I've just started this project for our bathroom. It will serve as a medicine cabinet since we have never had one in it. It will have 2 raised panel doors and 2 adjustable shelves inside.

I started out by selecting the best pieces I could find for the sides. I then crosscut them to rough length on the radial arm saw, then crosscut the fixed shelf pieces. The tablesaw was setup to rip all pieces to 7" width, then back to the radial saw to cut to finished length.

Next, I decided to use the router table for the dadoes and rabbits to be made in the side pieces to accept the fixed shelves. I have a Craftsman tablesaw and it has this very annoying "feature" of having a slightly different arbor diameter where the 1st chipper of my dado blade set rests. This causes this chipper blade to leave a slightly deeper cut in the width of the dado. These dadoes on the side pieces when the project was finished. So, I used a 3/4" straight cutting bit in the router table to get a perfectly flat, perfectly 3/4" wide dado.

After setting up for a 3/8" deep cut, each piece was run through to make a dado before the fence was moved to create the next set. After they were cut, the fence was moved next to the bit to create a 3/4" rabbit on the top of the side pieces. Then, the fence partially covered the bit to create 1/2"x1/2" rabbit cut on the side and fixed shelf pieces to fit the 1/2" plywood back in later. I 3/4" hole was drilled 3/8" deep to accept an oak dowel, while will be used as a towel bar.

I was then able to test fit the pieces. I found that they were just a bit greater than 3/4" after I had planed them, so I carefully planed everything down a hair so they fit just snug in the dadoes. As Norm would say, perfect!

A paper template was made to layout the detail work on the sides, and they were cutout on the bandsaw, then fine-tuned with a large drum sander mounted in the drill press.

The plans called for gluing everything up at this time. Since this cabinet had shelf-pin holes, I decided to do them now before glueup (these holes were the very -last- step in the plans!). This is when I created my Norm Abram inspired shelf pin jig. It was a very easy and simple process to plunge-rout all the shelf pin holes, guaranteeing they will all be perfectly aligned and level with each other. I added more holes than the plans called for, to get better adjustability later.

All the parts so far were then sanded, and then glued and clamped together, checking for square, to complete the carcass of the cabinet.

Next up were the two raised panel doors. The doors have a groove and tenon frame. All of the pieces were first cut to width and length. The dado-set was assembled on the tablesaw to make the grooves on the inside of each piece to hold the tenons for the rails and the panel itself. Then the tenons were cut to fit snugly in the grooves. The panels for the doors are made up of glued up stock a 1/2" thick. For both doors, I resawed some Oak on the bandsaw and lightly planed them to just slighly oversize. Then I glued them both in a book-matched pattern, as the one panel had a really nice grain pattern. After they dried in the clamps, they were again run through the planer to final thickness.

I built a jig out of 3/4" MDF to cut the raised panels, that slips over and rides along the tablesaw fence. It has a toggle clamp at one end to clamp and hold the panel in place. I also used a small bar clamp at the other end to hold the panel firmly to the jig since it was a bit large. The fence was move in position to first cut a scoring mark at the proper depth on all four sides of the panel, with the panel lying flat on the tablesaw. This would give a nice square edge to the raised panel. Then, the tablesaw blade was tilted to 11 degrees and the fence and jig were moved to allow a 3/16" edge on the panel. A couple of test cuts were made using 1/2" scrap to set the height of the blade to intersect the previous scoring marks. Each side of the panel was fastened to the jig and moved through the sawblade to create the raised panel. I did the cross grained cuts first so that the other two sides would remove any chipout that occured.

The panels were fit into the frames and everything was glued up and squared. Now it was on to the moulding for the top of the cabinet. This moulding was made up of two pieces. A 1/2" roundover bit was setup in the router table and one long piece run through. Then, a 1/2" cove bit was set and the other piece was routed. The two long pieces were glued together and dried. Afterward, this piece was cut with 4 degree miters to create the three pieces for the front and two sides. They were then screwed into place from above.

I chose to use a Minwax "Special Walnut" stain, which best matched our bathroom vanity. As a topcoat, two coats of a clear varnish were used, inside and out. Soon, I'll have finished photos!

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Created by: Gunn 2001