Tool Chest

If one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2020 is to get your shop better organized, this easy-to-build, double drawer tool chest can help keep that promise. Ours is made of 1/4," 1/2" and 3/4" Baltic birch plywood — this is a practical shop accessory, not a jewelry box. We used Rockler’s Drawer Lock Router Bit in the router table to form sturdy, interlocking corner joints for the drawers. The case’s butt joints are reinforced with stepped Miller Dowels that are as easy to install as drilling holes and pounding them in.

Making the Drawers

Your first inclination might be to make the tool chest’s case first, but then the drawers must be precisely fitted to its interior. The easier route — especially considering the interlocking nature of the corner joinery and how that impacts final part sizing — is to make the drawers first and wrap the case around them. Start by cutting two 7½" x 13" pieces of 1/2"-thick Baltic birch