I'm making this project for my son-in-law Steve, to display his collection of shot glasses. This case will hold 42 glasses, eight tall ones and thirty four short ones. 

This page is all about Dados, since there are more than eighty of the little suckers to cut. The trick is to keep them all in line to make this projects lines pop out at you! It might look intimidating, but if you take it just one step at a time, the project falls together easily!

The key to make this project work is accuracy! All the dados are cut with a 1/4" straight cutting bit, so the stock you mill must be the same. Also all the dados are 1/16" deep. Any difference in the depth of these cuts will effect the joinery causing gaps or worse. 

In the pic at left I cut a bunch of test dados to get everything just right before I start on the project. 

This is how I set up to cut the dados on the long horizontal parts. The top and bottom pieces are 1/2" stock, and the two center ones are 1/4" stock with dados on both sides. 

Measure from the block of wood to the carbide on the bit to locate the edge of the first dado. Cut this dado, then flip the piece end for end and cut the first dado on the other end too. Continue cutting the first dado on all the horizontal pieces.

Here is a shot of the 1/4" pieces, with the dado on both sides. The dados are only 1/16" deep, but that will be enough to keep all the parts secure.

Ok after the first dados are cut on all the parts (on both ends) move the fence over to cut the next batch of dados. The plans have the dimensions you need to set up between the fence, and the closest part of the bit.  Continue till all the dados are done, finishing with the middle dado.

Here is a pic showing dadoes at both ends. This shortens the setup times, because you don't need to set up all the dados, because both ends are the same. I cut the 54 dados in 20 minutes!

Be as accurite as possible with these dados, because they will affect the length of other parts, and the location of those part's own dadoes! More on that later!

Now do the same thing for the two side pieces, cutting the two 1/4" dados, and then the 1/2" wide dado. Do that by making multiple passes with the 1/4" bit. 

Set up the fence like the pic at left. But, measure the 1/2" to the far side of the bit.

Finally, make a 1/8" rabbit along the back side of the tops and sides, (the 1/2" pieces) Use your router tables fence to expose only 1/8" of your bit. Keep the depth the same so you'll never need to mess with your routers height adjustment.

Lightly sand the fuzz of the dados, but make sure you stay away from any ends that will later fit into another dado, because if you make piece thinner, the fit into a dado will be sloppy!

Some folks say they would rather assemble the entire project at one time. I would rather take the process one step at a time. I start by taking the four long horizontal pieces and secure them to the sides. My weapon of choice for this project is a two part epoxy. It has a fairly long open time which gives me more time to fiddle with the clamps, and if I slobber glue all over the place, it practically disappears with the finish. More on that later.

My second step in the assembly process is to glue in all the lower dividers. There are nine of them. I apply a little epoxy to the dado near the front, then slide the pieces in thru the front, making them flush. 

Originally the plan was to make six sub assemblies and then glue them into place. This made me a little nervous, so I decided to just continue stick building the case. The arrows point to the pieces glued in at this step. 

The upper piece the clamps are pushing against looks thick, but actually it's just a scrap piece to protect the case. I'm not worried about protecting the lower piece, because a piece of trim will be covering that.

Again, the arrows point to the pieces that are being glued up. I have not had any problems with the assembly yet, thow these pieces had to be shortened roughly 1/32" 

This is the first piece of on of the six sub assemblies. This is where I stared to notice some problems. The piece with the arror fits between uprights that fit in dados cut in the first step. Those dados control the overall length of this piece, and it appears I was off a little bit when cutting those dadoes. Not a big problem so long as you make sure not to cut all your pieces before you begin the assembly. 

 

The dados were off by only 1/32" but when two are off in different directions, the length change in this part is 1/16"longer. That means the one next to it will be shorter. Just take your time and carefully line up the dado in piece with the dados in the long horizontal pieces, all the dados need to line up.

The easiest way to locate the dadoes on these shorter pieces is to line up a straight edge on two other dados, and transfer the lines. Be as accurate as possible

I found I needed to add a longer fence to my miter guage to support these shorter pieces. Always remember to to use enough downward pressure, and keep the piece tight and square to the fence. 

More arrows and more clamps. These parts fit snugly, and all the little vertical parts line up nice and straight. Yes I did a dry assembly of this step first to be sure everything looked ok. 

In this pic you can see the short pieces, and how nicely all the dados line up with each other. 

If you don't mess with your router tables bit height, you will always have consistant dados. For me that ment I had to leave it set up for a week, just because I was sure that I shouldn't plan on cutting all the parts first. If I had I would of had to mill more stock. Take theis project on step at a time and you'll do fine!

Now a little sanding! Take care moving around so the edge of the sandpaper doesn't nick the parts as it passes over. If you have blogs of glue, you may want to use a sharp chisle and clean them away beforeyou sand. Do both sides enough so that all the joints feel smooth to the touch.

To knock the sharp edeges off all the these pieces, make a tool out of a scrap piece of wood sized to fit loosly between the parts, and slap on a piece of sticky-backed sandpaper. Trim the excess with a razor blade.

Then begin the tedious task of lightly sanding all the edges. Take care not to dig in, you just want to knock off the sharp edges.

This is my classic Roman Ogee bit. I've set it up beside the cut that it makes so you can see how much of the bit is used, and which end cuts what side.

The cutting edge of this bit is 5/8", but I'm only going to use 1/2" of the bit.

I prefer to use my router table instead of using a hand held router. Especially here because the stock is only 2-3/8" wide. 

I like to do the short edges first and then the long edge. Any chip out from running the cross grain is cleaned up when the long edge is done, and the chip out on the back can be cleanes up with a pass thru the jointer.

This gives you an idea how the top and bottom trim look. Before I cut these pieces to final length, I routed one end to see how long the overhang should be, then I duplicated the over hang on the other end and finished my work at the router table.

I used yellow glue to hold the trim pieces, but before I added the clamps, I pinned each corner with a brad to keep the trim from slipping. Don't forget to use scrap wood between your work and the clamps!

Ok now to apply the finish, and I know what your thinking, how the heck to you apply poly to all those cubbies without runs and drips???

We let me tell ya, I'm awful lazy, out comes the spray lacquer! I love this stuff. But you still need a very lite sanding between coats. Use that little sanding block we made earlier, you can cut it down on the shop saw if you don't mind sanding your saw blade!

A simple way to hang your project is with these metal keyhole brackets. You are suppose to simply screw them to the back of your project and then just hang it up....
.....but I noticed that you need to clear away a bit of stock behind the bracket for the head of the the screw has clearence. I did this with a 3/8" forstner bit.