Another project for a kid’s room. This one will be a small toybox to fit at the foot of a bed
Materials and Plan
The plan is to build the toybox using frame and panel construction and then reinforce the corner joints with long screws that are plugged. The bottom will sit on some cleats that are screwed/glued to the bottom rails
I was given some old shelving material a while ago and have been waiting on a project to use it on. Well the time has come and here it is. After milling it, I found out it was Douglas fir (maybe have been some very old 2X10s). I was also able to use up some leftover 1/2 and 3/4 plywood. Below pictures are before and after milling.
YOUTUBE VIDEO
Grooves and Tenons
After milling and ripping/cutting the material to final size I had to add some grooves to fit the plywood panels and to act as a mortise. So ,I set up my dado stack in the saw and had to have a very precise setup. The legs were also receiving a groove, but they were slightly different dimensions, so it took some time to dial it in. I also should note that I cut my grooves all the way through and come back and fill them in. After all the grooves were cut I cut tenons in all of the rail pieces. At some stage around this time, I added the supports for the bottom. I glued and screwed on some ~2″ wide stock to the bottom rails. I will eventually add some screw to pull the bottom down onto these supports
Panels, Priming, Glue Up, Reinforcing, Routing
I cut the floating panels to size, sanded them, primed them (with Stix), sanded them again. Then it was time to glue up the frame/panels. I started by gluing up the long sides first. After letting them sit for an hour, I glued the whole assembly together. Now we have a toybox.
Once that came out of the clamps, I predrilled for 3/8″ plugs, then drilled for a long 3″ screw, then added screws and plugs. I was mindful of the layout so the screws wouldn’t interfere with each other. Final step was to add some large 3/8″ roundovers to the outer edges and top edges. Then it was time for sanding and paint
Painting
I had to figure out a way to move this thing with wet paint, so I added a brace across the bottom cleats that would allow me to pick it up. I sprayed a coat of Stix (diluted) with my HVLP. After drying, I sanded and sprayed two coats of Command (diluted). with a sand in between. During my second coat, I got a really bad run and had to sand and spray a third coat.
The only thing I wish I would have changed was moving up the bottom, so it aligned with the top edge of the lower rails. The rail edge is just slightly proud of the bottom.
