Slide-out Wood Pantry paint wood first?

[jeromedawg]

Hey all,

I have been wanting to build one of these:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Hidden-Fridge-Gap-Slide-Out-Pantry/

The instructions there don't include painting/finishing so I was wondering if that's something I'd want to do *first* prior to drilling holes and assembling everything? Or should I make all the measurements and pre-drill the holes first, then prime and paint, then assemble?

[lthenderson]

With any project, I prefer to completely build the thing and then finish it as a unit or take it apart into pieces and finish them before reassembling. I keep the amount of work done after the finish to the bare minimum to avoid marking up the finish. Also, if something doesn't fit as expected, you can make alterations and not affect any finish.

[jeromedawg]

With any project, I prefer to completely build the thing and then finish it as a unit or take it apart into pieces and finish them before reassembling. I keep the amount of work done after the finish to the bare minimum to avoid marking up the finish. Also, if something doesn't fit as expected, you can make alterations and not affect any finish.

Thanks. Makes sense. I was considering drilling a bunch of holes on both sides for pegs (made of wooden dowels) as well as the guard rails. The holes I would drill through and through so I can easily slide and mallet in the dowels. I'm wondering if using the wooden dowels (cut to size) as pegs would be 'strong' enough to support the shelving and whatever else we put on the shelves though.

[lthenderson]

With any project, I prefer to completely build the thing and then finish it as a unit or take it apart into pieces and finish them before reassembling. I keep the amount of work done after the finish to the bare minimum to avoid marking up the finish. Also, if something doesn't fit as expected, you can make alterations and not affect any finish.

Thanks. Makes sense. I was considering drilling a bunch of holes on both sides for pegs (made of wooden dowels) as well as the guard rails. The holes I would drill through and through so I can easily slide and mallet in the dowels. I'm wondering if using the wooden dowels (cut to size) as pegs would be 'strong' enough to support the shelving and whatever else we put on the shelves though.

The dowels would be plenty strong enough but I prefer for that kind of project to drill a series of holes and use shelf pegs for something like that. It allows you to adjust the shelves in the future. You can get around 100 pegs for eight bucks on Amazon and probably cheaper if you can find a smaller quantity. For a small project, you can get buy drilling all those holes by eye but if you have a scrap of pegboard laying around, you can clamp that to the sides and use the holes as a spacing template.  After you drill your first hole, insert a peg and that will help hold the template in place.

[jeromedawg]

With any project, I prefer to completely build the thing and then finish it as a unit or take it apart into pieces and finish them before reassembling. I keep the amount of work done after the finish to the bare minimum to avoid marking up the finish. Also, if something doesn't fit as expected, you can make alterations and not affect any finish.

Thanks. Makes sense. I was considering drilling a bunch of holes on both sides for pegs (made of wooden dowels) as well as the guard rails. The holes I would drill through and through so I can easily slide and mallet in the dowels. I'm wondering if using the wooden dowels (cut to size) as pegs would be 'strong' enough to support the shelving and whatever else we put on the shelves though.

The dowels would be plenty strong enough but I prefer for that kind of project to drill a series of holes and use shelf pegs for something like that. It allows you to adjust the shelves in the future. You can get around 100 pegs for eight bucks on Amazon and probably cheaper if you can find a smaller quantity. For a small project, you can get buy drilling all those holes by eye but if you have a scrap of pegboard laying around, you can clamp that to the sides and use the holes as a spacing template.  After you drill your first hole, insert a peg and that will help hold the template in place.

I think the only reason why I was considering using the same dowels to make the pegs is because I'm planning to drill holes all the way through to slide a dowel through from end to end on each side of the pantry for the purpose of creating a 'fence' of sorts to keep things from falling out. This way I can just keep all the holes uniform. But I can also see how it would be a pain when moving shelves around, having to remove the dowels and slide them in accordingly based on the new shelf position.

[jeromedawg]

So this is what I have so far (mind the cluttered fridge front lol):






It is pretty wobbly and feels unstable so I'm wondering if corner brackets like the one pictured here (not screwed in or installed yet) would help at all. This is a 2" wide corner bracket - should I get something longer? I'd be inclined to install a couple on both sides of each corner but at least for the bottom the position of the casters is likely impeding them:



I totally screwed up and pulled a noob move when installing the casters and didn't drill wide enough pilot holes, resulting in split wood near the edges. I'm wondering if this is something I should fix (glue & clamp?) and then reinstall the casters - I only screwed two screws in per caster as well since I started running low on the appropriate sized screws... 

[lthenderson]

Me personally, I would install backing on one side, unless you have some compelling reason for needed access from both sides. This will stiffen it up plenty and allow you to put more things in it without risk of it falling out the other side. Also it would give you a bit more width for storage than installing dowels on both sides. If you have a router, you could rout a shallow dado on one side and put in two squares of 1/4" plywood or just rip the all the boards, except for the front one a quarter inch narrower and to the same thing.

Modern wood glues are stronger than wood so yes you should be able to remove the castor, insert the glue and clamp it before trying again and this time predrilling the holes. I've done this many a time. The hard part is getting the wood glue into the narrow portions of the split. I use hide glue (which is thinner than say something like Tightbond) and work it down in the crack and clamp. Hide glue also has a much longer work life so you have plenty of time to do a thorough job and not worry about it starting to set up.