Joinery for 4 sided box

Clayton · December 22, 2019, 3:29am

I’m making a short tower in my home office to hide a cat box, and likely will add sections to it. A small section for storage. Top of it for the 3D printer. I’m leaning towards leaving the bottom and front open. The bottom section will be 3’ wide, 2’ deep and 2’ y’all.

Thoughts on joinery? This will be my first box and attempt at furniture of some sort.

Would I be better off using rabbets and dados and 3/4” plywood? Or would I be better served using a frame, and thinner playroom?

Thoughts? Thanks for the feedback.

talkers · December 22, 2019, 4:31am

you have several options for both material and joinery.

3/4" is a good start. It is more forgiving than thinner plys. 1/2" would be strong enough, but joinery becomes more difficult because of that thinness (less support). Price it at a place like Hardwood lumber or Central. They are both comfortable working with beginners. You get better plywood for less than HD or Lowes.

Easiest joinery would be the Kreg Jig. Creates angled holes for screws. Helps with the end grain to face grain bond. We have the jig and bits at the Space, though you might have to buy your own screws. Should be a lot of videos on how to do.
Next would be the Festool Domino. It creates and uses loose tenons and mortices. very strong. Videos out there too.
Dadoes and grooves. Traditional, strong. Takes more time and practice because of the alignment and setting depths and compensating for that material lost. Great skill for the toolbox.
Finger joints / Dove tails. Overkill unless you use the CNC. In that case, still overkill. use the CNC for the dadoes and grooves.
Frames.
Biscuits…

Really, you will be happy with any of these approaches.
Enjoy!

zacharymarkson · December 22, 2019, 5:02pm

I would recommend going the internal frame route. Simply because of the cat. Internal frame will give it more strength in resistance to shaking when the cat inevitably jumps on and off of the box

Clayton · June 1, 2020, 2:06am

I’m thinking about getting:

Both the HF biscuit joiner and pocket hole jig
or, just a nicer biscuit joiner
or, just a nicer pocket hole jig

Thoughts? Can’t spend more than $200.

Clayton · June 2, 2020, 3:28am

Well, I went ahead and bought a Kreg 5 Jig…used it to frame out the inside of my vinyl shed.

So now, I need to decide between an inexpensive HF biscuit joiner, or a rabbet bit set for my router…

mblatz · June 2, 2020, 3:32am

Picture, please? I was thinking of doing something similar.

Chris_Fazio · June 2, 2020, 3:35am

I used a kreg jig to make a storage bench in the kitchen/dinning area recently and it worked perfectly, so you bought the right tool, since cats can be sporadically rough on things like towers I’d recommend before you use the screws put a bead of wood glue along the joint and then screw it in, and that thing will never come apart lol

Clayton · June 3, 2020, 6:38pm

@mblatz see attached. Sorry I don’t have before pics, but basically the mound would fall on me if I needed to find something. You’ll also see my solar setup for the shed…still need to figure how I’m going to mount it to the roof without drilling holes.

I built in-place two side walls, then added a 2x4s across the back wall, upper middle back wall, top back wall, and front ceiling. Did not add a 2x4 to the front floor. It’s solid without the front floor piece and the pocket screws brought it all together tight.