I built this vanity for a customer of Peterson Builders. Its made from clear alder.

So now I have all the pockets cut into the sides it's time to make the rails.

(sorry I did not notice I forgot to rotate the photo

If you know how to fix it let me know)

I start by cutting all the rails to the length I need for the inside of the cabinet plus the depth of the pockets on each side. Then by using a scrap piece I set up my router fence and dovetail bit in a router table. I then cut the matching dove tail on each end of the rails.

Now I have all the rails with matching dovetails on the ends. As you can see the top rail I only cut half of the dovetail. This is to fit the pocket that was cut all the way through on the top.

The lenght of the rail is a little longer than the pocket. This was done on purpose. To hide the end of the dove tail and pocket inside the cabinet. To cut this off I just slid the fence back to where I cut my mark off. Then ran them through.

Now I have rails and pockets, lets put them together.

Sliding Dove Tails

To make the sliding dove tails. I first start by laying out my dove tails on the edge of the side panels.

Then I place the jig I made so my edge marks line up. Then I clamp the jig in place. I set my router to cut at the depth I want and run the router through the jig.

As you can see I now have a great dovetail pocket in the side of the cabinet. I then move the jig to the next location and so on and so forth.

At the top of the case I cut the pocket all the way to the top otherwise I'm left with a flimsy peace of end-grain wood that will break out when I try to slip the rail in place.

The sides are connected together with rails that are dovetailed at each end. I used a sliding dovetail to join them together for the strength that that type of joint gives with a side of beauty.

This is a filing cabinet I built for my brother to give to his wife. The exterior case is made of knotty alder and the drawers are Baltic birch. It has 1" over travel drawer slides to get easy access to the entire drawer. I made the drawers big enough to handle her binders of music. Two of the drawers have file hanging systems in them and two are regular drawers. Thank goes out to my brother for his photos of the cabinet. I believe he created the look of sunlight because it was dark outside.

This is an Alder railing I did for a client at work. This was something new for me because of the double curved railings. Each riser and tread was different and the angle the risers met the skirt was different. It took a while but eventually I was able to get everything to fit together nicely. The niche in the wall next to the stairs was a prefab unit. just cut a hole in the wall the size of the back, glue it in and paint it.

This is a mantel that I built for my in-laws basement. I built up the top for a heaver look. I used Knotty Alder because of the similar grain to cherry and the ease of use.

The carving was done with a 3/8" box core bit. I used the bit in a palm router with the base removed. This has been a popular feature for some people.

To finish this off I used a mahogany stain from Old Masters followed by a coat of sprayed lacquer. Then I wiped on a glaze coat of Sherwin Williams Vandyke brown followed by three more coats of hand rube lacquer.