Step 2 - The Design
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This project is a slight modification of our standard 6 Drawer CD Chest - Jon wanted the drawer boxes to be just a little wider and full depth. But what seems like just a slight modification effects nearly every part of the cabinet, for when the drawers get larger, the cabinet that holds them must also get larger. Being one of our own designs, we work from a measured drawing that Doug created using Corel Draw.
This makes things easier than starting from scratch or working from a printed plan because the design is in the computer, we just need to re-size the drawer boxes, see how that affects adjoining parts, change them, see how that affects the parts adjoining them, and so on. Doing this on the computer is much easier than changing a plan printed on paper because I can actually slide things around to accommodate the re-sizing.
Once everything looks right on the screen, and we have dimensions in place, it's time to print the measured drawings out and check the math. We do this because Corel Draw is not a C.A.D. program, and while it does an adequate job of drawing most of the shapes we use and adding dimensions, small errors can creep in that -- when accumulated across a complex design -- can cause problems in the actual construction of the piece. So, once we know what size the parts are supposed to be and how much space is between them, we go in and add these things up and see if it equals the over-all size listed. Looking for problems while on paper saves having to re-make parts later.
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