The front bars should now be cut to a good fit and glued in the notches.  This completes the construction.

Drop handles for the drawers may be made out of semicircles of brass wire with the ends turned up.  The handles are held up to the drawer by loops of finer wire passed through the front and clinched inside.

The finishing of the outside must be left to the maker’s taste.  Varnishing, or polishing with warmed beeswax, will add to the general appearance, and keep out damp.

The total cost of a ten-drawer cabinet ought not to exceed eighteen pence.

A Tool Cabinet.

The wooden cabinet shown in Fig. 30 is constructed, as regards its case, in the same way as that just described, but the drawers are built up of several pieces.  The over-all dimensions of the cabinet represented are as follows:  Height, including plinth, 25 inches; width, 17-3/8 inches; depth, 10-1/2 inches.  The drawers are 16 inches wide (outside), by 10-1/8 inches from back to front, and, reckoning from the bottom upwards, are 3-1/4, 3, 2-1/2, 2, 2, 2, 2, and 1-3/4 inches deep.

[Illustration:  Fig. 30.—­Large cabinet (a), details of drawer joints (b, c, d), and padlock fastening (e).]

The construction of the drawers is indicated by the diagrams, Fig. 30, b, c, d.  The fronts are of 5/8-inch, the sides and backs of 3/8-inch, and the bottoms of (barely) 1/4-inch wood.  The grooves should not come nearer than 1/8-inch to the bottom edge, or be more than 5/16 inch wide and deep.  The possessor of a suitable “plough” plane will have no difficulty in cutting them out; in the absence or such a tool the cutting gauge and chisel must be used.

The back piece of a drawer has 1/4-inch less height than the front, to allow the bottom to be introduced.  The ends or the bottom are bevelled off towards the top edge to fit the grooves, so that no part may be above the grooves.

Glue should be used to attach the sides of a drawer to the back and front in the first place, and nails be added when the glue has set.  As an aid to obtaining perfect squareness, without which the drawers will fit badly, it is advisable to mark out on a board a rectangle having the exact inside dimensions of a drawer, and to nail strips of wood up to the lines on the inside.  If the parts are put together round this template they will necessarily fit squarely.

Divisions.—­If the drawers are to be subdivided in one direction only, the partitions should run preferably from back to front, as this enables the contents of a compartment to be more easily seen.  Where two-direction division is needed the partitions are cut as shown in Fig. 31.  All partitions should touch the bottom, and be made immovable by gluing or nailing.  It is a mistake to have so many divisions in a drawer that the fingers cannot get into them easily.

Wooden knobs for the drawers can be bought very cheaply of any turner, or suitable brass knobs at any ironmonger’s.  Take care that the knobs are in line with one another; otherwise the general appearance of the cabinet will suffer.