Drill Press Cabinet Build Along

[HoneyBadger]

But as a gift to a friend and an opportunity to unwind and practice some skills that were otherwise rusty, I got a lot more out of it than I put into it.

How do I get on your friend list??

[JohnnyEgo]

How do I get on your friend list??

Good Barbacoa.

[JohnnyEgo]

Drawers

Started with some 6" pine I had laying around. Cut some 1/4" grooves into the base with my table saw, to fit some scrap Melamine-covered Masonite board:


Used pocket screws to butt-joint them all together:



And mounted them up to some 15" Accu-Ride full extension slides.

Speaking of which, the full extension slides are so much cheaper in bulk on the internet than individually at a home improvement store. I bought a 10 pack of these for another project for less than the cost of the three slides I actually needed from Home Depot. Again, Jim benefitted from the free extras taking up space in the garage.

Slapped some Melamine drawer faces on them:



And called it a night:

[JohnnyEgo]

Drawers, Part II

Applying Melamine edge banding to the drawers.


I use my household iron to heat up the adhesive.

(Pro Tip: Make sure you clean all the spill-over adhesive off the iron before you return it to your wife's sewing room.)

I use a roller to make sure the adhesive has a good grip on the edge of the board before the glue cools.


A very inexpensive edge trimmer takes off the excess:


A couple light passes with a 220 grit sanding sponge breaks up any sharp edges remaining, and gives it a pretty clean look.

[Irving]

Looking great so far.

[JohnnyEgo]

Rear Door
There is a lot of usable space behind the column of the drill press, while still being in the same over-all footprint of the drill. This is due to the amount of space the drill press motor on the head extends behind the table and press base. This is part of the nature of what makes a drill press tippy and dangerous to mobilize. When I built my own cabinet, I saw an opportunity to use the extra space and provide an extra measure of stability by lengthining the base-plate footprint.

First I finished trimming the rear opening:


Then I cut some tongue and groove rails and styles for the rear door on the router table:



I used the router table instead of the saw because I find it a little bit safer and easier to work with narrow stock and do the cope cuts for the stiles on the ends.

Good enough for shop furniture.

Some more of that 1/4" Melamine scrap made for a very light-weight door. Some extra Blum 1/2" offset hinges (also extra from another project) and some glue make for a nice, lightweight door.


And Voila:

[JohnnyEgo]

Detail Work
Now I was at the 80% complete mark, which meant the time-consuming tedium of cleaning up the small details could begin.

First, there was a gap between the carcass and rear face frame, because the carcass base wasn't quite flush. This is why I love my overpriced German tracksaw:



Also needed to cut the front of the frame so that it could ride over the rails on the mobile base and be flush with the wheel mounts:



A little shop clean-up:


And then some mortices for the hinges via router and chisel:

Keep meaning to build or buy a jig or template for this sort of thing. Also keep forgetting to actually do it.

Need a little more clearance for the height adjustment knobs on the mobile base:


And the little things like knobs:

[Irving]

With respect to the extra space and the rear door, how realistic would "U" shaped drawers be?

[Great-Kazoo]

With respect to the extra space and the rear door, how realistic would "U" shaped drawers be?

The rear door sits behind the stand / upright part of the press. You forgot this was for a drill press? Storage is divided in half. John designed it to utilize as much space as possible.

I'm sure it could have been built with no rear storage, using the upright of the press as the rear of the cabinet. However from the projects we've seen John do. He tends to over design them.
1 drawer, great, TWO drawers AND Rear Storage, EVEN BETTER!

[rondog]

Please pardon a bit of thread drift, but how well do those insulation panels in the garage door work? And where'd you get them?