Life on the frozen tundra of South Dakota Life on the frozen tundra of South Dakota

Project Completed January 2002

Project Completed January 2002

This was the first project that I did in my current workshop. We had moved a couple months previously, and it took me a while to get everything organized and unboxed. I came across the plans for this cabinet in an issue of Woodsmith. For some reason, I was drawn to the project in it's simplicity of construction and it's country style design. My wife had gotten a few items of baseball memoribilia that she was looking to display. I put two and two together and decided to make this cabinet for her.

This was also the project that prompted me to purchase two new tools: my biscuit joiner and my random orbital sander. The biscuit joiner is very nice to have. How did I do any woodworking prior to owning a ROS? That thing has saved my bacon on more than one project and may very well be the best woodworking money I have spent. Since I purchased it, there hasn't been a single project on which it hasn't been used.

The case is made out of 3/4" pine, and the back is pine bead board which I obtained at Home Depot. All of the boards for the case and crown were to be at least 7" wide. Knowing that pine of this width isn't very stable, I chose to glue up all of the pieces from narrower boards. I used biscuits to helP class the panels when gluing them up, then used the ROS to smooth out the glued-up boards.

The bottom of the cabinet sits in a dado cut in the cabinet sides. There are two adjustable shelves that sit on shelf pins. The bead-board back sits in a rabbet cut in the sides of the case and is fastened with screws at the top and bottom.

Originally this was to be an open-shelfed unit. Towards the end of the case construction I mentioned to my wife that adding doors was an option. Moments later, I was off to Menards to buy more wood and off to the glass shop to order the glass. The doors are joined with mortise and tenons and have a rabbet on the back side that holds the glass and glass stops.

I finished this project with a light stain, and a tung oil finish. Because the finish is so thin, I have given consideration to going back over it with a couple coats of poly to give it some additional protection. So far, however, I keep finding other things to work on instead. Nevertheless, this was a fun project.

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This page last updated on 06/28/2018