Blade Caddy Progress

I've been making some progress on the blade caddy. When I left off, the core pieces were cut to size and I had made the dados and rabbets. Rather than letting it float, the center shelf is held in place with a simple mortise and tenon joint. I designed the center shelf this way so that the shelf could double at the top of the blade caddy, as well as finishing off the small box in which I plan to place a drawer. I decided the best way to cut the mortises was to use my router and a 3/4 inch straight cutting bit for the right hand side, and a 3/8 straight cutting bit for the left side. The left side is only half thickness because it also forms the rabbet for left side of the blade caddy. The mortise and tenon joints are 3/8 deep, and setting the proper depth on my router is easy with my cutting depth gauges.

The router made quick work of the mortises.

With all of that done, I assembled the core cabinet, using a long parallel clamp across the diagonal to rack the cabinet into square. A small carpenter's square in the corner helped me verify the proper position. Everything is held together using only glue. I've used screws on other cabinet projects, but since this is strictly a utilitarian I'm not too worried about something coming loose. If that happens I'll use a couple of screws to pull things back together.

While the glue on the core cabinet was curing, I started cutting the pieces for the blade caddy. The inner walls have a rabbet and dado measuring 3/4 inch wide, and these will hold the bottom and middle-top. The walls also have 12 dados measuring 1/4 inch each, with a 3/8 inch space between each dado. When I was marking all of the dados on the first side, I double checked my measurements and confirmed that the first 3/4 inch dado began 3 1/4 inch from the top. I measured and set the fence on my table saw to the proper width, looked back at my paper, confirmed the 3 1/4 inch measurement, re-measured the table saw fence, then made the top dados in each side. I reset the fence and cut the bottom rabbets. When I was marking the locations for the 12 smaller dados, I kept coming up 1 short. 11 dados. I was sure everything was supposed to fit. I checked my SketchUp file and confirmed that the first 3/4 inch dado started 3 1/4 inch from the top. I confirmed that I had written down the correct numbers on my paper. Then I realised what happened. During the initial setup I looked at the paper, read "3 1/4 inch," then set the table saw fence to 3 3/4 inch. Even after double checking the numbers, I still went with 3 3/4 inch for some reason. Sometimes my brain just doesn't function. Nevertheless, it wasn't that bad a mistake. Instead of holding 12 blades, I only have 11 drawers. Adding up my current blades I'll still have 2 empty spaces, so I ran with it instead of cutting new sides. I marked all the dados, then used my cross cut fence and a stop block to ensure that all the dados on each side were at the same places. Then I assembled the blade caddy with glue and clamps.

Once the glue was cured, I trimmed the top of the blade caddy to get everything into a nice snug fit, then glued the dados in the middle shelf and slid the caddy into the cabinet. Although the glue should be enough, I used a couple of 1 1/8 inch drywall screws through the bottom to hold the blade caddy in place.

As the assembled cabinet rested, I started cutting down the 1/4 inch plywood for the drawers. These were simple 12 inch square pieces, so I ripped a couple of long sheets using the rip fence, then clamped a stop block on my cross cut sled to cut the sheets to final size. Each sheet yielded several squares.

I've drilled the holes in the drawers for the finger pulls and blade access. Next I need to cut a dowel to size and glue it to the center of each drawer. I also need to add the back to the cabinet, but I can do that at the end. It's just a simple rectangle tacked in place with finishing nails. For now the cabinet is in working condition, and I've already removed the old cabinet and moved the accessories to the new one. It's serving its purpose before it's even finished!

Update June 17, 2014 Jump to the first and final posts for this project:
First Post
Final Post