼"-wide tongue. There’s one more operation you can perform with the dado set installed: forming the grooves in the front and back stiles to accommodate the tongues you just milled on the side stiles. The grooves will require an adjustment in the kerf width, so remove the dado head and reset it to ¼". Now, set the height to ½", align your fence ½" away, and create the grooves (see the stile detail drawing on page 10).

       Assembling the Frames

      With all the initial machining done, it’s time to assemble the four frames. Gluing the lap joints can be tricky because the joint tends to buckle as the clamp applies pressure. One way to avoid this problem is by using C-clamps to hold a short length (about 8") of scrap on either side of the joint. Set the C-clamps so they’re finger tight only; that way, you can still close the joint under pressure from the pipe clamps. Slip a piece of wax paper between the scrap and frame so excess glue won’t secure the scrap to your workpiece. When the pipe clamps are snug, tighten the C-clamps fully to hold the two cheeks of the lap joint together while the glue cures. As you assemble the frames, check for squareness by measuring diagonally across the faces, and adjust your clamps accordingly.

      With all four frames glued up, you can now run the grooves that hold the bottom panel. This task is best done with a router rather than a table saw because two of the four grooves are stopped before they emerge from the end of the frame.

      To make the two stopped dadoes, equip your router table with a ⅜" straight bit, and set the depth of cut to ⁵/₁₆". Stick some masking tape to your router table fence, and mark the location of the router bit on it. You’ll have two marks ⅜" apart showing the points where the bit enters and exits the workpiece (see Figure 2).

      The top rail of each frame will run along the fence, which should be set 15½" from the bit. Using the marks on the masking tape as a guide, slowly push the piece down on the bit so the leading edge is ½" beyond the left-hand mark. Feed the piece from right to left, stopping when the right edge is just ½" to the right of the two marks. Square up the stopped dadoes with a sharp chisel.

      Figure 2: Align marks on your router table fence and the stiles to locate the two stopped dadoes that will hold the bottom panel.

       Quick Tip

       Sawing Thin Wood

      When you want to rip veneers or other thin pieces of wood on the table saw, you need a safe way to hold them down. This L-shaped hold-down does the job. To use it, lower the saw blade, and install a zero-clearance table insert. Next, position a piece of the thin stock under the hold-down, and clamp it in place, as shown. Then, remove the setup workpiece, turn on the saw, and raise the blade until you hear it just touch the hold-down. Back the blade off a hair, and you’re ready to start sawing.

      If you find the thin workpieces slipping under the regular saw fence, mount a wooden auxiliary fence that you can tighten down to the saw table, closing the gap.