Wall mounted Plane and Tool Cabinet

[TerryMcK]

Part 1 - Design

I have just started a personal project that I have just not had time for over the past few years. This is a wall mounted cabinet for storing handplanes and other hand tools. For a long time various tools have been kept in drawers, on open shelves, in tool boxes and in the storage module under my workbench, This has worked well but, like most shop improvement projects, the time has come to store them in a more pleasantly aesthetic manner.

Location

I have an ideal position for the cabinet fixed to the wall at the side of the main window behind my bench. The wall in this corner of the shop location is made from Accrington bricks and cement blocks so should easily hold the weight of the filled cabinet.

For those of you wondering what colour to paint walls don't stress over it. Paint them white and they will go brown over time. The yellowy brown hue really is the colour caused by wood dust (despite my air cleaner).

Bench position relative to the corner. There is room to have the cabinet behind/above the bench and still reach to the back of the cabinet.

Design specification

The design is for a fully closing door to the cabinet that can open through 90 degrees to present a shallow tray for additional presentation of hand tools. These would be screwdrivers, mallets and other relatively thin profile tools.

The main box is to have sufficient space for vertically storing metal bodied wood planes and have enough height to accommodate a #7 or #8 pattern jointer plane. Every other plane I have are shorter than this and will also fit in. I do have a few plough, rabbet, and universal planes and storage of those will have challenging methods of mounting. I will probably utilize rare earth magnets and wooden clips for the iron planes. For bronze planes I will just devise wooden clips.

In front of the planes will be a further swing out door that is designed for any other low profile tools I have.

In the lower part of the cabinet are two drawers that can be fully removed. These are intended to be used to take a series of small tools to the job and keep them grouped. At the moment I haven't decided whether these drawers will be subdivided with a removable upper tray or not. Time will only tell on this one.

The dimensions are 840 H x 420 W x 370 D (33" H x 16.5" W x 14.5" Deep)

Both outer door and inner doors open

Inner door closed

Side View with the side panel not shown. This shows the space in the cabinet

Inspiration

I took inspiration for this project from the wall hanging tool cabinet designed and built by H.O. Studley in the late 19th century. I don't think mine will be anywhere near the design that Studley created but one can only aspire to such greatness.

Hardware

The main door will be hinged with a full length heavy duty stainless steel piano hinge. When the door is closed rare earth magnets will hold it closed. When open I will devise some other mechanism.

The inner door will use a corner pivot hinge that will allow the door to fully swing through 180 degrees and not catch the main cabinet frame.

Timber

The cabinet will be made mainly from Baltic birch plywood 18mm (3/4" ish) thick. I searched through my stock and found some nice black walnut that will be used as the frame of the door and edge banding (lipping) to cover the raw edge of the plywood. Unfortunately much of this is not quite wide enough so I've had to joint and glue to get sufficient width.

TImescale

No doubt this will be a long project to complete, if indeed it is ever fully completed. Studley probably took years to change his design, build new storage sections for new tools, modify it to suit different workflows etc. Mine may even incorporate a drawbridge and portcullis - who knows - but I'm on the way and you can come along for the ride. If nothing else crops up I might get it finished this year.

[Raefco]

I'll be watching, as an Americian Bricklayer, love seeing the inside of the european shops and the old masonry hiding behind the scene. I use to work with a english bricklayer that would muse, "My corner pub is older than you stinking country" 

[RichardA]

  As a former motorcycle enthusiast , I always have enjoyed riding with friends...This should be no different, thought considerably less dangerous!

[bushwacked]

Damn sign me up!

That is a beauty of a cabinet!!

What kind of small tools in the bottom drawers were you thinking? Chisels and the like?

[Coop]

Terry, I am in the process of building almost the exact same cabinet, but mine will hold a granddaughter's collection of fingernail polish. Total depth of nine is only 6.5" and has two doors with storage shelves in them as well. I'm using box joints as I'm much better at them than dove tails. I never thought about the magnets to keep the door(s) closed, so thanks for the idea.

What is the purpose for the inner door?

[bgreenb]

Excited to follow this build, especially to see the inner and outer doors come together, engineering wise.

[Eric.]

Interesting design, Terry.  I'll watch with interest...a tool cabinet is high on my list as well.  Been putting it off way too long.

 

PS...if you built a Studley cabinet, it would be the last thing you built, because it would take you the rest of your life.  Heaps of inspiration though, and jaw-dropping cool.

[TerryMcK]

Thanks guys glad you're all along for the ride. The purpose of the inner door is similar to the outer door which is a sort of vertical tool tray. The inner door also is a tray and when open maximizes surface area. More area=more tools. It will swing out in front of my existing tool rack that is, ala Chris Schwarz, over the window and it houses chisels, squares and such like. Those will still be kept out in the open but the inner door will swing to be in front of the rack. When I need to get a tool from the rack I just close the inner door (this may have tools on both sides) and the outer door will still have tools presented.

It will all become evident in future photos.

I haven't really decided what will be in the small drawers yet but as we all know you always need more drawers just as you always need more clamps.

[rodger.]

Nice project - I have a tool cabinet on my short list. Will watch with interest!

[TerryMcK]

Part 2 - Carcase

Most people know how to make rectangular utility/kitchen/wall boxes (there are countless ways) but if you don't here is how I did it.

The carcase is made from multiply Baltic birch plywood 18mm thick (3/4").

First of all the stock was roughly cut down using a circular saw and then cut to size on the table saw. The rear edges of the sides, top and bottom panels had a rabbet (rebate) machined in using the router table. The rear panel was also rabbetted to sit within the frame. I also machined a dado (housing or trench) into each of the side panels to locate the top of the integral drawer box.

 

The joints for the carcase were cut utilizing a dovetail routing jig. I decided that hand cutting so many of them were not for me this time so I broke out my little used routing jig. The default setup for my jig is half blind dove tails so I simply used this option

 

 

Open box after the initial glue up

 

Then a simple glue up with clamping squares, some clamps and some yellow glue resulted in a basic open box. After the glue dried I used my newly made wooden bodied plane to smooth the joints down,

 

 

Wispy shavings from the new wooden bodied plane

 

Next I cut a piece of ply to become the top of the drawer box. I cut some rabbets on each end and glued it into position.

 

 

Drawer box top glued into position

 

Another piece of 10mm (3/8") plywood was cut to size to act as a vertical divider. I simply glued it in position squaring it as I did so and then drove some stainless screws through to act as additional support and apply clamping force - I don't have any long reach clamps to get to the back of the cabinet so screws will do

 

 

Adding a vertical divider

 

Edge Banding

The next thing to do was apply some edge banding to the ply edges. I know some people like the longitudinal stripes of birch plywood but over time it does chip. I looked at the stock I had and found a load of black walnut. So I cut some strips and ran them through the planer to get a uniform thickness of 6mm (1/4"). The upper and lower pieces were squared off and just cut slightly shy of the internal width of the cabinet. Then these pieces were glued and clamped into place overhanging the edges.

The side pieces were positioned again they overhung the edges to enable edge routing later on.

Lots of clamps and lots of blue tape were applied and the structure was left to setup overnight.

 

 

Blue tape works ok on thin strips like this

 

Cleaning up glue

For years I have tried different methods of cleaning up squeeze out:

• wiping with a wet rag ala Norm
• wait until it skins over and use a putty knife
• wait until it goes hard and then chisel/sand it off

 

Well I think I may have found another way - Everbuild Wonder Wipes

 

 

These claim to remove a multitude of products (and indeed they seem too) including glue. I tried it out on wet squeeze out - IT WORKS!!! Yes I think this is now my product of choice. Wipe most of the glue off with a shop rag then use  a Wonder Wipe to get the stuff you have pushed into the pores. It seems to pull most of it out and leave no residue.

 

Commercial over - I don't work for this company but it seems to be ok. I'll try it out for a while.

[TerryMcK]

Part 3 - External Door

 

Trimming the edge banding was done with a bearing guided flush trim router bit. However this leaves a radius in the inside of each internal corner that needed removing with a combination of chisels and chisel plane. The chisel plane was also used to flush up to the plywood as sometimes the router bit leaves a few proud edges.

 

 

Using a chisel to clear the round corner

 

 

 

Followed up by the chisel plane and some sanding to get rid of the fuzz.

 

The front door

The door parts were made next. As I didn't have enough walnut width for the entire door, this was being made with what I had on my shelves after all, I made a few glue ups. I did use some dark Titebond II rather than the Titebond II shown on the pictures.

 

There's some of the Bessey Uniclamps being used here. They are ideal for light duty jobs like this.

 

After the glue up these sections were milled to size using the jointer/planer, a rabbet cut for the front panel and again dovetailed/glued.

 

 

Woodpeckers and Rockler clamping squares were used to maintain squareness. Again some Uniclamps were used.

 

The 18mm (3/4) birch plywood front panel was then cut to size to size and dropped into place. This was not glued in but I drove some stainless screws in and plugged the holes. When dried the plugs were sawn off, the edges of the walnut trued and the next stage of the operation was prepared for.

 

 

Walnut plugging the screw holes.

 

 

Inside of the door

 

Hinge fitting

The hinge has leaves that are 1.2mm (3/64") thick so I had to cut a slight rabbet in one of the door stiles and the face frame of the carcass. To do this I used a Record 778 rabbetting plane. This is definitely the best tool for the job. 

 

 

Marking the 1.2mm line on both of the edges. Once you've started planing you don't know how deep you've gone so it's always best to work to a line.

 

 

The 778 in operation. This is a superb plane

 

 

The resulting rabbet. Note the ends of the untouched edge banding can be used to register the hinge in place. 

 

The hinge was fitted first of all to the carcase whilst on its back. The external door was then propped up to the same level as the carcase face, using whatever handy pieces of scrap I had around, and screwed into place. If everything was square in a perfect world it would meet precisely. However this is not a perfect world so I purposely had made the door slightly oversize so I could plane it flush to the carcase. This planning paid off and I now have a perfectly fitting door.

 

 

[TerryMcK]

 

Door fits perfectly

 

 

 

Stainless steel piano hinge fitted

[Raefco]

Cool box and I see you found my pencil, I am patiently waiting to see this inner door, will you angle the closing side or make it small enough to clear?

[TerryMcK]

Cool box and I see you found my pencil, I am patiently waiting to see this inner door, will you angle the closing side or make it small enough to clear?

Thanks Mark.

As the internal door is quite deep (5" or so) I have decided to have parallel sides. As it has a relatively small swing radius of around 15" the minimum gap when closed is actually around 9/16" for the trailing edge to clear. So I have given it a 7/8" gap at the front edge (it's already made just waiting for the hinge to arrive tomorrow). I think the trailing edge will clear by 1/8" on this geometry providing I have my calculations correct. If not planing a slight taper on the outside edge will make it clear.

Of course if the door was wider, like a person sized door, the gap required to clear becomes smaller on larger swing radii.

 

I could of course put a thin cover strip over this gap so it is not apparent when the inner door is closed. This could have a double use as a handle.

The gap could also be used to store thin items like your pencil

[Raefco]

I was guessing you would need around an inch to close, but that was just a guess, looking forward to it, can't wait to see it. I have 6 oak ply cabinet boxes (sans the 1/2 blind joints) waiting for inspiration and tools  ​ 

[Coop]

Darn you do good work!

[AstroDave]

Agreed...that is gorgeous... and you work so fast... Can't way to see the final piece...

[..Kev]

Nice work Terry!

[TerryMcK]

Wall mounted Plane and Tool Cabinet - Part 4 - Internal Door

 

The internal door was made simply by measuring the internal dimensions of the carcass and cutting the upright stiles to this dimension short by about 3/32" (2.5 mm). This gives more than adequate clearance for the door to clear the carcass. There isn't much danger of wood movement as both the door and the carcass are made from birch plywood.

The cross stretchers were cut to size. I had calculated that the swing of the relatively deep door (5") would miss the carcass if the closed gap at the non hinge side was about 9/16" for the trailing edge to clear.

I gave the door 7/8" gap.

 

Then door was simply constructed by gluing and screwing the butt joints. The ply panel was also glued and screwed into place. I decided to change the design slightly and positioned the ply panel 1" in from what would become the front. This way I could use both sides of the door to hand items.

The screw head holes were plugged with more walnut plugs. Finally both sides of the exposed ply ends were covered with walnut bindings.

 

 

Edge banding glued in place after removing the forest of clamps and waiting to be trimmed

 

 

I really like my chisel plane it is great for removing squeeze out

 

 

Test fitting. Note I originally intended to use hidden hinges but opted instead for another stainless steel hinge.

 

Once the piano hinge arrived I fitted it to the door panel first of all. Again I cut a slight rabbet this time 1mm (40 thou ") deep for the hinge moving leaf. Then using scraps from the shop to prop the door to the right level I could position it ready for the screws.

 

 

Door props

 

 

Just in case you were wondering the outer door also needed propping in this exercise. MDF offcuts come in very useful.

 

To position the lower end of the door and ensure I had enough clearance at the bottom and top I simply used a card scraper of the right thickness.

 

 

Another use for blue tape!

 

 

I was able to drill most of the holes with a Vix bit but those close to the bottom (and top) had to be drilled with a regular pilot drill and a long flexible shaft.

 

 

Here you can see what is on the other end of the flexible shaft.

[TerryMcK]

Wall mounted Plane and Tool Cabinet - Part 4 - Internal Door continued

 

I then had both doors fitted and stood the cabinet upright. The trailing edge of the door slightly caught the inside of the cabinet so, using a block plane, the edge was chamfered with a 3/16" chamfer. The door then cleared perfectly. In fact when closing the door there is air resistance because of the fit and it shuts satisfyingly.

 

 

Closing the door

 

 

Nearly closed

 

 

Fully closed

You can see the 1" deep tray on the inner door now. This gives more storage space for thinner tools without interfering with any tools in the outer door.

 

 

Now you can see the entire cabinet opened up. Plenty of room to store planes and other tools.

[Raefco]

Looking good, I like the double sided interior door and can't wait to see your solutions to hanging the cabinets contents. I love that air rush when you close a well fitting lid or door, will the exterior door need to be relieved to clear the interior door hinge?

[TerryMcK]

Yes Mark indeed the hinge pin does foul the outer door slightly. It might clear with a chamfer.

The original design was going to use Brusso hidden hinges as I had a pair in stock. This wasn't big enough when I looked at it (the L37 in brass) and I had bought a cheap clone which was much bigger. However cheap clones are no substitute for the real thing and I found it was a bunch of crap even though this is a shop cabinet - hence why I went for the piano hinge. Much stronger in this application

 

The hidden hinges would still have needed clearance in the outer door for the hinge point as that too protrudes - but that is not a problem any more.

[Raefco]

I think you made the right call on the continuous hinge, it will do a better job withstanding the wear and tear of shop use. Nothing piques my interest quite like the problem solving of building on the fly.

I love the cabinet.

[RichardA]

   Terry, for an IT guy, you never ever fail to impress with your work in wood. I for one appreciate the lessons!  Now I'm waiting for the drawbridge design!

[Eric.]

Very cool, Terry.  Looking good.

 

Curious...how did you go about cutting your hinges?  I'm planning on using piano hinges for my tool cabinet but I can't figure how I'd get a perfectly straight and clean cut.  Don't have much for cutting metal around here.  Hacksaw won't be good enough I fear.