Shaker Chimney Cupboard

For the past few days I have been working on a new project for Hilary! I decided this would be a great addition to our kitchen! Extra storage space is something you can never have enough of.

Originally I wanted to make it out of cherry. Finding cherry 12" plus wide is sometimes hard. The reason I wanted a single piece for the sides is so you don't see any seams and so the grain looks continuous. The shaker chimney cupboard is 70" high by 16" wide by 12-1/8" deep.

The first part to making this cupboard is to rough cut and mill all your pieces a little oversized to accommodate for wood movement. I like to keep my stock milled 1/8" oversized and several inches longer than what the plan calls for. It is best to leave the milled pieces alone for several days so they can adjust to the moisture in your shop.

Now that the wood has adjusted to your shop it's time to mill the case sides to thickness an trim to length. Measure and mark for the 4 dados in each case side taking note of which side you want to be the face side. Take a piece of scrap wood thats milled to the same thickness and create a 1/4" wide dado by a 1/4" deep. Perfect the dado on a scrap piece before doing it on the piece that counts. I use a specially made crosscut sled only for a 1/4" dado blade. I use a stop block in conjunction with the crosscut sled. It allows for repeated cuts at the exact same location. This will ensure that the dados will line up on each piece perfectly.

Next step is to cut a rabbet on each side on the case side. The face frame stile fits in the rabbet you just created. Mill the drawer dividers, case bottom, and sub top to there thickness. Cut to length. Cut a rabbet in the drawer divider and case bottom to fit the dado on the case sides. Measure and mark for the stopped dado in the top 2 drawer dividers. A quick trick when doing the dovetails is mark out locations of the dovetails on 1 subtip piece. Combine both subtop pieces together with clamps and cut the dovetail. Both boards should have dovetails in the exact same spot. Mark locations on the case sides and cut material to match dovetails. Test he fit. Next part is to cut the section for the feet. Mark location on both pieces and cut out with either a jig saw or bandsaw. Clean saw marks with a file, spokeshave, and or a block plane. Take the face frame stile and mark location of hinges. Take a router and cut out location for hinge. Last step is to glue up the case. While clamping check case for squareness. Take a tape measure and check dimension from corner to corner. Make sure it is exact same while it is in the clamps.

Stay tune for the next step.