My family wanted a similar dog kennel cabinet like I made previously.  I don’t have much detail in this post, just some pictures and  a few words.  So I ventured off and made another one, but this one was with sliding gates instead of hinged.

The stock is comprised of ash and maple

Stock Preparation

One of the boards had some serious tension in it and I had to use small wedge/pry bar to keep the board from pinching the blade

After all the stock was rough cut, I started milling the stock for the legs and rails.

Joinery

Using chalk for my rough layouts of mortises, so I screw up less often.

I also cut the tenons shortly after this and routed the groove for the upper panel.

Panel Pieces

After milling I resawed the boards for a larger panel glue up.  The panels will be placed in the upper sides of the cabinet

After cutting the panels to size I did another dry fit of the side assemblies.

I used 1/2″ dowels for the sides and doors.  I am roughly laying them out here and use my dividers to space them equally. 1/2″ forstner bit was used to drill the holes.

Sliding Gate Sytem

One of the next things I did was to figure out the sliding gate system.

It took a while to figure out, but I was able to work my way through it.  A couple important things I found out.  The cut depth for the plastic runner has to be a bit deeper than expected to make sure the guide rail opens wide enough.  If the cut is too shallow then it will pinch the roller mechanism.  Also, the depth of the round slides has to a bit deeper than expected as well.  I used scrap pieces of plywood to get the spacing correct so the doors slid past each other.

Sliding Dovetail Joint

I cut the dovetails on my table saw.  I pitched the blade at 8 degrees, roughly and use a miter gage.  Then I cleaned up the socket with a chisel.  I left the table saw blade at the same angle and used my tenoning jig to cut the dovetail pins.

Some dry fits to ensure everything is looking good

After the dry fit, I cut some small slots for the table top fasteners with a 3/16″ router bit in all the upper pieces.

Staining Individual Pieces

I sanded to 120, wetted, sanded again to 120.   Then I applied stain to the individual pieces before I glued anything up.  Like the legs, dowels, rails, panels.  I taped off the tenons to ensure I didn’t get any stain on them.  The stain gets applied liberally with a foam brush or rag.  It dries for about 15 minutes and then gets rubbed off with the grain.

After applying two coats of stain to all the pieces and then gluing up the sides, here they are.

Cleats for Plywood Panels

The next item to take care of was cutting and marking the location of the cleats for the plywood panels.  I used some left over pieces of oak for this since I had them gathering dust.  I made a quick jig to set the depth of the cleat on the individual pieces.  Since I am using 3/4″ plywood I made a quick jig to set the depth below the edges.  I added a couple strips of tape to increase the depth so the plywood would be very slightly below the top edge.  It was a lesson learned from last build.  The plywood was basically flush with the top and I was worried it may get hit or chipped.  The cleats are just drilled and screwed to the front and rear rails as well as the dovetailed dividers.

After the cleats were drilled, I glued the entire base up.  Then I cut the plywood panels to size, sanded, wet, sanded, and applied stain.

Making Gates

I don’t have many pictures to share here, but the gates are mortise and tenon with 1/2 dowels inserted between.  I sized them to be 1/8″  smaller than the opening, so 1/16″ each side.  This was a big mistake since i didn’t account for the plastic guides being ~1/16″ thick.  I didn’t realize this until after I applied all the finish and poly.  That sucked.   The sliding gates stick a little bit in the center.

I don’t have the plastic guides in the cabinet, so at this time I figured I was in good shape with a nice tight gap.

Routing the Rabbet for the Back Panel

I foolishly added the decorative pieces in the corners on the wrong side of the cabinet so those got in the way when routing.  I also foolishly had the back rails and legs offset and not flush with each other.  So, I think I spent 3 hours or more just routing the back panel rabbets.  What big pain, with lots of chisel work.  Anyway, here is the back panels glued up with lots of cauls.  The back panel has a slight wave in it, from uneven pressure.

The Top

The last piece to make was the top.  I cut three piece to rough length and then to width.  After that, I milled the lumber and glued it back together.  It was the quickest I have created a top for something.  I sanded, wetted, sanded, and applied stain.

Spraying Polyurethane

I sprayed three coats of satin polycrylic (Blue Can by Minwax, I think).  It was my first big project using my HVLP from Fuji.  It worked out great and the finish was so smooth.  I usually have to wet sand and wax all my finishes to get them smooth enough.

Here is the Finished Product

I think I spent about 65 hours on the project all together.

Probably wasted about 5 hours fixing tenon shoulders that I cut poorly due to a bad setup.  Wasted another 3 on chiseling out rabbets.  I cut mortises in the wrong spot and had to fix and recut those, so that is probably a couple more hours wasted.