How would you make this dining cabinet?
aspiringwoodworker7
| Posted in General Discussion on
Hi guys,
Im curious as to how this cabinet is made. Any ideas on how to do it?
Discussion Forum
Get It All!
UNLIMITED Membership is like taking a master class in woodworking for less than $10 a month.
Start Your Free TrialCategories
Discussion Forum
Digital Plans Library
Member exclusive! – Plans for everyone – from beginners to experts – right at your fingertips.
Highlights
-
Shape Your Skills
when you sign up for our emails
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. -
Shop Talk Live Podcast -
Our favorite articles and videos -
E-Learning Courses from Fine Woodworking
-
-
Replies
Can you be more specific with your question? It looks like a pretty straight forward bookcase like design with hinged glass doors.
It comes in a box from Ikea. You follow the directions that are in the comic book that comes with it. It'll be cheaper than buying the materials to make it.
It’s just a bookcase with doors.
I believe there are at least a couple build videos on this site.
You post definitely gives the impression you are new to the idea of woodworking because as mention, other than the size, than cabinet is pretty straightforward construction. While this forum can be a great way to get advice to help solve a particular joint or construction question it is not possible to walk you through every step of the project.
Such pieces are really quite simple if you think of them nothing more than a series of boxes, learn to build a box and you can build many things by combining boxes, even drawers are nothing more than a box within a box. Doors are nothing more than picture frames which are really nothing more than shallow boxes. There are many good books available to teach you the fundamentals of Woodworking I suggest you start there then come back here with specific questions and we will do our best to help you out.
One more thing almost everything in woodworking can be accomplished multiple ways it is up to you to figure out what is best for you based on your skill level, tools, and just what gives you the most pleasure. Taunton Press has a terrific book on joinery, what I like about it is it gives you multiple options on how to cut every joint, based on your tools and preferences. Joinery is the secret to woodworking, if you can join two pieces of wood together you can build just about anything.
I think the username says it all--'aspiringwoodworker.' I remember those days (1976 to be exact). Back then we didn't have the training resources and I didn't have a mentor, so much of my work was hit-and-miss (like the breadboard edge I butt-glued to the ends of a dresser top because I cut the top too short--funny thing, they kept breaking off).
YouTube is a great resource for an aspiring woodworker. There are videos for almost every skill level.
Reading an article will give you an idea of how. It is written by Steve Latta, a FWW contributing editor. If you go to Thaddeous Stevens College, he'd be glad to teach you. https://www.finewoodworking.com/membership/pdf/41416/011171074.pdf
Thanks all. Yeah I’ve been learning little things here and there. So I appreciate the guidance and learning from more experienced folks as yourselves
I may follow this video by Norm Abrams to get me started: https://youtu.be/XvXLvuc33WA
I watched about 5 minutes of that video and started cringing. First never expect a big box home center to make your cuts for you other than to cut panels into manageable sizes to be trimmed later, the blades on the saws they have will tear up your wood and you should allow at least an inch to trim it later. Second his tablesaw technique is borderline reckless and not one I would recommend for a new wood worker to follow. The construction of his cabinet also has many elements that are different than the picture you posted. I know I'm old and not part of the YouTube generation I will acknowledge there are helpful videos out there but many bad ones as well.
Books may be old fashion but I still think they have value as references and learning tools.
I will again recommend this book to learn the different types of wood joints that would enable you to construct the above cabinet.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Illustrated-Guide-Joinery/dp/1561584010/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=2D43DTYCCS3IN&keywords=Joinery+Gary+rogowski&qid=1639889662&sprefix=joinery+gary+rogowski%2Caps%2C197&sr=8-3
Generally, I agree that books tend to be better than YouTube for learning replicable, long-lasting techniques for woodworking and cabinetmaking. However I think this video is a very helpful one, even for an aspiring woodworker, @aspiringwoodworker7! Coupled with Rogowski's book linked to here, Norm Abrams will teach you a lot of things you need to know.
Some suppliers will break down sheets to an exact cut list with splinter free cuts (Norm did this at Boulter Plywood, I believe, on a different season of TNYW), but definitely agree with the advice that from any Big Box store, any breakdown they do should be oversized for final sizing in your own shop.
I would also say this is one of the safest ways I've seen for one person to break down full sheets on a table saw. Having infeed support and outfeed rollers positioned correctly and not skewed to the saw is as safe as it gets ripping a sheet in half, keeping the edge tight to the fence. Whether a brand new woodworker should be doing anything on a table saw is a different question but I would say this is a safe way to use a table saw. If you have some experience with a table saw, this is the safest way I've seen to break down a sheet. If you've never done it before, you can retract your blade fully and with the saw off practice pushing it over the saw to make sure your support is positioned correctly fore and aft, it will give you some confidence.
Take it with as many grains of salt as you'd like, but I think this is a good video to work alongside to learn how to build a bookcase/cabinet, especially a budget-friendly plywood version as you're learning more skills.
In the interest of giving a new woodworker what I feel is safe and proper advice. I will take issue with what you see as safest way to breakdown a sheet of plywood for these reasons.
1. I can't count how many times those type of roller stands have toppled over at critical times. I don't even have them in my shop anymore for that very reason. A solid outfeed table or a telescoping roller platform sold by Bora and several other vendors is a much safer and more stable option.
2.look closely at the beginning of the video and you can see he has his wonky old fence, itself a bit unsafe, extended so far that the front tube is not even fully engaged, an invitation for that fence to shift mid cut.
3. Closed Caption type overs aside, there is no reason you need to remove a blade guard for photographic purposes on that cut. I guarantee you he doesn't even know where the blade guard is for that saw. I'm old enough and have been making sawdust long enough to have done some stupid things and witnessed even more stupid things and have witnessed some bad injuries in shops, but fortunately today there are many better safety options than I had 40 years ago and while I've been lucky enough to maintain all 10 fingers, my grandfather didn't. Anytime you try to feed a whole sheet of plywood through a table it only takes a slight movement to skew the panel enough to cause binding at the blade. While the mass of the panel usually prevents major kickback it will certainly affect the quality of the cut. The proper way, especially in a one man shop, to breakdown plywood is with a track saw or a circular saw and a simple shop made guide. Then you can run manageable sized pieces through the table saw much easier, safer and more precisely. What I saw on the 5 minutes I watched is no way to teach a beginning woodworker how to handle sheet goods on his little table top contractor saw.
I agree that this isn’t safe if the questioner is using an unsecured, lightweight table saw. You’re definitely right that cutting plywood on a table saw isn’t for a beginner. For a beginner, a circular saw for initial breakdown is a safe option.
My goal is not to be argumentative and I respect your opinion and experience. However I do think for non beginners, you can safely cut plywood solo on a cabinet saw. With infeed and outfeed support on a cabinet saw it is a safe cut, though you’re right not for a new woodworker. I’ve used similar roller stands for many cuts and not had issues, but mine are bottom weighted which helps them stay upright.
Not everyone may agree. For an experienced table saw user, this isn’t an unsafe cut on a properly sized and secured saw. I think it discounts the safety of cutting plywood on a cabinet saw with adequate prep and set up to say the proper way is to break it down with a circular saw.
“[Deleted]”
I certainly agree there are bad YouTube videos. There's a generation of 'I've been woodworking for two years--let me show you how to do it' YouTubers. I'd avoid those (I've seen a couple of them do some scary stuff).
On the other hand, old masters like Frank Klausz have videos taken from old teaching DVDs that are excellent. There are also older videos by Charles Neil that are too often overlooked, not to mention FineWoodworking videos.
Watching YouTube is like eating crappie. You have to get past the bones to get to the good stuff.
I will agree that there are helpful videos but not the majority of them in my opinion. Norm Abrahams is a made for TV personality and sometimes he does offer reasonable advice I'm still not a fan.
I think Norm does a decent job.
He was my intro to woodworking because he made it accessible and understandable at a time when there simply wasn't any better content out there, and you grew a long beard just thinking about finding a useful book on woodwork.
I use the roller stands but only out of lack of other sensible options.
I use biscuits because Norm did.
One thing I'll say for Norm - he does an awful lot with not many fancy tools. I suspect he did at least a hundred shows and he used the same basic tools for almost all of them.
I accept that there is debate on whether some of the techniques are or were the best, but in the end a beginner could do a lot worse than emulate the NYY.
This chap really knows how to build cabinets- follow Jason / Bourbon Moth for really good quality videos, techniques and tips.
This one shows how to make exactly the sort of cabinetry you seek.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89WeF52XwcI&t=341s
Rob_SS
I will give you that this video is better than the Abrahams video but it still suffers from the same flaws that most YouTube videos do, especially when addressing new inexperienced woodworkers. I'll will try to address a few of them.
1 YouTubers think they have to be funny and cute to secure followers so they say and do stupid things. A finger is not a patented glue spreader. Glue is bad and evil if it gets on the wrong surface and if you use your fingers to spread it sooner or later you will touch something that you shouldn't be it your work piece or tools. Silicone glue brushes are cheap use them.
2. He again rips down full sheets of plywood on his table which is fine but never mentions don't try this at home with your little Ridgid tabletop saw and cobbled together outfeed support. What you can do safely on a 400lb Cabinet saw with a 6ft square out feed table is different than what some garage woodworker can do with that 75lb portable saw he rolls into place.
3. He shows cutting a rabbet using a standard saw blade, which is something we have all done and is perfectly acceptable and his techique is fine but look at it through eyes of of someone who has never done it before. His setup directions are minimal but once he start cutting he never mentions he is moving the fence closer to the blade for every cut which is not abundantly clear in the video. That is not the most blatant omission in this sequence.
4. He shows cutting one piece all the way through the process without ever mentioning that you should be performing each step on all similar pieces. He should have made the first cut on both side first, mentioned moving the fence, then showed making the second cut on both pieces and so on. Woodworking 101 is you perform all operations on similar pieces at the same time because every time you move a fence or guide or do any kind of setup you introduce a chance for error.
5. His glue up, aside from the finger thing, is fine IF you happen to have $300 worth of Woodpecker corner clamps lying around. How many garage woodworkers do you know that have them? It's wonderful to have sponsors that provide you with tools few newbies could begin to think of owning($250 setup blocks anyone) . It's also fascinating to see through the art of video editing that one side just magically was clamped in place. We didn't get to see him struggling in a crowded garage workshop with an inadequate assembly bench how he managed to wrestle those sides, covered with glue into place while he struggled to get his clamps into place.
If he really wanted to help out new woodworkers he would have shown that glue up in a realistic manner, probably on a sheet of plywood setup on 2 saw horses. Bench aside instead of showing a glue up in a gravity defying manner with the sides pointed skyward, if you doubt me try doing that glue up without those corner clamps, the pieces should have been on edge as he showed how to manage large glueups in a one man shop, and how to get that first clamp in place.
I didn't watch more because I had seen enough to verify my distain for YouTube as a reliable source to learn Woodworking.
I agree with everything esch5995 and others have said about learning how to safely woodwork on youtube. For the most part, books are somewhat vetted before the huge cost and effort to publish them, and many good introductory woodworking books date back to the 1960s (Feirer, for just one example) and are readily available to all. Anybody who has an underfed ego can decide to become a media contributor for no cost and little effort; while there are some excellent videos done by true professionals, how would an inexperienced person know what is safe and what is not, what is good advice and what is poor advice?
I will go a step further and say that any online information, not just youtube but any forum (yes, including this one) can have incorrect and unsafe information on it. I've seen people give extremely incorrect and very dangerous information about electrical installations in a home repair forum, while claiming to be a master electrician.
As for ripping on the tablesaw, I would not even attempt it without (1) a splitter or riving knife (Abrams doesn't even have a splitter on his saw), (2) a solid outfeed table instead of stands, and (3) a set of the inexpensive ratcheting yellow wheels that are mounted to the top of the rip fence and serve to hold the workpiece down against the table and up against the fence while also eliminating kickback. I go a step further - I have mounted a large hinged panel on the front of my saw so that all I have to do to stop the saw without removing my hand from the workpiece is to bump the board with my knee or foot. I also use push sticks to keep my hands at least 8" away from the blade, and never behind the blade.
You make a lot of good points. I’m genuinely curious if you (and esch5995) think there’s any way for live action learning of cabinetmaking techniques, short of in person classes?
I agree whole heartedly that most YouTube videos are useless and it’s a problem that a new woodworker doesn’t have the knowledge to discern quality instruction from quality production value. There’s certainly no one curating quality content on there, and some truly heinous videos, from a safety or wood science perspective, get tens of thousands of “thumbs ups.” But I think certain techniques can be hard to learn on the page and it is helpful to watch someone perform the steps live, which not everyone has access to in person. So what’s the solution, is there one?
If a brand new woodworker asked for advice how to start learning the craft, what would you tell them? I don’t know my own answer. Short of signing up for a class of some kind, it would probably be to get Feirer’s and Rogowski’s textbooks and map out a plan to make a simple project. But if they’re a novice woodworker, I don’t know if I would tell them the first time they see someone use a table saw is when they use it themselves. To that end, I honestly would send them Norm’s way, for the reasons you outlined that books are better sources of information. It may be naivety but I trust a PBS episode from 1989 more than I trust some guy on YouTube with iMovie and 37 sponsors.
I ask this because I’m curious how more people can learn woodworking, because I do think it’s bad for public health if they’re just using YouTube (I’m only half joking). I was very lucky to grow up with a dad who knew a lot and let me help him, and then after college to have the income and time to take woodworking group classes to learn more formally. For those who don’t have that, what’s a good, safe way to start learning?
Drew_z
I think the problem is time and attention span. Most YouTubers start losing interest after 15 minutes. To make a really good detailed video of a Woodworking class would involve a lengthy time span. Fine Woodworking has made some pretty good videos series, including one on tablesaw use, (a class on tablesaw use should be required with purchase IMO). They overcome the time problem by breaking a project down into multiple episodes which can be effective. A few YouTubers try to do this a well but most use other methods to keep their videos short usually to the detriment of the learning process.
Another problem with video learning is that most hosts take the stance that what I'm showing you is the only/best way to do this, while every experienced woodworker knows that seldom is the case. Take the second video recommend above by Rob_SS, in that video the host used a full rabbet joint to connect the sides to the bottom panel(I'm making some assumptions I did not watch the entire video) and then did his gravity defying glue up. While the full rabbet does the job it is not the best joint in that application IMO. A partial rabbet locked into a dado would have been better, because it not only aids in alignment but primarily because it offers enough friction to hold the pieces together while clamps are applied something very important in a one man shop. Can you imagine the number of videos need to demonstrate the many ways to cut mortise and tenon joints? Yet what does a beginner do if he doesn't have the tools used by the host when they show just one method?
To wrap this up I will say the best way to learn is always in some hands-on situation either working with an experienced woodworker or class setting, these are more readily available than you think. If that is not possible publications like FW and others have numerous articles and videos that are professionally done and trustworthy. As a last resort and with careful vetting YouTube videos, but only if supplemented with quality books and articles.
It's too bad that many junior high and high schools have eliminated traditional shop classes, because that's a great place to learn how to safely use woodworking machines of all types - safety is the number one focus of those classes. Back in the day, a student wasn't allowed to use any machine until they first passed a written safety quiz on each machine. They literally sat on folding bleachers in the corner until they passed the tests and were allowed into the shop area.
If I were to advise someone new to woodworking on how to become knowledgeable about #1 safety and #2 technique (safety being #1, since you could be injured on day one if you try to learn joinery/techniques first), I would offer the following, in no particular order:
1. Get information from cabinetmaking textbooks that were/are used to instruct students, rather than many popular books (such as those at Barnes & Noble) that are often geared towards projects, rather than how to safely use machines. Books from reputable publishers, like Taunton Press, should also have all the information you may need on both safety and techniques, but make sure that safe use of tools and machines is covered in them. Don't dismiss older textbooks either, as machines haven't changed much in their basic design over the years, and most commonly used joinery hasn't changed either (the exception being biscuits and dominos). The physics behind how accidents are caused (such as kickback on the tablesaw) hasn't changed either.
2. Have someone with a well-equipped shop and whose judgement you trust show you how to use tools safely. I would think that in one full day's session, a person could demonstrate how to safely use a tablesaw and the associated common jigs/accessories, jointer, planer, bandsaw and router, maybe even lathe basics. There are probably many experienced woodworkers who would do this for a modest fee, if not for free. This in itself won't make you a skilled woodworker, but it will help to keep you from injuring yourself as you afterwards build your skills.
3. Some high schools that still have shop classes may also have evening adult programs, usually through the local technical college, in which people are allowed time on good quality machines. I did this myself to build some furniture when I had my first apartment, and while most people were experienced and just took the classes to be able to use the machines, there were a few people who really didn't know where to start, and the instructor was happy to show them safe use of the tools.
4. Videos produced by reputable companies, such as Taunton Press, have also been largely vetted for content and are MUCH preferred over free social media content, whether on youtube or other sites. This is a great example of the old adage, "you get what you pay for". Keep in mind that some videos, however, may feature an experienced woodworker who takes some liberty with regard to safety.
5. Take a class at a respected woodworking school, but due to the huge investment in both time and money (tuition plus lodging and meals), make sure that you check out the exact class content and the instructor first. Is the class geared towards beginners? Is it a project oriented class or one that will teach you the use of machines?
Hope this helps.
Just an aside: Norm Abram has done so much for the popularity of woodworking, we need to spell his name correctly.
This may help. This is how to craft a cabinet like yours. This guy’s technique is exceptional. Adjust to your skill level and tools. https://youtu.be/riSTCMxtHEI
Thanks for your detailed thoughts, esch5995 and badger1805. I agree the near total decline in woodshops in public schools really is too bad. We had woodshop in middle school, and while we used S4S stock and used nails and screws for most things I learned to use a router table, RAS, bandsaw, and a few others. My high school had gotten rid of all the shops before I got there, so instead I got to learn how to use the Adobe suite of products in the computer labs / classes that took the shops' square footage. I'd argue that contributed much less to both my academic career and life skill set.
I agree in person classes are the way to go. Unfortunately it seems like the YouTube-ification of all sorts of educational pursuits isn't going anywhere. And given the economical model, clicks pay the bills, not soundness of technique or information. Short of spamming the comment sections of all the videos with links to FWW and other places with vetted information I don't know that anything can be done besides hoping a minimal amount of people get hurt mimicking bad technique, and a minimal amount of material ends up in the landfill thrown away immediately when the results are far short of the on-screen "magic."
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled