SketchUp Plans
This time I took a different approach by using a SketchUp tool , this is a great tool and very easy to learn.You can find lots of helpful tutorials on Youtube. It helps a lot while planning and also offers a 3D view of the design. It also helps in reducing wastage of wood by precisely planning how to cut the wood board. |
3D Render of the design |
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Front Frame |
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Drawers |
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Drawer support frame |
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4'x8' Rubber Wood Board |
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12mm 3'x7' Plywood |
Material
Used Rubber wood this time as you get a far superior finish than plywood and also it s easier to work with than using normal wood as you don't have to plane and fix the imperfections. Was stocking these board for some time. I have cut the board into 4'x4' piece for easy storage and working.
Though I faced an issue as I forgot to seal the cut piece edges with tape and so the board wrapped. But it can be fixed easily by drying it on the cup side facing towards the fan. I also noticed that the boards emits a foul smell from time to time but this problem goes away after sealing the wood.
I used the SketchUp layout for cutting of boards.
It costed me 150Rs/sqft for 18mm board. I have used 12mm Plywood along with the Rubber wood for the drawer inner frame and 6mm plywood for the drawer bottom.
Cutting and Joinery
For joinery I have used pocket hole jig from Kerg which I had ordered from
amazon.com. Pocket hole joins are strong and well concealed. Pocket hole screws are not available in local market and importing them will be expensive so I used dry wall screws with a M5 washer.
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Pocket Hole Joint |
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Kerg pocket hole jig |
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Screw with M5 washer |
My Bosch Impact driver comes very handy in driving the screws and drilling holes. The interchangeable chuck makes life very easy as I can switch between drilling hole and driving screws quickly. I feel that impact driver is far better than a drill driver as you can use it for multiple purpose. Also unlike the drill driver impact driver does not give back kick when screw gets jammed and is gentle to the wrist. I have done a detailed review on this tool
Bosch GDR 10.8 Review.
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Bosch GDR 10.8V impact driver |
As I don't have a table saw as yet so I use my Skil 5301 circular saw to do all of the cuts. Making straight cuts with a circular saw is difficult without a edge guide and so I used a 4" long 12mm board with a aluminium channel on top as a saw guide also have bolted a long piece on bottom of the saw to give extra support while cutting.  |
Skil Circular Saw |
This time I also managed to reduce the Saw dust as no matter how much care is taken it still gets settles all across the house and takes a lot of effort in cleaning. So I installed a 250mm exhaust fan on the window of the room where I cut the wood with the help of zip ties as it is just for temporary use. It is of great help to remove the fine saw dust also at the time of finishing it helps to remove the toxic vapors of thinner and varnish.
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Exhaust Fan |
Clamps come in very handy to fasten the pieces while gluing or cutting the pieces, you can never have enough clamps. Have a few F-Clamps, C-Clamps and Pinch clamps.
I prefer Fevicol MR for joinery than Fevicol SH as it comes in easy to apply bottle and has a quick drying time, the only time Fevicol SH is used is when gluing laminate as it is cheaper than Fevicol MR.
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Clamps |
Channels for fitting the drawers, you can find them easily at any hardware store. They come in a size difference of 2" so keep your drawer dimensions accordingly. Finishing of Drawers is a difficult task so be careful at the time of cutting, a little resizing can be done at the finalization by sanding.
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Drawer Channels installed |
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All Done |
Finishing
Have used Walnut stain to give a more professional colour to the project. First the wood has to be sanded with 180 grit sand paper then 320 grit sand paper. Once the surface is smooth apply sanding sealer in 50:50 diluted ratio with NC thinner and wipe it out. This is done to make the stain absorb more uniformly, I tried looking for pre staining sealer but could not find one.
Next step is to apply the walnut colour stain with a rag and finally for the top coat applied Asian paints touchwood finish. Apply 2 coats of Touchwood varnish and lightly sand between the coats with a 320 grit sand paper.
I gave the whole finishing a little touch of mine by scrubbing the final layer with a Scrotch-Brite pad and making it a matte from shiny finish. In the end polished the surface with my car polish.( Which is optional)
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Sanding process |
In the just a collection of all the tools that I used during this project, it was a fun project to do.Loved working with Rubber wood its easy to manage and the finishing is impressive.
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| Tools |
