i just finished building this modern dresser it's
made with quarter saw and white oak veneer it has soft clothes under mount drawer slides and it
sits on a solid walnut base i'm really happy with the way it turned out and in this step-by-step
video i'll show you everything you need to know to build this project this project is sponsored by
geoveneer click on the link in the description to visit the geoveneer gallery and see a wide variety
of veneers to choose from for your next project and mohawk finishing products i've been using
mohawk finishing products for more than 30 years from sandpaper to fill sticks mohawk has
all your finishing needs this cabinet is basically a box made of three-quarter inch
plywood that will sit on a solid walnut base i'll get started by rough cutting the parts
of the box to size using my circular saw once the pieces are smaller and easier to handle
i'll use the table saw to rip them to width then i'll use the miter saw to
cut the parts to a rough length now i can set up a stop block at the crosscut
sled and cut the parts to their final measurements with the parts for the back and the sides
cut i'll pre-drill and countersink holes to attach the sides to the back
i'll measure in 3 8 of an inch and draw a line and then measure
down two inches and 10 inches on each side i'm attaching the sides of the cabinet from
the back this is to avoid seeing the edge of the plywood at the back of the cabinet i'll fill
the countersink holes later with wooden plugs making sure that the sides are
clamped in position and flush i'll drill pilot holes before using inch and
three quarter cabinet screws to attach the sides now that i have the sides attached to the
cabinet i'll take an inside measurement at the back and it looks like it's 38 and 9 16
and i'll cut the top and bottom to length with the top and bottom of the cabinet
cut to size i'll clamp them in position and attach them to the cabinet using wood
glue and inch and three quarter cabinet screws screwing through the back and sides of the cabinet i've run into a little bit of an issue the
back of the cabinet is nice and square but the front of the cabinet is about a
heavy eighth of an inch out of square i'm pulling it square now with this clamp
and i've tested it with the framing square and the way i'm going to deal with this is to
add a four inch bracket set in about two inches at each corner i had a few of these four inch
brackets some of them were square some of them weren't so i've tested them just to make sure i've
got four good ones here and i'm going to go ahead and set these in and hopefully that will take care
of the problem the drill bit i'm using here is a self-centering drill bit also known as a vix bit
these are great for drilling small pilot holes in metal hardware with the brackets clamped in
position and the pilot holes drilled i'll screw them in place if your cabinet is square you can
skip this step but if not this option did work the next step was to fill the countersink holes
in the back of the cabinet with wooden plugs after allowing the glue to dry i trimmed the
plugs flush with a straight bit in the router i'm ripping quarter inch baltic birch plywood
at an inch and 7 8 to beef up the front of the cabinet to a full inch i'll also add this material
at the back and sides of the cabinet and that will make sense when i attach the drawer slides just
a quick note quarter inch baltic birch plywood is thicker than most quarter inch plywood commonly
available at your home store or lumber yard more commonly available quarter inch
plywood actually measures closer to 3 16 where quarter inch baltic birch plywood
measures just about a full quarter of an inch after applying the quarter inch plywood
to the front and back of the cabinet i'll also apply quarter inch plywood
to the sides of the cabinet where the drawer slides will be attached i'm
referring to these parts as blocking now that i've finished with the blocking on
the inside of the cabinet for the drawer slides the next step is to band the edge of the plywood
with cortisone white oak i'll use the table saw to rip the white oak edge banding three quarters of
an inch by one inch a little heavy then i'll run the molding through the drum sander to remove
the blade marks and sand the edge banding to the same thickness as the plywood cabinet with
the sacrificial fence set up on my miter saw i'll trim the front of the cabinet attaching
the molding with inch and a quarter pin nails before you start your next project
visit my website and check out my professional woodworking plans the detailed
instructions along with materialist and free video tutorials on youtube will help you
build a project that will last a lifetime with the edge banding attached the next step is
to make the drawers i'm making the drawers with 5 8 baltic birch plywood baltic birch plywood is
great for making drawers because it's very dense and has very few voids on the downside baltic
birch plywood is prone to tear out and splintering here i'm using a zero clearance fence set
on top of my miter saw to help prevent that after rough cutting the parts
to size and squaring up one side i'll set up a stop block and cut
all the parts to their final length now i have the drawer fronts backs and sides
cut to size the next step is to cut a groove for the drawer bottom i'll use a test piece cut
one pass on the test piece and all of the parts then i'll adjust the fence until i have a good fit
with the material that i'm using for the drawer bottom once i've got a good fit in the test piece
i'll make the second pass on all the drawer parts with the fence set at a half
inch and the blade height set at a quarter of an inch i'll make one
pass on the test piece and all of the parts because you need a half inch lip at the bottom of
the drawer when using under mount drawer slides i'll move the fence to the
right to cut the second pass once i've got a good fit on the test piece
i'll make a second pass on all the drawer parts after cutting the groove in all of the drawer
parts i'll keep the fence right where it is raise the blade and run the back of the
drawer through the saw one more time cutting off this lip so i can
drop the drawer bottom in place if you're thinking that it was unnecessary to cut
the grooves in the drawer backs in the first place you would be right but with so many parts
it's really easy to get confused and this method just works for me the drawer bottoms
i'm using quarter inch baltic birch plywood and i'll rough cut the bottoms to
size before assembling the drawers i'm going to build the drawers by simply screwing
them together with inch and a half cabinet screws the first step is to measure and mark to
pre-drill and countersink evenly spaced holes for the screws like i said earlier baltic birch
plywood splinters easily so i'm taking my time and drilling the holes slowly to avoid tear out when
i build the drawers i'll use wood glue and tack the parts in position with an inch and a quarter
pin nail just to keep them from moving around then i'll use an inch and a half
cabinet screw for the stronger joint because baltic birch plywood is so
much more dense than normal plywood i'm pre-drilling pilot holes to avoid splitting
the plywood or possibly breaking a screw now that i have the drawers assembled
i'll take a measurement from the back and cut the drawer bottoms to size now i can drop the drawer bottom in place
make sure it goes into the groove at the front and chase a line at the back now i'll rip the drawer bottom at the line so
the drawer bottom is flush with the drawer back i'll add a bead of glue to the groove in the
drawer front and then drop the drawer bottom in place and attach the drawer bottom
to the drawer back with one inch screws with the drawers finished next i'll
get to work on the drawer slides i'll place the left drawer slide
on the bottom of the drawer and tap it at the back so
the location pin makes a mark i'll then use an awl to make
that mark a little deeper next i'll drill a 13 64 hole to accept the
location pin at the back of the drawer slide then i'll repeat this process on the other side
of the drawer and drill a quarter inch hole i posted a detailed video on how to install
under mount drawer slides a few weeks ago and i'll have a link to that
video in the description below now i can attach the undermount drawer
clips at the front of the drawer to help align the drawer slides
perfectly straight with the cabinet i'm using a piece of scrap plywood cut at 19
inches and i'll attach the top drawer slides first to attach the middle drawer slides i'm
using a piece of scrap plywood cut at 10 inches so the bottom drawer slides are
attached at the bottom of the cabinet okay now is looking pretty good now theoretically
you could fit the drawers after you finish the entire cabinet but since i'm still kind of
getting used to the undermount drawer slides and i'm designing this piece as i go i
thought i would fit the drawers first now that that's done i'll make the drawer fronts i'm making the drawer fronts out of three
quarter inch baltic birch plywood and i'll get started by cutting them a half inch light to
allow for the quarter inch white oak edge banding i'll rip the white oak edge banding one
quarter by three quarters a little heavy and then i'll run the molding through
the sander to remove the blade marks and bring them down to the same
thickness as the drawer fronts with the sacrificial fence back
on my miter saw i'll attach the edge banding with wood glue and one-inch pin nails so before i move on to the next big step of the
project i'll fill the countersink holes in the drawers with walnut plugs i'm using ca glue
here because it sets up really fast after tapping the plugs in place i'll spray them with a little
activator and then trim them flush with the router okay well now i'm really starting to make some
progress i've got the cabinet built the drawers are built the drawer fronts are made and the
next step is to make the base of the cabinet and i'm making that out of solid walnut i want to
have a gradual arc at the bottom of the base and to do that i'll need to make a pattern to make the
pattern i'm using a piece of quarter inch plywood that measures three inches i happen to have
this in the shop you could also use half inch or really whatever you happen to have
and i'm using a piece of poplar that measures three-eighths by three quarters and that
will allow me to get that nice gradual bend i'll make the pattern and then i'll
use the pattern to create that same arc in the base the poplar stick measures 44.5
inches and i'll measure from each side at 2 10 and 20 and a half inches and i'll
mark to drill holes in the center i've measured down from the top of the pattern
and made a mark at an inch and three quarters and i'll move the stick to
that mark and clamp it in place and then use a one inch screw to screw it down
and then use another screw at the 10 inch mark now i can use the band saw to cut along the
guide a little heavy leaving some of the material next i'll use a flush cut bit in
the router to make the pattern with the pattern made i'll mill the
walnut material for the base to size i'm making the stretchers for the
base out of five quarter walnut and i'll get started by
ripping them at three inches for the feet of the base i've laminated
two pieces of five quarter walnut together and plate them down to one and
three quarters after running them through the jointer i can
rip them to size at six inches after squaring up one side i'll set up
a stop block and cut the parts to length i'm building the base of the cabinet out of solid
walnut and i'm building the base with lap joints i've measured and marked to have 18 inches
between the feet and i've set up a stop block and i'll make that first cut on both sides of each
piece when i cut the lap joint in the stretchers i'll also cut a lap joint on a piece of
scrap wood so i can sneak up on the cut and test the fit before making
the cut on the work piece with a good fit on the scrap piece i'll make
the cut on the work piece and then plow out the material in between the cuts the long boards
that make up the top of the base i'm calling them the stretchers and i want the stretchers set
in two inches on each side of the foot so again i've set up a stop block at two inches and i'll
make that first cut on both sides of each board after making the first cut
on both sides of each piece once again i'll make sure to get a good fit
with the scrap piece before making the second cut on the work piece and then plowing out the
material between them to make the lap joint with the lap joints finished i'll
trace the pattern onto the stretchers and cut them out on the bandsaw a little
heavy making sure to leave the line now i'll set the stretcher on top of
the pattern keeping it flush at the back and holding it a half of an inch
from the edge of the pattern on each side i'll clamp the work piece to the
pattern and add a bead of hot glue at each end to make sure the parts stay in position
while using the flush cut bit in the router so the stretchers will travel three
quarters of an inch beyond the cabinet and to give it a little bit more of an
interesting shape like this one here i'm using a quarter i'll hold it flush
and centered and trace it with a sharpie and then i'll use a hand
plane to shape to the lines and i'll use a pencil to draw a mark in the
center and use that as a reference point for an added design element i'll use the miter saw to cut a 5 degree angle
at the end of each stretcher next i'll use the drill press to drill a pilot
hole in the center of each lap joint in the stretchers then i'll countersink the holes so
the screws are below the surface of the wood when the base is assembled using
a round over bit in the router i'll soften the edge at the
bottom and front of the foot before i assemble the base i'll
drill pocket holes in the stretchers so i can attach the base to the
cabinet with pocket hole screws to assemble the base i'm using
wood glue and two inch screws and i'll make sure to clean up the glue
squeeze out with a wet rag before it sets up okay well now i'm ready for the fun part which is
applying the veneer i've got my drawer fronts on top of the veneer just to kind of get a good
idea of where i want to make that first cut i want the grain to run up the front of the
drawers so i'll make my first cut here and that's going to leave me with this to veneer
the cabinet now theoretically it would be good to have two sheets of veneer because to get
that waterfall effect it would be very easy if i had another sheet just to measure in about
18 inches make the cut and then i'll be able to wrap the cabinet the grain is pretty consistent
though so i think i should get a good grain match anyway it's not going to be perfect but it's going
to be pretty close but if you are going to build this project maybe consider getting two sheets and
then just using the offcuts for another project i've measured up 27 and a half inches
and i'll make my first cross cut the next cut is with the grain making sure the
measurement is at least a half of an inch heavier than the drawer fronts are wide with the drawer
fronts labeled i'll crosscut them to size next i'll cut the veneer for the
left side and top of the cabinet i've got the left side of
the cabinet cut and labeled that will run into this grain which is the top and
now i'm using the top to find the best grain match for the right side of the cabinet and
that looks pretty good just about there to glue the veneer down i'm
using weld wood contact cement the first coat seems to really absorb into
the material so i like to use two coats allowing the first coat to dry
before applying the second coat when the second coat is dry
to touch i'll use sticks laid across the surface of the drawer
fronts to help position the veneer once the veneer is in position
i'll remove the sticks and apply even pressure working from one side to the other on the drawer fronts i'll use a j-roller to
apply pressure to the veneer to get a good bond make sure to be careful near the edges because
you don't want to accidentally break the veneer the next step is to use a flush cut
bit in the router to trim the overhang i'll repeat the process to
veneer the cabinet veneering the sides of the cabinet first and then the top because the cabinet is a larger surface than the
drawer fronts and i can work in the direction of the grain i'm using a board to apply pressure to
the veneer to create a good bond the board is a piece of three-quarter inch plywood with a round
over at the edge so it doesn't scratch the veneer and this is my preferred method
of applying pressure to the veneer but the drawer fronts were too small to be
able to work in the direction of the grain after trimming the veneer with a
flush cut bit in the router i'll use a sanding block to carefully sand away
any glue residue that might be left behind for the finish i'll use three coats of
mohawk's finisher's choice clear lacquer sanding in between coats with 320 sandpaper once the finish is dried i'll attach the
base and reinstall the drawer hardware to make the drawer pulls i'll use a paint
can to make a pattern on half inch mdf with the pattern made i'll rip a piece
of white oak with an 8 degree angle then i'll trace the pattern and cut the drawer
pulls out on the bandsaw clamping two pulls together with squeeze clamps will make them
easier to sand and shape on the belt sander i'm using a piece of eighth inch masonite as a jig and i'll mark with an awl where i'll
need to drill holes for the drawer pulls i've got an eighth inch spacer
holding the drawer front in position and i'll attach the drawer from to the
drawer through the hole for the drawer poles with the drawer front in position i can now
attach it through the holes that i drilled earlier with the drawer pulls clamped
in place i'll pre-drill holes into the poles and attach them with
two inch and three-quarter screws well i am really happy with the way this
project turned out and if you want to build it there are professional plans available
on my website and i'll have a link to them in the description below as always thanks
for tuning in and i'll see you next time
