Building my Dream Miter Station

Watch Bourbon Moth Woodworking build a custom, dual-saw miter station with storage and dust collection for a perfect shop upgrade.

Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.

Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.

Key Takeaways

A well-designed miter station improves shop workflow and ergonomics significantly.
Combining two miter saws in one station offers flexibility for different cutting needs.
Storage and dust collection integration are key elements for a functional woodworking station.
Using quality materials like Formica Compact enhances durability and usability.
Detailed planning with tools like SketchUp and labeling parts streamlines the build process.

What the video covers

The video documents rebuilding a permanent miter saw station to replace a temporary, portable setup.
The creator compares the Festool Kapex 10-inch miter saw with a Bosch 12-inch saw, weighing pros and cons.
Decides to build a station that accommodates both saws to maximize functionality and cutting options.
Emphasizes designing for perfect ergonomics, storage, and dust collection integration.
Uses Formica Compact for a durable, thick work surface.
Plans and cuts plywood parts from a detailed SketchUp cut list to build multiple plywood cabinets.
Focuses on labeling parts and organizing the build process to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
Includes building drawers and cabinets sized to fit Festool dust extractors for dust management.
Shares tips on assembly, leveling, and finishing for a professional look and functionality.
Highlights the importance of careful planning and execution for a long-lasting shop upgrade.

Chapters

Why did the creator decide to build a new miter saw station?

The temporary miter saw station was portable but not as functional or ergonomic for the shop space, so a permanent, customized station was needed.

What are the advantages and drawbacks of the Festool Kapex and Bosch saws discussed?

The Festool Kapex is easy to use and ergonomic but limited to a 10-inch blade, while the Bosch has a 12-inch blade offering greater cutting depth but is heavier and less ergonomic to adjust.

How does the new miter station improve dust collection?

The station includes individual dust collectors for each saw, with cabinets sized to house Festool dust extractors, helping to keep the workspace cleaner.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Oh, hello there. In this video, it's time to do some more shop upgrades. Now, I have this temporary miter saw station set up with the Kapex. It's got the wings. It works. This is really more something that you would set up on a job site because it's portable. Because it's portable, it's just not as functional as I would like it to be in the space. So, in this video, we are going to completely rebuild a brand new miter saw station.

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site because it's portable. Because it's portable, it's just not as functional as I would like it to be in the space. So, in this video, we are going to completely rebuild a brand new miter saw station.

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[music] [music] When I was thinking about the miter saw station, how I wanted to set it up, everything I'm doing in the shop, I'm trying to think like, if this is the last time I ever do this, I want it to be as perfect as possible. Now, I've always had the Festool Kapex miter saw. I love it. It's a really quality saw, accurate, and it's easy to use.

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be as perfect as possible. Now, I've always had the Fest Tool Kapex miter saw. I love it. It's a really quality saw, accurate, and it's easy to use.

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But, it's got some drawbacks. Number one, it's only a 10-inch blade. So, your cutting depth and your cutting distance is not what it could be. So, I thought it would be really nice to upgrade to a 12-inch saw.

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This Bosch seemed like the best option. I did a lot of research. It got the best reviews. It doesn't stick very far back.

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This Bosch seemed like the best option. I did a lot of research. It got the best reviews. It doesn't stick very far back.

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Number one being that in order to do the miter change, you got to lift up this lock like this. You got to pull this thing out, and then you kind of got to push this around, and it's heavy, it's

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It's got this kind of like scissor action when you pull it out. But, even though it's a 12-inch blade, which means you get more cutting distance out here and cutting depth because of the bigger blade, it also has some drawbacks.

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got its trenching feature, which allows you to stop the blade at a certain height. So, if you want to do like a little dado and you don't want to get out your dado set on the table saw, you

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Number one being that in order to do the miter change, you got to lift up this lock like this. You got to pull this thing out, and then you kind of got to push this around, and it's heavy, it's awkward. I don't love it. Where on the Kapex, all I got to do is flip this thing up and then with one hand, you can just do it really easy. The other thing I really like about the Kapex is it's

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This one also has a trenching feature, but it's kind of again an awkward setup.

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got its trenching feature, which allows you to stop the blade at a certain height. So, if you want to do like a little dado and you don't want to get out your dado set on the table saw, you

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It's just not the most ergonomic. So, I was like, what do I do? Do I switch to the 12-in Do I stay with the 10-in? I like the blade on this one. I like the usability on this and that's when I went

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just do the trenching feature going back and forth and carve out your dado to the right size.

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Let's do that. So, there's a few things we have to figure out. In order to put both of these into a miter station and then not get in the way of one another, I got to do one of

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This one also has a trenching feature, but it's kind of again an awkward setup.

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out of the way. I'm not exactly sure which method I'm going to do yet, but for now, we just need to design a miter station that's going to hold two saws.

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You got this little hand crank here and in order to get it to lock, you got to push over this piece of metal so that it creates a stop, which is a little flimsy.

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key elements I wanted in a miter saw station was plenty of storage, so I packed this thing full of drawers. I also wanted a place to hide the dust collectors. We're going to do individual dust collectors hooked up to both saws,

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It's just not the most ergonomic. So, I was like, what do I do? Do I switch to the 12-inch? Do I stay with the 10-inch? I like the blade on this one. I like the usability on this and that's when I went

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Put the Kapex here. We'll put the Bosch over here. Now, we're going to use Formica compact for the entire top. It's a really nice, thick surface. Holds up really well in the shop, and we can just cut it like

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to like, "You know, we don't have to choose. We could just build a miter station with both of them in there." So, why not just put them both in there?

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So, we got to cut about a million pieces. Now, I know this miter saw station is pretty large, but on the off chance that you would like to build a similar miter saw station in your shop, we're going to

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Let's do that. So, there's a few things we have to figure out. In order to put both of these into a miter station and then not get in the way of one another, I got to do one of

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Click away. So, step one in building any gigantic miter saw station, run out and buy a bunch of plywood. Lucky for me, in the last video, I built this sweet [music] plywood storage rack. So, in the past, where I would just lean the plywood up

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two things. I either have to line them up perfectly so that the fences are in line so that when I stick a board across, they don't run into each other, or I have to create something that one can pull forward and the other can push

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I also created this nice little 5x5 cubby in the back just for them. Next, from my SketchUp file, I made a beautiful, well-organized cut list of all my parts [music] and pieces, and now it was time to start slicing up some

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out of the way. I'm not exactly sure which method I'm going to do yet, but for now, we just need to design a miter station that's going to hold two saws.

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You just got to get them in the right position [music] to start out with. And [music] that's what a normal table saw sounds like. In no time we had all of our pieces cut to the correct width and it

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[snorts] To the computer. So, this is what I have come up with. Now, I know it looks fancy, but if we're going to build it, we might as well make it look as nice as we possibly can. The

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very comfortable with where I need to put the appropriate amount of pressure, keeping things tight against the fence, and I've never had any issues. But, if you're not comfortable with doing this sort of cut on the table saw,

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key elements I wanted in a miter saw station was plenty of storage, so I packed this thing full of drawers. I also wanted a place to hide the dust collectors. We're going to do individual dust collectors hooked up to both saws,

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table saw making cuts over and over again. I always like to label all of my parts very carefully so that I don't just have a massive pile of odd-shaped pieces I got to sort through. After cutting all my big pieces down, I cut a

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so these cabinets are big enough that the Festool dust extractors can fit inside. [music] There.

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Don't worry, I'll walk through in detail exactly how I put the boxes together, so it'll all make sense [music] here pretty soon.

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Probably have to put some venting in these cabinet doors.

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For these style boxes, you're going to need one bottom piece the width and depth of your cabinet. You're going to need [music] some brace pieces the width of your cabinet. You're going to need two side pieces as tall as you want your

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Put the Kapex here. We'll put the Bosch over here. Now, we're going to use Formica Compact for the entire top. It's a really nice, thick surface. Holds up really well in the shop, and we can just cut it like

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Then for tools, all you're going to need is a driver, a drill with a countersink bit, [music] some fasteners these are inch and a half long. You're going to need a nailer, I like to use a 16 gauge,

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wood, which will be great. So, we have to start by building all of our plywood boxes. I have it all laid out in here.

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boxes, the right size, the right shape for what we want. Get them all together and then we'll face them all to make them look a lot nicer than just plywood.

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So, we got to cut about a million pieces. Now, I know this miter saw station is pretty large, but on the off chance that you would like to build a similar miter saw station in your shop, we're going to

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There's a link in the video description and if you're not signed up, you're missing out because we do a ton of behind-the-scenes footage throughout the project so you can see what's going on in the shop in between videos. We do a

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have plans available for this. So, there's going to be a link in the video description.

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and it's just the best time all year. So, you're going to want to go sign up for that. Anyways, this is how I put together cabinet box.

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Click away. So, step one in building any gigantic miter saw station, run out and buy a bunch of plywood. Lucky for me, in the last video, I built this sweet [music] plywood storage rack. So, in the past, where I would just lean the plywood up

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Now, I'm not only holding this together with nails, but I like to nail everything together first to lock it in place and then I'll come back and add some screws for strength. After you get one side onto your base, you attach the

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against the wall until I was ready to use it, now I can put it away and pull it out as I need it. I also had to get a bunch of 5x5 Baltic birch sheets for all the drawer boxes I'm going to build, and

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Then we're going to add our brace pieces. Now, you could use full sheets of plywood for this, but it's kind of a waste of material in my opinion, especially if they're for drawers because well, you're never going to see the back

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I also created this nice little 5x5 cubby in the back just for them. Next, from my SketchUp file, I made a beautiful, well-organized cut list of all my parts [music] and pieces, and now it was time to start slicing up some

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This also is a great nailer strip to attach whatever top you're going to put up above.

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plywood. After doing that plywood storage rack in the last video with 4x10 sheets, these 4x8 sheets seemed pretty small and very easy [music] to manage and run through the table saw.

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Then I put another nailer strip along the top right there. That's also a great spot to hook your top on. And then finally, I put a fourth Yeah, that's the right number. Fourth nailer strip, wait for it, right underneath that top one.

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You just got to get them in the right position [music] to start out with. And [music] that's what a normal table saw sounds like. In no time we had all of our pieces cut to the correct width and it

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So, you have plop that thing in place and just tack it on. And it's really that simple. This is our fully constructed box. Two nailer strips on the back. You got two brace piece / nailer strips on the top. And then you

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was time to cut them to the right length. Now, look away if you're squeamish about doing shady stuff on the table saw. I don't recommend you cut plywood like I'm doing here, but I've been doing it this way for years. I feel

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Then I add in a bunch of screws and this just stabilizes the entire thing. Now, if you were doing a cabinet where you're actually going to see the side of the cabinet box, you could do one of two

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very comfortable with where I need to put the appropriate amount of pressure, keeping things tight against the fence, and I've never had any issues. But, if you're not comfortable with doing this sort of cut on the table saw,

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up all your screws. Pretty soon, I was making boxes like a UPS [music] driver.

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just use a track saw. Do as I say, not as I do. Unfortunately, if you're building any sort of cabinets with plywood boxes, the first like couple hours of your project is just going to be standing at the

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I was I was making boxes like a a a box maker person. I got to get better at these voiceovers.

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table saw making cuts over and over again. I always like to label all of my parts very carefully so that I don't just have a massive pile of odd-shaped pieces I got to sort through. After cutting all my big pieces down, I cut a

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So, the last two boxes I have to build are the boxes that are actually going to have the miter saws on top of them.

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bunch of thin 3 and 1/2 inch strips. These are going to be all of my connecting brace pieces for my boxes.

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So, I'm going to have to do some math to figure that out before I can build these boxes so I can set that shelf at the right height.

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Don't worry, I'll walk through in detail exactly how I put the boxes together, so it'll all make sense [music] here pretty soon.

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This video is sponsored by Ultra Pouches. Now, if you're like me, you probably live on caffeine. [music] I drink a cup of coffee in the morning, and then around like 10:00, I make another cup of coffee, around noon,

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After a few hours I had all of my box parts cut. There all of my support brace pieces cut right there, and I was finally ready to start assembling everything.

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Pouches. I didn't quit coffee. I just stopped needing it four times a day. You're probably like, "What the heck's an Ultra Pouch?" Well, it's a clean, plant-powered nootropic pouch that's [music] designed to sharpen your mind and lift your energy without caffeine or

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For these style boxes, you're going to need one bottom piece the width and depth of your cabinet. You're going to need [music] some brace pieces the width of your cabinet. You're going to need two side pieces as tall as you want your

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Sometimes, I take two at the same time. [music] I wonder if it'd be good if we mix watermelon and mint cuz I feel like it makes me even a little bit more sharp.

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cabinet to be minus the toe kick and as deep as your cabinet is going to be.

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literally feel my brain start to focus. That's what it's designed for. And the nice thing is there's no tolerance build-up. So, it's going to work exactly the same on day one [music] as it does on day 90. You can use it when you need

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Then for tools, all you're going to need is a driver, a drill with a countersink bit, [music] some fasteners. These are inch and a half long. You're going to need a nailer, I like to use a 16 gauge,

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focus that you're looking for, might I suggest [music] trying these Ultra Pouches. They're great. Now, when I have a craving, I just reach for Ultra. If you want more information, there's a bunch down there in the video description, including a link and maybe

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and I like to use inch and 3/4 long nails. All right. I'm going to show you the basic way that I put together a simple cabinet box. The entire miter saw station is literally just made up of a bunch of plywood

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All right, so it should be pretty simple. I'm just going to take this JessEm ruler that I have, stick it across the top on a flat surface, and measure. We're right at 4 and 5/16.

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boxes, the right size, the right shape for what we want. Get them all together and then we'll face them all to make them look a lot nicer than just plywood.

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I want to be able to micro adjust it after the fact. So, I'm going to make it so that this actually sits down a half inch lower, and then I can make little shims or risers, plane them down, keep playing with those

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Before I do that, I wanted to tell you you should go sign up for our Patreon.

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The question is, this is 4 and 5/16, how much different is this one? Ooh, that one's less.

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There's a link in the video description and if you're not signed up, you're missing out because we do a ton of behind-the-scenes footage throughout the project so you can see what's going on in the shop in between videos. We do a

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So, with all my measurements taken off of my two miter saws, I took the sides of those cabinet boxes, I measured down from the top where I needed to place that shelf to set the miter saws on [music] top of. I used a JessEm square,

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bi-annual contest where you could win chances for me to come out to your shop and build a project with you and we do a yearly Patreon summi

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I'm going to put that in right along that line. And like I mentioned, I left this shelf a half inch lower [music] than it needs to be, and then I can micro adjust raising that saw up once I

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get my countertop in so that [music] it's perfectly flush with my work surface. Pretty soon I had that first box built.

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You can see it right there. And this one's going to be for the Kapex.

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So we're just going to slide that guy right in there. You kind of can see it start to come together here. Kapex is going to be there. There's going to be about a 20-in gap, and then we're going to put the

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Bosch right here. Man, two miter saws. You got to admit, that's a pretty sick setup.

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Plus now me and Craig can miter saw at the same time. I mean, they'd have to be really short pieces of wood, but still, it'd be a good team-building exercise.

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I did it. I think these are at a good height. Think I'll have a little bit of wiggle room to adjust them to get them perfect with the top once we get the top on.

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So now that all the all the boxes built, that was the easy part, I need to do the toe kicks. That's going to raise them up and allow a space for my toezies to go.

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I always like to do the toe kicks separate than the boxes, typically, because I can get the toe kicks in, shim them, get them all perfectly level, and have a level base to install the cabinets on.

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So now, on the toe kicks, which means of course we got to go back to the table saw and cut a bunch more strips.

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And also try not to destroy anything in the process. For the toe kicks, they're going to be 4 in [music] tall. So I'm cutting down a bunch of 4-in strips of 3/4 in plywood.

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Then I go take measurements off of my built boxes. Now I know I did a digital mock-up on my computer, but I like to take measurements off of the real thing because you never know. Maybe I didn't build it exactly right and [music] we

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want the toe kicks to match what's real. Toe kicks. Like I said, I like to do them separate so that I can get my toe kicks all in, get them leveled, and then it's as simple as just setting the

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cabinet boxes on top. Now toe kicks really aren't complicated. In fact, most people overbuild them, which we're not going to do here.

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We are literally just going to tack these things together, which is going to be fine. Lots of people are like, "Oh, you got to screw them together." You really don't. When you think about the force that's being applied to a toe kick, it's straight

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down. They're not getting like pulled and moved and tweaked like a cabinet box with drawers opening and cabinet doors opening. So don't overthink it. Just cut your pieces the right size and tack them together. Move on with your life. So

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that's exactly what we're going to do. So the front and back pieces of my toe kick are exactly as wide as my cabinet boxes. That sets the width. Then I put in some filler pieces that are as deep

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as I want my toe kick to go and you'll notice that center filler piece is 3/4 of an inch shorter than the exterior pieces [music] because then I put in these top pieces.

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This is going to give me a nice flat surface [music] to screw through my cabinet box into the toe kick. You don't want to try and just hit your vertical pieces of plywood cuz that's a pretty small target and

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[music] I'm not that accurate. And there you have it. A nice toe kick, plenty sturdy to set the cabinet box on top, and that took me 3 minutes to hook together.

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Standard toe kick dimensions are typically 3 and 1/2 to 4 in tall and 3 and 1/2 in deep. I like to go on the higher side, so this is 4 in tall, and then I like to go about 4 in deep just

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so you got plenty of wiggle room for your toes. And that way, if you put any sort of decorative trim piece on the bottom that bumps it out a little farther, you still got plenty of space.

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One down. Like six more to go. So, should be done in about 10 minutes.

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I might have exaggerated a little bit when I said I'll be done in 10 minutes.

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After doing all the toe kicks, it actually took me 8 and 1/2 minutes. So, quicker than I thought.

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And half that time was just setting them up properly against the front of the cabinets.

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Oopsy doopsy. When I got to these larger toe kicks that are going to span across three boxes hooked together, I like to take the perimeter of the toe kick, set it on top of the box, and then mark out where

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the dividers are going to be on the actual boxes so that those brace pieces fall right [music] underneath the seams of the cabinet boxes for ultimate strength.

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And just like that, all of my toe kicks were completely assembled. [music] Now, time to get these cabinets installed on the wall.

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But, of course, before you can do the fun part of installing, you got to clean up first, which means I had to disassemble my temporary miter saw setup. Lucky for me, it's made to be portable, and because I'm still going to

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need this for the rest of the project, I had to go set it up on the other side of the shop.

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But, it was kind of a throwback because that's where my miter saw used to be set up.

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Then I started laying out all my toe kicks on the floor. Now, if you're wondering why I'm spacing them out with gaps in between them? Well, that's cuz the way I designed this is that there's going to be some decorative pillars in

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between all the cabinet boxes that go all the way to the floor and make it look fancy.

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That'll make a lot more sense as the whole thing comes [music] together. I marked on my trim where my toe kick ended and then I'm going to have to remove that piece of base trim.

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You might also be saying, "Well, why did you put trim there if you knew you were going to put a miter saw station there?

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Isn't that a waste of time and money?" Yes. It was. But I also didn't know exactly where the miter saw was going to land, so [music] at the time I figured it was just easier to trim everything out and then

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just figure it out later. Which is what I [music] did. So, with that base trim gone, now we can put those toe kicks in place right up against the wall.

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So, once again, I laid everything out with a 3 and 1/2 in gap in between each box for my decorative pillars.

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Technical term. I don't know if that's what they're really called, but that's what I'm calling them.

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And then we got to make sure they're all level. So, I got a laser level and stuck it on the floor. Now, most people, in my opinion, use a laser level wrong. They try and get the laser right on the top

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of the toe kick or your cabinets. What I like to do is set the laser a couple inches, like inch inch and a half above, and then use a tape measure, see where the laser line hits the tape

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measure, and use that as your reference to level everything out. It's much easier than trying to get that laser to land perfectly on the edge of your toe kick or cabinet. [music] Then you just take some shims and you

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add them where necessary until the entire backside of all your toe kicks, the laser hits that tape measure in exactly the same spot.

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Once you're there, you're golden. Everything is level across the entire floor. [music] I just worked my way from the highest side to the lowest side, and pretty soon, the entire backside of all my toe kicks were perfectly level.

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Well, and when I say pretty soon, this took me like an hour and a half. It's a slow, meticulous process.

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Then you just take a regular level, stick it on your toe kicks, like you see there, and you bring up the front of those toe kicks with shims, so that everything's now perfectly level that way.

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Couldn't be easier. Unless your floor was perfectly level to start with, [music] then you didn't have to shim at all.

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Unfortunately, my floor was definitely not level. Once I get everything shimmed out, I like to take a 23-gauge pin nailer, and I just toenail in some pin nails [music] through the face of my toe kick into those shims, just to lock them into

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place. That way I don't accidentally kick them, [music] and they come flying out, and then I got to redo the whole process over again.

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It just makes sure that everything stays put just the way you want it. Then I just grabbed an oscillating multi-tool, a little zip, a little zap, a little zoop, and cut all the excess shims out of the way, so that I didn't

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accidentally kick them. Then before I could install the cabinet boxes, I had to remove these battens along that back wall. So, I took one of the boxes, and I just used it as a height reference. I went along and

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marked all of those battens where I needed to cut them to remove them, so I had a flush surface to mount my [music] cabinets against.

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Then another little zip, zap, zoop, I cut the tops right along that line, and then I thought it was going to be as as just popping them off. And then I remembered oh yeah.

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I glued these things on. So, they did not want to come off very easily.

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Now, I do have two cabinet boxes that are going to have cabinet doors on them.

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So, I took my bourbon blade, which is a specialty chisel knife I invented. It's available on my website.

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And I marked where I needed to cut on the inside of those cabinet boxes. I know this seems kind of silly because how often are you going to see inside that cabinet, but I wanted it to look nice when you looked inside the

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cabinet boxes. And then finally, I had to do a little electrical work. I am not a licensed electrician, so if you see me doing something terribly wrong here, we'll just keep it to yourself or feel free to blast me in the comments section.

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Basically, I wanted to add some outlets down in the cabinet boxes to plug in our dust extractors. So, I fished a line through one of the existing outlet boxes.

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I ran in some wire to a hole that I drilled down below that's going to be between the cabinets. And then I cut out some holes in my cabinet boxes so that I could install [music] some new boxes for

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my new outlets. Just like this. So far, so good, [music] I think. I mean, chances that anything's going to catch on fire is pretty low.

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Right? Hopefully, my insurance company's not watching this [music] video. Anyways, then I took the wire that I ran through the wall, I fished it into the one of the boxes, and then I fished another wire from that box through my

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[music] toe kick over and up and into the other box. Now, both of the boxes under my miter saws will have plugs so I can just plug the dust extractors directly into those.

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And then I had to do a little clean up because unlike a real electrician, I actually clean up after myself.

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And finally, we were ready to install [music] the remaining cabinet boxes onto the toe kicks. Now, if you took the time to level out your toe kicks and shim them all, this part should be ridiculously easy because you know

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everything is level, so you literally just have to set those cabinet boxes into place. They should be perfectly level across the entire top. All right.

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Toe kicks are all in, perfectly level all the way across, which made putting the boxes on very easy because I know that they're all going to be level because the toe kicks are level.

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I wired in outlets into the two boxes with the miter saws so that we can have the dust extractors just underneath behind the cabinet doors. Plug those in, you won't see any wires anywhere.

Speaker A

So, now I got to hook all my end boxes together, make those single units, and then I got to start hooking these two the toe kicks and the wall to get them locked into place. I'm going to check as

Speaker A

I do that just to make sure everything is staying level, that nothing gets tweaked, and I also might have to do some shimming along the back wall to make sure that the front stays perfectly straight. So, that's what I'm going to do now.

Speaker A

So, step one, hook my three boxes on either end [music] together to be one giant box. That'll just make installing everything much easier. So, I did that to one side, and I did that to the other side. Step two, I added in these little

Speaker A

filler pieces on the front [music] to lock the entire thing together as one unit.

Speaker A

If you're wondering who that other person in this shot is with me, no, Craig did not lose [music] all of his hair. That is my good friend Casey, who just happened to be in town. He wanted to hang out, and I was like, "Great."

Speaker A

And by hang out, I mean I'm going to put you to work. So, he was happy to help.

Speaker A

In order to ensure that the entire front of our bank of cabinets was in a perfectly straight line, I used this extra long level. I just ran it along the front of my cabinets as a straight edge, and I shimmed the back to make

Speaker A

sure that everything stayed perfect. Then we hooked the cabinets into the back wall through that nailer strip, and Casey went along and just put a couple [music] screws from the base of the cabinet into the toe kick.

Speaker A

They're in there. Got them secured to the toe kick, to the wall. Everything is as level as we can possibly make it.

Speaker A

It's flat across the front. So, now we're going to switch to a task that's not the most fun, and that's build a zillion drawers to put in all these boxes.

Speaker A

Again, when I build my drawer boxes, I like to take the measurements directly off the actual cabinets, not my digital file. So, I took some undermount drawer slides, I stuck them in each opening, and I made a list of all the sizes of

Speaker A

drawers that we were going to need. For these drawers, we're using half-inch Baltic birch because, well, I love Baltic birch drawers, and it's just very easy to use. [music] So, we cut down a million strips because, well, there's a heck of a lot

Speaker A

of drawers in these cabinet boxes. All of these strips will make up the sides and front and back of our drawer boxes. Then we took all those strips, and I ran them through the dado [music] saw with a 1/4-in dado exactly 1/2-in up

Speaker A

from the bottom of each piece. This is a little tedious because, well, there's a heck of a lot of drawers in this project. But, pretty soon I had them all run through the saw, and we were ready for phase two,

Speaker A

which is to cut all of our drawer pieces out, one by one. So, I just set up a stop over on the miter saw, and pretty soon we had, Well, that's just a few of them, but we had all of our drawer pieces cut.

Speaker A

Then, because I'm using undermount drawer slides, I like to cut this little notch in the back. And by like to, I mean you have to in order for the drawer slides to work. So, Casey cut one direction on one band saw, and I cut the

Speaker A

other direction on the other band saw. Then, last but not least, we had to cut all the bottom panels for each drawer.

Speaker A

For this, we're using 1/4-in Baltic birch. So, we zip, zap, zooted till we had all of our bottom panels completely cut to the right side, and we were ready for assembly.

Speaker A

Now, assembly's super easy. You take a side piece, you take a back piece with those notches on, you stick it right there. Then, you take a front piece, you stick that right there. That bottom locks right into that 1/4-in groove.

Speaker A

Then, I add a little Titebond to my preferred wood glue in the shop. Stick that right there, and you stick on your other side piece.

Speaker A

Clickety-clack, don't talk back. And then, because these are shop drawers, I'm just going to nail them together with a 16-gauge brad nailer.

Speaker A

A little pow, a little poo, a little ew. Did he just say poo? Anyways, that's how I assemble drawer boxes. If you want a more detailed [music] step-by-step on how I do drawer boxes, I'll put a little link up in the

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corner. I did a video on it a while back. And boom, first drawer assembled.

Speaker A

Only 26 million more to go. So, we got a little assembly line going. I would completely assemble an entire drawer box like so, then I would hand it to Casey, and he would install the Blum undermount drawer clips that we need for

Speaker A

the drawer slides to work. He screwed those on, and pretty soon we had all 27 of our drawers completely built.

Speaker A

We've got all of our drawers made. Now, I'm going to install all the drawer slides in the boxes. Now, the simplest way to install drawer slides, I'm using these Blum undermount drawer slides, is you just figure out how many drawers

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you have. We got three drawers in each one of these banks, and then you just cut some pieces of plywood that are the height you need to set your drawer slide. So, I got three different size pieces here, all cut at the right

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height. It is very important though that you start at the top. For example, this is our tallest piece right here, so that's going to be the height of our first drawer slide. Now, if we didn't start at the top, let's say we started

Speaker A

at the bottom with our lowest one, which is going to be down here, well, then we're going to get our drawer slide installed, and we're going to go to use our bigger pieces, and it's not going to work cuz

Speaker A

you're going to run into the drawer slide. So, cut pieces the right length to do all your drawer slides, start at the top, work your way down. If you're using the Blum undermount, then uh 4-mm setback is pretty standard, depending on

Speaker A

if you're doing inset or overhang. We're doing 4-mm back from the edge of our box because then with our face frame, that's going to be the perfect distance to do inset drawer faces.

Speaker A

That's that. Let's get them installed. A lot of people get overwhelmed installing drawer slides trying to get them perfect, but this really is the easiest method. Just cut some scrap pieces of wood, use it as a guide, and

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you will ensure that all of your drawer slides are perfectly installed at the right height all the way across your boxes. Now, some of these took a little bit longer than others because those middle banks, well, they had like five

Speaker A

drawers in them. So, I had to cut a lot of spacer pieces. But, I went along, installed all the drawer slides. Casey came right behind me and installed all the drawer boxes and pretty soon we had all of those

Speaker A

drawer slides and boxes in place and this thing was really starting to look like something.

Speaker A

Safe. Hey, look. We got a miter saw station. I know it's not done yet, but I thought I'd stop this video here because if you're building this miter shop in your own shop, this would honestly be a perfect place to stop. You got

Speaker A

functioning drawers for all your storage. You've got, you know, your cabinets. You'd want to put a top on there or else dust is going to get down there, but you don't have to make it fancy like I'm going to in the next

Speaker A

video. So, I just thought, "Hey, if you want to stop, you can stop. Or we can keep going, which is what we're going to do.

Speaker A

Check the links in the video description. If you're not signed up for our Patreon, what are you doing with your life? You could be getting behind the scenes footage. You could have a chance to win our biannual contest where

Speaker A

I come out to your shop and we could build a project together. We do our Patreon summit every year where we all get together and hang out. It's a good time. I also wanted to tell you about October 2nd and 3rd. I'm hosting a

Speaker A

charity event with Jonathan Katz-Moses in benefit for the Katz-Moses Woodworkers with Disability Fund and the cool part is it's going to be a Buffalo Trace Distillery. Tickets are limited, only 100 available. I'll put a link in the video description. Go sign up.

Speaker A

You're not going to want to miss it. And come back next week when we finish this up, do ridiculous things to it and spend way more money than we should for a wood shop.

Speaker A

All right, see you.

Topics:miter saw stationwoodworkingshop upgradeFestool KapexBosch miter sawplywood cabinetsdust collectionFormica Compactwoodworking storagecustom workbench

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