Sawdust on the Floor

One of the many remodeling jobs we have done in our house was the downstairs bathroom. We installed a new pedestal sink, toilet and installed new ceramic tile on the floor. These items were all changed for a number of reasons: the toilet for a unit that consumes less water per flush, the pedestal sink because my wife liked the slimmer look of the unit and the floor because the original tile was really showing its age. One of the things that was not changed was the medicine cabinet.

I built this medicine cabinet several years ago, and other than a desire by my wife to change the material that the selves are made of, it remains an integral part of the bathroom. This cabinet can be broken down into three individual parts. The cabinet box, the face frame and door itself.

Like most conventional medicine cabinets, mine is installed between two vertical studs in the wall. When I did the initial framing for this wall, I ensured that there was an open stud cavity centered directly over the proposed sink. I also took the time to install horizontal bracing below the space for the medicine cabinet. Yeah, I know that the horizontal bracing wasn’t required, but I like to be careful.

I started to build this medicine cabinet by making the cabinet box first. The box measures 14 ½” wide, by 20” tall and 4” deep. I choose to make this entire project out of 4/4 oak. The amount of wood actually required for this project is very small. I used a total of 2 pieces of oak, each measuring 6” wide by 96” long, one piece 4/4 thick and the other 6/4 thick. I started by rough cutting out the 2 20” sides and the 14 ½” top and bottom pieces from the 4/4 board. Then I passed each piece over the jointer to square up one edge, and then one adjacent edge. This was followed by a trip across the thickness planer. Once I had the stock dressed correctly, I turned back to the table saw to rip the four pieces to 4”. Followed by a trip to the compound miter saw to cut the four pieces to length.

Before I connected the sides and the top and bottom pieces, I drilled a series of ¼” holes into the sides for adjustable shelves. I used simple butt joints for the joints between the sides and the top and bottom. I added a couple of sheetrock screws to each corner to add strength to the joints. I wasn’t concerned about the screws showing as these would be inside the wall. The back of the cabinet box is a piece of ¼” oak plywood, which was glued and tacked in place with small nails from my 18 gauge nail gun. OK, I know that none of the joinery so far is very exotic, but come on guys all of these pieces will be inside the wall, so structural integrity is more important then looks.

The next step was to construct the face frame for the medicine cabinet. The rails and stiles of the face frame are 2 ½” wide and are made from the second piece of 6/4 oak. The long pieces of face frame are 25” long, and the short pieces are 14 ½” long. These lengths are longer then the lengths for the cabinet door which I built next. So, cutting these pieces out of the second board, I was able to use the cut offs for the rail and stiles of the door.

The face frame was installed so that the inside edges of the face frame, were aligned with the inside edges of the cabinet box. I used my Kreg pocket screw sytem to secure the face frame to the cabinet box. I started by attaching the stiles to the sides of the cabinet box, with the pocket screws and glue. Then I trimmed the rails to fit snuggly between the stiles. I again used Kreg pocket screws to connect the face frame rails and stiles together.

Once the glue had set and I did a quick sanding to make a level surface on the face frame, I turned to my router which I equipped with a ½” round over bit. I made several passes with the router and bit until I got to the final depth of the cut. When you are doing the routing on this or any project that uses oak, be sure that you keep the router moving at an even speed that is unless you like to do a lot of sanding. Even as hard as oak is, it will burn very easily. I like to do a dry run around the project with the router, to make sure I can get to all sides of the project in one move before I turn the power to the router on and actually cut the profile. While not as important as when you are working with softer woods such as cherry or pine, a sharp router bit is a must. A dull bit will cause burning regardless of the speed the router is moving on all woods. When used on softer woods, the dull bits will also cause tear out of the wood.

The last item to build was the door itself. This was actually very easy since I already had the stock cut to the proper width. A change in the joinery was needed here, while I love to use Kreg pocket screws I didn’t want the holes to show if I used them to connect the door rail and stiles together. I choose to use my biscuit joiner and a #10 biscuit instead for this purpose. The door is actually only a ½” narrower then the face frame. So figuring out the length for the rails and stiles was really easy. I cut the stock to length, and then cut the #10 biscuit slots in both the rail and stiles. After applying glue to the biscuits and the slots I clamped the door together and then set it aside to dry.

Once the glue was set up, I turned back to my router to mill the slot in the back of the door for the mirror and another for the panel that holds the mirror in place. For this part of the project I choose to use a Rabbeting router bit with an interchangeable bearing. My first cut was a ¼” deep by ½” wide rabbet for the piece of ¼” plywood that would hold the mirror in place. Because I wanted to route completely around all four sides of the door, I chose to use a non slip router mat to secure the door frame instead of clamps. After cutting the first rabbet, I interchanged the bearing on the bottom of the router bit, so that I could now cut a deeper and narrower rabbet for the mirror itself. This cut was 5/8” deep and 5/16” wide.

After I completed both rabbets, I used a corner chisel to clean up the corners of both rabbets. One additional note about cutting multiple rabbets, if I had reversed the order in which I had made the two rabbets; I would have created a dangerous situation. If the narrower rabbet had been made first, there would have been very little wood left for the bearing to ride against. You always want 100% contact between the bearing and the wood, otherwise the router bit can catch or bind, neither of which a good thing is.

To complete the project, I installed the door onto the frame with a piano hinge. I added a decorative knob and a couple of magnetic catches for the door. I finished the entire cabinet with an oil base stain, followed by several coats of polyurethane. The mirror was purchased from a local glass supplier. The panel behind the mirror is simply held in place with a couple of small brass wood screws.

Installing the cabinet into the wall was a piece of cake. I simply set the cabinet on the horizontal brace in the wall, then checked the cabinet for level and secured it into the studs on either side of the cabinet box. I used 3” drywall screws, again a little bit of overkill, but I feel it is better to error on the side of caution, rather then take a chance that a smaller screw might not hold.

To get more information about the woodowrking tools used for this project just click on the highlighted links above. Check back for our next project, floating shelves.