#7 Gun Cabinet assembly

For the past couple weeks I've been building components for the gun cabinet. I know this is taking a long time, but I'm also trying to stay on schedule with a few other projects, so I've had to divide my time.

I think it's time to start putting this bad boy together!

I'm going to start with the base unit. I cut the bottom shelf to exact size using 3/4" Quarter Sawn White Oak Plywood. I built a frame for the top of the base unit, since there will be a top between the base and the upper unit. Once they were sanded, I drilled the pocket holes with my Kreg pneumatic pocket hole machine on the bottom side of the bottom shelf and the frame.

If you click on the pictures, you can see how I drilled the ends of the shelf and frame and also along the front edge.

The holes on the ends will be used to fasten the shelf and frame to the end panels. The holes along the front edge of the shelf and frame will be used to attach the face frame once the sides are mounted.

Here I'm attaching the sides to the shelf and frame.

Now I can mount the face frame. Glue and screws will hold it all together. NO NAILS! While the face frame is on clamps, I went ahead and mounted the base board molding (again, done with screws from the back side, so no fastening is visible) Again NO NAILS. I've used over 50 screws so far just assembling the base.

Glue is dry, clamps come off and the base board molding is mounted. I then mounted the center divider, drilled for adjustable shelves and made two shelves. I mounted the doors, made the mounting stringers for the drawer slides and mounted the drawer slides. Installed the drawer boxes and mounted the drawer fronts.

The only thing left to do for the base is cut the back, mount hardware and locks. The base is about ready for the final sanding.

I'll start the assembly of the top unit next.