Workshop Projects. Jeff Jacobson
Use the same bit to plow dadoes for the drawer slides and divider. Glue and clamp the top and bottom to the sides. Dry fit the back, check for squareness, and glue it in place.
The front edges of the case are trimmed with walnut (piece 25). Apply this with glue and 3d finish nails. Set the heads, fill them after the glue dries, and then scrape or plane the trim flush with the plywood. Now, you need to build and install the legs before coming back to finish the rest of the toolbox—the door, top trimmers, and knobs (pieces 26 through 30).
Stile and Rail Legsets
The bench’s legs are standard stile-and-rail construction, with a twist: Both stiles and rails are built-up laminations. This allows you to assemble the leg sets with mortise-and-tenon joints without ever having to chop a single mortise.
Cut all the leg parts (including the feet, pieces 31) to the sizes on the Material List on page 14. Then, dry fit the stile center laminations (pieces 32) to the outside laminations (pieces 33); their dimensions are shown on the leg elevations on page 14. Face glue and clamp each set of three laminations together to create four individual legs, and then set them aside.
Don’t be overly anxious about perfect matches or glue squeeze-out—after the glue dries, you can scrape off any excess and then joint the uneven edges.
Use the elevation drawings to lay out the top and bottom rails’ outside laminations (pieces 34 and 35), and then cut these to shape on your band saw. Dry fit these and the rail center laminations (pieces 36) to the legs, and then temporarily clamp them in place. Use this setup as a template to lay out and mark the foot and top inserts (pieces 37 and 38), as shown in Figure 4. Trim the inserts to size on your band saw, glue and clamp each legset together, and set them aside to dry.
Figure 4: Dry fit the legset parts together, and then use this as a template to determine the shape of the foot and top inserts.
Attaching the Legs to the Top
Sand the worktop thoroughly, and then turn it upside down. Use your drill press to create slots in one face of the leg cleats (pieces 12) and pilot holes in the other face of the piece. Attach the cleats flush to the top of the legs with glue and screws driven through the holes—not the slots. When the glue dries, attach the legs to the toolbox (flush with the top of the bottom rail) by temporarily clamping everything in place. Predrill the inside of the toolbox for 2" screws, and when everything is lined up, drive them home.
Round up some strong help, and set the leg assembly upside down on the underside of the worktop. Complete the assembly, driving screws through the cleat slots into your predrilled holes in the underside of the worktop. This secures the legs and toolbox to the top.
Installing the Vise
You have already made all the parts for the vise support assembly. Now, begin the vise installation by positioning the vise on its support at the location shown on the elevation drawings. Next, use the vise as a template to mark mounting holes on the support. Predrill these holes (see the manufacturer’s instructions), and then install the cleat subassembly you made earlier with screws (see the section view on page 10). You can now begin to mount the vise to the bench.
Again using the vise as a template, gently wind in the jaw until the two guide rods just touch the leg rail. Mark the rod locations, as well as the locations of the screw holes in the guide rod bushings that come with the vise, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: The vise attaches to both the endcap and vise support. With two screws holding the unit in place, establish the locations for the guide rod and center screw holes in the legs.
Remove the vise and platform, and use a Forstner bit to drill slightly oversize holes in the leg’s rail assembly for the rods and screw to pass through. You may want to remove the legs and perform this step on your drill press to ensure truly vertical bores. Then, screw the bushings in place.
The Laminated Jaw
There are two good reasons to use five separate boards to laminate a blank for the movable vise jaw (piece 17): It will be more stable than a single board, and it will be far stronger. Follow the jaw lamination layout on page 10 to face glue and clamp the blank together.
Using the pattern drawing on page 15, cut the jaw to shape on your band saw, and then sand out the saw marks with a 2" drum sander. Shape the outside bottom and side edges with a ½"-radius guided beading bit chucked in your portable router.
Step-by-Step Drawer Joints
Step 1: Install a 3/8" dado head and a zero-clearance insert in the saw, and cut a rabbet at the end of each drawer front and back.
Step 2: Without moving the rip fence, switch to the miter fence to form matching dadoes in the drawer sides.
Step 3: Dry fit the joints, and then switch to a ¼" dado head to cut the grooves for the bottoms.
To locate the holes in the jaw for the guide rods and screw, remove the screw and guide rods, clamp the jaw in place, and use the vise mounting plate as a guide to locate the three holes. Drill these holes ⅛" oversize.
Slip the laminated jaw over the guide rods and the screw, and then gently wind the vise closed. Position the wooden jaw flush with the top and sides of the worktop’s endcap, drill pilot holes for the mounting screws, and drive them home.
Building the Drawers
Chamfer the leading edges of the drawer slides (pieces 39), as shown in the elevation drawings on page 12, and then glue them in their dadoes.
Cut the drawer sides, fronts, and backs (pieces 40 through 43) to size (see the Material List on page 16). Then, use the dimensions shown in the drawer corner joint drawing on page 16 to create the locking joints on their corners (see Step-by-Step Drawer Joints at left). These joints are cut on the table saw. It’s a good idea to make a practice joint on scrap wood to establish the saw settings before milling the actual workpieces.
Stay at the table saw to cut grooves in the inside faces of these pieces for the drawer bottoms (pieces 44), as shown in the exploded view on page 16. Glue and clamp the drawers together, checking that they’re