[ Power saw whirring ] [ Mid-tempo music plays ] Welcome back to "The Woodsmith Shop."

Our theme for today is a place for everything and everything in its place.

And our project is this clever craft center.

It has three tiers of storage, whether your hobby is woodworking, fiber arts, or even if you need just a place to put some fishing lures.

The center expands out so that you can get at everything that you have stored inside.

There's a lot of woodworking involved here from box joints to finger joints and creating this pivoting action.

I hope you enjoy today's episode.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

And by... Kreg -- from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Additional funding provided by... Titebond Wood Glues -- the pro's advantage.

And by... ♪♪ ♪♪ And by... Inventables -- tools for designing and building your products.

Inventables.com.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Well, if you're looking for some workshop fun, I've got a great project for you.

It's the Woodsmith craft center box, and it checks all the boxes for me.

First, look at all these box joints in the corners of these trays, box joints on the handle.

And get a load of this.

That articulation of all the trays is great fun.

What am I seeing here?

I'm seeing a tackle box, a tool box, anything you want it to be, it'll be great.

Keep things organized.

Great project.

Not only does it have the box joints, the articulation, you've got these lids, brass hinges, brass stay chains.

Great project, loads of fun, and you'll find it all on our website.

You know, when you're making a craft center like this or even a toolbox, one of the things you want to do is have the box itself be lightweight because you're gonna pack it full of stuff and you don't want it too heavy.

So that's why on this project, we're using 3/8-inch-thick material.

Now, when you're working with thin material, one of the problems is getting enough glue surface on corner joints to make it sturdy.

For this project, we're using box joints, and we're cutting them right here at the router table.

Now, the reason I like to use the router table as opposed to the table saw is that with a straight-cutting router bit, you get a nice, crisp, square cut.

Not always the easiest thing to get with a dado blade at the table saw.

So I have a jig here.

And there's really three things that you need to pay attention to when you're setting up a box joint jig.

And those three dimensions need to be the same.

The first is the size of the router bit.

That's gonna define the notches that are created in the box joints.

Those notches need to fit over a key on the box joint jig.

So you want that key to be exactly the same size so that there's no play in the workpiece.

The final thing is the space between the bit and the key.

That needs to be the same distance also.

For that, I like to set up the jig using a -- using a set-up block.

This is just a piece of aluminum that's exactly a quarter of an inch, which matches the key and my bit.

So once I have that locked into place, it's always a good idea to do a test cut.

So I have a few pieces here that I'm gonna make a set of cuts on.

For the first set, what I'll do is I want to hold the piece so that it's firmly against the jig surface and then the one edge is going to be right up against the key.

So I want to have that tight in place.

It's not something you have to press against real hard.

Just be thinking about it.

So I'm gonna turn on the router, make one pass and that's gonna form a slot.

I'll take that slot and fit it over the key and make a second cut.

You can see where this is going.

I'm just gonna step my way down the piece.

Once that's done, I'll show you what it takes to set up the other part of the cut.

You'll notice that our first piece that we created starts with a pin, and then once we trim it to size, we'll end with a pin.

But what we need for the mating piece is not to start with a pin.

We need to start with a slot.

The way to do that is to take that first finger that I created and fit it over the key.

And now I'm gonna bring the second piece in and press it up snug against it and against the jig's surface.

Now, when I make that first cut, you can see that it's gonna create a slot.

Then I can remove that first piece and set it aside, slide the slot over the key and make a second cut.

Then it's back to the same old song and dance where we're just gonna step our way down the line.

Alright, here's our moment of truth.

We can fit our test pieces together and see how it goes.

You know what?

I'm pretty happy with that.

And when you're setting up a box joint jig, one of three things can happen.

The first, like this, is that the pieces go together with some moderate hand pressure.

No need to get out the mallets yet.

The other thing that can happen is that you just can't get them together.

What that means is that these pins are just too wide and that indicates that the space between the bit and the key is too far apart.

So you need to adjust the jig so that the key is a little bit closer to the bit and then recut another set of joints.

The other thing that can happen is when you bring them together, they just rattle around in there, which means that the pins are too narrow.

So you just have to do the opposite, spread the distance between the bit and the key so that you can tighten that up.

What you can see here is that since I got the pieces together and if I apply a little clamping pressure, I can get them to close up.

So what I'm gonna do now is start cutting a bunch of box joints on all my pieces to get these craft center cases put together.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Alright, with the box joint jig cleared out of here and I've assembled one of my cases for the craft center.

Now I have this dry assembled, so there's no glue in there.

And we're ready to make a groove to hold the bottom for the four trays and the main case.

Now, if you do the groove on the table saw, what you can end up with is that groove being exposed on the ends of two of the sides.

It's not a good look, and you usually have to go back and plug it.

My solution here is to use this little router bit.

Looks like a wee, little slot cutter, but it's called a box slotting bit and it's designed exactly for this purpose.

What I'll do is I'll set the box right over the top of it, start up the router and then run the bit around the inside perimeter of the box.

That creates a stopped groove in all the corners, and it's not gonna be visible on the outside.

Alright.

Here's what we're shooting for.

This is one of the smaller trays fully assembled.

Now, to get to this point, there are a few steps in the process.

The first of those takes place over at the table saw, where we want to trim all of our pieces to final size.

In cutting the box joints, they're a little wider than what they need to be and by cutting them at the table saw, we get to cut away any of the little ears and tabs that are left over.

The other thing to do is to cut the plywood bottoms to their final size also.

You'll do this by just dry assembling the boxes and then measuring from the depths of the grooves.

The key thing here, though, is that since we used the router bit to create that groove, we'll need to round each of the corners to match the radius of the router bit.

So what we can do now is assemble it.

Now, because I have relatively tight-fitting joints, what I'm gonna do is use liquid hide glue, which helps to lubricate the joint a little bit.

So I'll put some glue down the end of the box joints, a little bit... in the bottom... on two of the parts.

Then as I press this joint together, it'll spread the glue down across the joint faces.

Now I can set the drawer or the bottom into place.

Then I'm just gonna repeat the step on the other corners.

And then finally add some clamps just to pull everything tight.

There you have it.

I'll just leave it set up for a few minutes.

Then, because the joints are so snug, I can pull the clamps off, get started on the next one.

With the trays completed, it's time for the fun part of the project, and that's adding the motion, the articulation of these trays.

What we want is smooth, even action, and we want the trays placed so that they're well-supported by the tray that's underneath each one.

And so we still have plenty of access into the cavity.

So how do we achieve that?

Well, first off, what we need is the spacing between each of these screws to be exactly the same, and that's just a little bit of careful drill press work.

We also need the bars to be running true and parallel to each other.

And that's also gonna affect how smoothly things open and how well each of our trays register on the other one below it.

Now, getting that nice step back, that's really a function of the distance and the angle of the bars and we've already figured that out for you.

So what's up next?

Well, we need to go ahead and cut some bars to length and we're gonna head to the drill press and start drilling some holes.

♪♪ ♪♪ So it's time to lay out the holes to complete the placement of the bars.

Now, as you can see, I've taken all the trays for our craft center and I've clamped them together into their final position.

I've taken the binding post portion of our fasteners here, and I've gone ahead and put one in each of the bars and into the holes that we previously drilled in the middle tray.

Now, if you remember, I was saying these bars have to be exactly parallel to each other for the motion to be smooth and accurate.

Well, it's not hard to do.

What I've done is cut two strips of wood here.

I can place in between the bars.

And simple as that, they are parallel.

Now, the width of these spacers is determined by the location of these holes here, and we want these holes to fall pretty much on the centerline of that line that we previously drew on the top tray.

Well, with everything in place, I'm gonna take a brad-point bit and I'm just gonna go ahead and manually mark the location... ...that I need to drill... ...for our binding post.

Now, I'm gonna repeat that same process over here.

I'll flip this unit over and do the same thing on the other side.

And when I've got all those holes marked, I'll go ahead and drill them just like I did with the middle tray earlier.

And when that's done, we're gonna be ready to go ahead and put this together and make it move.

One more binding barrel to put in.

One last screw.

And there we go.

The articulation of all the trays is complete.

So what's left?

The lids and the handle.

The next part of our craft center to make is the handle that you can use to carry it around.

The real key part here is making a handle that's strong enough so that when the center is fully loaded up, it's not gonna break.

So what we have here is a 3-part U-shaped assembly.

Now, at the corners here, we're gonna join it with finger joints.

They'll look just like the box joints that we used on the case pieces.

However, since they're much taller, we can't use the router table.

So what we have is a shop-made box joint jig right here at the table saw.

And I'm gonna start with the top piece, which will have a finger on each end.

Then I'll use that to register the cuts for making the matching fingers on the two upright pieces.

This whole process should seem pretty familiar by now, and it goes pretty quick.

Alright, gluing together our handle assembly is a little similar and a little different from the trays that we made earlier.

Now, the pieces are much thicker, so there's much larger glue surface.

I found that on this instance, it's easier to just brush on some glue onto those faces, the glue surfaces, and I can slide them together.

Do the same thing on the other side.

Now, because they're much bigger joints, I'm gonna pull a clamp across the top.

And then the longer one on each leg.

The key thing here is making sure that the uprights are square to the top.

Once the glue dries, we'll take care of a little bit of shaping on here to make it fit the box.

The handle of the craft center attaches using the same 2-part bolt system that Chris used when attaching the trays and the pivot arms.

But in order to get to this point, we had to take a few steps.

The first is to create a relieved area on the upper portion of this handle so that when the trays are in their closed position, they're not gonna bind.

To do this, we drilled a couple of holes.

The first is a small one near the base of the handle, and that creates just a little bit of a radius and creates that relief area on the handle.

And I use the larger drill bit to create the radius up at the top of the handle.

Now we need to connect those dots and remove the waste.

Over at the table saw, you can set up a blade, raise it up high and trim away the lower portion of the handle to give you a nice, smooth, straight cut.

Then at the top of the handle, we'll make a straight cut using the rip fence on the bandsaw to connect the radius on each corner of the handle.

And you just reposition the handle and you can make another straight cut along each side.

There's gonna be some blade marks there, so with some files and sandpaper, you can just even out those surfaces on the inside and then round the edges so it's comfortable to hold on to.

We'll also need to cut a corner radius on the outside just to give it the look of a bent wood handle.

Now, once the handle is on and installed, the last thing that we need to do is to work on making the... ...the two lids for the top of the trays.

Now, the lids themselves are a frame and panel assembly.

The panel portion is a piece of oak plywood, matches the rest of the material that we're using.

And then I have these two strips of oak that will be the frame.

For the frame to sit inside, I'm gonna use the same box slotting bit that we used earlier to cut the grooves to create grooves on the inside edge of these two strips.

The important part here is setting the height of the bit and you want the top edge of the cutting surface to equal the thickness of the plywood that you're using.

That way, the surface of the lid is gonna be nice and flush.

Routing grooves on these thin strips can be a little bit dicey.

The thing that you want to keep in mind is just keep your fingers well away from the bit as you feed the piece past.

If it's gonna give you a little bit more comfort, you can use a push pad and use it as a hold in while you just push the piece past the bit.

After routing the groove in the strips, we can cut them into small pieces to wrap around the frame.

Now, I'm doing that with a miter box here at the bench, but you could use a miter saw or even over at the table saw.

Once it's done, this is what you're looking for, is to have nice, tight miters and even, nice, tight joint along the panel pieces, at which point we can glue the parts into place.

Now, since we're using plywood, I can put a bead of glue inside the groove... ...on all four pieces.

Then I like to put a little glue on the miters, too, as I go along.

Alright, I'm using a fast-setting glue here.

So in a short amount of time, this will be all set up and ready to sand and install on the case.

Once you've glued up the lids, there's really not much left to do in order to get them ready to fit on top of the craft center.

What I did is over at the drill press, put in a 1-inch drill bit and created a finger hole that allows you to be able to open and close the lid really easily.

Now, to make that connection between the lid and the tray, we used a continuous or piano hinge here, and I cut a shallow mortise on each of the lids over at the router table.

You could set up a straight bit and then use a series of stop marks.

It's all detailed in the plans to create a stopped mortise on each end.

You just square up the corners with a chisel and then you can install the continuous hinge using small brass screws.

Once that's done, the only thing you need to do now is to decide on a stain or finish combination for your craft center.

I'm kind of a sucker when it comes to building tool totes and tool chests and organizers.

I think it's because it's nice to have all of your tools and supplies organized and close at hand and ready for that next project.

Now, speaking of today's project, you can customize yours even more with a divided grid for the inside and even build a stand to raise up the craft center to a more comfortable height.

You'll find all of that in the plans at our website -- WoodsmithShop.com.

You'll also find more plans, videos, and woodworking tips to keep you in your shop until we meet right back here in the Woodsmith Shop.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ If you'd like to get more video tips and techniques, sign up for the free weekly Woodsmith eTip.

Every week, you'll receive an e-mail with a video tip to get more out of your table saw, router table, and more.

Sign up at WoodsmithShop.com.

Everything in today's show comes from the newly expanded Woodsmith Guild Edition with shop projects, plans, tips, and techniques.

To get a free preview issue of the Woodsmith Guild Edition and a free Woodsmith book, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

In addition, past seasons of "The Woodsmith Shop" are available on DVD, or you can watch them online from your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

For more information, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

And by... Kreg -- from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Additional funding provided by... Titebond Wood Glues -- the pro's advantage.

And by... ♪♪ ♪♪ And by... Inventables -- tools for designing and building your products.

Inventables.com.