New West Design: Tool Chest

I’ve decided to make the drawers for the chest out of Baltic birch with a false front. I’ve never done a false front before so I was anxious to give it a try. I also decided to build the drawers using finger joints, which are also new to me.

Finger Joint Jig

I won`t bother with how to build the finger joint sled as there are lots of tutorials out there and it is so simple even just a photo is likely enough to get started. The sides and of the drawers were made using ½” Baltic birch, joined with ½” finger joints. I decided to use ½” thick bottoms to keep things as rigid as possible; I set the drawer bottom into a ¼” dado ¼” up from the bottom and the drawer bottoms have ¼” rabbets so that the bottom of the drawers are flush with the drawer sides leaving maximum storage depth.

Drawer Parts Glued up and Ready for Assembly

Drawer Assembly Well Underway

Bottom Flush with Drawer Sides

I must admit that putting together these drawers was a much easier task than the dovetail joints I have used in the past. The parts were all interchangeable and went together with relative ease.

With the drawers constructed I next turned to their installation. I’m using full extension slides on these drawers. The drawers are a touch on the shallow side and I want to be able to access everything easily. I started by installing the bottom drawer and working my way up using the preceding drawer to support the next as it is installed.

Blocking the Drawer Slides and Setting Back from Case Front

Supporting the Drawer while Attaching the Slides

After putting the drawers in I moved on to the false fronts. I had one gorgeous board of crotch cherry which I wanted to use for the all the fronts. I cut the board to length and knew that I had no extra wood to spare in its width so I used a narrow kerf blade to rip all the drawer fronts.

I measured each drawer front down from the next shelf and used shims to keep the spacing consistent through the cabinet. I set some double stick tape on the drawer fronts to temporarily hold the false fronts in place while I affixed them with screws. I was pretty happy to have chosen to use the thin kerf blade because it helps maintain grain continuity between drawer fronts and it turned out I needed every fraction of an inch possible. On the last drawer front, to trim to width I had to remove only 1/32”.