Tool Cabinets Finished

[Frank Pellow]

They aren’t for me; they are for my daughters.

I found plans for this cabinet in the October 2006 issue of Wood magazine:

Tool Cabinet.jpg

I think that such a cabinet will be a good Christmas present for each of my daughters, Kathleen and Kristel. They are both married with young children and have small shops in their basements. Kathleen and Kristel both do some woodworking and enjoy it but their husbands are not (yet?) very interested except as a means to an end. A cabinet such as this will be a big help in organizing things (so that I can find them when I am visiting ).

Kristel has enough space for a cabinet as per the plans, whereas I am going to have to reduce the size of the cabinet for Kathleen. I will build Kristel’s with only slight modifications to the plan (I have never built anything exactly to plan but these plans are better than most), then make more changes for the smaller version.

I cut all the parts for the first cabinet this afternoon. Most of the cutting was done in the garage using my guided circular saw system on a temporary “table” that I use for cutting sheet goods. This table uses knock down saw horses supporting a sheet of plywood with foam attached.

Sheet good cutting table -small.JPG

Here I am cutting pegboard:

Cutting pegboard -small.JPG

Since I was cutting in the garage with the door wide open, I did not bother to hook up a vacuum to the saw.

Here are all the parts for the first cabinet cut to size:

The parts of Kristel's Tool cabinet -small.JPG

[Stuart Ablett]

Looks good Frank, and that is a great Christmas present, one they will enjoy for a lot of years.

Look forward to your updates!

Cheers!

[Glenn Clabo]

Frank...
Nice gift. You are so good at "mis en place" in the work shop...how are you in the kitchen?

[Frank Pellow]

Having spruced up the shop last week (as I talked about in the thread entitled “2nd Annual Shop Clean-Up and Improvement Week”: http://familywoodworking.org/public_...ead.php?t=413), I expected to get a lot of time there this week to work on Christmas presents. As they say “the best laid plans …”. On Sunday, Margaret’s computer with a lot of valuable stuff on it would not boot. So this week I have been working on that. It still won’t boot, but I now have the data from it on a new computer that I bought today. While I was spending time in the office doing all this, it became clear that, to keep peace in the family, this week should become “1st annual Office Clean-Up and Improvement Week”. I admit that the place is a mess and, when I am finished, I will be happy that I spent time organizing, repairing, and cleaning things. But, it means that I will get little shop time this week.

Yesterday evening and this early this morning I did get about 4 hours work done on the first tool cabinet.

01) Here are the outside parts for the main cabinet rabbeted, grooved, and ready for dry assembly.

Tool Cabinets 05 -Parts for the main cabinet -small.JPG

02) And here is the main cabinet assembled.

Tool Cabinets 06 -The assembled main cabinet -small.JPG

The plans called for the two more narrow shelves to be adjustable supported by pins drilled into the cabinet sides. I figured, that once the cabinet was filled, it would be very unlikely that one would ever want to move the shelves, so I made them permanent. All joints are glued and screwed with #8 2” flathead screws (Robertson of course).

03) Everything about this cabinet is quite straightforward and things would have gone batter if I had paid more attention. I was rushing and, as a result, had to backtrack and redo three different things. For example, here is a photo of a narrow bin stop being glued to the edge of the bottom shelf:

Tool Cabinets 07 -Gluing a stop at the wrong place -small.JPG

and here it is being removed with a chisel :

Tool Cabinets 08 -Removing the stop -small.JPG

because, it should have been placed part way in on the cabinet bottom.

Tool Cabinets 09 -Nailing a stop at the right place -small.JPG

I had to nail it in this time because I have no clamps with wide enough jaws to reach it’s location.

04) Next, all the sides and tops for all four doors were rabbeted and grooved. This photo shows the side about to have its grooves widened to ¼”.

Tool Cabinets 10 -Cutting groves in the door sides and tops -small.JPG

Each door support two pieces of pegboard, one facing in one facing out. Thus the two grooves.

05) Here one of the doors is being dry assembled:

Tool Cabinets 11 -Door parts being dry fitted -small.JPG


And that, folks, is as far as I got. Margaret summoned me at that point and I have been spending most of my time since then in the office and the computer store.

The plans for this in Wood magazine are quite good and, on this first unit, I am adhering to them about as closely as I have ever stuck to any plans. I only have on quibble and that is about the cutting diagram. Although Baltic Birch is advocated, the cutting diagram is based upon 4x8 sheet of plywood rather than 5x5 sheets. I am told that is some places it is possible to get baltic Birch is 4x8 sheets, but this is not the norm. An alternative based upon 5x5 sheets should have been provided. Not that I would likely have followed it –I seldom do.

[Mark Rios]

Looking mighty spiffy there Frank. Very cool.






Your daughters married guys that don't like tools?....And you allowed it?........

[Gail O'Rourke]

Lucky daughters...will have to look at making a cabinet like that for myself someday. Nice gift.

[Margaret Pellow]

Frank, I think that I could use a cabinet something like this in the sewing room. You could take down the pegboard that is over the sewing machine and replace it with a cabinet. There would have to be a built-in light under the cabinet.

[John Hart]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pellow

Frank, I think that I could use a cabinet something like this in the sewing room. You could take down the pegboard that is over the sewing machine and replace it with a cabinet. There would have to be a built-in light under the cabinet.

Uh oh Frank....Now you gone and done it!!!

Nice piece!

[Frank Pellow]

For a bit of this afternoon and most of this evening, I took some time away from the ‘Office Clean-Up and Improvement’ project (still not finished ) to work on Kristel’s cabinet. The doors are now built and installed. Here are three pictures:

06) All four doors closed:

Tool Cabinets 12 -All doors closed -small.JPG

07) One outer door open:

Tool Cabinets 13 -One outer door open -small.JPG

08)Both doors on one side open:

Tool Cabinets 14 -Both doors open on one side -small.JPG

When the above pictures were taken, the hinges were not yet on the two doors on the left side of the cabinet in the picture. They are on now. I still need to apply finish to the wood, install magnetic catches for the doors and make the bins.

For today's simple task of attaching 4 doors to the cabinet with piano hinges, the article in Wood magazine is too complex, advbocating steps using masking tape, double sided tape, and special spacers where none of these are needed. Here is one example of such "overkill":

tool cabinets -too much.JPG

[Frank Pellow]

Well, the office has now been tidied up, so I am back working in the shop today.

09) This morning I installed a cleat on the back of Kristel’s cabinet.

Tool Cabinets 15 -Cleat on top of cabinet back -small.JPG

That’s it just below the top piece of plywood. It is cut at a 45 degree angle slanting up towards the top on the inside of the cleat.

10) Wall space is scarce inside the shop and it is quite nice outside the shop, so in order to test things out, I screwed the matching cleat just outside the door:

Tool Cabinets 16 -Cleat on wall -small.JPG

11) And then I set the cabinet on wall cleat:

Tool Cabinets 17 -Cabinet hanging outside on cleat -small.JPG

At this point there is one coat of Rub-On Polly on the cabinet. I will probably apply four coats.