In my ongoing pursuit to develop a few key designs from which to work with, I have come up with this little cabinet.  Which continues my tansu theme.  Being that this is a basic square there are several configuration possibilities.  I could easily make this larger or smaller.  There could be multiple drawers or no drawers at all.  This first version will have one full-width drawer across the bottom.  A small inset drawer with an open display shelf above and a single sliding door that will cover a storage area.  The divider is placed directly in the center giving the option of using either side as the open display area.  I wanted this cabinet to have several layers.  The only parts that sit flush with each other is the outer frame, horizontal divider and bottom drawer.  All of the other parts sit at a different level.

The challenge with this little cabinet is that it’s small.  I find producing small parts much more challenging.  All of the margins for error are reduced and accuracy needs to be spot on.

So I began cutting pieces to size and cutting joinery today.  Starting with the outer frame and finger joint corners.  These will receive bamboo pegs during glue-up.

Then I fitted the horizontal shelf that defines the bottom drawer.  This sits in stopped housing dados which I cut with a chisel and small router plane.  Once I had the horizontal shelf in place I was able to size and fit the vertical divider.  This too, sits in stopped housing dados an is inset from the face edge.  I also managed to cut the first housing dado for the horizontal shelf that defines the small inset drawer.

That’s as far as I was able to progress today.  I’ll leave you with a look at the dry fit of my day’s labor.

Greg Merritt…Part 2