DIY Storage Cabinet and Drawers for the Simple DIY Workbench

While I was working on the bench top, it occurred to me that I could really use some organized storage underneath.

So I set about making all sorts of scribblings, drawings, and calculations and then started in on making an under-benchtop cabinet with drawers.

Yet another project to sidetrack the main project, which is to have a bench to build guitars on!

I gathered up some 3/4 inch ply and some common pine and went to work.

One of my ongoing issues in The Dungeon is my inability to cut large boards into smaller ones for projects. I don't have room for a circular saw, and in any event, they terrify me!

In my travels on the Interwebs I discovered the Kreg Accu-Cut Circular Saw Guide, and I procured one.

You can read a lot about this thing on the web. It works well for what I need. Basically it's a track with guides that a sled goes on. Your circular saw attaches to the sled, and off you go! It does accurate cuts as the name implies.

One of the biggest issues with a circular saw of course is dust collection. Sawdust goes EVERYWHERE. I do circular saw cuts outside when I can, but it's winter and I can't go out there and saw.

After looking at some Youtube videos of DIY dust collection for circular saws, I cooked up my own "system." Cheap and cheerful and about 80% efficient! You can see it's just a cardboard box stuck over the saw, with a shop vac hose stuck in the side.

It does look ridiculous, but it kept the dust from flying around. Some still escaped, but it just went onto the board or onto the floor where I was working. The vacuum captured a lot of it.

I just pushed the saw along the track with the box over it. I really didn't need to see where the saw was going (ha ha) since it was on the track.

If I did a lot of this sort of work, I'd cook up something more permanent, but this worked great for this project.

Here's one cut. It's straight, and lines right up with the track. Whoo hoo.

I have a whole bunch of joints to make. I sprung for a Kreg pocket hole jig and I am so glad I did. Makes butt joints a good way to do simple joinery.

This is one end of the basic cabinet I made. Again, it's just 3/4 inch ply joined with pocket screws.

Even though I clamped it down and squared it up, it wasn't absolutely perfect, but I compensated for it later, as you shall see.

I built the cabinet as an assembly - it will eventually just slide onto the bottom bench shelf and be screwed into place.

You can see the cabinet in the back. And the front, the pine drawer sides and backs. There will be 10 drawers total - these are the pieces for 5 of them.

I thought long and hard about using metal drawer slides, but in the end I opted for making wood slides.

The Kreg jig I have has a nice base with a clamp. Clamp your workpiece in (in this case a drawer side) and drill your holes.

Note the little vacuum port - it works well and lets you drill the holes faster - the chips get sucked right up.

I used my down-and-dirty router "table" to rout rabbets on the backs and sides of the drawers. It's not that accurate, but it got the job done. One of my long-term projects is to make a proper router table - I'm eyeing up a Jess-Em Router Lift II, but I'm nowhere near close to that yet.

The pine I used - from The Despot - comes from Sverige! A nice surprise.

Screwing the sides onto the backs of the drawers. The clamp you see is a Kreg clamp - it works well but I found it to be a bit clunky and fussy to set up. Kind of a pain when you're making 20 joints like this.

Note the rabbet - the bottoms will fit into those joints.

Cut the drawer bottoms, and glue and nail them in. I used a nail gun, since I am simply helpless trying to drive a nail by hand.

The drawer bottoms are 1/2 inch plywood.

Simple, yet effective.

Five drawers done. They don't have fronts yet - that will be one of the last things to go on once the slides are in place in the cabinet. The drawers are very solid and sturdy.

I'll do the slides in the next post.