New Top

Well, I put the hardboard top and trim on, set up a box jig, and put together a few practice joints. Now I can start putting the drawers together.
Made a few mistakes on the first box jig. The key is to make sure the dado, the pin, and the space between them is EXACTLY the same. During the first attempt I gave a light sanding to the pin to get it to fit. That made it so the joint was to tight to fit together, and the front and side of the corner ended up at different heights. So, unlike the picture below, the 2 pieces wouldn't have gone together (without a ton of force), and the piece on the right would be shifted down by a 16th of an inch or so.
Masonite top and flush mounted oak trim.

Ripped a couple of 3" strips of oak, bevel cut them to fit, and rounded the edges with the router.


Flush trimmed the masonite to the existing top instead of trying to cut it to fit.
The Box of screws on the left was $4.19 at HomeDepot. The 7 pounds of screws on the right were $18.43 at Hiawatha Fasteners.

From Google Sketchup to the real world

Masonite and trim next, then it's time to make some drawers...
DOH!

Bench and Cabinets

On to the next project now that the planer is complete , I'll post lots of those pics later. I plan making the bench (a hutch really, thanks Norm) below as well some cabinets . Should be some good practice for the house(s). As usual I have 10 preliminary step to do first.Step number one... turn a POS craftsman into a cabinet saw, ya right ;) First I built an outfeed table to support cutting large sheets. Boy I'm glad I went to those auctions and picked up some cheap steel :) The angle iron provides a ledge to attach the outfeed table. I actually cut the legs from some of the maple I had drying on the property, which I had to trek through the snow to get :o. It's probably not nearly dry enough, but it'll be interesting to see how it survives. Oh, and I had to create a taper jig to cut them. Well, I didn't have to, but...
The next use for my auction steel is to extend the width of the table saw. It just so happens that the cheapo fence is simple 1x1 angle iron which I just happen to have !-)Once the fences were extended, I created another melamine surface to fit between them.
This tenoning jig wasn't really a prerequisite to the bench, but I had to "dial in" the table anyway, and it will come in handy eventually. I grabbed the plans from an old Shop Notes magazine (slightly improved). It's nice because you can cut both sides of the tenon without having to rotate the workpiece.
Now the BIG DOG, a Milwaukee 5625-20: 3 1/2 HP swinging a 3 1/2" raised panel bit ... oh oh oh . This will go in the router table that will make up the right side of the work hutch.raised panel bit and a cope and stick combo bit.Just a little bigger than the 1/2 HP next to it ;)