Instructions

Retain the grain: Drawing and cutting drawers

Keeping the grain pattern of the bed’s base side panels continuous makes the drawers look best. But to make that happen, you have to cut each piece from single pieces of plywood, with drawer openings prepped using plunge cuts from a circular saw.

Start by marking the drawer openings in pencil on the face of each piece of plywood. Before you cut, make sure you support the would-be drawer faces so they don’t fall out and break their edges. You’ll need to use them later. Working on a piece of rigid foam insulation works well. Just remember to retract the saw blade so it doesn’t go all the way through the foam when the saw is plunged fully. Also, complete enough test runs on scrap plywood to feel confident with the process.

I used a thin-kerf blade in my circular saw, guided by a straightedge clamped to the panel surface. Start with the saw tilted up on its base so the blade is clear of the wood. Fire up the saw, then carefully plunge the blade down completely into the drawer-face side of the cut line, near, but not at the end of the line. With the saw base sitting flat, carefully slide the tool back and forth until the saw kerf touches both ends of the line you’re cutting–not beyond. Switch off the saw, then let the blade stop spinning before lifting it out. Repeat the process on all other lines.

The round shape of the blade won’t let you complete the cutouts entirely, but that’s OK. You’ll need to finish them with either a handsaw or a jigsaw. Sand the cut edges to remove blade marks, but don’t round them over. As you cut the drawer pieces from the base side panel, mark the backs of the cutouts so you’ll know where they fit later.