Ever work much with dowels? Many artisans would shy away from the use of dowels having had experience with broken down old chairs where they were pushed by industry beyond their best use. In making small cabinets, however, I’m reminded of the work of James Krenov and his use of them in lighter applications than in making chairs. Chairs are regularly torqued in the wrong direction. Small cabinets rarely face such abuse.
On the other hand, dowels find a great use in this small basswood cabinet, attaching the top and bottom to the sides. Of course, you might use biscuits, dominoes, mortise and tenon joints, or even pocket screws in building this small cabinet and have great, lasting results. However, dowels are a cheap alternative, requiring only a drill, a doweling jig, and a drill press or other means of drilling vertically into a piece of wood. While I sized this cabinet to hold kitchen spices in their usual jar sizes, it can be easily modified for a variety of uses. You can add shelf support holes to make the shelves adjustable for a variety of objects or easily make it deeper by simply using wider stock.
Other features of this cabinet may
