Double Dog Crate Console

Build two identical long frames — 2x2 and 2x4 rails between the legs — with 2-1/2" pocket screws and glue. Run a few practice pocket-hole joints on 2x2 scrap first; a 2x2 leaves no margin for a mis-set jig, and the practice pieces cost nothing.

Square both frames by diagonals; every later piece assumes they agree.

Install the cross members that split the FRONT frame into the two door openings and the center. These dividers carry the hinges and latches later — plumb and square here is door-fit there.

Connect the front and back frames with the remaining cross members — pocket screws and glue. You now have a 6-foot two-bay skeleton that should sit dead flat; shim and adjust before the glue grabs if it doesn't.

Cut the 1/4" plywood back with a circular saw and a straightedge, and attach with 3/4" brads or staples into every frame member it crosses. The back is the crate's fourth wall AND the carcass's anti-rack panel — nail it off properly.

Lay out the bars: mark each opening's center, then step 4" off center each way and repeat across the opening. Drill 3/8" holes clean THROUGH the top rail at each mark, and matching holes only 1/2" DEEP in the bottom rail below.

This asymmetry is the whole trick: after painting, each bar threads down through the top and seats in its bottom socket. Check the resulting gaps against your actual dog — a muzzle-width gap is the one dimension this build must not get wrong.

PAINT THE FRAME NOW, before any steel goes in.

Edge-join the three 1x10s with 3/4" pocket holes, 1-1/4" screws, and glue. Sand hard with 120 grit, with the grain — this is the show surface. Stain (the source layered golden oak over an aged-wood accelerator after the accelerator alone read purple — test on scrap first).

Attach the top with the 1-3/4" self-tapping screws from below, watching that overhangs stay even as you go — the top squares up the whole console as it fastens.

Cut and dry-fit each door frame to its opening minus 1/4" gap all around, from your four straightest 2x2s. Drill the bar holes, paint the frame parts (tape the bar ends), then glue the frame together WITH the rebar captured inside — door bars can't thread in later; the frame closes around them.

Clamp square and let the glue cure fully. A door is the highest-warp, highest-consequence part on the build; give it no excuses.

Hang each door with even gaps on the narrow-profile hinges — pre-drill every screw hole; 2x2 stock near an edge splits on sight. Mount the gate latches on the 2x2 framing where adult hands reach easily.

Thread the frame bars down through the top holes into their sockets. Drop in the dog beds, latch the doors, and watch the dogs claim the den in under a minute. The wire crates go to the curb.