# Wall Mount Medicine Cabinet



## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

Hello Everyone,
Have had very little time to spend in my shop lately, and the shop overhaul has slowed to a crawl. So I wanted to take a break from that and build something fun. I live just north of New Orleans, Louisiana and there is alot of cypress around here. I like the way it looks in its natural state. My wife and I are also New Orleans Saints fans, so she wants to remodel our master bath with a Saints flair.
This little cabinet is a modification of a larger design that goes behind the toilet on the wall. I scaled it down to fit our needs and think its coming along nicely.
Pic 1 is a piece of S4S cypress I bought from my local lumber yard. Since I don't have a planer yet, I buy it ready to build. Pic 2 is me using my home-made jig to set up my dado blades. Pic 3 is a rough idea of what it will look like. Pic 4 is cutting the rabbet for the rear wall to fit in.


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

Pic 5 is cutting dados on my table saw. Pic 6 is fitting the rear wall. Pic 7 is making the drawers on the router table. And pic 8 is a dry fit of the carcas.
It is 1/2" thick cypress, 6" deep, 18" wide, and 24" tall.


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

Hi George,
Looks like you are off to a good start.
That cypress is some good looking wood. It should look real good when it's finished.

Keep us posted on the progress.

I've been trying to get my shop in order after moving from a much larger shop and it is going slowly. I did stop long enough to start a project this weekend while my wife is away and surprise her when she gets home. Found out tonight she will be home one day early so she will *definitely be surprised!!*

Work safe, have fun, cut some wood,
Mike


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## Web Shepherd (Feb 8, 2012)

George ~ Thanks for sharing your photos. I learned a lot by just following along with your glue-up process. Those 90 degree clamp blocks look like the cat's meow. I live in a house that is sided with cypress here in Southern Illinois and had to obtain several hundred board feet of it to do storm repair. It all came from Florida. Easy to work, however. How do you plan to seal your medicine cabinet: stain, paint, etc?


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi Mike, Bob,
I bought the 90 degree clamp from Rockler on a whim when they had a sale. I absolutely love it. I have a hard time squaring up things, and its like a third hand to hold stuff where you need it till all the big clamps are in place. Here are more pics...
Pics 9 and 10 are cutting out the drawers and glue up. Pic 11 is cutting the tissue box cover. And pic 12 is adding the top trim moulding. I made this moulding out of two 3/4" solid cypress pieces with a roundover bit and a cove bit on my router table. I cut the 45's on my miter saw. This was my first try at this and I like the way it came out.
A friend of mine made all his kitchen cabinets out of cypress and left them the natural cypress (no stain) and just finished with 3 coats of poly. His kitchen is beautiful. It's a simple look, similar to pine, but beautiful. I will do the same on this piece.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

George, the same method you used for the tissue box cover is the perfect way to make a template for hand grips with your router. Once you have the template made and sanded it is easy to follow with a pattern or flush trim bit. This means easy handle slots with virtually no sanding.


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

A little more progress on the medicine cabinet. Pic 13 is fitting the door frame. Pic 14 & 15 is final fit on tissue box cover and top moulding. Pics 16, 17, & 18 are applying the coats of poly. I am applying 3 coats with a light 320 grit hand sanding between coats. Notice the plugs in pic 17 where I drilled the shelf hanger holes too close to the edge. This is my first attempt at a flush fitting inside door, and I completely forgot about offsetting the holes further in to allow for door thickness. Oh well, it's a learning curve.


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

These three pics are of my homemade jig I used to cut the two mortises in the door stile, and a neat self-centering bit for drilling the hinge holes.
I used my palm router with a straight bit, and sandwiched blocks on each side of the door to give the router a base to sit on. I then clamped the whole thing to the side of my work bench while I routed the mortise. It worked surprisingly well.
Now I am looking for a nice piece of glass to put inside the door.


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

Hi George,
Looks like it coming right along, it's going to look real nice when it is finished.

Those self centering bits are great for installing hardware. It really helps when the screws are centered in the hinge holes and these bits help you do that.

Are you going to use clear glass or are you looking at leaded glass or something else? I've seen a few glass etching kits here lately and have wondered how well they work.

Work safe, have fun, cut some wood,
Mike


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi Mike,
Yes, I am putting 3 coats of gloss poly for the finish. Installed the handles for the drawers and the magnet catches to hold the tissue cover this morning. Only thing left is to put third coat on door frame and install glass.

My wife wants something opaque, but not a mirror. Thinking about a colored, textured glass. Also, my little sister has done alot of glass etching and she says its easy to do. I know Hobby Lobby sells the etching kits and stencils. Might get one and play around with a few design ideas.


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

George,
If you do get the etching kit definitely let me know how it works, like I said I have been wondering about how well they worked and how easy they would be to use.

Sounds like you are on the home stretch so when you get to the finish line let use see how it turned out. 

Mike


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## N'awlins77 (Feb 25, 2011)

Looking good George! I built something similar, but mines is a towel rack (among other things, that hangs over the toilet. I to wanted to go with a Saints theme in my master bath redo, I took on a few months ago. But the wife said my home office/man-cave was enough of a tribute to my favorite team. LOL But I did manage to add a fleur de lis to our window valance! ;o) 

Do you have season tickets to the Saints? Section 615, Row 21, Seats 10&11 representing!! Geaux SAINTS!


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

Mike,
I found a business in New Orleans that specializes in stained glass creation and restoration. There are lots of churches around here and they stay busy keeping up with all the stained glass. I called them and plan on visiting their store next week. They said they could make a piece of glass to fit my door and they have several options available to get the fleur de lis on it. They can stain it, etch it, paint it, etc. So it's got my curiosity up. I'll let you know what I decide.
I also finished installing the door catch today, so it's done except for the glass. I'll post more pics when I install the door and hang it on the wall.
Lee,
Love your cabinet. My dad used to have season tickets years ago. Back when I was a kid, we had two season tickets behind the Saints bench in the first row of permanent seats on the 50 yrd line. Being that young, I didn't appreciate how good those seats were. But that was the years when they were the 'Aints and nobody wanted to go. As a kid, I didn't care if they won or lost. It was just awesome being there. Still remember my dad complaining the beer was $4 bucks :lol:


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## Web Shepherd (Feb 8, 2012)

Hi, George ~ Nice progress. Because I have some cypress wood left over from my house siding project, I am tempted to use some of it for indoor wood working projects. Thanks for sharing your photos. Looking forward to learning what type of glass you plan to use.

Bob


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

Mike, Bob,
Sorry to disappoint, but when I got a price on the etched fleur-de-lis my wife wanted in the glass, I almost choked. I then looked into trying to etch it myself, but I just have been on the road way too much to play with it. So I took the whole cabinet to the glass shop and bought a piece of amber textured glass. They cut it to fit, and was $17. I was ready for this project to be done so I could start on something else.
Here is the finished project. I can see lots of mistakes, but I learned alot along the way and it was fun to do.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Great result, George.

Nice photo shoot/tutorial also......


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## MEBCWD (Jan 14, 2012)

George,

Wow, that textured amber glass goes great with the color of the cypress after it was finished!

Maybe you can come up with a project so you can try out the glass etching kit and let me know how easy it goes so I won't have to make a mess.:jester:

Good Job,
Mike


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## Big Steve (Feb 12, 2012)

Wonderful project. The ct press looks great. I once built a adirondack chair out of cypress, great working wood. Left it to weather. Lasted many years.


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## Doctor Atomo (Feb 23, 2012)

Looks great! I would love to get some of that South-Eastern Cypress to play with. It's supposed to be dense softwood and very rot resistant right? I would like to make some outdoor furniture with it! Around here we use Redwood and Cedar, but I think that Cypress is a lot denser...


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## Capt Splinter (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi Everyone, just getting back from two weeks hopping around Europe. Oh well, the life of a pilot...

James, Steve- Thanks for kind words.
Mike- I do have a few ideas for some glass etching I want to try soon. Just haven't been home long enough to get down to actually doing it. Hopefully things will slow down for me soon, so I can spend more time in the shop. I'll let you know when I get started.
Doctor Atomo- Yes, down here in the south, we use cypress for bug and weather resistance like other folk use redwood and cedar. We can get the redwood and cedar, but the cypress is so common down here, it's much cheaper and readily available. I used cypress to make replacement seats for my canoe. The original material was hickory, but like I said, cypress just seems to last so much longer than anything else in our harsh summers.


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