Hand tool cabinet in maple

[Coop]

Nice job!

[SawDustB]

I haven't had a lot of time lately, but I finally managed to finish fitting the dovetail joints. I had the single tails for the small doors:

And the double tails on the bigger ones:

They're not seating fully yet since I still need to clean up the baselines with the trim router. I think I've got a pretty good system that I used to quickly knock out these dovetails - not exactly conventional, but it sure worked well. I kind of felt like I was cheating, but I can't complain about the results. After I've confirmed my test fit of all the doors I can get the panels cut to size and glue them up.

[Mark J]

If I can't complain about the results, then I don't care who calls it cheating.  

[gee-dub]

Lovin' it.  

[SawDustB]

I finally got to clean up my pins tonight with the trim router. I really love that method. Everything was ready for a test fit. A few minor gaps here and there, but overall pretty good. I do have one door with a minor twist, but I think the plywood panel should take care of it.

The right side:

And the left:

It seems bigger than I expected now that it's assembled, but I'm sure it'll be fine up on the wall. I still need to figure out my hinges. I did order some on eBay that might work, but I'm trying to decide if they're beefy enough. Plan B might be stainless marine style hinges or a thicker piano hinge.

[Art]

I just picked up some brass marine hinges today.  Someone on another thread (I forget who, but thanks!) had mentioned marine hinges, so I went and checked out a local marine store.  I got some that look pretty beefy and are about 1/3 price of Brusso.  It still cost $140 though... 

[Mark J]

 Sailing, another cheap hobby.  

[SawDustB]

6 hours ago, Art said:

I just picked up some brass marine hinges today.  Someone on another thread (I forget who, but thanks!) had mentioned marine hinges, so I went and checked out a local marine store.  I got some that look pretty beefy and are about 1/3 price of Brusso.  It still cost $140 though... 

I had sticker shock with looking at the Brusso or Horton hinges. The problem is the sheer number of them that Matt specified for the build. He wants 4 hinges per door, with 4 doors. 16 hinges is getting to be a lot. I also don't love the shiny brass hinges, so I'd rather go with steel for this or an antique finish. I can get the marine hinges in the ball park of $6 per hinge, which is a lot more reasonable. I just need to convince myself that the dimensions will work.

Here's the ones I already ordered. I'm thinking they're a bit light weight for the task, since the hinge leaves are only about 1/16" thick.

[wtnhighlander]

What benefit is there of using 4 butt hinges per door, vs. a single continuous / piano hinge?

Seems like aligning all those hinges would be a real pain.

[pkinneb]

Coming along great SawDustB!! 

[SawDustB]

6 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

What benefit is there of using 4 butt hinges per door, vs. a single continuous / piano hinge?

Seems like aligning all those hinges would be a real pain.

Matt did it for looks, but he seemed to assume you needed to put the piano hinge on the outside. I agree, one of my concerns is that I'll do all these hinges and then have it bind in operation. There's a nice looking 24" piano hinge that I'm considering (x4, obviously). It's probably the next cheapest option, if I'm not using my eBay hinges.

[Art]

8 hours ago, SawDustB said:

I had sticker shock with looking at the Brusso or Horton hinges. The problem is the sheer number of them that Matt specified for the build. He wants 4 hinges per door, with 4 doors. 16 hinges is getting to be a lot. I also don't love the shiny brass hinges, so I'd rather go with steel for this or an antique finish. I can get the marine hinges in the ball park of $6 per hinge, which is a lot more reasonable. I just need to convince myself that the dimensions will work.

Here's the ones I already ordered. I'm thinking they're a bit light weight for the task, since the hinge leaves are only about 1/16" thick.

These are the ones I got.  I'm just putting three on each side, rather than four, and I'm going for the drop in type hinges so that I can more easily take off the doors if needed  to add tool holders, etc.  They're still not cheap, but I figure they bridge the gap between Brusso and the really cheap hinges.

[SawDustB]

I finally got the doors dry fit with the plywood panels. I ended up needing to loosen the fit a little in the router table, but right now it all looks good. Here's how the dry fit (and the preview of the full cabinet) looks:

I'm happy with it so far. We'll see how I feel after the glue up. Right now the plan is to use hide glue. I still need to do some sanding first.

[Coop]

Looking good! I have the damndest time trying to get three hinges to a door to cooperate, I can’t imagine trying to get 4 to line up. 

[SawDustB]

8 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Looking good! I have the damndest time trying to get three hinges to a door to cooperate, I can’t imagine trying to get 4 to line up. 

Yeah, the more I think about it the more I'm leaning toward using heavy duty piano hinges. It will be cheaper, and I think it might be easier. The ones I'm looking at are on Amazon so I may order them this week.

[SawDustB]

All internal door parts and panels are now sanded. The first door is glued up. I'm so glad I loosened the panels or this would have been very stressful. It went together fine, and I've clamped it to the main case. For some reason it's about 1/32 bigger, but that can be planed away. I suspect one of my setups was a tiny bit off between the two.

 

[SawDustB]

I finished gluing all the doors over the last few days. It mostly went well, although my parts seem to have had some minor sizing discrepancies. As a result, I'll need to plane or sand them to eliminate it. Not a big deal, just annoying. I was happy with how the dovetails cleaned up though.

I needed a break from the main case, so I've started on the drawers. I glued up a pile of my maple scraps to get the backs and sides, then planed them down. I also got my drawer fronts cut to size. I'm really happy I found this board for it.

Next up is getting back to dovetails for the drawers. I'm debating whether to bother with half blinds, or just do another set of through dovetails.

[Mark J]

16 hours ago, SawDustB said:

I'm debating whether to bother with half blinds, or just do another set of through dovetails.

Depends on whether you need the practice or not.  

[SawDustB]

1 hour ago, Mark J said:

Depends on whether you need the practice or not.  

I could use the practice, but I want to get this finished up and on the wall in the next few weeks. I've never tried half blinds before, and my total dovetailing experience is this project and one other. I want to actually have time to make the holders too, so this doesn't end up taking me 6 months to move my tools into.

I actually briefly considered just using box joints to get it done quickly, but I don't think the aesthetic would look right.

[SawDustB]

I've opted to go the route Marc did in the jewellery chest videos. It's a standard half blind dovetail for the front, and a single through tail for the back. I think this keeps the look without going overboard.

I cut the tails on the table saw again. I really like how easy that is. I just need to do a little clean up with chisels and then it's on to pins.

[SawDustB]

These drawers were my first time doing half bind dovetails, aside from the condor tails on the Roubo. I marked them out carefully and used the drill press to hog out the waste. I had to modify my fence to allow the bit closer in, so that I could use it to set the distance to place the bit on the baseline. This drill press clamp is fantastic, especially for repetitive operations like this.

After that, I went to the bench to chop out the waste, starting with the board flat and then finishing with it vertical in the leg vise. Not sure if this is the recommended procedure, but it worked for me.

I was pretty satisfied with the fit I had on these. I found them a little fiddly, but not nearly as bad as I expected.

I cleaned up the pins on the back of the drawer as well and I've now got drawers. These need a groove for the bottom and a finger pull and they're done. I was originally going to use inset ring pulls, but I didn't leave the fronts thick enough, so I think I'll just put a notch for a finger at the top instead.

[SawDustB]

I've now got glued up drawers with bottoms in them. I couldn't be bothered doing solid wood bottoms when I had a sheet of 1/4" Baltic birch in my way, so that's what I used. I also put in finger pulls along the top edge. These give enough clearance for my fingers, since Matt's measurements didn't work for me.

You can also see the hinges I got. They're heavy duty continuous hinges in stainless steel. Unfortunately Amazon decided to only send 3 out of 4, so I may not be hanging the doors until next week.

[Chestnut]

I just get more and more jealous with every post. I need to make one of these some day son. It's also on my list with a roubo bench.....

[SawDustB]

22 hours ago, Chestnut said:

I just get more and more jealous with every post. I need to make one of these some day son. It's also on my list with a roubo bench.....

It's not actually that long of a build, I'm just not putting a lot of time in. I'm pretty excited to be able to load it up. You should definitely build one too.

[SawDustB]

I have my hinges mostly fitted to the cabinet. I think the end result looks pretty good.

I went with the continuous hinges, but they were pretty industrial looking when they arrived. They had a very inconsistent surface finish, and were covered in sticky grease. I cleaned them off using denatured alcohol and then used a wire wheel on the bench grinder to even out the finish. I followed up by putting a thin layer of paste wax, and they now have a nice satin finish.

I had to mortise the hinges into each side a bit over 1/16 to get the gap down to something reasonable. I'm pretty happy with the results. I clamped the cabinet down to the bench and must have stood there playing with the doors for a solid 5 minutes.

One thing I discovered is that my doors are square, but my cabinet will rack a bit with the back off. I'm going to need to install it later today with a square in place, so I can make sure it all lines up. Once I have that figured out I think I'm on to finish sanding and breaking edges, then applying a couple of coats of tried and true on it. I want to match my bench as closely as possible.