MattRoberts
Established Member
So I thought I'd run through a recent build to see if it's of interest to anyone, and to welcome any advice for how to do things differently.
With a sprog imminent, SWMBO tasked me with building a baby changing unit. We had purchased some canvas baskets from ikea, and also had a changing mat, so I wanted to build the unit to accommodate them. I also wanted to ensure that we could remove the partition on the top later, so it could be used as a normal drawer unit as sprog grows older.
Gluing up the panels so they can dry while I concentrate on the rest
Cutting the legs to rough size and tapering the ends
Dry fit of the legs and rails using the domino
Creating the grooves for the ply panels. I cut them with stops, so the groove wouldn't be visible
Dry fit of the sides. Notice I bodged up the placement of the dominos near the top, but fortunately the second mortice is covered by the middle shelf panel!
Dry fit of the main structure. I'm using 6mm ply for the panels, as they don't need to be rock solid (although they're pretty damn solid anyway when properly encased.
I had to notch the middle shelf so it sits within the shape of the sides. It was a real pain to do, because the panel was too large to cut on the bandsaw with a fence. Instead, I had to cut with a multi-tool and sand. Unfortunately, I wasn't as accurate as I'd hoped, and there were gaps of around 1-3mm. I'm going with the excuse that it allows for expansion and contraction
Another dry fit complete with intended expansion and contraction gaps
Finally gluing up so I don't have to do anymore dry fits! Dominos can be a real pain to get out of the mortices!
Adding the central partitions and draw partitions. These are just screwed on, as they won't be visible
Lots of sanding and then three coats of white gloss. It's surprisingly hard to cover freshly sanded natural wood with gloss!
Cutting drawer fronts to fit, using spacers to get an even space around. I'm building the drawers as a single unit rather than with a separate front.
Installation of the drawer slides. I'm using 500mm full extension slides. Not particularly cheap, but very smooth and solid
Construction of the drawers. I toyed with the idea of doing some fancy joinery, but it seemed pointless when they were going to be glossed. I decided to use dominos instead
Drawers installed and working beautifully. I chamfered the edge of the drawer fronts partly to add some design interest, but also to mitigate the inevitable misalignment that happens over time with drawer edges
Glossed drawers, and some simple wooden drawer pulls finished with briwax. Also added the top and finished that with briwax too.
The finished product, with a simple and removable partition on the top.
With a sprog imminent, SWMBO tasked me with building a baby changing unit. We had purchased some canvas baskets from ikea, and also had a changing mat, so I wanted to build the unit to accommodate them. I also wanted to ensure that we could remove the partition on the top later, so it could be used as a normal drawer unit as sprog grows older.
Gluing up the panels so they can dry while I concentrate on the rest
Cutting the legs to rough size and tapering the ends
Dry fit of the legs and rails using the domino
Creating the grooves for the ply panels. I cut them with stops, so the groove wouldn't be visible
Dry fit of the sides. Notice I bodged up the placement of the dominos near the top, but fortunately the second mortice is covered by the middle shelf panel!
Dry fit of the main structure. I'm using 6mm ply for the panels, as they don't need to be rock solid (although they're pretty damn solid anyway when properly encased.
I had to notch the middle shelf so it sits within the shape of the sides. It was a real pain to do, because the panel was too large to cut on the bandsaw with a fence. Instead, I had to cut with a multi-tool and sand. Unfortunately, I wasn't as accurate as I'd hoped, and there were gaps of around 1-3mm. I'm going with the excuse that it allows for expansion and contraction
Another dry fit complete with intended expansion and contraction gaps
Finally gluing up so I don't have to do anymore dry fits! Dominos can be a real pain to get out of the mortices!
Adding the central partitions and draw partitions. These are just screwed on, as they won't be visible
Lots of sanding and then three coats of white gloss. It's surprisingly hard to cover freshly sanded natural wood with gloss!
Cutting drawer fronts to fit, using spacers to get an even space around. I'm building the drawers as a single unit rather than with a separate front.
Installation of the drawer slides. I'm using 500mm full extension slides. Not particularly cheap, but very smooth and solid
Construction of the drawers. I toyed with the idea of doing some fancy joinery, but it seemed pointless when they were going to be glossed. I decided to use dominos instead
Drawers installed and working beautifully. I chamfered the edge of the drawer fronts partly to add some design interest, but also to mitigate the inevitable misalignment that happens over time with drawer edges
Glossed drawers, and some simple wooden drawer pulls finished with briwax. Also added the top and finished that with briwax too.
The finished product, with a simple and removable partition on the top.
