The final drawers

Last week I shared with you how I made version 1 of a small parts cabinet for my desk. And, I shared how I wasn't happy with it. I proceeded to make version 2 out of book board. Let's just say, that was a failure. Not to be seen again by mortal eyes.

I resigned myself to seeing if I could find a small enough parts cabinet in the hardware store. I really wasn't happy with the metal and plastic sitting on my wood desk. Then I got the idea for version 3. I worked out the dimensions and cut into book board. I was able to create a 9 drawer cabinet that held the drawers I made previously for version 1.

It's not perfect. It does function. The drawer knobs are 10mm wood beads that I attached with perl cotton. In order to keep them from pulling out over time, I reinforced the drawer where I tied the thread.

Looking back, I'm thinking maybe I should have painted the beads blue or white to go with the rest of the cabinet. I was so jazzed that it was coming together, I just used them as they were.




Here's a view with a few drawers pulled open. 
Now, onto the next project. I'm struggling with the actualization of a round vision/bulletin board. I bought a large quilting hoop to be the frame of the board and intended that it be covered with cloth. The hard part is filling the cavity behind the cloth so I can pin things to the board. There isn't cork board thick enough on it's own. (And, even if there was, it's hard enough cutting cork board 1/2 the thickness.) More on that later when I reveal it completed.



I've been doing some thinking about why I'm not making more progress getting things done in my studio and making the toys. I've also been thinking about the fact that I have fallen off my resolve to have an actual work week. I had an epiphany this last week. I'm not getting to what I want because I consider it play time. I was raised that you don't "play" until your work is done, all of your work is done. That led me to take a serious look at what playing is and how it fits into our lives at all ages. I'll be continuing on this topic in the future. For now, I will leave you with this quote.

It is a happy talent to know how to play.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
American writer
1803–1882

Until next time...

Parts drawers out of cardboard

I'm going to start off by saying, I apologize for not returning last week. Time got away from me as I have a craft show coming up and have been in the kitchen, not the studio. I can't appear at a local craft show without candy for sale. :)

To the right you can see the finished parts drawers. I am not happy with this. The drawers are the correct size. But, the sleeves ended up being less precise and the whole became a little wonky. But, as I said I'd share the instructions, I will do so. I'm also re-making this another way. Another note, I need some sort of drawer pull on the drawers. Right now, I'm catching the top with a fingernail and pulling. In addition, I have to hang onto the whole thing because some of the drawers are a little tight. If you want to try this yourself, you may want to play with opening up the sleeve part some to ease the drawer sliding in and out. I did not make changes to the directions, because I am abandoning this way of doing things and am trying a different design.

These are the dimensions I used to make each drawer and sleeve. With the cardboard I was using, I scored the sleeve on the outside of the box when it was folded up. It worked easier.

This is how the drawer is folded. I used white glue on each small tab and held it for several seconds to make sure it stayed before moving on to the next.

Below is how I folded the sleeve. I used white glue along the small tab and made sure the edge of the top was flush with the side. Again, holding for several seconds to insure it would stay and not fall apart.



Once I had 9 sleeves and 9 drawers, I assembled the sleeves together with white glue. This is where I discovered that I hadn't been as precise as I thought. Some sleeves were not rectangles but parallelograms. Some were slightly smaller or larger. I was determined and glued the sides and tops together anyway to create a 3x3 grid of sleeves. The picture below shows single layers of sleeves glued to each other before gluing the rows together.





Once everything was dry, I started installing drawers into sleeves. It sort of worked. Some drawers slide fine. Others are a very snug fit. I tried changing drawers around in different sleeves to get the best fit. It wasn't as successful as I would have liked. I have a new idea that will give the whole a little more substance. I may be that a small grid of sleeves would have been better. Even just a little 2 drawer set may be perfect. I really wanted the 9 drawers.




I'm going to attempt to create a "cabinet" out of book board to replace the sleeves and keep the drawers as is. I also plan on adding drawer pulls somehow so I can actually pull a drawer open rather than wrestling with them. I'll keep you posted.


Until next time...