Brush Box Filing Cabinet

**Studley 2436** · 11th July 2006, 12:53 PM

Hi All
I recently inbetween everything else have been working on making a filing cabinet to keep my office in better order. Left over from last years order was a bit of Brush Box so I got into making it out of this.

Brush Box is pretty good timber. It is hard doesn't flex easily and polishes up a treat if you are prepared to put the effort in.

This was a job where I was learning about making a cabinet with drawers. The idea of half blind dovetails was nice but I don't have the gear to do that here. So what I decided to do was make sliding dovetails on the tablesaw!!!!! OK Major Drama wouldn't do it but he is better at this stuff than I am and I had to come up with a solution that I could manage in my shop with the gear that I had. So using a big pusher block that I have and by setting the blade to 6º angle I was able to cut one side of my dovetail. Then it was just a matter of moving the fence to the other side of the blade to cut the other side. I used a vernier to measure the gap blade to fence so I could get reasonable accuracy on the job. If it was out just a little it wouldn't work. Another thing to be careful of is that if you use the blade to run the waste out of the middle of the groove you will get a sawtooth profile on the bottom of the groove because the blade is at an angle. It might be best to do all the sides and then run the middle out with a straight set blade. Chiseling it all out was problematical because the chisel tended to catch on the sides and cause splintering at the top edge.

Anyway you can all see what I have done here with the base being morticed and tenoned to the side rails and the rails being morticed and tenoned into the top. I would really advise getting one of those comb toothed blades to plane this stuff it tears like you wouldn't believe. I was only able to handle it with a really sharp blade that had to be resharpened time and time again.

The sides are 12mm panels that are in a dado groove I cut into the rail. and then the drawer runners just go into the rails with a slider glued on top of the runner to keep the drawer runnning true.

To finish it off I sprayed it with Shellac and then put some Shellawax on top of that. My first experiment with Shellac, a few more coats would be pretty good but it hasn't scrubbed up bad. You can see the reflection of the drawer handles in the drawer faces.

Studley

**Wood Borer** · 11th July 2006, 02:18 PM

Very nice work - you could give the dovetails a nudge using hand tools.

Someone recently posted a picture of a box for brushes but it is different to yours

**AlexS** · 11th July 2006, 02:52 PM

Nice work Studley, I like the increasing drawer sizes - Fibbonaci series?
I'm with WB - have a go at doing the DT's by hand.

**Studley 2436** · 11th July 2006, 04:52 PM

The progression in the drawer size is top drawer for stationery.

Bottom Drawer had to fit your hanging sliders. I used a router in there to make a track for the hangers to fit on. Second down is for bigger stuff. Third is an inbox outbox. It means that I can get everything off of my desk and into the cabinet.

It's a mess cleaner upper. An added bonus is that the wires for the computer etc is hidden behind it.

Studley

**RufflyRustic** · 11th July 2006, 05:19 PM

Lovely Unit Studley! The brushbox came up well with the shellac.

Looks just the thing for storing files and other office gear.

Cheers
Wendy

**jmk89** · 11th July 2006, 06:09 PM

I like it. Could take a picture of the inside of the bottom drawer? I would like to see the routing that will hold the suspension files as I am thinking of making something similar and would like to steal (ahm that is, be inspired by) your method.
Cheers
J

**Al B** · 11th July 2006, 06:10 PM

Good stuff, nice job on the cabinet Studley, Brushbox looks good.

**Auld Bassoon** · 11th July 2006, 07:50 PM

Top Job Studley!

MEthinks though that some darkside application would work as well or better

The end result is super though.

**Bluegum** · 11th July 2006, 07:54 PM

Ditto to all the above mate. Looks great the way its come together.

**Harry72** · 11th July 2006, 08:11 PM

Nice work Stevo, very handsome unit!

**Rocker** · 11th July 2006, 08:35 PM

Nice looking filing cabinet, but I am a bit dubious about the sliding dovetail for the drawers. It looks awfully close to the edge of the drawer front. I would have used a much narrower dovetail.

I am puzzled as to why you could not use half-blind dovetails. They only need a dovetail saw and a chisel, and, optionally, a drill-press with a forstner bit to remove the bulk of the waste.

Rocker

**Studley 2436** · 11th July 2006, 09:26 PM

Rocker you know much more about woodworking than me. The other reason is I don't have a drill press or the space to put it.

I'll take some more photos tomorrow and (drop my pants) show you a bit more of the joins. The thing with belting them out on a table saw is it is fast and I allready had the gear to do it that way. Not just that I had the knowledge of how to do it. This is something that I was doing with time constraints, of course I am a bit of a belt it out type of guy.

What darkside methods? Not knocking the darkside just that I don't have those skills or saws chisels etc to carry them out.

Studley

**Ticky** · 11th July 2006, 09:48 PM

Studley,

I think you have done a wonderful job.

I admire those with the skills to quickly knock out some dovetails by hand, but I understand your lack of confidance. Not that I doubt your ability.

The quality of my wood work refects the quality of my tools not my skills & I aim to keep on improving.

I too would like to see a little more detail on the suspension files area.

Well done mate

Steve

**boban** · 11th July 2006, 10:06 PM

Nice job on the cabinet. Nothing wrong with power tools either mate.

Just wondering, that Brushbox looks more like Blackbutt than Brushbox. I've got plenty of Brushbox flooring that is a hell of a lot darker than your cabinet. Could be the light I guess.

Still think the timber looks magic though.

For you guys wanting to know how to do suspension racks, its easy. Buy some 3mm strips of brass or aluminium. Cut the top edges of the drawer sides with the table saw. You then hot glue or epoxy in the strips and its done.

**Rocker** · 12th July 2006, 04:37 AM

Studley,

As someone who ususally prefers to avoid the dark side when possible, I can't argue with your choice of sliding dovetails for attaching the drawer fronts. I was just trying to say that, with the dovetail groove that close to the edge of the drawer front, the joint would tend to be weak.

You did well to succeed in making a tight-fitting dovetail groove on the table-saw alone. It might have been easier to remove most of the waste from the groove with the table-saw blade set vertical, and then rout the dovetail groove with a small dovetail bit, to enable the groove to be inset more from the edge of the drawer front.

Rocker

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