# Paint Storage Unit



## brianhabby (24 Jul 2011)

Well, after practicing my dovetail skills in some cheap pine/spruce I have now bought some ash for the project I was practicing for - so here goes, this is what I have in mind:







It's a storage unit for small paint pots and bottles for my son who does a lot of model making and has a large quantity of small pots scattered all over the place. Length is about 30 inches which will be doubled by the doors, height is about 13 inches. Here's some of the wood cut to size:






I've already cut some of the dovetails and here's one of the better ones 






One thing I'm not sure about at this stage is how best to fasten the bottom shelf above the drawers to the side pieces. I've just butt jointed it in the Sketchup plan above but don't really want to do that for real. This should give an idea what I'm talking about:






I did think about a mitre for the front bit and set the shelf in a trench for the back bit but I'm definitely open to suggestions here.

More to come soon.

regards

Brian


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## woodbloke (24 Jul 2011)

brianhabby":3508l87b said:


> One thing I'm not sure about at this stage is how best to fasten the bottom shelf above the drawers to the side pieces. I've just butt jointed it in the Sketchup plan above but don't really want to do that for real. This should give an idea what I'm talking about:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The way I'd go about this to keep it simple...a couple of small biscuits on each joint would do it. The rear half of the joint presents no difficulty (you could use a through stub tenon for example) but the front doesn't have enough meat to do much except biscuit it. You'll need to be careful though to avoid break out...the timber doesn't look very thick - Rob


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## brianhabby (24 Jul 2011)

Only 11mm thick so I would have to be very careful with biscuits.

regards

Brian


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## brianhabby (25 Jul 2011)

Been thinking about this overnight and have come to the conclusion that I should make the top and bottom halves separately and then join them together. This will allow me to join the corners properly using dovetails and will give a more elegant result.

regards

Brian


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## brianhabby (12 Aug 2011)

48 dovetails later 






I'm getting there. You can see in the pic above there are some holes for adjustable shelves in the main part. The shelves in the doors will be fixed.

regards

Brian


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## tisdai (12 Aug 2011)

Looking good Brian, better choice on the Dovetails, stronger and more pleasing to look at.  

Looking forward to the finshed project.

Cheers

Dave


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## brianhabby (18 Sep 2011)

Time for an update. I've been chipping away at this project over the past few weeks and this is where I am now.

I've got the main carcase assembled and glued up





I made the top and bottom halves separately and then glued them together





The drawers will have walnut fronts, here's the stock cut and ready for assembly





The shelves will have a small lip on the front so I fastened a thin strip of walnut to them





There will be three adjustable shelves in the main section and three fixed shelves in each door

Next job is to finish the drawers and then continue with the doors. I've got something special in mind for the doors

Until next time

regards

Brian


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## brianhabby (25 Sep 2011)

Well,

I got the drawers finished. You'll notice some ash inlay on the drawers. First time I've tried this and I think it looks okay although there are one or two areas it could be improved. I'm not really happy with the corners, I did a straight butt joint but should have mitred them. I plan on turning a couple of small knobs for the drawers from ash.









Until next time

regards

Brian


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## soulboy (25 Sep 2011)

that's looking really good, too good for paint pots!


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## brianhabby (23 Oct 2011)

Not done too much in recent weeks but here's an update.

Thinking about the doors, I got hold of some nice sycamore for the panels. I want the grain to run vertically so the panels need to be about 14 inches wide. We discussed thicknessing wide panels using a router on another thread here and I finished up knocking up a sled for the router thus:





I fastened the panels to a sheet of MDF using double sided tape and it worked a treat:


Here they are after thicknessing:





I wanted to have raised panels and initially tried using the table saw but found I couldn't seem to hold the wood securely enough so had to invest in a panel raising bit for the router.

I finished up with a Trend C170. Not having used one of these before I was a bit perplexed when it arrived to discover that it appeared to be too big for the router in my router table (a Ryobi ERT1150V). After some experimenting and research (including DW's post here), I finished up making a temporary table top and using my big DeWalt router. The bit is still too big for this router, you have to fasten it in place above the opening as DW discovered. Anyway this was the setup, and it worked a treat:





Now I bet you're expecting to see pictures of the finished raised panels but I'm afraid technology got the better of me today. just after I'd taken that last photo, the battery died in my camera so I'll have to post more pics tomorrow, sorry.

until then,

regards

Brian


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## brianhabby (24 Oct 2011)

Raised panel photo as promised:





Next job is to assemble the doors.

regards

Brian


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## Chems (24 Oct 2011)

brianhabby":tl211zwy said:


> Not done too much in recent weeks but here's an update.
> 
> Thinking about the doors, I got hold of some nice sycamore for the panels. I want the grain to run vertically so the panels need to be about 14 inches wide. We discussed thicknessing wide panels using a router on another thread here and I finished up knocking up a sled for the router thus:
> 
> ...



That's my method, glad my post helped! 

Looking good, almost to nice for paint tins!


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## brianhabby (25 Oct 2011)

soulboy":2mp3m0a7 said:


> that's looking really good, too good for paint pots!





Chems":2mp3m0a7 said:


> almost to nice for paint tins!



Thanks for your interest guys.

I suppose a few strips of MDF or plywood would have done the job just as well but I wanted to make something that will look nice in the house and this project has given me an opportunity to try quite a few new things that I've not done before. So far it has been quite enjoyable.

I have now got the doors assembled with the fixed shelves and will post some more pics in the next day or so.

regards

Brian


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## brianhabby (26 Oct 2011)

I've glued the doors up with the fixed shelves. Some photos:












The shelves in the main body of the unit are adjustable.

regards & thanks for looking

Brian


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## Halo Jones (27 Oct 2011)

This is a fantastic build. If only I had such a paint cabinet in my wargaming days when painting miniatures!
My only worry would be an open door load of paints toppling the whole thing but it is difficult to say if this would be possible from the pics.
Can't wait to see it finished and loaded with paints!

Halo.


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## brianhabby (27 Oct 2011)

Halo Jones":188oxsji said:


> My only worry would be an open door load of paints toppling the whole thing but it is difficult to say if this would be possible from the pics.



That'd be fun  

He'll have to load the main unit up first - however, I do have a contingency.

Many moons ago, when our offspring were small, we had a TV cabinet with a drawer in the bottom that was used to store video tapes. One day my daughter (aged about 5 at the time IIRC) leaned on the opened drawer tipping the whole unit and the telly landed on top of her. Needless to say I'm well aware of such a problem and did this:






What you're looking at in the picture above is a sheet of lead flashing inset into the underside of the bottom piece of the drawer unit making the whole thing quite heavy. Hopefully heavy enought to avoid any problems with overloading the doors.

regards

Brian


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## brianhabby (14 Nov 2011)

Well, I've finally finished this unit, a couple of pics:










I used a small quadrant around the perimeter of the doors to add a bit of contrast:





Finished in Danish Oil

Hope you like

regards

Brian


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## cmwatt (14 Nov 2011)

Looks great Brian, the doors in particular look fantastic. =D> It really shows of the beauty of the wood and I like the contrasting banding you used around the perimeter. Enjoyed following this build.


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## Chems (15 Nov 2011)

Very very nice!


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## fortyfourpm (15 Nov 2011)

Here's a pic of it in situ. Made to fit :lol:


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## brianhabby (15 Nov 2011)

Never seen that desk look so tidy


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