This is my first project to post here at SMC and I thought I'd do a build thread, even though I have already built this and given it to my wife for Christmas. Hope you enjoy this little project. David

My wife doesn't have much jewelry and has no real desire to have more (cool by me!) but I thought I'd build her a decent place to put what she has.

We have built-in shelves/drawers in our closet and when you walk into the closet there is 14" wide painted plywood side of the shelves that looked like a great place to put a jewelry cabinet. So I thought about it a day or so and decided on Honduras Mahogany, Birdseye Maple, and Padauk. I took a few measurements and picked suitable stock to begin, starting with resawing a 4" wide piece of Birdseye Maple into three pieces about 3/16" thick.

I jointed the edge of the Birdseye before resawing but wanted to get it perfect for the bookmatch that would actually show. So I lightly sanded to keep as much width as possible to stick to my overall desired width of the cabinet.
Dressing edges for bookmatch joint.jpg

Glued up using the board I made 30 years ago for joining guitar tops and backs. This board is 1.25" particle board - flat and heavy! These wedges work really great.
Back joined, glued.jpg

Both sides finished with Nitrocellulose sanding sealer and Lacquer
Back lacquered and ready.jpg

Mahogany flattened, trued, cut to dimension, rabbet cut for back
Mahogany frame cut.jpg



With the back finished I moved to sizing the rabbet. I don't like a back that is flush fit but rather one that sets in a tiny bit. Because this is going to be mounted on a wall, any irregularities in that surface would put this cabinet in a bind once it is fastened (it won't be hanging).
Rabbet cut, back test fit.jpg

Miters cut and the frame/back are test fitted. Allowances for movement across the width of the back are key to making sure this doesn't split or bow later. There is very little allowance top and bottom because the panel won't move in that direction, not perceivably anyway.
Miters cut, dry fit test.jpg

Internal shelves and vertical pieces milled to a few thousandths under 1/4" and cut to size.
Vertical pieces cut and fitted.jpg

Shelves cut and fitted
Shelves cut and fitted.jpg

More to follow...