I attach the top and bottom of the main towers to one side. With them secure with the pocket screws, I flip the side onto the other long side and attach it forming the main tower. I do the same for the second tower.
I then take the middle shelf measure out where the wine rack dividers go. Putting the shelf face down, I then take the dividers in place and screw them in with the pocket hole screw. This gives it both a secure connection, and you will not see the fastner. If I were to nail it to the shelf you would see the heads. Even if I sunk them puttied them, I think they would still show. When both are in place, I take a 2x4 cut to the width of of the middle wine space and clamp it to the wine rack as a support.
I then take the main tower and lay it face down on a table and slide in the wine rack with the shelf. Using shims I get the wine rack at the right height (I want it set in at 1/4" to give it a better look). I square up the tower by shifting it properly. To see if its square I measure the tower from corner to kiddie corner. If the two measurements are the same, it is square.
I then use my nail gun and nail 1 1/4" nails into the wine rack and shelves.
I took several pictures showing the details of pocket screws and assembling. The pictures looked cluttered on the blog so I tried the video slide show feature on Picasa.
As careful as you are and no mater how well I lined it up, I still missed quite a few nails and they shot through to the other side, missing its target. This happened because 1, I wasn't use to where the nail came out of the gun, I used the free nails that came with the gun which were softer (so the first flaw they hit, they bend into another direction).
Once it is secured, the towers are done.
With the towers finished I can measure the 1/4 oak veneer plywood for the backs. I had enough left over from my last project to do one of the towers, I then had to go to the store to get another piece of 1/4 to finish the other back. With both measured and cut to fit in the back grooves, its time for my second favorite thing to do...... stain. 15 minutes later, I wiped the excess and waited for them to dry.
While they are drying I begin to build the toe kicks. I then used 2x4's to make toe kick. With the 2x4's cut to 9 1/2" I then used shims where it was necessary to make the toe kicks level. Once they were level I used deck screws to drill them into the walls sole plate or stud.
One of the supports could only be drilled into the sole plate and did
not hold onto well due to it being kind of rotted. It did hold though, but what I should have done is connect both to back 2x4 and then screwed that into the sole plate. The face of the toe kick will have a piece of 3/4" oak veneer nailed to the front when it is completed.
