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Published by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc., 1970 Broad St., East Petersburg, PA 17520, 717-560-4703, www.FoxChapelPublishing.com

© 2011 American Woodworker. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission. Readers may create any project for personal use or sale, and may copy patterns to assist them in making projects, but may not hire others to mass-produce a project without written permission from American Woodworker. The information in this book is presented in good faith; however, no warranty is given nor are results guaranteed. American Woodworker Magazine, Fox Chapel Publishing and Woodworking Media, LLC disclaim any and all liability for untoward results.

American Woodworker, ISSN 1074-9152, USPS 738-710, is published bimonthly by Woodworking Media, LLC, 90 Sherman St., Cambridge, MA 02140, www.AmericanWoodworker.com.

Library of Congress Control Number:
ISBN-13: 978-1-56523-504-5
eISBN-13: 978-1-60765-129-1

Great book of woodworking projects : 50 projects for indoor improvements and outdoor living from the experts at American woodworker / edited by Randy Johnson.

To learn more about the other great books from Fox Chapel Publishing, or to find a retailer near you, call toll-free 800-457-9112 or visit us at www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.

Because working with wood and other materials inherently includes the risk of injury and damage, this book cannot guarantee that creating the projects in this book is safe for everyone. For this reason, this book is sold without warranties or guarantees of any kind, expressed or implied, and the publisher and the author disclaim any liability for any injuries, losses, or damages caused in any way by the content of this book or the reader’s use of the tools needed to complete the projects presented here. The publisher and the author urge all readers to thoroughly review each project and to understand the use of all tools before beginning any project.

What You Can Learn

Kitchen Improvements

Storage Projects

Outdoor Living

Furniture Projects

Quickies & Gifties

Although the kitchen is one of the busiest rooms in a house, it often lacks enough storage for sundry pots, pans, utensils, small appliances, and cleaning supplies—let alone food. But here is some help. This section includes kitchen improvements to help you maximize your space, plus a few stand-alone projects that make storing and serving food a pleasure. For starters, you’ll find eight different ways to improve the storage areas in your kitchen, ranging from adding a handy pull-out trash drawer to building a mini-pantry for canned goods. The appliance garage is a favorite not only because it stores small appliances, but also because it hides other items, such as cutting boards, while keeping them close at hand. If you travel to holiday gatherings with your prize pies or cakes, then check out the portable food safe; it’s not only handy and attractive, it’s also fun to build. For a project that makes a great gift, consider the salad tongs. Spend a couple hours to make a pair—or spend a day and make several.

THREE EASY PROJECTS THAT ADD STORAGE, CONVENIENCE, AND SMOOTHER RUNNING DRAWERS TO YOUR KITCHEN

If your old drawers are coming apart, here’s a way to build new boxes and save the drawer faces. Rabbeted corners and a bottom that slips into dadoes make for quick, simple, sturdy construction (Photo 1).

You can reuse the old slides, or you can upgrade to ball-bearing slides. Ball-bearing slides allow full extension and provide years of smooth, quiet service. These slides are more expensive (around $12 per set of 22-in. slides), but are worth it, especially for large or heavily loaded drawers.

If you upgrade the slides, your new box may need to be slightly different in width from the old. To determine the drawer width, carefully measure the width of the cabinet opening and subtract 1 in. to allow for the slides. The slides shown here require at least 1 in. of clearance (¹/₂ in. per side) and no more than 1 ¹/₁₆ in. Since correcting a drawer that’s too narrow is a lot easier than correcting one that’s too wide, I allow 1 ¹/₁₆ in. of clearance (see “Oops!”). If your cabinets have face frames, you’ll need mounting blocks inside the cabinet to provide surfaces that are flush with the inside of the face frame (Photos 2 and 3).

Begin by ripping plywood into strips for the drawer box front, back and sides, but don’t cut them to length just yet. Cut dadoes in the plywood strips by making overlapping passes with your tablesaw blade. You’re not going for a squeaky-tight fit here; the ¹/₄-in. plywood bottoms should slip easily into the dado.

Cut the strips to length for the drawer sides and rabbet the ends. Use the completed sides to determine the length of the front and back pieces. Cut the drawer bottoms from ¹/₄-in. plywood, undersizing them by about ¹/₁₆ in.

Assemble the drawer using glue at the corner joints (Photo 1). The bottom is held by dadoes, so there’s no need to glue it.

Assemble and square the drawer box. For no-fuss squaring, try this: With clamps in place, nudge the drawer against a framing square and push a brad through the bottom near each corner. Unless your brad nailer shoots ³/₈-in. brads, a brad pusher is the best tool for this.

Mark a “screw line” on a mounting block screwed to the inside of the cabinet. You’ll position the slide by driving screws through the line. The location of the line isn’t critical—the slides will work fine whether they’re mounted high, low or in the middle of the drawer side. But the line must be square to the cabinet front.

Mark screw lines on the drawer sides. First, measure from the face frame rail to the screw line on the mounting block. Then subtract ¹/₄ in. and measure from the bottom edge of the drawer box to determine the placement of the screw lines on the drawer. That way, the drawer will have ¹/₄-in. clearance above the rail.

Fasten the slides by driving screws into the screw lines. The slides pull apart for easy mounting. Begin by using only the vertical slots on the drawer member and the horizontal slots on the cabinet member. This lets you adjust the drawer’s fit before adding more screws.

Drive temporary screws through the existing hardware holes into the drawer box. Then pull out the drawer and attach the front with permanent screws from inside. A spacer positions the drawer front evenly.

The toe space under the cabinets is a great place to add drawers. I mounted the drawer and slides in a self-contained cradle that slips easily under the cabinet (Fig. A). Because the cabinet overhangs the toe-kick by 3 or 4 in., use full-extension slides or “overtravel” slides that extend an extra inch.

The toe-kick shown here was just a strip of ¹/₄-in. plywood backed by ⁵/₈-in. particleboard (Photo 1). You might run into something different, like particleboard without any backing at all.

To determine the dimensions of the cradle, measure the depth and width of the space and subtract ¹/₁₆ in. from both to provide some adjustment room. If your floor covering is thicker than ¹/₄ in. (ceramic tile, for example), glue plywood scraps to the underside of the cradle to raise it and prevent the drawer from scraping against the floor when extended. Size the drawer to allow for slides and the cradle’s sides. For drawer construction and slide installation, see pages 11 and 12.

You’ll have to make drawer fronts and attach them to the boxes using the method shown in Photo 5. Don’t worry too much about an exact match of the finish with your existing cabinets. In that dark toe space, nobody will be able to tell. For hardware, consider handles instead of knobs so you can pull the drawers open with your toe.

Pry off the toe-kick and remove the backing by drilling a large hole near the center, cutting the backing in half and tearing it out. Then grab a flashlight and check for blocks, protruding screws or anything else that might interfere with the drawer.

Oops!

The manufacturer of these slides says that the drawer box must be between 1-in. and 1 ¹/₁₆-in. narrower than the drawer opening. They’re not kidding. I learned the hard way that a drawer that falls outside this range won’t slide smoothly no matter how much grease or brute force you apply.

With such a small margin for error, occasional mistakes are inevitable. And I’ve found that it’s better to err on the too-narrow side of that margin. If a drawer turns out a tad too wide, you have to sand down the sides or route a super-shallow dado to recess the slide. Both are a pain. But if the drawer comes out a hair too narrow, a few layers of tape applied to the back of the drawer member is all that’s needed. So I’m now in the habit of making drawers 1 ¹/₁₆ in. (instead of just 1 in.) narrower than the opening. Most of the time they glide perfectly. And when they don’t, I just grab the masking tape for a quick, easy fix.

In one cabinet, replace the shelves with a simple trash can holder mounted on drawer slides. By attaching the existing cabinet door to the front of the pull-out unit, you create a convenient trash drawer. Fig. B and the photos at right show how to build the unit.

Melamine board is a good material for this project because it’s easy to clean. A 4 × 8 sheet costs about $25 at home centers. The melamine coating, however, tends to chip during cutting. This chipping is worst where the saw teeth exit the material.

You’ll also need iron-on edge banding ($9 at home centers) to cover the exposed edges (Photo 2). When cutting the platform to width, subtract ¹/₁₆-in. to allow for the width of the edge banding.

Drawer slides rated for 75-or 100-lb. loads are fine for most drawers. But since this drawer will get more use than most, 120-lb. slides are a good idea.

If the back of your cabinet door is a flat surface, you can run strips of double-faced tape across the front, stick the door in place and fasten it with four small “L” brackets. The back of the door shown here has a recessed panel, so getting it positioned right was a trial-and-error process. Before removing the door, I cut blocks that fit between the door and the floor. Then I extended the unit, rested the door on the blocks, and attached two brackets. The resulting fit wasn’t quite perfect, so I tried again before adding the remaining brackets.

Cut out an opening for the trash bin after placing the bin upside down and tracing around the rim. To allow for the rim, cut about ¹/₂-in. inside the outline, then check the fit and enlarge the opening as needed.

Edge band the melamine and file away the excess edge banding. To avoid loosening the banding, cut only as you push the file forward, not as you pull back. If you do loosen the edge banding, just reapply with the iron.

Assemble the unit with screws and ³/₄-in. x ³/₄-in. cleats. Be sure to use coarse-threaded screws; fine threads won’t hold in particleboard. For extra strength, you can use glue that’s made especially for melamine’s slick surface.

Figure B: Pull-Out Trash Drawer

Made from melamine-coated particleboard, this trash drawer is simple enough to build and install in a day.

Here’s a better solution for trash than under the sink—a large waist-high drawer.

Scrap pieces usually need two or three operations: removing bark, flattening the surfaces and filling voids with epoxy. After you remove bark, clean the surface with a brass brush to get rid of grit and other loose material. Then sand.

Flatten the surfaces before you fill the voids. This takes longer than filling the voids first, because you have to remove the excess epoxy by hand. But epoxy can dull a sharp edge—why risk your jointer or planer knives when you can sand or chisel off the excess?

If the board you’ve chosen is more than 12" long, you can use your jointer and planer to flatten it. If the board is too short to be milled, savor the moment; this is a great opportunity to hone your hand-planing skills (Photo 2).

If your scraps are long enough, but too wide for your jointer, flatten them using only your planer. With the knives set to make a light cut, run the board cupped-face-down until the face you’re planing is flat. Then flip the board and flatten the cupped side. Use a sled if the board is twisted. Shim unsupported areas caused by the twist before planing. Once one face is planed, you won’t need the sled to flatten the other face.

Fill cavities with slow-setting epoxy and level with the board’s surface. I mix in artists oil paint to add color. Here I’ve added ivory black, but I often mix bright colors to create a dramatic effect.

Cavities in a board are a natural home for minerals, sand and dirt to settle in over the years—these contaminants will dull your chisels and carving gouges. That’s why I use a high-speed rotary tool equipped with a carbide bit to remove decayed wood (Photo 3).

Use slow-setting epoxy to fill the cavities. I usually color the epoxy (Photo 4). For shallow cavities, just pour in the epoxy. If the void goes all the way through the board, seal the opening on the back side with masking tape. Use a spatula to work the epoxy into awkward cracks and small dents (Photo 5). When the epoxy is dry—but before it has fully cured—remove the excess by hand with a chisel, hand plane, or sandpaper.

I never make two handles alike, so I have to come up with novel shapes every time I turn a new one (Photo 6). I use this opportunity to explore interesting resources in the environment around me. Architectural details, mechanical components and natural formations are all sources of inspiration. Sometimes, I laminate the handle blanks.

It’s most efficient to turn two handles out of one long blank (Photo 7). The tenons on the ends of the handles are the only parts that must be accurately turned. I turn 1" dia. tenons for thick cutting boards (1 ¹/₂" and up); anything thinner gets a ³/₄" tenon. Always make the tenons longer than necessary and cut them to length when you fit the handle to the board.

If you orient the handles so they meet in the middle, you can turn one long tenon. But if you’re used to working in one direction, from the headstock toward the tailstock, for example, it may be easier to orient the handles in the same direction.

Establish the tenon’s diameter by plunging in with a parting tool at several locations along its length, using calipers to gauge the depth. Complete the tenon by removing the waste with a spindle gouge and finishing with a skew chisel.

Shape the handles’ beads, coves and fillets with spindle gouges and the skew. Sand the handles while they’re still on the lathe; remove them to cut them apart. Use the handles’ unfinished ends as clamping surfaces when you glue them in.

Drill a hole in the board and test-fit the handle (Photo 8). Then brush epoxy into the hole and around the tenon. Install the handle and clamp it until the epoxy cures. Remove the clamps and lay the board on your bench. If it rocks because the handle’s diameter is too big, plane or sand the handle flush on both sides, so the board sits flat. Then finish shaping the end of the handle (Photo 9). Sand each board with 150-, 220- and 320-grit sandpaper before you apply the finish.

I prefer using flaxseed oil or walnut oil for finishing (Photo 10). Unlike the vegetable or mineral oils that are often used as food-safe finishes for wood, flaxseed and walnut oil completely cure and polymerize. They’re very easy to apply, they enhance the wood’s natural beauty and scratches don’t show as they do on varnish and other surface-film finishes. You should be aware, though, that some people are allergic to walnuts. If this is a concern, go with flaxseed oil. Both oils are commonly available at health food stores.

Store knives within easy reach!

This countertop knife rack stores a complete set of knives right where you need them. The lipped edges conceal a hole you cut in the countertop. You can easily remove the rack for cleaning.

Keep cleaning supplies at your fingertips!

Want a sink cabinet shelf that’s better than store-bought plastic or wire racks? Make one that mounts securely to the frame of your paneled door, has the same look as your cabinet and maximizes space because it’s custom fit.

Reach that stuff in the back!

Roll-out kitchen trays replace awkward, deep shelves. They’ll fit in any cabinet, are adjustable in height and are especially handy for older or disabled people. Budget about $45 per cabinet for the hardware and wood.

Store up to nine knives in a handy rack that puts sharp edges out of the reach of children. We’ve arranged the slots to fit a particular set of knives (Fig. A), but you can alter the pattern to suit your set. Experiment by cutting slots in a piece of cardboard. Then make the rack from any hardwood you like. After cutting, sand the rack smooth and finish it with three coats of spray polyurethane. A spray finish is easy to get into the knife slots.

Install a knife-blade shield under the counter (Fig. B and Photo 4). You may need to slightly shorten a drawer to make room for the shield. Also, make sure the shield doesn’t interfere with the drawer slides.

Cut an opening in your countertop with a keyhole saw. Lay out the opening far enough from the backsplash so the lips of the knife rack sit flat on the countertop. Then drill holes in the corners and saw away. (You may have enough room to use a jigsaw to make the long cut farthest from the backsplash.) Add a couple dabs of silicone caulk to the sides of the rack so it fits tight in the slightly oversized opening.

It’s easy to customize this catchall shelf to fit your cabinet doors. Measure the opening of your cabinet (not the door!) and plug your numbers into the Cutting List below. The shelf unit clears the opening by ¹/₄-in. on all sides.

You can mount this shelf on a cabinet door made of plywood or a door with a raised panel. Solid mounting strips get screwed into the stiles of the door, not the thinner panel.

Cut two pairs of ³/₄-in.-wide, ¹/₄-in.-deep dadoes in the sides: a pair for the two shelves and a pair for the mounting strips. Line up the mounting-strip dado with the shelf dado.

Slip the shelves into their dadoes. First drill holes for the mounting screws ³/₈-in. from the end of the mounting strips. Glue the mounting strips to the shelves. Drill pilot holes in the sides and fasten the shelves with long screws. Fasten the rails to the front of the shelves with short screws and finish washers.

Clamp and screw the shelves to your door, using ³/₄-in. screws and finish washers. You may need to add a third hinge and a magnetic catch if the weight of the loaded shelves prevents the door from closing easily.

Trays on wheels put all the pots and pans in a deep cabinet within easy reach. If your doors can’t open more than 90-degrees, plan on making the horizontal supports wider than shown here. There must be ¹/₄-in. clearance between the slides and the inside faces of your doors.

Mark the dadoes on one wide hardwood board. The four upper dadoes make the top shelf adjustable. Cut dadoes ¹/₄-in. deep, then rip the wide board into four vertical supports. Cut horizontal supports to hold the slides.

Glue the vertical supports in place with a couple dabs of construction adhesive. Then fit the horizontal supports tightly in the dadoes, without glue. The horizontal supports must stick out at least ¹/₄ in. beyond the face frame of your cabinet door. You’ll need this clearance for the drawer side to travel freely.

Build the plywood trays with plywood or hardwood sides. The corners may be simply butted together. Align the slide’s drawer members flush with the front of the tray. Fasten the slides to the trays and the horizontal supports. Place the rear end of the cabinet member at least ¹/₄ in. away from the end of the horizontal support.

No more smashed frosting, cracked crusts or capsized casseroles. You can take your culinary creations anywhere with this portable food safe. You can adapt the design to accommodate two pie plates, a deep casserole dish or a 9 in. by 13 in. baking pan. If you’re a bread baker, size the safe for two loaf pans with a pull-out cutting board on the bottom. Whatever you’re toting, it will arrive in style and in one piece!

Pine’s a good choice for wood because it’s easy to work and light in weight. Acrylic doors allow for peeking and the brass handle is an easy grip. Total cost: around $35. (Note: The following how-to contains specific instructions for the food safe pictured here.)

The four sides are wide so you may have to glue up some stock. Plane the material to ⁵/₈-in. thickness and mill to width and length (Fig. A). I like to cut the parts about ¹/₁₆-in. long so each box joint protrudes about ¹/₃₂ in. It’s better to sand the pins flush to the sides than the sides flush to the pins! Once the box joints are milled (Photo 1), take the two side panels and make the dadoes for the two sliding doors. The acrylic I used came a little under thickness so it worked well to make the dadoes right at ¹/₄ in. Next make the dado for the upper sliding tray. Now is a good time to finish sand the inside surfaces.

Gluing and clamping all four sides at once takes four hands; here’s a better way: Dry clamp the four sides, pull the top off the sides and brush glue onto the mating surfaces of the exposed pins. Replace the top and clamp (Photo 2). Make sure the top is square to the sides. When dry, flip over and repeat the gluing process with the bottom panel. When the glue is dry, you can sand the joints flush. Cut the tray bottoms from ¹/₈-in. hardboard. The upper tray bottom is wider than the lower tray because it needs a lip to slide in the side dado. Cut and attach the rim boards.

Your hardware store can cut the acrylic doors for you. If you choose to cut them yourself, use an 80-tooth, carbide-tipped triple chip design or a fine-tooth steel plywood blade. To remove saw marks on the edges of the acrylic, use a sanding block. The wood trim on the doors serves as a finger grip and is attached with epoxy. Scuff the acrylic with sandpaper and tape off any place you don’t want smeared with epoxy. Peel off the tape when the epoxy is still semisoft.

Here’s your chance to cut lots of corners and still get great-looking results. These sturdy trays are easy to build, thanks to their simple box joints and template-routed curves. You don’t need a super-equipped shop, just a tablesaw with a dado set, a router table and a drill press. You’ve probably saved enough scrap pieces from other projects to build the trays and the jigs, but even if you buy lumber and plywood, you can make this trio of trays for less than $60.

1. Prepare your stock, including extra pieces for test-cutting. Cut blanks for the ends (A1, B1, and C1, Fig. A) and sides (A2, B2, and C2) to length, but leave them ¹/₈ in. oversize in width. All the ends must be squarely cut.

2. Arrange the pieces for each box and then mark the bottom edge of every one. When you cut the box joints, these marks will correctly orient the pieces in the jig.

3. Box-joint jigs index the workpiece for cutting sockets. (Photo 1). Cutting a series of sockets creates the pins. To make the joint, one piece has pins where the mating piece has sockets.

4. Cut test box joints to dial in a precise fit. This is fussy work, because the tolerances are tiny. The pieces should slide together without binding or rattling. The best jigs have built-in adjustment systems.

5. Cut all the box joints. On the end-piece blanks, cut sockets only as far as their curved profiles dictate. The side-piece blanks are oversize, so you’ll have to make an extra pass to complete the top sockets.

6. Use the end profile of the large tray (A1, Fig. C) as a pattern when you make the routing jig (Fig. B). First, transfer the curved edge profile to the jig’s base. Then drill 1-in.-dia. holes with a Forstner bit to establish the ends of the handle hole. Finish rough-cutting the handle hole with a jigsaw. Then rough-cut the edge profile.

7. Smooth the edge profile using an oscillating spindle sander or a sanding drum in your drill press. Install a ³/₄-in.-dia. spindle or drum to smooth the handle hole.

8. Use a large end-piece blank to position the jig’s fence. Each end has six pins. Fasten the fence so the top pins are flush with the base’s curved profile.

9. Install the stops after centering the large end-piece blank. Mount the toggle clamps.

10. Draw edge profiles and handle holes on all the end blanks after installing them in the jig. Make spacers (W, X, Y and Z, Fig. B) to position the medium and small blanks.

11. Rough-saw all the curved profiles about ¹/₁₆ in. away from the pattern lines. To rough out the handle holes, drill ⁷/₈-in.-dia. holes and use a jigsaw to saw out the waste.

12. Rout the edge profiles with a top-bearing flush-trim bit (Photo 2). Then rout the handle holes (Photo 3).

Rout the curved ends of all three boxes using the same jig (Fig. B). The large box’s ends exactly fit the opening. Spacers center the ends of the medium and small boxes, so the profiles and handle holes all match.

13. Saw grooves for the plywood bottoms (A3, B3 and C3). On the side pieces, the grooves align with the top of the first pin (Fig. A). On the end pieces, they align with the top of the first socket. Because ¹/₄-in.-thick plywood is often undersize, you can’t use a dado set. Use your regular blade and make two passes. Adjust the fence between passes to widen the groove.

14. Assemble the boxes without glue to make sure everything fits. Rip the sides to stand ¹/₃₂ in. above the ends. Disassemble the boxes for sanding.

15. Glue the boxes together. Spread a thin layer of glue on all the pins and sockets. Use a brush and glue with an extended open time. Squeeze a thin bead of glue into the grooves for the bottoms, too.

16. Clamp each box using blocks to fully seat the joints (Photo 4). Make sure the boxes are square.

17. After the glue has dried, remove the clamps and knock off the blocks. Dampen any paper that remains attached; after about a minute, it’ll scrub right off. Remove any remaining glue.

Rout the handle holes after making sure the workpiece is securely held. With the router unplugged, center the bit inside the roughsawn opening. Hold the jig steady so the bit spins freely when you power up. Then rout counterclockwise.

Protect the end grain when you glue the tray together. Paper towels absorb squeezed-out glue, so it doesn’t soak deeply into the wood. Because of the towels, the clamping blocks knock off easily after the glue has dried.

20. Go over the boxes again with fine sandpaper; the grain will be raised in any area that has been wet. Slightly round all the sharp corners, especially those around the handle holes.

21. For small projects like this one, I prefer aerosol finishes. Spray on at least two light coats. Let the finish dry and sand lightly between each coat. Urethane finishes provide the best protection.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS AT A GLANCE

Materials:

18 lineal ft. of ¹/₂-in.-thick x 5-in.-wide hardwood lumber
One-quarter sheet ¹/₄-in. hardwood plywood
One-half sheet ¹/₂-in. Baltic birch plywood (for jigs)
Wood glue

Tools:

Tablesaw, dado set, router table, drill press, jig saw, 3-in.-dia. and ³/₄-in.-dia. sanding drums, 1-in.-dia. and ⁷/₈-in.-dia. Forstner bits, ¹/₂-in. flush-trim router bit with top-mounted bearing, block plane, assorted clamps

Cost: About $60

Figure A: Exploded View

Figure B: Routing Jig

Figure C: End Profiles

CLEAR OFF YOUR COUNTERTOPS! HIDE YOUR APPLIANCES BEHIND EXTRA-WIDE BI-FOLD DOORS

An appliance garage provides functional storage for the hodgepodge of appliances that clutter kitchen countertops. Close the doors, and everything is out of sight. Open the doors, and the appliances are at the ready.

Unlike most appliance garages that have a roll-top tambour door, this bifold door design provides twice the opening size, is easy enough to build in a weekend, and costs less than $100. For smooth operation, a roller bearing and routed track guide the doors.

Most factory-built corner cabinets are 24-in. on each side with a 17-in. diagonal face. Measure yours to verify the size. If your cabinets are a different size from these you can resize the dimensions following the instructions in “Resizing Your Garage,”.

Cut the plywood top at 45 degrees using a ³/₄-in. strip of scrap wood as a guide in your saw’s miter slot. Screw the guide strip to the underside of the plywood. Saw guard removed for photo clarity. Use yours!

To cut the top of the appliance garage, start out with a 21 ³/₄-in.-square piece of plywood or melamine-coated particle board. From this you need to cut the 45-degree face using the dimensions shown in Fig. A. If you don’t have a sliding table on your tablesaw, you can use the miter-slot in your saw’s table as a guide (Photo 1).

After the top is cut, drill for pocket holes across the front three edges, as shown in Photo 2. These pocket holes are used to secure the face frame.