The Rabbit Hutch – Part 6

The rabbit hutch project is finally looking like a rabbit hutch.  I got a lot done in the last post, but now I need to make the two poop drawers that will sit beneath the wire mesh floors.

You can see the earlier posts in this series here:

• The Rabbit Hutch – Part 1 (Front frames and doors)
• The Rabbit Hutch – Part 2 (Sidewalls)
• The Rabbit Hutch – Part 3 (Carcase assembly)
• The Rabbit Hutch – Part 4 (Floor frames)
• The Rabbit Hutch – Part 5 (General Assembly)

In the last post, I painted the hutch, installed the floor frames, fitted and installed the back panels, installed the doors, and made a piece to fill the gap at the top of the front.  Wow, that’s a lot for one post.  Time to make the poop drawers.  Again, I’m skipping photos of me milling wood.

Oak, milled to make the bottom drawer.

Laying out tails for the oak drawer.

Cutting the tails.

Chopping out the waste.

Time to cut the pins.

Glue up time.

I found that there was a slight inward bow in the long sides of the draw frame.  I cut a piece of scrap to temporarily keep these pushed out straight while I nailed the bottom on.

The drawer frame ready for the bottom to be nailed on.

For the bottom I decided to use a ¼ plywood that is faced one side with paper.  I think that it is designed to be used as an underlayment for tile.  To attach the bottom, I used Titebond III and nails.

Ring shank nails to attach the bottom.

Rounding over the edges.

Flush trimming the drawer bottom.

Flush trimmed, rounded over, and sanded.

With the bottom drawer made, I gave the outside a couple of coats of paint. Not the inside, that’s getting different treatment.

I applied a couple of coats of paint.

So that  the drawer doesn’t slide directly on its plywood bottom, I added an oak runner or wear strip to the bottom edges.

¼” Oak wear strips added to the bottom of the drawers.

I applied a heavy coat of paraffin wax to the wear strip.

The bottom drawer was fairly simple.  The upper drawer is a little more complicated as it needs to have a notch cut out of the back to account for the ramp that links the upper and lower levels of the hutch.

I milled up a bunch of oak stock and cut all the pieces to length to make the drawers.

I’ll skip all the photos of the dovetailing this time as it is exactly the same as the first drawer.  In the bellow (after) photo, you can see the joints all finished.  This one took a little longer because of the notch.  As you can see, it has eight dovetail joints instead of four.

After much sawing and chiseling, I had this frame assembled.

I cut an appropriately sized piece of ¼-inch ply for the bottom of the drawer. This was glued and nailed in place.

I did the same flush-cut and round-over with the trim router before painting.

After softening all of the edges with a ⅛-inch round over bit, I painted the drawer.

My next-door neighbor had some left over countertop laminate that he gave me.  This will make a great waterproof liner for the drawers.

Glueing laminate to the inside of the upper poop drawer.

I didn’t get all of the parts to align perfectly, but a good application of silicone caulking will take care of that later.

After the glue had cured, I trimmed the edges flush with the laminate trim router and a block plane.

I made a quick jig for installing drawer pulls.

This will ensure that the holes are drilled in the right place.

I bought these drawer pulls at a clearance sale at the Lee Valley store when I took a trip to Kelowna, BC last year.   I knew they would come in handy at some point.

Not bad for a 12¢ drawer pull.

I caulked all the seams and painted the top edges of the oak.

This should keep any liquid from getting at the wood.

The top and bottom drawers were done the same.

Here are the drawers installed in the hutch.

Well, that’s the drawers done.  Now this thing needs a roof.  More on that in the next post.

– Jonathan White