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I have a set of those rolling black wire shelves in my shop that held various "stuff" but decided it was time to properly organize it. So, I made the first of what I hope to be 3 sets of drawers to exactly fit the rack space. I wanted this set to be thinner to hold various tools like calipers, allen wrenches, stuff that normally goes in the thin drawers of a tool box (which you can see the red Craftsman metal one in one of the pics that these are replacing!). I made the carcass out of cheap 5/8" plywood from Home Depot - the B/C oak stuff - and the drawers out of 3/8" sides with 1/4" bottoms. The drawers are made museum-style - tons of flat drawers (also apothecary or index card drawers). I made simple dado sliders from the bottom of the drawers by gluing/nailing them to the drawer box bottoms and extending them out 3/8" or so on the sides. I have seen lots of shop drawers made this way and figured it was simple enough for small drawers like these. Otherwise, there is nothing special going on. I got some cheap index card pulls online and used knurled brass thumb nuts with matching brass screws as simple pulls (also cheap online). I wanted something different (and smaller) for pulls, so I liked this look (made it more like the museum ones). I spent the VAST majority of my time trying to figure out the finish. Since they were cheap, I could have just gone simple, but I wanted a finish like you would see on museum drawers which are typically made from real wood like cherry. I read and re-read my Flexnor and did web searches to see how others did it. I tried over 20 different finishes before finally settling on this one. I couldn't get a good cherry-looking finish that I liked - too hard to get cheap plywood to look like anything but cheap plywood. I got this sort of warm-looking orange'ish oak finish that I've seen in pictures of Arts & Crafts houses and Shaker stuff filled with Oak, so I set this as my goal. With my limited experience, I got as close as I could using a coat of General Finishes Pecan, followed by General Finishes Black Cherry, then using GF orange dye stain mixed with their water-based Enduro-Var to give a final amber tint. And before I did all that, I filled the pores on all pieces by mixing Elmers Wood Filler with a little water to make it easier to spread (using just my hands, no tools). Sealing the wood made it look a LOT more even and less grainy. At least now I know what I like, so making the other 2 should go a lot faster. Oh, and I started with an Espresso stain, very dark - almost black - and sanded it all back off (not easy to do on plywood - not recommended!). Also, I don't recommend 5/8" plywood. I picked it because 3/4" was really to bulky, but 1/2" seemed too light. What I didn't consider is the dados on the carcass - if you go 3/8", 1/2", or 3/4" (nominal sizes, so really 11/32", 15/32", and 23/32"), you can buy matching Freud or Rockler router bits to match those sizes and make the dados in one pass. I had to setup a jig and make 2 passes because no one makes one for 5/8". The last picture shows the drawers in their final resting place. I have since started labeling the drawers and filling them up!

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Nice! Bet you've had yiur fill of drawers for a week or two!
 

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Very nice. I like the contrast between the black index pulls and the brass knobs. Two more of those is a lot of storage!
I noticed the top row of drawers differs in construction from the rest; any reason why?
 

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It's a very handsome piece. I really like the look of the index pulls and the knobs. Where did you find them?
 

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Those are fantastic. I love that style of drawer but I never find the time to make any. Great work.
 

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Very nice piece. Good idea putting the extra knobs on the drawers. I have an old metal cabinet that has the index card pulls and some of the drawers are so heavy with nuts-n-bolts that the pulls have bent.
 

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Nice Job, have built two similiar (not as nice)

Care to share source for your hardware
 

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Nice job of planning and layout to make a simple plywood set of drawers look so great!
 

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Excellent job! Thanks for sharing.
 

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To JCinVA: LOL, good eyes - the top drawers are larger because my math was off! I put dados every 2" from the bottom up and when I got to the top, I had an extra remainder. Oops.

HARDWARE: index card pulls: D. Lawless Hardware, 54c each (on amazon I think) (part #DL-C1300-AC). Brass pulls from Albany County Fasteners, knurled thumb nuts 54c each (1/4-20 thread), screws 46c each (1/4-20×7/8" long).
 

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Lovely cabinet. It ought to serve you well for many years.
 

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You realy put large effort to make this and get final look. Sure it deserves more than workshop place.
 

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these are great - i love this type of project
 

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Beautiful work!

I tend to take a different approach:


There are five different box shapes - all interchangable & they hold all sorts of shaped things. With different pull holes you can reorganize the bins and still know what is where. The outer cases fold shut and latch. Since there are no protrusions and the individual boxes won't spill even if tumbled.

M
 

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Damn! That's nice.
 

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Sweet set of drawers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jim
 

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Can't find them, cheapest are over $2 a piece

To JCinVA: LOL, good eyes - the top drawers are larger because my math was off! I put dados every 2" from the bottom up and when I got to the top, I had an extra remainder. Oops.

HARDWARE: index card pulls: D. Lawless Hardware, 54c each (on amazon I think) (part #DL-C1300-AC). Brass pulls from Albany County Fasteners, knurled thumb nuts 54c each (1/4-20 thread), screws 46c each (1/4-20×7/8" long).

- JD13
 
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