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1 First, make a jig. All of the crucial
angles in this build are 3° off of 90°.
I used scraps of pine and MDF to
make the jig. Get this jig dialed in
perfectly, and the rest of the build is
much easier.
2 I'm using a router for most of the
mortises. I use a^3 / 8 " straight bit
with a fence to cut the long mortises
in the legs.In 1905, Gustav Stickley
published plans for this magazine
cabinet in The Craftsman magazine
as part of an ongoing home training
course in cabinetwork. He claims
this to be a useful piece in any living
room where loose papers and maga-
zines are apt to accumulate. Having
built several now myself, I couldn’t
agree more. It’s the perfect piece
of furniture to sit beside a favorite
reading chair or to showcase a few
treasures in the living room, and it
is far more capable of wrangling the
stuff of everyday life than any end
table or magazine rack I’ve ever had.
Almost any wood will work. Oak
is a classic craftsman choice, but
maple or walnut would also look
great. Stickley specifi cally suggests
in his original plans that a softwood
may be desirable which prompted
me to build a version of this piece
a few years ago from home store
pine. For this iteration I chose
mahogany with blackwood keys as
a subtle nod to Greene and Greene
furniture —another branch of the
arts and crafts tradition.Just One Jig
Every crucial angle in this project is
3° off of 90° and to keep all of that
straight, begin by making a simple jig
with two strips of^1 / 2 " MDF and two
scraps of^3 / 4 " pine. Clamp the two
pieces of pine together. Mark and
plane an identical 3° slope into the
boards and then glue or screw them
to the MDF strips leaving a 1" slot be-2
tween the strips for a router template
bushing that can be used later to
rout the shelf dados. You don’t want
any play here, so use the guide to
get this spacing right. Double check
the angles with a bevel gauge during
assembly. If you get this jig dialed in,
the rest of the build is easy.Start with the Sides
Begin by preparing the stock for
legs and rails. The legs are 2" x 1^1 / 4 "
x 44" long. If you are mortising
with a chisel, be sure to leave the
legs overlong until the mortises are
made to avoid end grain blowout.
Choose leg stock carefully, for
straight grain and process it so that
the grain runs diagonally through
the leg (bastard cut) to present