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Cabinets
Project Plan: Maple Plywood and Solid Pine Country Sideboard
By Sam Knight
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Finished product.
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20.5 inches deep, 68 inches long, 36 inches tall. Customer wanted a leg that looked less spindly, and I agreed.
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Thicker legs with a revised upper portion.
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8/4 pine was 12 feet long. I tried to buy 28bf of hard maple, but ended up with 45bf because the widths were all different (my estimates were based on 6 inch widths) and I would rather overbuy than underbuy. But I way overbought.
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Case construction begins with fitting dados.
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I used the back panels to hold the sides square as I glued. This worked, but the third panel from the left did not stay seated in the dado fully and I had to re-square it to the rest of the case with a flush trim bit later. That was a pain.
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1/2 maple ply with butt joints reinforced with 1 inch pocket hole screws. A dado on the bottom received 1/4 maple ply.
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The legs are 4 pieces of maple glued together. I turned them on a Jet 12-36 lathe that I bought for this project (and many others to come, but I would never pass up the 15% off deal Jet had going at the time) using a set of 6 PSI woodworking turning tools. The setup worked great.
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I made a story stick out of a scrap of 1/4 inch plywood with diameter dimensions at each of the notches I cut. I made the notches at points of inflection and, for the taper, at the halfway point. I also designed the features of the leg to be nice, even diameters to make my life easy. I used vernier calipers to measure my diameters as I turned.
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4 legs. Close enough to match. The differences were mainly in the pummels. I have yet to master the skew chisel.
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Hogged them out on the drill press and cleaned them up with my Narex mortise chisels. I cut the tenons on the tablesaw. With a little setup time, they came out quire accurately.
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I was happy with where the apron molding met the pummel. I had to make some adjustments on one corner where the pummel did not match exactly, but they were all close.
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I used a kreg jig and 1 1/4 inch fine thread pocket hole screws to join the face frame. While building the frame, I had to clamp the pieces from all directions down to my table saw to keep the wood from splitting as I drove in the screws. It was a pain.
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I glued a 1 inch thick piece of hard maple under the face frame and 1/4 inch pieces around the sides to create a sort of waistline that distinguished between the base and the upper case.
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I started mounting some drawers at this point. The replacement hardware arrived so I was excited to try it out. I love the soft close drawers. I ended up remounting the drawer so it was closer to the front of the case later.
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You can see the waistline well here. It was needed to visually distinguish top from bottom.
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I made the shelf by drilling four 1-inch holes in my plywood shelf. Then I applied a 1/2 molding to the shelf to cover the plies. The 1-inch tenons I turned on the legs went through the holes in the shelf and into 1-inch holes in the feet. They have not been glued up yet here.
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I had intended to have the slides for the shelf mounted on the sides, but the 110ยบ hinges did not allow clearance for that. (Oops.) The instructions for the slides said they work in an undermount position too. I decided to mount them underneath and saw the opportunity for a design change.
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Here the top is glued up and I am gluing drawer fronts to the drawers. I lined them up based on the door in the middle so they would be even across the top and bottom.
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Because it was pine, I used Old Master gel stain in American Oak. It was so easy.
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Test fitting everything before paint.
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Paint is my least favorite part of the project. I disassembled everything that was not glued on to paint it. I used Benjamin Moore Advance Super White paint. BM Advance is wonderful stuff by the way. I love it.
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I covered holes that had a tight fit without paint (like the legs holes through the lower shelf) with blue tape to make reassembly easier.
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Having everything predrilled made this part much, much faster and more fun. I did not end up having to mark and drill finished surfaces.
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The top got some General Finishes Oil and Poly blend top coat in satin sheen. Wiping is easier than brushing on finish any day.
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In its final location in the home of the customer. He was so thrilled, he said he wanted to be buried in it. I had never heard that one before!
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2 coats of primer, 2 coats of paint, except on the insides of the apron and under the shelf where it was not worth wasting the paint.
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1/2 maple ply with butt joints reinforced with 1 inch pocket hole screws. A dado on the bottom received 1/4 maple ply. Allowing them to acclimate to my shop after planing some of the thickness away, but before reaching finished thickness.
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But wait... there is more! The space between the slide mounts was perfect for a secret compartment. It is about 12 inches wide, 18 inches long, and 1 3/4 inches deep. Perfect for a pistol or cash or... whatever. This was a surprise for the customer - he was so excited about it!
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Heirloom Artists Furniture's Joshua Monroe takes us through the construction of a country sideboard - with maple plywood and a thick pine slab counter. The legs plunge through the lower shelf. 

"I designed the piece to be sturdy for a lifetime of use but maneuverable for easy delivery. The sideboard separates into three parts with relative ease. The top (part #1) is attached to the case (part #2) using tongue and groove blocks that allow for seasonal expansion and contraction of the wood. By removing the screws that secure the blocks from the underside of the top, the top can be separated from the case."

"The weight of the case holds it in place on the base (part #3), but pocket hole joinery was used as a secondary attachment method. Before painting the sideboard, I pre-drilled the holes that secured the case to the base and simply inserted those screws when the piece was delivered."

Heirloom Artists Furniture Studio creates "one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture that each tell a unique story through the use of unique materials, creative problem solving, and collaborative design," says Monroe. "We make high-quality furniture built to be kept for a lifetime, not replaced every couple years. Our use of computer modeling (CAD) reduces wasted time and material and maximizes strength. By using both historic and modern tools, we can create unique products that are truly one-of-a-kind."

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cabinetry
joshua monroe

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