Today's progress......
During the week I decided I'd reduce the depth of the frame by 30mm (guess who forgot about the skirting board!). I've not yet done that (will do it when I 'flat pack' it to take indoors) but I did adjust the depths of the drawers as I cut them, which was the first job this morning. My mitre saw cannot cut 305mm wide drawer contiboard, so it was a case of cutting most of the width, flipping over, aligning the blade in the cut and finishing it.
I hadn't got the timber yard to supply the MDF for the drawer backs as I had a spare half sheet already, but getting the 5 pieces involved a bit of thinking to make them all fit. Space is a premium in the garage, and most machines and worktops are on wheels, so it was a case of moving the frame out of the way and popping up the excellent table from Screwfix (takes less than 10secs to set up). Once I'd cut the first slice, I could do the rest on my new Scheppach TS105 sawtable bought a few weeks ago at the D&M Show for £200 (show offer). I used to have a Electra Beckum PK200 which was better quality but took up too much space due to the fixed rails. This saw has slide out rails (can rip to 560mm) and performed very well. It also has wheels and is light enough to be lifted onto the table. it did come with a stand but that is still boxed as I store it on end when not in use.
Once all were cut, I then used the router table to groove for the base, in both the sides and the fronts. I took the measurements from sketchup and took time setting the fence to get the cut exact, as for the fronts the bottom two drawers have the groove further from the bottom edge (photo shows a bottom and middle drawer front)
Next job was to dowel the sides to fit the drawers - the joint genie was used, along with the snug fitting 8mm metal dowel I made to keep the register as I worked along the length (I think this should be included in the kit).
The corresponding holes were drilled in the front. I used a piece of ply to register the bottom of the side and marked it...
then used a set square to reference the jig
Once the first side was dowelled, I dry fitted it then used the back as a spacer to reference the jig for the other end......A bit later in the day I realised that the drawer runner statement of distance between the sides of -0 and +1mm was critical! On the left hand set of drawers the spacing was as per design, but on the right hand side I'd had to trim the horizontal rails a few mm to compensate for MDF verticals that were more than the nominal 18mm. This meant that the first drawer I did sat on the runners ok but rubbed against the fixed bit. Good job I did one drawer first as a dry run, as it was easiy resolved with the table saw taking 2mm off the back and base.
The drawer runners are 600mm long (the longest) and the drawers are 770mm, so I needed to make a hole in the drawer base for the hook to fit into. Normally the drawer is made 10mm shorter than the runner and the hook locates in a hole drilled into the drawer back. I knew that the base was recessed into the front by 8mm so cut the holes at 598mm and marked on the drawer side at the 590mm point. It worked well ....
...but.....
The salice drawer runner instructions said to leave at least 5mm from the top of the drawer and anything above it , which I had done (just 5mm!). However, this meant that I couldn't lift the drawer up high enough to allow the hook to slide underneaththe back of the drawer, unless I worked from the back (easy in the garage but not when installed). So once again the first drawer was dismantled and 10mm sawn off the side and back width (I also did this for the others at the same time). now I need to iron on some white edging which I will need to order.
Finally the drawer was ready for the front fittings that the runner clicks into and gives the range of adjustments. Each is just held in by two screws and once the back hook is in the hole, the runner is just clicked into the fitting.
And the first drawer fitted (not yet aligned)
a gentle push and it opened this amount...
Once the first drawer was completed and the issues sorted, the remaining drawers shouldn't take more than about 15mins each to drill the dowels in the fronts and confirmat screws into the back- so far I've done two and will do the remaining three tomorrow morning, but doubt I'll get the frame dismantled and assembled in the hall until next weekend as the grandchildren are sleeping over and we need to collect them at lunchtime.....
Hopefully finished pics will get posted next weekend.
Dave