Boom Boom, Out go the Cabinets....

Stuart Ablett

Member
Messages
15,917
Location
Tokyo Japan
A while ago we had to replace all the reach in and open case fridges in the liquor shop, when we did that we also lost one fridge that I had converted to a fine wine cooler (changed the fans on the unit and also changed the thermostat). We have been wanting to buy some of the large wine coolers and put them in the shop, but we never seemed to have the time to do the renovation needed to fit the wine coolers into our small shop.

Well all that changed, we were out at Costco and they had the Haier 120 bottle cooler on sale, so my wife decided to buy one, we delayed the delivery for a few days so we could figure out how to renovate to fit the new wine cooler.

We moved some things and we were able to just stuff the one wine cooler into place.....

IMG_8465.JPG

IMG_8466.JPG

I knew at the best that this would be a temporary solution, as we wanted to buy a second unit to give us much needed space for the fine wine. I also really disliked the wasted space above the wine cooler.

We have some other sizes of the metal shop shelving and after digging through it all and deciding that none of it would work well enough, I declared that I'd just build the silly things myself. That was Saturday afternoon.

Now some backstory, see the brown cabinet in the bottom right side of the photo? That is the base for the Humidor that I've been building for oh FOUR years....? It always gets pushed to the back burner when something else comes along and guess what, something else ALWAYS comes along. When I declared that I would build the new Wine Cooler Shelves, there was some, lets say, mild scepticism. I then declared that I'd get them done by Monday, OK, now there was a lot of rolling of the eyes and some giggles. I knew I had all day Sunday to build the two shelves that I would need, and as it was now late Saturday afternoon, I would have to get my deliveries done and then go to the home center tonight, so I would have the materials all ready to go on Sunday. My Buddy Neil and I went to Super Viva Home in Toyotsu, the close SVH and bought everything I needed, he did some other shopping too, and helped me unload, a real life saver.

To save time I decided to use the lamcore plywood that comes with a plastic coating applied to it, this is expensive stuff here, a 3'x6'x 13/16" (21mm) sheet is about $69 each, I needed five sheets according to my calculations, so I bought six sheets, I can take the unused sheet back.

Sunday, well things never seem to go according to plan and other things got in the way and ate up my time, so as you can see from this picture....

IMG_8469.JPG

It was nearly 3:30 PM before I was able to start.

Some pictures of my "Plans"....... just for your enjoyment...

IMG_8470.JPG

Certainly NOT Sketchup, but you get the idea, so one vertical shelf to take up the space beside the two wine coolers and one horizontal shelf to go over the wine cooler to use the space better.

My high tech cut lists....
IMG_8473.JPG

IMG_8472.JPG


Sparing no expense!
 
The Vertical Cabinet


Using my Festool saw and rail set up I broke down some sheets...


IMG_8476.JPG

Really this is just a very basic box, I dadoed the ends in for a strong joint but these should bang together really quickly.

IMG_8477.JPG

I put the shelf tracks in place before I put the cabinets together.

IMG_8478.JPG

That is the basic box done, it still needs a base or kick, but I'll put that together from scraps at the end.
I also need to cover those edges, what they use here is a strip of the plastic cut to the thickness of the plywood, it then is a peel and stick operation, no heat activated glue here.

IMG_8480.JPG


IMG_8481.JPG


It works OK, but it only comes in 2 meter lengths, and is not cheap, about $4.80 a length. I'm only worried about the face of the unit, as the ends you can see on the side there will be the top and bottom, the bottom goes on the kick and the top will have the horizontal shelf covering it.

I needed about 10 lengths, so I went to the large bin the have them in and reached in and grabbed on, it said 21mm the size I needed to I grabbed another nine lengths. Of course I grabbed the ONE length in the bin that was 21mm, the others were all 18mm.... On Sunday night I ran out of edge tape.

IMG_8482.JPG


That is the state of the vertical cabinet, done except for the edge tape that I ran out of and the kick which I'll make out of cut offs later.

IMG_8483.JPG


I next cut up all the pieces I need for the horizontal cabinet.
 
On to the Horizontal cabinet.

IMG_8486.JPG


I did a dry fit to make sure I had everything correct and that was 1:30 AM, time for bed.

I took a good two hour long dinner break and a couple of 1/2 hour breaks as well, so I'd say I put in 7 hours on Sunday, not nearly the amount of time I wanted to spend on the project but it would have to do.

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday morning, and right after that I went to SVH and exchanged the 18mm edge strip for the correct 21mm edge strip.

IMG_8487.JPG

I also had enough scrap to make up the kick for the vertical unit, it is done and ready to install!

IMG_8489.JPG

The Horizontal unit is almost done as well, I cut some scrap into spacer to install the shelving tracks, that is when I found out that I had bought only six of the needed eight tracks.... oh bother, bad words were said.....

IMG_8492.JPG

IMG_8493.JPG


Well that is the horizontal unit, done as much as it can be without another trip to SVH to buy the two shelving tracks I should have bought on Saturday...

Now on to the install.

I called my buddies Neil and Tim and promised them free beer and they came running to help (even without the free beer they would have come to help, they are good guys!). We got the cabinets out of the Dungeon and across the street, and after taking down the old shelves we got the new ones in place....

IMG_8494.JPG

IMG_8495.JPG

IMG_8496.JPG

Leveled and screwed to the wall, the kick is screwed to the vertical cabinet and the horizontal cabinet is screwed to the vertical on, as well as the wall, and it rests on the wine cooler. The majority of the weight is on the wall, I can take the wine cooler out.

IMG_8497.JPG

You can see the space for the second wine cooler, I hope we get it soon. The two shelves that I put into that space were at one time horizontal in front of the old fridges, they fit into the space covering up the ugly floor, so they will stay there for now.

IMG_8500.JPG

IMG_8501.JPG

Mostly stocked and ready to go.


We got that all done by about midnight on Monday.

This was a quick on, I came up with the idea on Saturday evening, designed the shelves, bought the material, built and installed the shelves by Monday night, not bad I think.

The Melamine plywood is expensive, but man is it slick and boy can you bang out cabinets in a hurry, for a guy like me with almost zero finishing space it sure is nice, but, like I said expensive. Just the material for both cabinets, all the plywood, shelving tracks and hooks, cost about $650.

Cheers!
 
See all you needed was to be challenged with a big enough challenge. :D:thumb: Bet Momma is happy :). Wont even ask what Mil thought by now we know that answer.;)

That track saw sure made short work of breaking down the sheets accurately in your small shop space. Must be a prized possession.

Well done Stu. Maybe someday SVH will be using drones for delivery. One can always hope.
 
This was a quick on, I came up with the idea on Saturday evening, designed the shelves, bought the material, built and installed the shelves by Monday night, not bad I think.

Speed demon, you are the Allen of the Far East. Looks great and a ditto on the refinished ply. It does make thigs go quickly.
 
its impressive that you are able to get all those sheets into the space you have to work in, the dungeon as you call it, then are able to move it all around and assemble with extra sheet goods laying around.
then get it all back up out of the place. that's almost as impressive as the boxes themselves.
when you come visit some of the people on this site, youll see how spoiled they are with 1200-1500 sq foot shops, finishing rooms, wood storage rooms, etc........Id be thrilled to get a 220 line into my garage so I can get an eight inch jointer.

best part of it is that you can do it all yourself for your business. Some guys would pay a small fortune, and I mean small fortune, to have some custom cabs built in their business and have it delivered and assembled on site.
 
Last edited:
Top