Lessons learned from my first time building a whisky cabinet from reclaimed timber and veneered MDF.

The Project

Recently, a good friend of mine turned 70, and I wanted to make him something for his birthday.

A number of the Jamberoo Man Walk guys meet for weekly “training sessions” at his house – mostly this consists of a couple of social drinks and many games of pool. We have been known to enjoy a glass of Scotch whisky as well, which gave me the idea to build him a whisky cabinet for his pool room.

The design I came up with was fairly simple, combining a number of ideas I liked from YouTube videos and Google Image Search results. The size was influenced by the dimensions of the timber I had available.

The main body of the cabinet is American oak, milled down from a kitchen door that Len Cumbers salvaged from his neighbour’s skip bin. The door panel and rear panel are MDF, coated with veneer I received from Hughie Mackay. The finish is Danish oil.

I chose to use brass screws to strengthen the joinery. These came from a big tin of mixed brass screws handed down from my grandfather, to my uncle, to me. They have probably been in that tin for over 50 years, and I was glad they finally got used for something!

Laying out components with chalk
Cabinet components prepared for glue-up
Door components prepared for glue-up
Cabinet glued up
The completed whisky cabinet
The interior of the whisky cabinet
Rear view, showing French cleat for mounting to wall

Veneering MDF

I had never used veneer before, so this was an opportunity to give it a go.

I trimmed the MDF slightly over-sized and slathered it with Titebond Cold Press Veneer Glue. I oriented the veneer carefully, re-assembling the book-matched sheets with the MDF between them, so it would look like a panel of solid timber when comparing either side of the door. I then sandwiched the whole thing between two sturdy boards lined with plastic, and clamped it up tightly.

I was a little worried about the glue-up, as the veneer was a bit wrinkled going into the clamps. When it had dried, though, it came out perfectly flat and firmly adhered.

Once released from the clamps, I trimmed it to size and sanded it to 300 grit. I applied a coat of Danish oil at this stage as well.

The raw sheets of veneer
Clamping between flat boards after gluing
The veneered MDF after coming out of the clamps
The two panels, cut from the full board, sanded and finished

Lessons Learned

I kept notes throughout this project, with the aim to get better next time. Some of my key learnings were:

  • I didn’t have quite enough length in the veneered panel to fully cover the door and the rear of the cabinet, so I had to compromise by backing the glasses shelf with oak, and the main area of the cabinet with veneer. I think it looks fine, but in hindsight the overall cabinet dimensions could have been a little shorter, and then I would have had enough veneer for a full back.
  • I like to label all the pieces of a project (and their orientation) using blue painter’s tape. It sticks well, but can be easily removed without leaving any residue. This has saved me from mistakes many times!
  • When gluing up the carcass, I should have just glued and clamped it and squared it up, and installed the screws later. I tried to do the screws during assembly, thinking they would help hold it together, but that just ended up messy and stressful. The glue would have been fine on its own, and I could have installed the screws later.
  • The shoulders on the dadoed shelf don’t quite sit flush with the cabinet sides. I should have been more careful to check this during dry-assembly, and planed a tiny bit off the length of the tenons.
  • I chose to install a recessed French cleat on the back of the cabinet, so it could be easily flush-mounted on a wall. It can also sit on a counter or buffet, giving the owner options on where to put it. I think this was a good decision.
  • I need to pay more attention to measurements. I cut the rear cleat to the inside dimension of the box which ended up slightly short – I forgot that it sat inside the groove in the rear of the carcass! I made a similar error with the height of the oak piece used as the shelf backing – I had intended the join between it and the rear panel to be hidden behind the shelf, but it ended up slightly short and the join is just visible below the shelf (but only if you look for it!).
  • Finishing the panels before fitting them in place worked well – access into the corners would have been a bit hard, and it also made glue squeeze-out easier to clean up since it didn’t soak into the finished surface.
  • Similarly, pre-sanding the internals of the box before assembly was a good idea. I might even try pre-finishing them before assembly next time as well.
  • The flat-top 4mm table saw blade recommended by David Bywater worked very well in this project – I used it for the joinery grooves, cutting tenons, and making the shaker-style door panels. This thing is a game-changer!
  • I was really happy with how the shaker-style door came together. The rails and stiles are quick and easy to make, can be trimmed after assembly if needed without impacting the joinery or appearance, and came together with really nice tight shoulders.
  • The hinges were the most painful part of this project for me. Next time, I’ll cut the hinge mortises before glueing up the carcass – access inside the box was difficult, and made the job much harder than it should have been. I also need to take more care drilling the screw holes – luckily I had super glue and matchsticks on hand to fill the first holes and try again.
  • In a similar vein, I should have fitted the door catch before gluing the rear panel in place. It’s extremely hard to line up the pin on the door and the catch in the body when you can’t see inside with the door shut!
  • I followed a YouTube video’s tips and left the door slightly over-sized at first, and trimmed it down to size after fitting the hinges. This worked very well, and I was able to trim it ever-so-slightly out of square to match the cabinet and get a consistent door gap all the way around.
  • Before the final fitting of hinges and brass hardware, I finished everything with Danish oil. I really like this finish – it’s easy to apply, with no spraying or brush marks or anything. I like to do the second coat with a Scotch pad (very appropriate for this project!), which makes the timber very smooth to the touch.
  • I took a lot of care to “clock” all the screws, and I think it gave the cabinet a very neat finished look. To me, that signals that you took care and paid attention to the details. Not many people noticed this, but those that did, knew.

Published by Darren Collins