– Bruce Kieffer
Edina, Minnesota

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All of this stuff has needed organization for some time, and with this gluing supplies caddy, I think I have the solution. On top it’s amply sized to hold all the glue options, plus a quart of mineral spirits for checking for glue splotches and a small pail and sponge for cleaning up squeeze-out. Underneath, there’s a drawer for storing a bunch of glue brushes, a putty knife and my new Rockler glue bottle caps. The drawer is divided and slides out from either the front or back of the caddy to make it easier to find what I need. It’s held closed with pairs of rare-earth magnets to keep it from sliding open when I carry the caddy from where I’ll keep it to the bench for use. If your gluing supplies could use tidying up too, that’s a good excuse to commit some energy and a bit of lumber to this project on a Saturday morning sometime soon.

Building the Carcass

Get this build underway by gluing up panels for the carcass sides from 3/4″ stock, as needed. Rip and crosscut them to final size, according to the Material List. Then cut a pair of workpieces for the carcass front and back to size.

The front, back and side panels connect with 1/2″ box joints. I made them on the router table with Rockler’s box joint jig and a 1/2″-dia. upcut spiral bit. But, you could also make them on the table saw with a 1/2″-wide dado blade and a shop-made jig. Raise the bit or blade to 3/4″ so the pins and slots of the joints will enable the workpieces to mesh completely together. Start the joints with a pin at the top edges of the front and back pieces, and machine the pattern across the full width of these two parts. Then use them as spacers to mill a mating joint on the top edges of both side panels. Here, there should be a slot that starts the pattern. Mill four slots and three pins only.

Next, install a 1/4″ straight or spiral bit in your router table so you can plow 1/4″-deep grooves on the inside faces of the front, back and sides for the caddy’s top deck. Adjust your router table’s fence so these grooves align with the bottom edge of the bottom pin on the front and back panels. Plow them the full length of the workpieces.

Use the same router table setup to plow grooves for the deck on the side panels. This time, however, mark the cutting limits of the router bit on the fence so you can start and stop these groove cuts 1/2″ in from the front and back ends of the side panels in order to hide them when the carcass is assembled. Square up the ends of the grooves with a chisel.

Now you can cut a 1/4″-thick deck panel to size — I used MDF for mine. Prepare a 3/4″-thick bottom panel, too. Then go ahead and dry-assemble the six carcass parts you’ve made up to this point to ensure that the box joints close properly with the deck and bottom panel in place. If they do, sand the inside faces of the front, back, side and bottom panels up to 180-grit.

How you’ll install the bottom panel in the carcass is entirely up to you. I decided to use biscuit joints and machined four evenly spaced #20 biscuit slots into the adjacent surfaces of the bottom and side panels for this purpose.

As you can see, the drawer can be opened from either end of the caddy. And since this project is intended to be carried where it’s needed, it’s a good idea to provide some provision for a drawer “catch.” Four 3/8″-dia. rare-earth magnets can accomplish this purpose nicely! We’ll embed two magnets in the top face of the bottom panel and do the same in the bottom edges of the drawer’s front and back pieces. This way, when the drawer is closed, the pairs of magnets will attract one another and hold the drawer in place. I used a 3/8″-dia. Forstner bit to drill shallow holes for the magnets in the inside face of the bottom panel and then glued the magnets into place with quick-setting two-part epoxy. Make sure the top faces of the magnets are flush with the panel’s face.

Next, spread glue over the pins and slots of the four box joints and into the biscuit slots, and clamp the carcass together with the deck, bottom panel and biscuits in place. When the glue cures, rip and crosscut two strips of 1/4″-thick scrap to create drawer guides. Glue and clamp them to the bottom of the deck inside the drawer “tunnel,” with their long outer edges flush against the carcass sides.

Adding the Handle

Cut a blank for the handle to size, as outlined in the Material List. If you’re building your caddy from solid lumber as I did, make sure to orient the grain direction so the long grain will be parallel to the handle’s top grip (the grain should run horizontally when the handle is in place on the caddy). Lay out the handle’s shape, using the Handle Drawing as a guide.

Now step over to your band saw to cut out the handle, or use a handheld jigsaw. Sand the cut edges and faces of the handle smooth. Then ease the sharp edges of the portion of the handle that will extend above the carcass with a router and 1/8″-radius roundover bit. Or break these edges with sandpaper.

Cut a divider for the upper area of the caddy to size from 3/4″ material. It should fit snugly between the side walls of the carcass. Center the front end of the handle on the length of the divider, and fasten the parts together by driving #8 x 2″ countersunk screws through the divider and into the handle.

Slide the handle assembly into place on the caddy. Drive more countersunk screws through the sides and back of the caddy to secure the divider and back end of the handle. Cover the exposed screwheads, if you wish, with matching wood plugs. Trim the plugs flush and sand them smooth.

Assembling the Drawer

Joint and plane enough 1/2″ stock to make the drawer’s front, back, sides and drawer divider. Cut the parts to size. We’ll assemble the drawer with box joints to mimic those on the caddy. Set up your box joint-making system again, only this time, adjust the cutter height to 1/2″. I arranged the pattern so the drawer faces would have pins on their top and bottom edges. Mill all four corner joints.

Just as before with the carcass, dry-fit the corner joints. If all looks good, plow a 1/4″ x 1/4″ groove for the drawer’s bottom panel into the inside faces of all four parts. Locate these grooves 1/2″ up from the bottom edges of drawer workpieces. That placement enables you to rout the grooves along the full length of the drawer front and back. Stop the grooves 1/4″ in from the ends of the drawer sides so they won’t show.

I decided to install the drawer divider with dadoes rather than simply nail or screw it to the sides, because sometimes a rogue nail will go sideways when driven into such thin material. I used a 1/2″-wide dado blade set 1/8″ above the table to plow dadoes all the way across the width of the drawer sides for the divider panel. I located these dadoes 8-1/4″ from the same ends of the drawer sides.

After you cut a 1/4″-thick bottom panel and a divider to size, fit all the drawer parts together without glue to make sure the joints close correctly. If they do, sand the inside faces of the parts up to 180-grit. Then glue and clamp the drawer together. Make sure the corners remain square under clamping pressure; the diagonal corner-to-corner measurements of the drawer should match.

Once the glue dries, mark and drill a centered hole into the bottom faces of the drawer front and back for the other pair of magnets. Epoxy them into place, but before you do that, make sure to orient them so their polarity will attract the magnets in the carcass bottom instead of repel them.

Finishing Up

Finish-sand the outer surfaces of the caddy and drawer, and break all sharp edges either with sandpaper or a 1/8″ roundover bit. Then measure and mark a center point on the outer faces of the drawer front and back, and bore a 3/16″-dia. hole through each for a machine screw to attach the drawer knobs.

Apply finish to your new caddy. I wiped on several coats of Rockler’s Sam Maloof Poly/Oil Finish — it’s an amber-toned oil/varnish blend — to make the most of the grain pattern and color of my caddy’s southern yellow pine.

When the topcoat cures, install the two drawer knobs and fill this handy shop project up with your collection of glues and applicators. I attached a hook to the back of the handle for hanging Rockler’s 5″ Glue Roller and mounted a Glue Bottle Dock to the front with a couple of machine screws.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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– Bruce Wedlock
Peabody, Massachusetts

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Click Here to Download the Plan.

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Download this complete plan.

Making the Drawers

Your first inclination might be to make the tool chest’s case first, but then the drawers must be precisely fitted to its interior. The easier route – especially considering the interlocking nature of the corner joinery and how that impacts final part sizing – is to make the drawers first and wrap the case around them. Start by cutting two 7-1/2″ x 13″ pieces of 1/2″-thick Baltic birch plywood. They’ll yield all four upper and lower drawer sides.

Install the drawer lock bit in your router table, then take a close look at the photos. Notice that the geometry for a drawer lock joint consists of a tongue-and-groove profile on one piece that fits into a mirror image tongue-and-groove on the mating piece. Adjust the bit vertically so the cutter creates an equal-sized tongue-and-groove. Rockler offers a plastic setup block that can make finding this bit height quick and easy.

It also can help you determine bit projection out from the router table fence. But, if you don’t have the benefit of the setup block, move the fence until the top portion of the cutter will cut 1/4″ into the drawer side stock, and raise the bit 3/8″ above the table.

When the bit’s settings are dialed in, knife a line across the face of the plywood 3/8″ from both ends where the top corner of the router bit will intersect it, to help minimize tearout during routing. Now, carefully mill the profile across one face of both workpieces, on both ends, with the blanks standing vertically against the router table fence, to form the drawer side profile of the four corner joints. Set these workpieces aside for the moment.

Rip and crosscut another piece of 1/2″ Baltic to 7-1/2″ x 20-3/4″ to create both drawer backs. You’ll see that the drawer back has a thin, elongated tongue that covers the ends of the drawer sides.

To achieve this overlapping profile, reset the bit’s projection from the fence using the other end of Rockler’s setup block as a guide (the bit’s projection changes to 3/8″ but its height remains the same). Then mill this cut into both ends of the drawer back stock. Set this workpiece aside for now as well.

The drawer faces come next, and we’ll harvest them from the same piece of plywood as the tool chest’s top rail. Start with a piece of 3/4″ plywood measuring 10-3/4″ x 21-3/4″. Cut the 3″-wide front rail off the top of the panel (see photo 6). Then, trim 1/8″ off each short end of the remaining wider piece to create a single combined blank for both drawer fronts.

Study the photos and you’ll see that the thicker drawer front material creates a tongue that both covers the drawer sides and also conceals the ends of the drawer slides. The goal for this tongue length is 7/8″. To form it, make a series of passes into the ends of the drawer front workpiece, shifting the fence back a little with each pass to expose more of the router bit.

Make each new cut in a scrap piece first to check your progress, before continuing to rout the drawer front ends. Stop cutting when the length of the inside face of the drawer front blank matches the length of the inside face of the drawer back blank.

Now, dry-fit the corner joints. If they lock together well, rip the drawer side and drawer back blanks to their final widths. Then lower the saw blade to 1/4″ and plow 1/4″-wide grooves along the inside bottom edge of each drawer part to fit your 1/4″ drawer bottom plywood. Cut these grooves carefully so the plywood will fit them snugly.

Assemble the drawer boxes again in order to take inside measurements for the drawer bottoms. Cut the two drawer bottoms to size. Finish-sand all the drawer parts, and bring the drawer boxes together with glue and clamps.

Before the glue begins to set, be sure to check the boxes for square by measuring their diagonals: if the numbers match, you’re all set. If they don’t match, adjust the clamping pressure or the clamp positions to correct the problem; out-of-square drawers are a hassle to correct after the fact — especially when they’re made of plywood that can be hand-planed to correct things.

Lock-Align Drawer Organizers

A tool chest without some form of inner dividers will quickly become a disorganized dumping ground for hand tools and other small parts. But Rockler’s system of Lock-Align Drawer Organizers can help.

The interlocking, synthetic rubber components create a grid of compartment walls that you can customize to the size of the drawer by cutting with a utility knife or scissors.

Assembling the Chest Carcass

Cut a pair of workpieces for the chest divider and back panel to size from 3/4″ plywood. Finish-sand them, along with the front rail. Then glue the front rail to one long edge of the divider so the rail’s bottom edge is flush with the bottom face of the divider.

When the joint dries, you can reinforce it with three Miller Dowels as we did, or use countersunk #8 screws or even brad nails, if you prefer. Now, draw a layout line 3″ in from one long edge of the back panel.

Align the bottom back edge of the divider to this line, and glue and dowel the divider and back panel together to complete the chest’s inner subassembly.

Cut the chest’s side panels to shape and sand them. Attach the sides with glue and dowels to the inner subassembly — make the back edges of the side panels flush with the back face of the back panel.

Cut, sand and install the chest’s bottom panel next, with its back edge flush to the back of the carcass and its ends extending evenly out from the side panels. Use dowels or other fasteners to reinforce these joints, too.

Installing Hardware

The finish line for this project is in sight, but there’s a little more milling yet to do. Rockler’s metal flush-mount drawer pulls require a 1/8″-shallow mortise cut into the top faces of the drawers. The easiest way to accomplish this is to create a simple routing jig that controls the length of the mortise cuts, then use a straight bit to cut them.

Our routing jig amounts to a pair of long scraps that straddle the drawer face and also help to stabilize the router base during mortising. Two crosspieces, fastened to the long pieces, stop the router’s travel and limit the length of the mortises to fit the 120 mm-long pulls. Once the drawer faces are mortised, fasten the pulls to them with the included screws.

Next up are the drawer slides. Carefully lay out the positions of the cabinet side components of the slides inside the chest. Inset their front edges 7/16″ back from the front of the chest, and fasten them in place with the included screws. It’s a good idea to use the slotted holes provided on the slides for the screws, in case you need to move the slides slightly up, down or back and forth. Fasten the drawer side member of each slide so it’s centered on the width of the drawer sides. Then, connect the slide components together to hang the drawers, and check their action. Adjust the slides as needed to create even gaps between the drawers and so the drawer faces close flush with the front of the chest.

Cut and sand a panel for the chest lid. We installed ours with a pair of low-profile, partial wrap-around hinges that don’t require mortising. Just mark their positions on the lid and back panel, drill pilot holes and fasten them in place. Then, to keep the lid up while using tools, we completed this project’s hardware needs with Rockler’s Easy-Lift Lid Support — it also simply screws to the lid and back panel.

Finishing Up

You could skip a finish on this project in order to hustle it into service, but eventually raw, blonde plywood will begin to look grimy from use. So why not apply two coats of your favorite film finish — polyurethane, shellac or lacquer — it will keep this tool chest looking great for years to come.

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

12″ Series 757 100-lb. Over-Travel Centerline® Lifetime Slides (2) #49778
Easy-Lift Lid Support (1) #66649
Stainless Steel 120mm Edge Pulls (2) #1014281
Rockler Drawer Lock Router Bit (1) #22637
Router Bit Set-Up Jig for 22637 Drawer Lock Corner Bit (1) #53810
1x Miller Tru-Fit Drill Bit (1) #20300
1x Miller Walnut Dowels (1) #21366

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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This shop desk project came about when I ran across Rockler’s Folding Shelf Brackets recently. They close by squeezing a release latch on the upper leg and lowering them. It didn’t take much daydreaming or time in SketchUp for me to create the plans that now give me the occasional desk space I need. I’m finding it to be a useful landing pad for my laptop when I’m watching a how-to video online. It’s also a handy place to spread out project plans or to stage small parts and tools as I work. And then, when I’m done using the desk, I can fold it down and out of the way until the next time I need it. But, while my desk is out in the garage, the range of alternative uses for it is truly wide open, so don’t limit your options to just woodworking.

Think Outside the Shop for Other Uses

There’s no reason why a practical, space-saving project like this needs to be pigeonholed to a shop setting! If you add one of these folding desks to your garden shed, you’ll have a work surface for amending potting soil in a planter, changing the chainsaw spark plug or whatever task can be made easier by working at standing height. Same goes for the laundry room: a prop-up counter could serve as a place to set the iron while it cools or to fold socks. If the hunting shack is short on counter space, here could be a place to refill the lantern, dismantle a hand gun for cleaning or sort your tackle box lures.

And don’t overlook the ways you could customize the design further: the shallow space behind the desk could store a clipboard and drawing pad, your measuring and marking tools or a rack of chisels. Add a groove or a simple pencil tray along the front edge of the desk, and you’ll never have pencils rolling off. For even more durability, cover the desktop with a scrap of plastic laminate so it won’t absorb stains or other chemicals while you’re mixing or pouring them. And an additional point of note: these brackets have three locking positions from partially to fully raised. Here’s a project with many possibilities!

Parting Out a Pair of Panels

I ordered a couple of 24″ x 30″ Baltic birch panels from Rockler, which will provide just enough material for all the desk components if you cut them carefully. The Panel Cutting Diagram shows the sequence of steps to harvest the parts efficiently. Start by crosscutting a 2-3/4″-wide strip off of one end of each panel for the two side pieces of the desk’s case. Then turn the panels longways and rip a second strip to the same width for the case’s top and bottom.

Trim down what’s left of the panels to form the desk surface, and crosscut the top, bottom and side strips to their final lengths, according to the Material List. Leave the back panel slightly large for now. If you haven’t worked with Baltic birch before, be advised that the surface veneer can splinter if you use a dull or dirty blade. Use your best blade, just to play it safe.

Adding Corner Joinery

When you study the Exploded View drawing, you’ll see that the top, bottom and sides of the desk’s case interlock at the corners with rabbet-and-dado joints — they’re easy to machine and very strong. The case’s back panel has rabbets along its wide ends that fit into grooves in the top and bottom pieces to lock it in place.

I opted to cut the corner joints at my router table using a 3/8″-dia. straight bit. If you decide to do the same (you could also cut the joinery with a dado blade at the table saw, if you prefer), raise the bit to 3/8″ and lock your router table fence 3/8″ away from it.

Plow a dado across the end of each side piece and into the same face of the parts. Because these side pieces are so narrow, be sure to back up the cuts with a scrap piece to prevent the workpieces from skewing away from the fence as you push them over the bit. A backup piece will also prevent the plywood from blowing out along the back edge as the router bit exits the cut.

Once those dadoes are milled, it’s time to rout a 3/8″ x 3/8″ groove into the top and bottom pieces of the case. These grooves are inset 3/8″ from the part edges, so your router table is already set to go from the previous dado cuts. Plow a groove into each part, keeping the workpieces pressed tightly against the fence and pushed down firmly so the grooves will have a consistent depth all along their length.

The top and bottom pieces require rabbets on their ends to fit the dadoes you first cut on the side pieces. Here’s where the router table fence needs to be adjusted and, quite possibly, your bit height, too. Shift the fence forward so the bit has a full 3/8″ exposure but no more. Make a test cut on some scrap of the same thickness as your plywood, and see if the test rabbet fits the case’s side dadoes. If the joint is too tight, raise the bit a tad. If it’s loose, lower the bit instead. Once that’s dialed in, mill the rabbets on the top and bottom pieces. Again, back up these cuts with a scrap that stabilizes them and prevents blowout.

Dry-fit the corner joints, and take an inside measurement of the frame’s width and height to verify the final dimensions of the back panel. Cut the panel to size, then head back to the router table to mill a rabbet along its top and bottom ends using the same router table settings. When that’s done, carry out another dry assembly of all the parts. If the joints close well and the back fits its grooves properly, give the pieces a final sanding to 120-grit (for painting) or 180-grit (for a clear finish) and glue and clamp the case together.

Forming Handle Cutouts

Two cutouts along the edges of the desk surface enable you to simply reach in and lift up to lock the desk into place for use.

Lay out these handles 2-3/4″ in from the front edge of the desk surface, using the Drawing as your guide.

I cut the handles to shape, starting at my drill press with a 1-1/2″-dia. Forstner bit, to form the two inside curves.

Once those were bored, I trimmed the outside curves and removed the inner waste piece at my band saw.

Then, I fired up my benchtop spindle sander and gave the cutouts a final sanding to blend and smooth the curves.

Mounting the Brackets

Attaching the shelf brackets to the back of the case isn’t hard, but what’s critical here is that these brackets are exactly parallel to one another and to the sides of the case. If they aren’t, they can bind when they are closed. I first positioned the wider (release latch) legs of the brackets 3″ in from the narrow ends of the desktop and attached them to it with short screws driven into pilot holes. Then, with the brackets opened, I set the desktop into the case, pushed it up against the case top and adjusted it side to side for even clearance. I drew layout lines to mark the brackets’ narrower leg locations and attached the legs to the back with more screws. Test the up-and-down action of the desk, and make any adjustments to the brackets until they articulate smoothly. With that done, remove them so you can prime and paint the wooden parts. Or topcoat them with your favorite clear finish.

When the paint or finish dries, reinstall the hardware. Now, call a buddy over to help you mount this project to a wall. Of course, the right approach is to anchor the back to two wall studs, so locate their spacing with a pair of parallel layout lines on the inside face of the case back. Have your helper hold the project in place on the wall so you can lift the desk surface up and decide on a working height that’s most comfortable for you. Mark six installation screw locations on your stud layout lines in the case. Drill pilot holes, and drive 3″ deck screws into the wall to mount the desk. Then, put this handy desk to work!

Hard-to-Find Hardware:

Folding Shelf Bracket, 16″ (2) #65806
3/4″ Baltic Birch Plywood, 24″ W X 30″ L (2) #63453

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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