# Trying New (for me) Ideas



## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

I use shop cabinets to try new ideas before using them on something more important. I'm making a small wall cabinet to fill an empty space and tried a couple of new (to me anyway) ideas.

- the cabinet was made at the total depth of the body and door and I needed some easy way to attach the face of the door. I clamped a piece of 2x4 (after running the one edge through the TS to give me a square edge) and used that to support the router while I ran a rabbeting bit along the edge.
- I cut a 5/8" radius on the corner of the plywood panel to match the rabbet, glued and nailed the panel in place and covered it with some 3/4" wide trim.
- I tried something different to cut the cabinet apart into body and door (I've cut opposing sides before, hot glued plywood strips to hold the cabinet together, cut the other sides and knocked off the plywood strips) and thought that I'd try something different as this was a relatively small (18" W x 24" H) cabinet. I set the height of the blade just under the thickness of the plywood and cut all sides, leaving basically the face ply intact, and then finished the cut with a hand saw. This worked very well, all I had to do was knock off the ragged edge with a Surform plane and finish with a sanding block.

This turned out to be a good way to add the door face without losing any additional inside depth and having to cut a dado to accept the plywood - I plan to use the same method to add the backs to the two cabinets going under my adjustable height workbench. One minor change will be to run the piece of 2x4 through the jointer first to take out any twist so it's easier to get it clamped up even to the face of the cabinet.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

That's a neat little cabinet. I hadn't thought of cutting the frame in half like that, but it makes a lot of sense, especially for a tool storage cabinet, say, for chisels and small hand tools. I kind of like the visible edge of Baltic Birch ply and with good strong hinges, you can store tools in both the cabinet and the swing out door. Made a little longer or larger and it would make a good home for hand planes.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

cool idea nicely executed...


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

DesertRatTom said:


> That's a neat little cabinet. I hadn't thought of cutting the frame in half like that, but it makes a lot of sense, especially for a tool storage cabinet, say, for chisels and small hand tools. I kind of like the visible edge of Baltic Birch ply and with good strong hinges, you can store tools in both the cabinet and the swing out door. Made a little longer or larger and it would make a good home for hand planes.


Thanks. Here's another cabinet I built a while back - the cabinet was also made as one piece and cut apart in two steps; cut the long sides on the TS, glue strips of paneling across the cut line with hot melt and then cut the ends loose. The cabinet is a lot taller , and I wasn't real comfortable feeding something that tall across the TS - I would probably use a circular saw and edge guide if I made one that large again. I used pegboard for the door skin, store painting tools (paint brushes, scrapers, putty knives, etc.) on the inside and layout tools on the outside. If I was to do this again, I'd probably put a single fixed shelf in the middle to help keep the sides from flexing (or a back would probably have helped).


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

tomp913 said:


> Thanks. Here's another cabinet I built a while back - the cabinet was also made as one piece and cut apart in two steps; cut the long sides on the TS, glue strips of paneling across the cut line with hot melt and then cut the ends loose. The cabinet is a lot taller , and I wasn't real comfortable feeding something that tall across the TS - I would probably use a circular saw and edge guide if I made one that large again. I used pegboard for the door skin, store painting tools (paint brushes, scrapers, putty knives, etc.) on the inside and layout tools on the outside. If I was to do this again, I'd probably put a single fixed shelf in the middle to help keep the sides from flexing (or a back would probably have helped).


I like those Tom , but as I'm looking at them I'm thinking about also using the outside of the doors to hang tools . There's all that real estate doing nothing , others may have bigger garages though , and it wouldn't be neccesary


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## AndyL (Jun 3, 2011)

I like it, neat techniques. I can definitely see myself using that method for rebating a back panel in a cabinet.


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## chessnut2 (Sep 15, 2011)

Great idea, Tom. I'm preparing to set up a basement workshop, and I WILL use it. Thanks.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

tomp913 said:


> Thanks. Here's another cabinet I built a while back - the cabinet was also made as one piece and cut apart in two steps; cut the long sides on the TS, glue strips of paneling across the cut line with hot melt and then cut the ends loose.* The cabinet is a lot taller , and I wasn't real comfortable feeding something that tall across the TS - I would probably use a circular saw and edge guide if I made one that large again.* I used pegboard for the door skin, store painting tools (paint brushes, scrapers, putty knives, etc.) on the inside and layout tools on the outside. If I was to do this again, I'd probably put a single fixed shelf in the middle to help keep the sides from flexing (or a back would probably have helped).


slot cutter and router...
small bearing for extra dept...

that OSB on yur walls makes for some great everywhere nailers doesn't it....


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

Great idea and well executed as always. Keep up the posts Tom. 

How goes the turtle business?


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

JFPNCM said:


> Great idea and well executed as always. Keep up the posts Tom.
> 
> How goes the turtle business?


Thanks. Getting ready to start the next (and maybe final) batch of three. Still intrigued with the thought of a turtle large enough to take a 10" pot - I'm looking at the idea of keeping everything the same - same number and width of layers, same size of legs, etc. - and just kind of stretching it a little. I laid it out in CAD and it looks as if that will work out. I may go ahead and pick up an extra 2x6 and make four sets of the legs and so forth so I'd be ready if I decide to go ahead with the project - but these will all be in non-PT lumber, I'm tired of the aggravation. The "base"- for want of a better word - would have to come out of a 2x10 though, unless I go ahead and glue up some narrower material.


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Very well done thanks for showing us.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Neat idea, Tom...


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

Stick486 said:


> slot cutter and router...
> small bearing for extra dept...
> 
> that OSB on yur walls makes for some great everywhere nailers doesn't it....


Something to consider. Depth of cut would have to be somewhat less than 3/4" unless I go with the original method and hot glue strips to keep the slots open. 

The OSB is good, although I do try to hit studs if I'm hanging a cabinet or anything substantial. Wishing now that I'd painted it white 20 years ago when I hung it, too much aggravation now.


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## JFPNCM (Dec 13, 2009)

@tomp913

Good news on the turtle project. I look forward to the results of the expanded design. The non-PT lumber should certainly make life easier.


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

RainMan 2.0 said:


> I like those Tom , but as I'm looking at them I'm thinking about also using the outside of the doors to hang tools . There's all that real estate doing nothing , others may have bigger garages though , and it wouldn't be neccesary


I do have things hanging inside and outside on this door - inside is paint brushes, putty knives, scrapers, etc. and on the outside I have steel rules, framing square, etc. Works well for that as the cabinet is about 42" tall.


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

Because the door will be used to store smaller items, I needed to put a retainer at the shelf to stop them falling off when the door was opened. Normally, I would have just marked the locations and nibbled out the notch on my radial arm saw. As that's not an option any more, I was looking for a quick and easy way to do this. It occurred to me that what I was looking to do was similar to setting hinges - so out came the old Rockler jig. Unfortunately, it wouldn't adjust for such a narrow (3/4" wide) recess so I had to improvise - guess I could go ahead and drill and tap a second set of holes if I was going to do this a lot, but this actually worked very well, the six recesses probably took less than 10 minutes. 

The cabinet is all together now - just needs the screw hinges replaced with through bolts and nuts (and maybe a third hinge in the middle?) - so now it's time to take it apart, clean up some edges with sandpaper and put a quick coat of poly on it. As it's going to be used for shop supplies like oil, air tool lube, etc., I'm thinking about bending up some aluminum coil stock and making a "cover" for the shelves so that they don't get oil soaked.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Those retaining strips are nice. I always set mine a little higher, but you can always add another if things start falling out.


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Wow Tom , great outcome . Hopefully we get to see them on the wall all stocked up 

Tom instead of a metal top , what about urethane or something to protect the wood ?


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

@RainMan 2.0

I'm planning to put on a couple of coats of poly, but figured that the shelf with oil cans. etc. would be easier to clean if it had an aluminum skin on it.

I finally had some free time and got a couple of coats of poly on it and hung it on the wall, now rounding up all the various cans and bottle to get it filled up.

I did make a mental note to myself to attach the retainer strips _after_ I put the poly on next time.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

I was watching a video recently of a box being made. They built the closed box first, then used a table saw to cut the top. But the woodworker didn't cut all the way through, but left about 1/16th or less uncut, then removed that with a knife. That kept the lid in place so the cut was exactly even all the way around. I think it was a Wood Whisperer video.

I'm thinking of making a very light weight, shallow box (almost like a rifle case) to store my new 115 inch carbide tipped band saw blade, maybe even multi leveled to hold several blades. Those carbide tips are fairly fragile and pretty costly so I don't want to coil them. I'm going to use your approach for the construction because it is easy to get the top and bottom to match than building them separately. I'm going to make it very light weight so I can put it up high. The drawing is a top view. The dark gray circles represent short dowels to separate several blades. it will be about 5 feet by 16 inches wide. I'll place the posts by putting in the blades and then gluing in the posts. I think I can work out fitting 2-3 blades per layer. 

Each layer will be 1 inch deep, with 1/4 inch top and bottom, and 1/8th veneer in the middle. The dowels will support the middle layer. the total height will 2 5/8 finished so I'll start with a total height of 2 7/8ths before cutting with a 1/8th kerf blade so I have a little wiggle room. That means the height of the sides will have to be 2 3/8. 3-4 hinges on one side, simple "lunch box" style latches on the other. Not sure it needs a handle.


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

@DesertRatTom

Sounds like a good idea. I saw/read the tip about making the box as one piece and then separating afterwards, and it works really well. For the size box I made (about 18" x 24"), I cut through leaving basically the thickness of the face veneer (this was some old luan plywood I had laying around so the face veneer is probably thicker than what you see nowadays) - maybe leave something around 1/32"? I cut the box apart with a Japanese pull saw so I wouldn't splinter the wood towards the inside - the saw I have has a back spline, not the best choice but OK as long as the stroke wasn't too deep. The other thing I might change for the next time is to put a back in the cabinet using the same method and add the hanger strips after.

For a 5' long box, my method of cutting the rabbet for the back/front would be a little cumbersome. I saw an article/tip where the author made a plywood base for his router out of a strip long enough to allow the router to sit on one side with the strip spanning the width - this would be much easier than the way I did it, although you could use the support 2x4 for the short side (rather than a 6' long baseplate).


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

@tomp913 Just realized what you were talking about. Maybe I'll pre cut the end pieces and lock the table saw fence down to do the long sides separately. I plan on pinning and gluing this thing together since it won't carry much weight. I have probably got the same japanese saw. Great little saw.


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

tomp913 said:


> ..........to add the backs to the two cabinets going under my adjustable height workbench. One minor change will be to run the piece of 2x4 through the jointer first to take out any twist so it's easier to get it clamped up even to the face of the cabinet.


Working on the two cabinets for under my adjustable height workbench and took the time to run a piece of 2x4 through the jointer first before clamping it to the cabinets to cut the rabbet for the back. Only took a couple of minutes and made a big difference as far as being able to line up the block while clamping it.


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