Final Wardrobe Drawings for a Non-CNC Workshop in TopSolid Wood
Part 3 closes the walnut wardrobe series. The client asked for one more change, and the drawing pack moved from revision to final workshop drawings, ready for production in a workshop that cuts and drills by hand rather than on a CNC.
The Last Change: An LED in the Side Panel
The client wanted lighting in the tall shelving cupboard as well. An LED strip under a shelf would light only the space directly below it, so the strip goes into a side panel instead, lighting the full height of the shelves. It is wired through the back of the cabinet to the LED drivers, which sit in the push-back zone at the top.
Vent Slots That Forgive Site Tolerances
Vent slots are cut through both the cabinet top and the top deco panel. They are drawn as two outlines, deliberately offset by about 5 mm: the smaller cutout is in the top deco, the larger one in the cabinet top below.
The reason is practical. On site, panels never line up perfectly, and the smaller the gap, the easier any misalignment is to see. A generous offset means a 3, 4 or 5 mm difference simply doesn't show.
Making Room for the Socket
A single socket sits in the top right corner of the wall. To house it, the void behind the 7 mm back panel was increased to 30 mm, enough for the socket box.
The Final Drawing Pack
Page 1: front views and services
The LEDs and the socket are highlighted on the front page so nobody can miss them. Installers will immediately ask where the cables run and how they connect, and whether the LED strip goes into its groove in the workshop or on site. Showing it clearly answers those questions before they are asked.
Page 2: internal layout
Only minor changes, mainly the 30 mm gap behind the back panel for the socket.
Page 3: workshop details
This page is drawn for a workshop with no CNC, so every dimension, gap and spacing has to be visible:
Panel sizes, panel thicknesses and back thicknesses
Hinge positions and drawer heights, internal and external
The top deco and cabinet top pulled out as separate annotated panels
Spacing between panels, plus running dimensions from the bottom up, so the maker can hook a tape measure and mark everything off
The skill is giving enough information without burying the workshop in dimensions they don't need.
A 100 mm LED setback as standard
The shelf section shows the LED set back 100 mm from the front, the shelf peg holes, the shelf setback and the peg positions from the back. 100 mm is a standard setback for LED strips, for two reasons: it clears front panel fixings such as Lamellos, Dominos, dowels and screws, and it avoids clashing with push-to-open mechanisms that need around 80 mm of depth.
Colour-coded overview
An overview without doors shows the cabinet as a see-through skeleton, with hidden lines visible. Colours stay consistent from job to job: drawer boxes in orange, ironmongery in blue, LEDs in red.
Drawer boxes and runners
The last detail gives drawer box sizes (sides, fronts, backs and thickness) and the Blum runner drilling positions, measured to suit the Blum drilling jig the workshop uses, which hooks onto the bottom of the side panel.
From Concept to Final Drawings
Across three episodes, the wardrobe went from a concept and a site survey to a first draft, a client revision, and a final drawing pack ready for the workshop. Watch the full episode on YouTube and subscribe to follow the Draftsman's Day series.
