We are in need of a shelving unit for some standard 14x14-inch boxes. Actually they're a little smaller than 14 inches so we decided to make the opening of each cubicle 14 inches square, making the whole unit 45 inches square (when you account for the width of a typical board that is .75 inches).
We opted for a few design elements to make this more sturdy. First, the top and bottom pieces will be the full length. Second, all of the connecting parts would be inset .125 inches to prevent sliding around. This also would make everything easier to fit together, presuming that we'd gotten our measurements right. The .125 inches everywhere produced the somewhat strange lengths you see in our diagram: a 14-inch inner piece would need to be .25 inches longer to notch into the boards below and above.
With all this figured out we cut our 12 pieces.
Next came the tricky part, using the router to dig out all the .125-inch deep channels. The first step was to find the center of where the groove would be. This wasn't as simple as 14 inches plus .375 (half of a .75-inch board) because of all the weird extras. Once found we marked a equal distance on either side that would give the router enough space to make the cut. This worked out to something like 3.3125 inches.
With the distances marked we could attach our guide clamps. They're useful for a lot of things but are ideal for this job--acting as a track to keep the router in line because this machine can sometimes have a mind of its own.
One pass down with the router against one clamp...
another down the other side and we had our .75 wide groove.
With all the workshop stuff done, we wanted to see if this jigsaw puzzle was actually going to fit together. Luckily for us it did!
Here's a center board with vertical stiles on either side.
And this is one of the sides.
Naturally the next step was to prime everything. Since this piece is going into the studio with the green table and file organizer, it'll match them in color in a few more coats.
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