Last post I had completed the main box. This time it's on to the upper tray and drawer. For the tray, I made the depth (front to back) a little more than 1/16" less than the inside dimension of the box. It's length is about 3" shorter than the inside length of the box. This was to allow a drill to stand up on the floor of the upper compartment and still be able to put the tray in place.
 |
| The 3/8" thick tray components dovetailed |
 |
| ... and test fitted into the box |
 |
Made a handle / divider that fits into stopped dadoes in the ends.
The handle is 1/2" thick to add a little comfort when picking it up. |
 |
| Close-up of one end of the handle / divider |
 |
| One corner of the tray with cleaned up dovetails |
 |
Glued up the dovetails first, then later glued on a 1/8" plywood bottom
with some creative "clamping" |
 |
| It fits! |
 |
| I made the height so it would stick up 1/8" from the box upper edges |
I just love fitting drawers to openings. After the drawer front and back were fitted to the opening and the drawer sides to the depth, the drawer was dovetailed together.
 |
| Fitting the front into its opening |
 |
| Fitting the left side and getting its length directly from the box |
 |
| The parts in relative position |
 |
| Marking the sides with a triangle |
 |
... and the front/back with a triangle.
I sometimes use a double triangle so I don't confuse it with a reference edge mark |
 |
| Dovetails complete |
I had another decision to make. Do I plow grooves for the 1/8" plywood drawer bottom, or do I glue the bottom to the underside of the drawer? I did a little test groove in some scrap to help with this.
 |
| 1/8" groove with some scrap plywood fit in place |
First, my 1/8" plow iron is a bit wider than 1/8", and the plywood is a little less than 1/8", so the fit was sloppy. Second, if I inset the groove 3/16" or 1/4" from the bottom edges, I would lose 5/16" or 3/8" of useable space in the drawer. So I decided to glue the plywood to the bottom of the drawer. But since I sized the drawer components precisely, I had to remove the thickness of the plywood from the drawer parts. On the drawer front I used a rabbet so that the plywood would not be seen with the drawer closed.
 |
Here, I've glued the dovetails together and also glued the bottom
to the drawer, using the metal toolbox as a clamp again |
 |
| Then I cut out a bit of the front to form a finger pull |
 |
And lastly I could do the final fitting all the way inserted
(before the finger pull I had no way of pulling the drawer back out!) |
 |
| Added a couple coats of shellac |
 |
| And here it is partially loaded, ready for work |
This was a really fun build. It's solid as a rock, but a bit heavier than I might have liked. But that's OK. It's built for a purpose and I think it'll serve that purpose well.
