One of the details that distinguish the most classic display cabinets is the decorative molding they usually have at the top. Maybe I shouldn’t dare make such a comparison with this small piece of furniture, mainly because when we combine the word furniture with the word classic, we automatically associate it with the work of a master carpenter. But that’s the look I wanted to give it, and to show that you can make something like this with simple DIY tools, like a circular saw and a router, along with some amateur woodworking tricks.
Once we have the sides made, the next somewhat tricky part is installing the top molding, which is difficult to measure, difficult to cut, and difficult to place in its position.
I started cutting the moldings with the miter box and a hand saw, and at first, everything went well until I had to adjust the length of the central piece. And if you don’t have much practice and cut the correct length on the first try, the miter box doesn’t allow you to rectify the cut, at least not in lengths shorter than 1 millimeter.
I don’t know how it will be with other more professional models, but my Stanley brand box, which I have to say I’m happier with than the other typical wooden one I have, doesn’t allow for precise rectification. So I cut the 45-degree corners of the sides by hand.
And for the front piece, I decided to cut the ends at 45º using the jig for miter cuts with the circular saw, which as you can see in the video allows me to rectify the cut with an accuracy of tenths of a millimeter.
Once I have the top and base prepared, I need to join them to the sides. This time I’m using 8mm dowels for the joints, for which I drill the holes simultaneously in both pieces to be joined, using depth stops that are tightened directly onto the bit. In the photos, you can see how I secure the pieces to be able to drill. If all the faces of the sides are at 90º to each other and the strip we use as support to hold both pieces also has its faces at 90º, we can more or less trust that the sides will be at 90º with the base and top of the display cabinet.
And I say more or less because maybe I should have gone to the trouble of making a support, like the one in the diagram shown in one of the photos, to be sure. Anyway, I’ll be able to compensate for a slight deviation when gluing, with the help of the board that I’ll put on the back of the display cabinet.
Everything about how to make this wooden display cabinet