A returning client requested a cabinet out of Redwood salvaged from their parent’s old house. The first project was a hallway table built a few years back. The stack of Redwood shown had a mix of tighter grained old growth and wider new growth wood. The denser old growth redwood was preferred for this project.
The doors were slatted. 1/4” x 1/4” grooves were CNC milled into a cherry veneered MDF sheet. MDF is a preferred material for doors because it doesn’t move much with ambient moisture, remaining flat and clean looking over time. Though the redwood is the point of emphasis, we used cherry veneered sheet goods and solid cherry edging for cost effectiveness and structure, respectively. The cherry will darken in color over time with exposure to light and blend well with the redwood
I milled the solid redwood down to ¼” thick and cladded it over ¾” plywood, which made up the exterior of the case. I then glue solid cherry to the front and back of that panel. I milled a rabbet in the front and back of the panel so the doors and back panel could be inset. The overhang from the front rabbit measured out at 3/8” thick, extending out 1-¼”. Redwood is not a solid enough wood to not break when someone inevitably bumps into the edge of the cabinet. In the picture to the right, I glued the solid cherry to the redwood cladded plywood using parallel clamps. I aligned them with dominos, however biscuits would’ve been adequate in hindsight
I miter folded the panels to make up the exterior of the case. The top and two side are folded together and the bottom of the cabinet was cherry ply butt jointed with pocket screws. For a miter fold joint, I align the vertexes of the 45 degree miter and tape them together with a fiberglass lined strapping tape. I filled the joint with glue and folded them together. In the picture below, you can see the tape keeps them together and I put a clamp at the bottom before putting in pocket screws on the bottom panel. Provided the bottom panel is cut to the correct length, folding the panels to meet the bottom panel should ensure a square cabinet.
Shown to the left is an unsanded cabinet with the doors and drawer faces attached. The strapping tape always leaves marks to be sanded off. Sometimes when we pull the tape off, it likes to take some wood with it too. You can see the slatted cabinet doors are inset around the cherry edging. Slatted doors like these have no practical place to put handles or drawer pulls, so it’s a touch latch.
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