Cabinet for American Girl Dolls

Step 4 Assemble (mostly)

Follow the assembly steps #1, 3, 4, and 5 of the cabinet. This includes the attaching the magnetic catch and hinge pins into the top/bottom panels, and attaching the top panel, bottom panel and kick plate to the side panels.

Put the shelf supports into the bottom sets of holes and the custom holes that were drilled in the earlier step. Place the two shelves on their respective supports. The center divider will go from the top shelf into the groove in the top panel. Measure this distance and cut the additional 5/8" x 9.75" shelf to that length. The secret to getting a chip free cut in Melamine is to use a good quality blade and to cut the shelf with two passes. The blade chips the surface on the side away from the blade (e.g. w/ a Radial Arm saw, the bottom edge). So set the height of your saw blade so that the blade only cuts 75% of the way through. Cut across one side, flip over and finish with a cut on the other. Using this method, the cut should be chip free, but even if you get small chips in the divider, they will probably be hidden in the channel in the top panel.