Mobile shop cabinet

[kyokahn]

Hey everyone! I'm starting to set up what will be my shop, and considering I only have a fairly small space for storage, I'm trying to make good use of every inch.

In this case, I'm working on my first shop cabinet, and it's meant to share space with the old drill press for which I made a mobile base. I started a couple weekends ago but had other things to focus on for the last two weeks, now back to normal, so...

So let's go over the requirements:

- the base must be tall enough to slide over the drill's mobile base

- wide enough for the swivel casters to move freely going over the base

- short enough that the drill press can still be used for small work without moving it

- using cheap plywood (in good shop cabinet fashion), I'll attempt to make whatever grain available as continuous as possible

- no exposed plywood edges (at least while it's closed)

- drawers in different sizes to accommodate small to medium stuff

- storage that can be eventually transitioned into a drilling accessories and supplies cabinet etc

 

Simple enough, aye?

Here's how the place looks as of now... A "bit" messy, and you can see the table/work surface I whipped together a couple months ago (no real workbench yet)

And the first few cuts here

Test fitting the drawers (sadly, not all of the joints went together so we'll, but I liked this one). Asami the husky "approves".

 

And here's the frame and outer shell. As you can see all I could find was "bb/cc" plywood (pine phenolic and Chinese okoume is what's relatively easy to get around here), means the inside is ugly, but at least the  outer veneers are thick. Mitered ply reinforced with some 2" long through dowels. Not sure if I should add splines as well, and later on you'll see dark dowels would've probably made more sense.

Given the experimental nature of this project and me having a random piece of almendro wood, I decided to try using it for edge banding and we'll see how the glue holds up to plywood edge and an oily wood. They're somehow not the same thickness, maybe .040" off, so I'll have to plane them down a bit. 

Last drawer clamped and starting to clamp down the edge banding cause tape probably isn't enough for this task. An equivalent of TB3 gives me just enough time for this.

There's a "May beetle" scarab checking my joinery. He doesn't look very happy about that gap.

Drawer Jenga!

Finally, fitting the drawers in to store it for the week (this was on Monday, a holiday). They are a bit too tight, so I'll have to do something about it.

Next is making the drawer faces, rails that will serve as spacers and drawer pulls, still trying to come up with a way to make them, hopefully from the same piece of almendro. 

Installing the casters should be a breeze, assuming my calculations are correct.

Then a LOT of sanding and some simple finishing. I like lacquer but I'm not so sure on this one, so we'll see.

 

As always, any feedback, comments, suggestions, complaints over the minutes I've stolen from your life, kudos and/or newbie jokes are most welcome.

 

I'll give it a shot at finishing it this weekend and I'll keep you posted.

 

Thanks for reading!

[wtnhighlander]

Hi, kyokahn! Nice journal you've started. What part of the world are you in, to have a husky and a scarab???

[gee-dub]

Way to dive right in.  I think shop fixtures are a great way to try out new skills and make good use of old ones.  At some point I may re-do things to look planned and matching but, I've tried a different carcass, drawer or door technique on almost every shop cabinet I have.

That looks like a very workable space and putting your shop together is one of the joys of the craft.  Take your time and build things as you need them.  I tend to put drawers in everything.  Any tool base that comes with a tool either comes with storage or I build it in . . .

or replace the base completely.

When my shop was smaller a flip top unit really made good use of space and kept the bench clear.

You'll find tons of inspiration and ideas here.  Have fun.

 

 

[kyokahn]

4 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

Hi, kyokahn! Nice journal you've started. What part of the world are you in, to have a husky and a scarab???

Thanks! I'm in Costa Rica, so this husky doesn't see snow. I'm the only one pulling sleds around here.

4 hours ago, gee-dub said:

That looks like a very workable space and putting your shop together is one of the joys of the craft.  Take your time and build things as you need them.  I tend to put drawers in everything.  Any tool base that comes with a tool either comes with storage or I build it in . .

That's pretty much what I'm trying to do, including trying at least 1 new technique on every shop project. The main challenge here is that after all work is done for the day, everything needs to fit in the space in the back of the pics. Approx 6' x 10'. Workable if properly planned

That flip top looks nice... Definitely something I'll need. I actually ordered that same planer (734 right?) and will be getting it in a few weeks. Once another stationary bench top tool comes along, they'll need their own space.

Definitely a lot of good ideas there! Thanks.

[kyokahn]

Well, it's been a while since my last update, mostly because I made minimal progress on this project for the last 2 weeks, maybe an off hour here and there. I got to actually finish it this weekend.

About a week after the last update, I sketched a few different drawer pull designs and decided to go for somethingthat would match the flat aesthetics, easy to pull from the middle, and easy to make with limited tools. I cut them from a piece of the same board all the edge banding came from, but they still came out a bit darker. A simple square piece and a cove with the table saw, some sanding and that's about it.

Installed the wheels 

Cut the faces from a single piece of plywood (not extremely good looking but I wanted the "grain" to match) for the drawers and did a quick test fitting

Installed the pulls, fixed the faces on the drawrrs and started the finishing process

Finished the whole thing with matte lacquer... Mostly because it dries quickly, but I wouldn't recommend applying lacquer with a brush... It's quite unforgiving. I also added some uhmw tape to the drawer rails so it slides smoothly.

A few pics of the finished cabinet below. I'll fill it up with stuff and roll it over the drill press base tonight. I have learned a ton from this project and really, really have to work on improving my workflow, but I'm happy this one's done and works as intended.

 

Thank you!

[..Kev]

Nice job!

[mat60]

That came out nice.    Like the dog also.

[Eric.]

Well done man.  There's a lot to learn in simple projects.  No work is wasted time.

You did a great job on the case miters...those are harder than they look.

[kyokahn]

Thanks guys!

22 minutes ago, Eric. said:

There's a lot to learn in simple projects.  No work is wasted time.

You did a great job on the case miters...those are harder than they look.

Absolutely agree! And yes, from cutting to clamping, those miters are a real challenge.