Several people have asked me for the plans to my
flip-top cabinet, and Barbara (b4man) suggested this would make a great cyberclass. I found it very flattering
. Of course, I’m not an expert woodworker, nor a teacher, and after looking over the design, I’m not even sure I’m an expert on this project!
I guess I’ll just have to pretend I’m a consultant. That way, I can talk a lot without really understanding what I’m saying.
Yup, that’s what I’ve been doing on this forum for the last year or so. Consulting.
Going over the project I was amazed at how many decisions and techniques are involved in a relatively straightforward project such as this one. It has been enlightening reverse engineering the plans, while at the same time trying to figure out why I did something a certain way. Seeing everyone else’s projects here on North Carolina Woodworker makes it obvious how much I don’t know yet, how much there is to learn. What’s not obvious is how much I’ve learned in just one year.
I’ll try and keep the measurements as simple as possible, but you will need to do a lot of customization and tweaking to fit your tools. The nicest feature (well, in my opinion anyway) is the recessed platform, so that the miter saw sits flush with the top. If you don’t want to put a miter saw on the stand, you may be better off using a ready-made flip-top cabinet plan from one of the many web sites.
To keep things readable, I’ll post this in 8 parts – more or less. I tend to ramble a bit (consultants get paid by the hour
), so I may surpass DaveO in postcount before we get to the assembly stage!
- Measurements and material list
- Building the carcass
- Building the drawer
- Installing the drawer and casters
- Creating the platform
- Building the wings
- Trimming the plywood and adding supports
- Hardware and Finishing
Hopefully, I can write faster than you can assemble
. Look for postings in the General Woodworking forum.
I’d like this to be an interactive project, please post your comments, ideas and alternatives. Above all, if you think you see a mistake, please don’t hesitate to mention it, don’t think you’re the one who’s wrong. Apart from some initial measurements, this was a build-as-you-go project, so I’m sure there are lots of improvements we can think of. I’ll eventually collect all the write-ups, suggestions and diagrams into a single document, so if you still have a backlog of 17 projects you can just wait for the book to come out.
I have no idea how detailed I need to be. I’ll skip well-documented techniques like jointing and planing lumber, but I’ll spend quite a bit on scary parts like making a drawer. Where possible, I‘ll describe alternatives for the materials or construction. Not everybody owns a biscuit joiner for example
.
As Barbara said, let's get crackin'!
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