My father in law dropped a hint about his birthday/christmas present the last time he was over. It was in the form of a sticky note drawing of a hutch to complete his new ham shack. My wife is losing her old room, and he is gaining a shack. He wanted something simple with light wood that would hold a bit of equipment. Thankfully my years of having bought ikea furniture came in handy.
It was going to be over 30 inches wide, just under 2 feet tall, and 16 inches deep. Fitting it inside a car for the long ride to their house would be trick. Instead of gluing I decided to employ dados and have everything screw together. Chase style flat pack!
I took 8″ wide poplar boards and face joined them to make the 16″ depth I was looking for. Saw benching is so much more peaceful and fun than using a noisy miter saw.
Once jointed together I used the router to make a 1/4″ dado in the uprights for the middle shelf, and one along the edges of the top shelf. That one probably wasn’t absolutely needed, but I felt it would help with assembly alignment.
This was my first poplar project and I like the look of it, but boy is this stuff soft. Planing without tearout was tricky and any misuse of a tool left gouges and dents in the wood.
I decided to try my new bottle of tung oil out and was not disappointed. Tung oil is such great stuff. Finishing was a breeze with everything disassembled and my new screw wax made putting it all together quick and easy. When they stopped through on their way back home the car was full enough to make carrying an assembled hutch impossible. No problem, it comes apart. They could have fit 10 of the flat pack ones in!
Kilted Craft Works 