# Tool cupboard build (final update)



## MikeG. (28 Sep 2019)

I think you know me well enough by now to know that I am a tool minimalist, and that I am not one of those woodworkers whose only projects are improvements in their workshops. I'm also not the sort of person who builds showcase furniture for their workshop. However, I am getting pretty sick and tired of the current state of my space, which is like this:

















The bench has tools stored permanently on it, and spilling off the shelf behind. I have a frame saw fixed to the inside of my internal security shutter, so I can't access it when the shutter is open. The open shelves attract dust and insects, and there's stuff in there I haven't seen in years hidden under the rubbish. My secondary bench hasn't been clear for about 3 or 4 years, with tools stored permanently on top, and those in the drawers underneath are damned difficult to get to.

So with loads of workshop work coming up, I need to get things sorted. Besides, my wife wants my drawers for her potting shed.

First job was to clear up the shelves, as I need the wood:






You might just note the bench hooks, shooting boards, belt sander mount, etc, which also just hover about around the end of my bench, getting in the way. They'll get a new home too.

Here's the clear wall:






And here is what I am going to put on that wall. It is basically a 1200 x 1000 tool cupboard with a pair of side-hung doors, above a chest of drawers, and with a further store above. There will then be a corner cupboard, and a cupboard below for bench hooks, shooting boards etc. It will all be in raw pine and ply:






I managed to glue up most of the principal side pieces this evening:


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## AndyT (28 Sep 2019)

Watching with interest and awaiting the arrival of some big bits of oak with mortice and tenons and carved spandrels... :wink:


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## Stanleymonkey (28 Sep 2019)

Looking good - I dread to think what is piled up out of shot!! Where have you put it all for the moment?

Can I suggest slapping some white emulsion up ? Maybe just the bits that will be exposed afterwards. Makes a big difference and will reflect some light back as well.

Good luck - keep posting the pics


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## MikeG. (28 Sep 2019)

AndyT":qwivj8ti said:


> Watching with interest and awaiting the arrival of some big bits of oak with mortice and tenons and carved spandrels... :wink:



There'll be plenty of proper joinery, but no spandrels, and no oak, in the tool cupboard build. For some more interesting oak work, stay tuned for upcoming projects...


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## MikeG. (28 Sep 2019)

Stanleymonkey":33xgfa6s said:


> Looking good - I dread to think what is piled up out of shot!! Where have you put it all for the moment?
> 
> Can I suggest slapping some white emulsion up ? Maybe just the bits that will be exposed afterwards. Makes a big difference and will reflect some light back as well........



All the stuff I will need for the next few weeks is piled up on my radial arm saw bench (so all cross cutting will be by hand). Everything else has been shifted out to my new store shed (I haven't posted about that shed build here).

Are you suggesting painting the new tool cupboard? I hear what you say, but cringe at the thought of the maintenance.


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## sunnybob (29 Sep 2019)

he's talking about the walls. Start with clean white walls and your cupboards will look even better.


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## MikeG. (29 Sep 2019)

They *ARE* white!!


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## yetloh (29 Sep 2019)

He said*CLEAN* white walls!


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## sunnybob (29 Sep 2019)

Nah, they USED to be white. :roll: Now theyre workshop grey. (hammer) =D>


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## MikeG. (29 Sep 2019)

OK, OK........ :lol: 

...........but that's the way they stay.


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## sunnybob (29 Sep 2019)

Youlllll beeeee sorrrryyyyyyyy (hammer) (hammer)


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## Stanleymonkey (29 Sep 2019)

I had workshop white walls in my grotty old garage

Threw some unwanted white emulsion up. Difference was amazing - looked quite nice in there afterwards.

Just the walls - five minute job. If you were fed up in there before. New tool cabinet and brighter lighter workplace will make it feel 1000x better.


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## Doug71 (29 Sep 2019)

So minimalist, raw pine and ply, not planning on copying the Studley tool chest then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9QaFTI2F9c


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## MikeG. (29 Sep 2019)

Stanleymonkey":245qfn10 said:


> I had workshop white walls in my grotty old garage
> 
> Threw some unwanted white emulsion up. Difference was amazing - looked quite nice in there afterwards.
> 
> Just the walls - five minute job. If you were fed up in there before. New tool cabinet and brighter lighter workplace will make it feel 1000x better.



They* are* white. And if you think that clearing everything out, cleaning and then repainting the entire 90+ square metres of wall in there is a 5 minute job, I'll give you 5/60 times £20/ hour (=£1.67) to come and do it for me. Can't say fairer than that.


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## MikeG. (29 Sep 2019)

Doug71":1hs9ljdx said:


> So minimalist, raw pine and ply, not planning on copying the Studley tool chest then?
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9QaFTI2F9c



No. As I said, this is working workshop storage, not for show. That thing is staggering, though, as is the fact that it has survived virtually fully intact.


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## AndyT (29 Sep 2019)

Veering back onto a slightly more sensible comment, have I got it right in thinking that you are using the wood from the shelves to build the new cupboard? That does seem a very practical approach. 

And if it's going to stand in the same place, I see no reason to paint the wall behind it!


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## MikeG. (29 Sep 2019)

Yes, Andy, it's the old wood re-used, with a couple of new bits added in which were fortuitously left over from helping a friend with some re-roofing a couple of weeks ago. And yes, painting behind a cupboard which will have a back built into it would just be for the benefit of the spiders who found their way in there.


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## sunnybob (30 Sep 2019)

MikeG.":1vx4elko said:


> And yes, painting behind a cupboard which will have a back built into it would just be for the benefit of the spiders who found their way in there.


And your viewing public! :roll: :roll: =D>


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## sammy.se (30 Sep 2019)

watching with interest mike! thanks for the WIP.

If I had that Studley tool chest, everything would come tumbling down every time I reached for a tool. I think it would be a Frank Spencer moment every time.


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## MikeG. (30 Sep 2019)

A little bit of progress. I took the side pieces out of their clamps, cleaned them up with a plane, then shaped the corners of the upstand alongside the "worktop":






I then made the mistake of offering them up to the wall. I notched out for the skirting and a ceiling joist, then scribed the backs to the wall. It's almost as though I've never made any furniture before, as that took away my reference edge. That ruled out using a router jig to house out for the shelves etc. What a clown.






So, I had to do an awful lot of measuring and marking, cut the top and bottom of the housing joints with a knife, freehand routed, and then cleaned up with a chisel. What a palaver:






I glued up the shelves/ worktop:











No harm done, but that really wasn't a good use of my time. I toddled in, chastened, and did some work. I hope to get a few hours at this tomorrow, so long as the phone doesn't ring.


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## MikeG. (1 Oct 2019)

I got a couple of hours on this today, so a little progress to report. Firstly, I de-clamped and cleaned up the "worktop", cut it to length, and then formed the through tenons:







I used these to locate their mortises:






Remember the missing reference edge? I had to put some tape on my square so as to throw the mortise setting out accurately around to the other face via a non-reference edge:






Then I chopped out the mortises in the usual way:
















The middle shelf was straight forward, with 2 through mortises, but the upper shelf is partly in a housing, and partly hanging in mid air.....thus requiring a dovetail joint. This produced rather a complicated end-of-board, with 2 through tenons, and two dovetail pins (and I seldom do pins first, but had no choice here). The tape is because the tenon split when I was cutting it out for the wedges:






I very nearly cut it out upside down!!!:






But got it right in the end:











No time for a glue-up tonight, but I got the wedges ready for tomorrow:











I've dry fitted both sides, so all looks ready to glue this thing together.....


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## MikeG. (2 Oct 2019)

Space, as I've said, is a priority in my workshop. Here I am laying out an 8x4 sheet of ply ready for cutting, and I've got room to get all around it:






That's the backing board, which I cut to size ready for the glue-up as a way of squaring everything up. I marked the factory edges. I had planned on a series of movable panels in the open area above the drawers, but changed my mind overnight and decided to put in a couple of fixed partitions. These were set in a housing top and bottom, and this was therefore the start of the glue-up:






These fixed panels will form a really important function, which you'll see in a few days time.

Glue-up these days is a nerve-shredding exercise. I'm sick of it really. I need a cheap readily available glue that doesn't start going off in 10 minutes.....we never used to have this ridiculous problem. Anyway, with two dozens wedges to drive into through tenons, and some quite cupped timber, this was a glue-up from hell:











One of the wedges burst through internally:






Luckily, that's on the top side of the top shelf, so my repair should be invisible.....or at least, unseen.

With my main router table out of action (covered in the rubbish I moved from the shelves I am replacing), I had to drag my old one out of retirement:






It clamps in the vice (it has a leg if I need it), and has an adjustable lift/ micro-adjuster, so it was a doddle to set up quickly to help with making the drawer support frames:
















By the time I had made them the carcass was dry, so I de-clamped and pinned on the ply back-board (using, shock horror........a hammer!):











This photo might help understand the complication of the half-housed half-dovetailed corner join:






I put that down as a useful afternoons work. I doubt I'll get too long on this tomorrow, but maybe I'll be able to clean up the tenons, and fix the drawer supports in place.


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## AndyT (2 Oct 2019)

Looking good, as expected!
For a slower setting glue, have you tried liquid hide glue? Titebond brand is pretty widely available.

It's perfectly strong enough for anything indoors. It cleans up really easily with a damp rag. Glue lines disappear.
And best of all, you get 15-20 minutes open time rather than 5-10.


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## MikeG. (2 Oct 2019)

I haven't, but I must. Even 15 or 20 minutes doesn't seem enough, though. I'd like half an hour plus.


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## Trevanion (2 Oct 2019)

Ever tried Cascamite, Mike? I'm assuming you probably already have because you've been doing this long enough, but you can get very long open times out of it especially in the winter months. The constant mixing isn't always loved though :lol:


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## AndyT (2 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":fk2wxuz0 said:


> I haven't, but I must. Even 15 or 20 minutes doesn't seem enough, though. I'd like half an hour plus.



I've just checked the spec and Titebond actually say 20-30 mins at 70°F (21 °C)

http://www.titebond.com/product/glues/9 ... 7daa20f8ed


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## MikeG. (2 Oct 2019)

Trevanion":2nwanbuq said:


> Ever tried Cascamite, Mike? I'm assuming you probably already have because you've been doing this long enough, but you can get very long open times out of it especially in the winter months. The constant mixing isn't always loved though :lol:



Yes, many times. The mixing is a nuisance, but minor. It's the shelf life which is more of an issue.


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## MikeG. (2 Oct 2019)

AndyT":3evgsyzd said:


> MikeG.":3evgsyzd said:
> 
> 
> > I haven't, but I must. Even 15 or 20 minutes doesn't seem enough, though. I'd like half an hour plus.
> ...



I'd love to know what the difference is between "open assembly time" and "total assembly time".


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## Trevanion (2 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":23kl1odn said:


> It's the shelf life which is more of an issue.



I've also had it turn into rocks before a few times, the best solution I've found is to decant the main bucket into a bunch of used glass coffee jars (Or any kind of jar for that matter, maybe bigger jars would be advantageous because you can get a bigger spoon in there.) and put a bit of cling film over the top and put the lid on and put them away and just keep using the one jar until it's finished, then get another out, etc... The less open-air left in the jar the better.

Bit of a faff but better than letting it turn into big chunks in the bucket and much better than buying the smaller amounts at ridiculous prices.


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## AndyT (3 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":tjv9v0eh said:


> AndyT":tjv9v0eh said:
> 
> 
> > MikeG.":tjv9v0eh said:
> ...



Yes, I wondered that.

I can't say I've ever set a clock on how long a glue up takes, but I reckon you could take the shorter time as how long you can have wet glue on a piece before you assemble the joint. And the longer limit would be how long you've got to pull it up tight with cramps etc and still expect it to move.


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## MikeG. (3 Oct 2019)

This all took rather longer than I'd thought. I started by cleaning up all the wedged tenons and dovetails:






Then moved on to preparing the drawer supports for fitting, starting with the central vertical piece:











I then offered a couple of frames up so that I could locate a mortise under the top to house the end of the vertical member:











Then I glued in the drawer support frames. It is worth pointing out that I was fighting some pretty fearsome cupping on the outer (front) boards. You can see that I had previously run a relief cut up the middle of each, so these clamps are as much for pulling that in to nearly-flat as holding the frames in place:






I then glued the central piece in, with each of the half lap joints fitting rather neatly:











After gluing in some dividers on top of the central drawer runner and clearing a space (shifting that huge pillar drill wasn't easy), I started lifting the carcass into place:











I decided a day or two back to shift this cabinet from its original location by a few inches so that I could work over-long pieces of wood at the bench, unhindered:






I screwed in a quick support under the back of the bottom drawer frame:






.......and bracketed the two vertical members back to the wall (well, joist), at the top:


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## Bm101 (3 Oct 2019)

Still should have painted the wall behind it. Not round it. Just behind it. You Madman. Out there just winging it.


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## Steve Maskery (3 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":33d9nvmt said:


> I'd love to know what the difference is between "open assembly time" and "total assembly time".



I may be mistaken, but I've always understood it to be the difference between how long you have got to adjust the joint to get the components into the right place, and how long it is before you can sensibly take the clamps off.

So typically I use a PVA. Open time 5 or 10 minutes (I can't remember exactly but it is something like that). Clamping time 30 mins to 2hrs, depending on how harshly you want to handle it. But full bonding strength is not achieved for 24 hours.


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## Stanleymonkey (3 Oct 2019)

That's really looking good Mike. Hard to believe that's all recycled, cupped timber. It's come together quickly. Looking forward to the next stages.


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## MikeG. (3 Oct 2019)

Stanleymonkey":245xl6k3 said:


> .......Hard to believe that's all recycled, cupped timber........



Mostly. There is some new timber in there too. The drawer supports, for instance, are mainly new.


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## doctor Bob (3 Oct 2019)

Looking very good Mike.

PS haven't forgotten, will be in touch


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## ColeyS1 (3 Oct 2019)

Looking really smart Mike. Lots of components to deal with. The best ever ever ever ever ever thing I've done with cascamite is buy some scales. To start with it's a real thick lumpy paste but after adding the remaining water magic happens and the glue turns good. In comparison to titebond 3 I'd say it's not as good for stickyness. Its brittle and under stress the joints fracture but the 'open time' does mean it has its uses. Out of interest have you got some digital scales suitable for weighing grams ?

Again, tidy work that will be awesome when completed.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


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## MikeG. (4 Oct 2019)

Thanks Coley.

Yeah, I perhaps should have used Cascamite. My biggest issue with it isn't mixing it, although that's a bit of a faff especially if you underestimate how much you'll need and need to mix up more in the middle of gluing up........no, the biggest issue is shelf life. I can go months between the times I need it, and in that time, the stuff can have gone off on the shelf. Keeping it in a tightly sealed plastic bag helps, but I've still probably chucked more away than I've used over the years.


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## Ttrees (4 Oct 2019)

Never tried the stuff but maybe worth a punt?
old-brown-glue-animal-hide-glue-t111045.html

Fish glue might also an option


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## MikeG. (4 Oct 2019)

I think I'll try the Titebond version first.


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## wallace (4 Oct 2019)

Mike, that's better joinery than I did making my kitchen  it would make a very nice welsh dresser


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## MikeG. (4 Oct 2019)

Thanks Wallace. I'll be making a Welsh dresser for my kitchen in the next 6 months or so. Look out for that........the joinery (and the damn wood!) will be better than this.


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## MikeG. (4 Oct 2019)

Dovetails. Lots and lots of dovetails. Starting with the two doors for the tool cabinet, of ex 3x1 PAR:












Awkwardly, the side pieces were so long that I had to mark out along the bench utilising a temporary support, rather than across the bench in the usual way:
















Glue up was easy, and I thought I'd treat myself to some simple corner clamping guides in MDF before starting. They helped:











There's two:






On to the drawers. There are 10 drawers, which is twenty fronts and twenty sides. I wrestled the SCMS out from its hiding place and cut everything to length:






I've roughed out quickly the layout of the dovetails. Now it's just hours and hours of sawing and chiseling......


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## AndyT (4 Oct 2019)

Mike, maybe hours and hours of sawing and chiselling will slow you down to a more normal pace - I'm feeling tired just reading about the amount of work you've got done on this project each day!


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## MikeG. (4 Oct 2019)

I've only been part-time during the week, as I've had a bit of drawing to do. I think I've got a clear weekend, and I hope to have the drawers done and the main doors fitted by close of play on Sunday. I do need a quick visit to the builder's merchant first, though, as I'm a little short of wood.


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## Chris152 (4 Oct 2019)

Fantastic wip, not just the workmanship but the apparent economy of means - those lines of cut joints look great. Tho tbh, I'd be pretty happy with the original shelving unit in my workshop, no place for anything and everything out of place.


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## MikeG. (5 Oct 2019)

Thanks Chris. The thing with the original shelves was that they held no tools, and I need my tools there in one place rather than scattered around the workshop.


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## MikeG. (5 Oct 2019)

First job today was to clean up the door boxes and offer them up:






I had previously routed most of a rebate out for some ply:






Now that the corners were together I could complete those rebates:











Then glue and pin the ply:






And offer up into place:











You may remember from a day or two ago where I said the vertical dividers above the "worktop" would form a useful purpose in due course.....well, here it is:






With a little rubbing strip on the underside of the door, these vertical pieces will help take the weight of the door off the hinges somewhat. Otherwise, loaded down with tools over the years there would be a tendency to sag.

Right, onto dovetails. I started these at about 2.15 this afternoon. Here is an alternative way of marking out the gauge line around the ends of all the boards. As usual with woodworking, there are a dozen ways to skin most cats, and using a chisel to mark the line is extremely quick and clean. An off-cut of the drawer material is pinned to a board to hold everything together, and the board for marking is held against it, vertically. You then just pull the chisel across the scrap cutting a line on the face of the drawer board:






I almost always start with the tail boards (the drawer sides). Using this technique, I only have to mark out once, despite having 20 drawer sides (ie 40 joints) to cut. I marked out the tails on the ends of 4 boards, and cut them:






Then, marking one of the boards as "P" (pattern), I take that one off and spin the pile over, before replacing the "P" board at the other end. I mark 2 or 3 right angle lines, but that's all:






The saw then follows the kerf of the pattern board. Rinse and repeat, cutting 4 boards at a time until you've finished. Then, again with 4 boards, cut out the waste with a coping saw (I'll show later why this is unavoidable):











That saw was in the £1 bargain bin at my local hardware shop about 25 years ago. You don't need anything more than that.

This is why you need to saw the waste away. This is my narrowest chisel (1/4"). I could make a cut about 1mm above the gauge line only because of the width of the pin mortise, and if you tried to chop out waste from there you'd A/ get pushed back into or past the gauge line, and B/ jam all the waste in tightly into the triangle above:






A couple of hours of chiseling (and using a marking knife to clean up into the corners), and I'd done all the tail boards. That was 4 hours work altogether. It's like cycling........if you keep turning the pedals you get there in the end:


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## MikeG. (7 Oct 2019)

My weekend didn't go exactly as I'd planned. I did half a day Saturday, and a couple of hours only on Sunday. With a couple of hours today I am still behind where I thought I might be. Never mind...... First job was to start painting the door boxes:






Four coats later:






I'm planting a false frame on the front to cover the join between ply and pine, hence the unpainted margin. Here's the start of that false frame:






....and then hours later:






That was all going on during the cutting of half a million pin boards. I reckon the pin-boards part of this is about 4 hours work:






They're all dry fitted, so of course I had to knock them all apart afterwards. If anyone here finds themselves cutting lots of drawers by hand like this, my biggest tip is to be very very organised and methodical. Keep boards in neat piles. Mark the outside of the drawer on each piece. Mark where the groove will be. Number each piece. Put a letter to each corner, in the same place. When you are offering boards up for marking it is terribly easy to lose where you are, so having a fool-proof marking system is critical. Clear your bench, line your tools up, and work methodically through the pile.

When you need to take a stretch after an hour or two of doing the same thing over and over, take on another short task. I did the painting, above, through the process of doing the pin boards. I also did the skirting board around the bottom of the unit:











OK, that also involved some dovetails, because mitred corners in a workshop are only going to get kicked open, or bashed open with a broom or a piece of wood......but nonetheless it was a few minutes respite from doing the drawers.

Once they were all made and dry fitted, I knocked all the drawers apart methodically and stacked them prior to putting a groove in the bottom edge for the ply base board:






I then set up the router table ready to run those through tomorrow. Note the stops at each end, so that the groove doesn't show through on the front of the drawers:











Yes, these drawers are going to have the dovetails visible on the drawer front. They also have a dovetailed back, with a full depth board........so how is that going to work with drawer stops, I hear you ask. I have a cunning plan for that.


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## Stanleymonkey (7 Oct 2019)

Looking good - impressed with the dovetailing rate.

Nice to see you that you do have some white paint! Nudge nudge..


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## MikeG. (7 Oct 2019)

Stanleymonkey":1fprxue2 said:


> .......Nice to see you that you do have some white paint! Nudge nudge..



Nah, it's grey.


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## MikeG. (9 Oct 2019)

It was a quick job to clean up the dovetails and fix the skirting in place:






It was a much slower job to glue up all the drawers. Two of them didn't sit flat (presumably due to a twist in one of the components), so I attempted to counteract this by tensioning them the other way as the glue set. As it happens, one I overdid slightly, and one I under-did, but both were much better than they had been in the dry fit:











Whilst the drawers were drying I fitted the door boxes, using cheap piano hinges:











This was a bit of a fiddle, and one of the doors came off 3 or 4 times for adjusting. After that, it was just lots and lots of planing, offering up, adjusting, until all the drawers fitted:











Here's how I supported the drawers in the vice:






Some years ago I had salvaged a few commercial chests of drawers from a practice I worked in as they headed towards a skip. They yielded lots of nice stuff, including these drawer pulls of solid wood:






I'm not sure what the wood is. It has prominent medullary rays, but is much too red to be oak. Anyway, I rather like them, so I cleaned them up with some white spirit, then made a jig to locate the screw holes:






When correctly located you just push on the board and the tips of the screws, which stick out the back, leave a nice clear mark:











I waxed all the runners and sides, and I now have a completed set of drawers:






Finally, because of the drawer design traditional stops are impossible. However, there is an OSB wall just 5 or 10mm behind the back of the drawers, so I screwed a couple of screws in behind each drawer box and simply turned them in or out until they stopped the drawers in the right place:


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## sammy.se (9 Oct 2019)

Lovely work Mike! And thanks for the WIP. Very informative.


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## MikeG. (9 Oct 2019)

Thanks Sammy.


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## thetyreman (9 Oct 2019)

wow looking really good, that's quite a few dovetails!!


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## Steliz (9 Oct 2019)

Thanks for the WIP and the unit looks great.
What is the decider between this type of drawer and one with sliders? Is it just personal preference? I'm about to start a workshop cabinet myself (my first attempt) and I am trying to keep it as simple as I can so sliders seem like the obvious choice.


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## Inspector (9 Oct 2019)

Great looking cabinet. I like the drawer screw depth stops. I do something similar when hanging from a french cleat. A screw hidden behind the lower corner you want to bring out squares everything up nicely especially if there are doors. 

Pete


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## AndyT (9 Oct 2019)

I really like this, for several reasons.
First, the way you used ordinary softwood for a functional piece. Then extra points for using those nice old drawer pulls. And the clever dividers/supports. And more still for all those functional dovetails.

In fact, the only thing I find hard to swallow is that you seem to have completed it in a few days. Some of us would have taken several months!


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## MikeG. (9 Oct 2019)

Thanks guys. And.....erm.......it's not finished yet. There's all the tools to mount, and a corner cupboard to build (underway). So keep coming back for more.


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## MikeG. (9 Oct 2019)

Steliz":3u4emj6x said:


> Thanks for the WIP and the unit looks great.
> What is the decider between this type of drawer and one with sliders? Is it just personal preference? I'm about to start a workshop cabinet myself (my first attempt) and I am trying to keep it as simple as I can so sliders seem like the obvious choice.



Sliders mean planted-on drawer fronts. They have their place, but simple and robust is the name of the game with workshop stuff, for me anyway.


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## Inspector (9 Oct 2019)

Sliders also in some fashion take space away from a drawer. You loose width or depth. Adds up in with a lot of drawers.

Mike will also have the option of quickly sliding the drawer out to take to where he is working. All his carving tools in one drawer for example can be at hand if he wants to carve outside on a nice day. Well if he carves that is. 

Pete


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## guineafowl21 (9 Oct 2019)

A fine looking, practical tool cabinet. Did you get the idea for exposed dovetails on the drawers from my kitchen sideboard? I’d be honoured if you did. But not surprised if you didn’t...


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## doctor Bob (9 Oct 2019)

love it.


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## MikeG. (9 Oct 2019)

guineafowl21":3fxma9e4 said:


> A fine looking, practical tool cabinet. Did you get the idea for exposed dovetails on the drawers from my kitchen sideboard? I’d be honoured if you did. But not surprised if you didn’t...



Sorry, no, I haven't seen them. I've been doing exposed dovetails on drawers for years.


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## Sgian Dubh (9 Oct 2019)

Nice job so far. I like. Slainte.


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## MikeG. (10 Oct 2019)

Thanks Richard.

I couldn't sleep last night, and my mind wandered onto corner cupboards. Triangles, triangles, triangles.........Four shelves won't reach the front, but the top and bottom ones will, so how do I work out the dimensions of the triangles I'll be cutting? Ten seconds in a drawing programme....hours of torment lying in bed half awake!


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## AndyT (10 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":3kuyf34i said:


> Thanks Richard.
> 
> I couldn't sleep last night, and my mind wandered onto corner cupboards. Triangles, triangles, triangles.........Four shelves won't reach the front, but the top and bottom ones will, so how do I work out the dimensions of the triangles I'll be cutting? Ten seconds in a drawing programme....hours of torment lying in bed half awake!



I can't remember if he skips over the layout but watching Roy Underhill might help:

https://video.unctv.org/video/the-woodw ... rd-part-1/

https://video.unctv.org/video/the-woodw ... rd-part-2/


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## MikeG. (10 Oct 2019)

Nah, it's sorted already. I'm going out to cut them now. But thanks.......I'll watch those videos later.


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## MikeG. (10 Oct 2019)

Using the last shelf left over from the original shelving unit, I made a shelf for the upper cupboard. This will be hidden behind doors:







I thought I'd quickly do the piece covering the junction with the ceiling. In for a penny, in for a pound.......so it's dovetailed too:






As the longer piece across the front is about 1200 tall, I had to clamp a piece of scrap in place so that the tail board had something to rest on when marking out for the pins:
















The original shelves yielded up a reasonable amount of easily re-usable timber, but they also left these pieces:






Those are the original sides, from here:






Well, I got to thinking, and decided to re-use them for pretty much their original purpose, but as part of a corner cupboard. That is why I had glued these boards together yesterday:






So today I de-clamped them and started marking out then sawing:






The problem I am trying to resolve is this hell-hole at the end of my bench:






Apart from the vacuum cleaner there are various jigs, bench hooks, shooting boards and so on, a vacuum drop-box, and all sorts of detritus which falls from the end of the bench. When I started looking at the shelf spacing on the old cheek pieces, I had the brainwave of having the vacuum cleaner sit in the bottom of the cupboard, with the hose projecting through side-wall. This meant adding one extra shelf position:






I calculated that I needed to remove 8.3mm from one edge of the side boards to obtain the necessary angle with the front to make a 135 degree junction, so I set that on the calipers and then used them as a marking gauge:






I then planed down to that line (using a number 6 Record, for those who like to know this stuff):






I'd previously cut the corners off the big triangles, and cleaned them up ready to fit as shelves. Now I glues and screwed them into the housings in the old side-pieces:
















Those intermediate shelves are set a few mm back from the inside face of the face frame. The top and bottom will be different though, so I left them out at this stage. Here is what the corner cupboard will look like:


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## Sgian Dubh (10 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":3r2mqfpr said:


> I couldn't sleep last night ... Triangles, triangles, triangles.........so how do I work out the dimensions of the triangles I'll be cutting? Ten seconds in a drawing programme....hours of torment lying in bed half awake!


Presumably AutoCAD, Rhino, or similar? I agree, seconds in AutoCAD, probably along the lines of offset the front edge of your bottom/top shelf, and a couple of trims? I'm also guessing the back corner of your pine triangular shelving unit, seen just above this post might be closer to 91 or 92º rather than 90º. On the other hand, it's going into a junk corner of your workshop, so perhaps such fussiness and niceties don't much matter, ha ha. 

As for torment about triangles whilst half asleep in bed, maybe in future you can simply allay it with the thought of CAD … tomorrow, and nod off. Slainte.


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## woodbloke66 (10 Oct 2019)

Sgian Dubh":1sbq5gnh said:


> As for torment about triangles whilst half asleep in bed, maybe in future you can simply allay it with the thought of CAD … tomorrow, and nod off. Slainte.


Not a chance, from one who 'knows' :lol: - Rob


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## MikeG. (10 Oct 2019)

Sgian Dubh":3ufu8e83 said:


> Presumably AutoCAD, Rhino, or similar? I agree, seconds in AutoCAD, probably along the lines of offset the front edge of your bottom/top shelf, and a couple of trims? I'm also guessing the back corner of your pine triangular shelving unit, seen just above this post might be closer to 91 or 92º rather than 90º. On the other hand, it's going into a junk corner of your workshop, so perhaps such fussiness and niceties don't much matter, ha ha.
> 
> As for torment about triangles whilst half asleep in bed, maybe in future you can simply allay it with the thought of CAD … tomorrow, and nod off. Slainte.



No, they're 90 degrees. There is some twist in one of the side pieces, but that will soon pull back square when fixed to the wall.

I use Draftsight at the moment, having spent decades using Autocad. Draftsight, however, is soon to stop being a freebie, so I'll be moving over to Qcad, Librecad, or something else similar. I can't wait....


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## AndyT (10 Oct 2019)

I do like the economy of reusing the existing housings.


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## MikeG. (10 Oct 2019)

More progress:

I cleared the corner, took all the shelves away, and cut this one to length (it's attached to my bench so it can't go completely):






I fixed an overhanging shelf to the top of the corner cupboard, then offered everything into place:






It didn't require any adjustment, so out it came, and I made the bottom shelf. Now, this had to be absolutely bang on as the face frame will finish flush with it, so I made it too big then trimmed it back to size. I then sorted out the best position for the vacuum hose to enter the cupboard, and cut a hole:






I then put the cupboard back in place and screwed everything in permanently, and stood the Henry in place:











It's feeling like a new workshop already!!


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## Nelsun (10 Oct 2019)

Plenty room for some new tools there Mike! *fetches coat*


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## Inspector (10 Oct 2019)

Are you leaving the wood bare, giving it some oil, varnish of some kind or painting it?

Pete


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## MikeG. (10 Oct 2019)

No, it stays bare.


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## SammyQ (11 Oct 2019)

> "No, it stays bare."



Purist!!  

Sam


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## Inspector (11 Oct 2019)

Or too stingy to buy some linseed oil. :lol: :lol: :lol: :wink: 

Pete


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## MikeG. (11 Oct 2019)

I've got gallons of the stuff, Pete. Gallons. The top shelf of the corner cupboard will be taken up almost entirely by linseed oil. No, it's just that I don't really see the point of applying a finish to a piece of utilitarian workshop kit. The dark red/ orange of the ply was just too dark and gloomy, so I slapped some paint on that, but I'm not making a display cabinet.......I'm making a working store for my tools. No-one will ever see it other than me.


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## MusicMan (11 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":1ra4sqsx said:


> ... I'm not making a display cabinet.......I'm making a working store for my tools. No-one will ever see it other than me.



What about the guided tours of your workshop for all your forum admirers?

Seriously, very nice work and a most interesting thread. Thanks for doing it.

Keith


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## Doug71 (11 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":1q1zdmgt said:


> No, it stays bare.



I know its only a workshop but everything in mine gets at least a couple of coats of varnish or something, just stops things getting grubby as quickly.


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## Inspector (11 Oct 2019)

Just a little tease Mike. It is a very nice "working store" that I and many others would be delighted to have. If it were mine quick rub wouldn't take much time and make it look nice for me. I'm perfectly happy letting you do it as you see fit and applaud the work. =D> 

Pete


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## MikeG. (11 Oct 2019)

MusicMan":2grlcq2p said:


> .......What about the guided tours of your workshop for all your forum admirers?........



Noel and Nev don't live close enough for that.


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## That would work (11 Oct 2019)

Looking very nice indeed. I use linseed on my bench, tool handles etc etc but only really because I love the smell of it!


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## MikeG. (13 Oct 2019)

Right, where were we? I've had a good couple of days in the workshop, so I've a little progress to report. Previously, I'd got the bare shell of the corner unit in:







The next step was to make the face frame, but this had changed a little since deciding to use the bottom of the cupboard for my vacuum cleaner. It had to be really narrow to allow the thing to fit through, so I decided to rip the two pieces out of one ex 2"x1" PAR. The junction angle is 22.5 degrees. I hate moving my bandsaw table as restoring it to square is an absolute nightmare. Still, it seemed a better idea than ripping this by hand:






I made a piece to capture the top end:











....and I was really pleased with the edge-join:






Here it is finished off at the bottom, and with a skirting:






Next up, the door. Firstly, I painted a couple of ply panels:






Then after cutting the stiles and rails to length, I routed a groove. note the stiles have the groove continuing around the end of the board (and they go down the other side a little way). This is the easy way to set out a bridle joint:
















Here's the tenon (6mm wide) set out:






As this was really nice straight grained wood, I decided to chisel away the waste for the tenon, rather than sawing it. It's quicker and generally more accurate in co-operative timber:











That's done entirely with a chisel.











The central rail has a tenon only 10mm long either end, just sitting in the groove:






It was soon glued up:






I popped up the "cornice":






Whilst the door is drying, time to take a look at this hell-hole at the end of my bench by the workshop door:






That's an old bookshelf just stuffed in there and used to hold packing pieces for glue-ups, and some home-made loose tongues/ biscuits:






That needs sorting. So does this:






With the shelves moved, all my tool cables trail all over the place across the shelves, and just get in the way. The sockets need to move.

I gave the shelves some attention, adding a bottom shelf and some upstands to the front edge to stop everything spilling out. Then I moved it to the other end of my bench:






Soooooo much better at the door end:






I also made a quick little holder for my new glue-up clamping triangles:






Note the new downstand piece below the bottom shelf:






After a fiddle re-routing cables, it had certainly fixed the problem. All my power tools can remain permanently plugged in and accessible. note also the switch on the right of the corner cupboard. This is a double pole fused spur isolating switch, switching a socket inside the cupboard. Now the vacuum can be used without opening the cupboard door:






I hunted around through my collection of old panels and doors, and found this:






Perfect! I trimmed 10mm of each side, and cleaned it up a bit, then made this from it:











Those are my most commonly used workshop jigs.........bench hooks, shooting board, and belt sander stand, and they've just kicked about on the floor for years. 

I then hinged this carefully shaped piece onto the bottom:











.......and fitted it into the gap between my tool cabinet and the corner cupboard:






After fitting a shelf over it, I took it away for painting, and returned to the cupboard door. Here's the first fitting:






Then with butt hinges let into the edge, and a handle & catch added:











I then fixed in permanently the jig-holder:











Now, at last, I could turn my attention to getting my tools sorted into the cabinet. I started by laying out a sheet of MDF on the floor and demarcating an area the same size as the tool cupboard main compartment. I made a schoolboy error, which wasn't to show itself for a little while:






The biggest thing in the cabinet is going to be the saw storage, so I started with that. I shoved a load of stuff out of the way so I could use my radial arm saw, and made a series of 3/4 depth cross cuts. Chamfering always make things look a bit more interesting:






I was really please how well this nasty cheap 1/2" ply took the screws holding this in place:






The dowel at the bottom is self-explanatory:






At this point, I discovered that the tools above the saw till wouldn't fit as planned. After a bit of measuring and head-scratching, it turned out that I'd laid the board out portrait rather than landscape. Twerp. So, I quickly re-arranged:






......and got this far before my wife returned after a weekend away, and work stopped:


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## Phlebas (14 Oct 2019)

Your work rate is astonishing. When I do it I can contemplate (well that's what I call it) a single set of dovetails for hours. 

Anyway, very impressive.


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## MikeG. (14 Oct 2019)

Phlebas":fhil5koz said:


> Your work rate is astonishing........



This is said a lot, but I suspect it is more down to the sheer number of hours I put in. I plod on endlessly.

This afternoon I did a few hours and filled the rest of the main cabinet, and half of the "setting out/ marking" door. Photos of the completed job coming in the next couple of days.


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## Stanleymonkey (14 Oct 2019)

Love the way the jigs storage all slots in too. Drill stand is a nice touch - mine just goes into a hole the same diameter as the chuck and it probably isn't the best way to treat the chuck - asking for it to get broken.


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

This turned out to be more of a task than I'd expected. Space wasn't so much the issue, as you'll see, but the thickness (well. thinness) of the ply of the doors, 12mm, was pretty limiting. It meant that most stuff needed a backing board of some description. Anyway, it's done:





















Mabel likes it, I think:






The huge advantage is that stuff which had just sat on my bench was now away, and the bench, plus the all-important shelf behind, were now clear:






My bench chisels stay in their place in the shelf behind the bench, ,as do my marking knife, bench dogs, and hold-down. What a change from this:











I'm still working on the handle situation for the door boxes, and stand by for some exciting (!) screw and nail storage on the area of wall between the tool cupboard and the corner cupboard, on the left, here:


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## Garno (16 Oct 2019)

All looks very nice, you've done a great job.

It's all way past my skill levels, Back on page 3 when you are doing the frame I see that you only clamp 2 opposite corners to keep it square, why only clamp 2 corners and not all 4? :?


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## Trainee neophyte (16 Oct 2019)

It has come to my attention that I don't have nearly enough tools. Not even close.

I also spotted your very funky tressles. And, well, lots of cool stuff.


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

Trainee neophyte":15nezbz9 said:


> It has come to my attention that I don't have nearly enough tools. Not even close.
> 
> I also spotted your very funky tressles. And, well, lots of cool stuff.



Most on here will be laughing at my lack of tools..... 

And yeah, the saw horses work brilliantly. I'm very pleased with them (although they're a bit tippy if you stand on them..........so don't!). There's a thread here somewhere on their construction.


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

Garno":8ynle3u2 said:


> ....It's all way past my skill levels, Back on page 3 when you are doing the frame I see that you only clamp 2 opposite corners to keep it square, why only clamp 2 corners and not all 4? :?



The corners are dovetailed. Once they're together there is no need for clamping, so the clamps are purely to hold the frame square. Given that the two opposite sides are the same length, in theory you could just clamp one corner at 90 degrees and know that all 4 corners would be 90, so doing two is belt and braces.


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## Trevanion (16 Oct 2019)

That's _exactly_ enough tools :wink:.

There's nothing like having a proper place to put stuff back rather than a clustered mess. I'd been tripping over cutter blocks and moving them around at home for ages before I decided to make a cupboard to put them in with all the associated gear.






Godsend to just have everything in one spot and not spread out over various surfaces :lol:


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## Steve Maskery (16 Oct 2019)

That looks fabulous Mike (the tool cupboard, I mean, not the photography, that's as bad as mine ).
Really, very good indeed. Thanks for sharing.


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

_One_ photo out of focus. One! :lol: And my camera only cost £45.


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## Steve Maskery (16 Oct 2019)

Cheapskate 
Don't tell me, cheapskate and proud of it? 
Really, very good.


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## Steve Maskery (16 Oct 2019)

Mike, did you get my PM about gravel?


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## samhay (16 Oct 2019)

Very nice.
You seem to be missing a spokeshave though.


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

Steve Maskery":11y4q2lr said:


> Mike, did you get my PM about gravel?



No. I had one about path edging a month or two back, but nothing since.


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

samhay":2lhyog2v said:


> Very nice.
> You seem to be missing a spokeshave though.



Well spotted. I've got two flat bottomed spokeshaves, and am on the lookout for one with a curved bottom. Sod's law, I'll end up with 2!


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## samhay (16 Oct 2019)

Surely that's what all the drawers are for?

p.s. does the cupboard help at all with the noise from the vacuum cleaner?


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

Steve Maskery":1xe3ysd6 said:


> ....Don't tell me, cheapskate and proud of it? .....



I destroyed 3 cameras in a year on the building site, so went for a cheap fixed focal length bomb-proof child's camera, which has....erm.........limitations.


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

samhay":1go7zw6t said:


> Surely that's what all the drawers are for?



Well, yes....but they're just about full already.



> p.s. does the cupboard help at all with the noise from the vacuum cleaner?



Amazingly. I'm really surprised. I thought it might act as a drum with all that thin ply in the door, and was half thinking I might need to insulate. I don't have any means of measuring, but it's made a hell of a difference. The damn hose is a foot short of reaching the far end of my bench, though.


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## samhay (16 Oct 2019)

>Amazingly. I'm really surprised. ...

Good to know. Will continue with my plans of doing something similar.


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## SammyQ (16 Oct 2019)

I know you're a tool Spartan Mike, but you've still got more saws and screwdrivers than I have...and I started in 1974...just sayin' :-" 

Sam


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

The saws were a bit of an Ebay accident. I left a couple of bids on before I went away, hoping to maybe win one. I ended up with three. They're awaiting restoration and new handles.


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## SammyQ (16 Oct 2019)

Just yankin' your chain, sort of contrapuntal to your tag line? 

"I have enough..."

Sam


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## MikeG. (16 Oct 2019)

I know, I know. The thing is, I'm buying quite a few tools for my son in law, who has taken up woodworking, and this has led to some over-spill.


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## Steve Maskery (16 Oct 2019)

Yeah, yeah, yeah... 
You are addicted, just like the rest of us


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## SammyQ (17 Oct 2019)

Hey Steve? I reckon it won't be long before MikeG starts referring to it as his "hand tool station"...then the bench will be his "primary work station" and...  

Sam, ducking and running away VERY fast, as he remembers throwing things quickly and accurately was a primary necessity of MikeG's previous profession...


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## MikeG. (17 Oct 2019)

SammyQ":29d4h3k3 said:


> .......throwing things quickly and accurately was a primary necessity of MikeG's previous profession...



My team-mates used to fall about laughing if I ever threw the ball. They'd suggest I went and asked my wife to do it for me.


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## SammyQ (17 Oct 2019)

Not in the same league of course, but *my* team-mates in the school 2nd XV would rarely include me in a running move; second row forwards were - in their eyes - "not built for speed..." :? 

Sam


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## scooby (17 Oct 2019)

Great work Mike.


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## MikeG. (18 Oct 2019)

Sorry, sorry.....I know how desperate you've all been to see my nail-and-screw storage bins. I've been a bit slow with them, but although not finished, there's enough done to show a few photos. I sawed up a whole of of ply off-cuts, ran a groove along the front and back, and glued a few bits together:

















I then wanted to hot-melt glue the intermediate compartment dividers in, so that they could be moved in future if I found they were in the wrong place> Unfortunately, this piece of junk just refused to feed glue out:






I decided instead to silicon in the "loose" didviders, in the hope that this would be more easily removable than PVA. In hindsight, I think PVA would have been better:






Here they are _in situ_, albeit on temporary hinges (nails):











So tomorrow they all come off again, and the proper pivot will be fixed in place. A handle/ knob/ finger-pull will also be fitted. A nice feature of these containers is that they just slot out if you wanted to take them elsewhere. I was going to stick a sample of the contents onto the front with hot-melt glue, but that will have to wait until I've bought a new gun.


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## SammyQ (18 Oct 2019)

Luverly work Mike, good use of space and scrap bits. 

Sam


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## Nelsun (18 Oct 2019)

I like those a lot. Will keep dust and other carp out and easy access too. Plans for labeling them? One thing I like about systainers are the wee card slots that can take laminated print outs. Makes it real easy to swap things around and you can colour code the cards.


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## MikeG. (19 Oct 2019)

This is how the bins work, pivoting on a dowel:


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## Woody2Shoes (19 Oct 2019)

Those are extremely cool storage bins. The 'crinkle cut' effect on the dividers would offend my delicate sensibilities every time I opened one though ..... 8) :shock:


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## MikeG. (19 Oct 2019)

Sorry, W2S!! Like I said, this is just a working arrangement in a workshop, and not a display item. So long as it holds all my screws, nails and other bits and bobs, the bandsaw marks won't bother me in the slightest.


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## Simon89 (19 Oct 2019)

Really enjoying your WIP, need to find some time to get my shop organised.

These could look cool on the screw storage bins...
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3041419709


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## Lons (19 Oct 2019)

They're not tool cabinets Mike it's furniture!

enjoying the thread. =D>


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## MikeG. (19 Oct 2019)

Lons":7ncpw1cy said:


> They're not tool cabinets Mike it's furniture!........



How very dare you!


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## Lons (20 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":rbld10ae said:


> Lons":rbld10ae said:
> 
> 
> > They're not tool cabinets Mike it's furniture!........
> ...


Wasamarra with that? It's a compliment. :lol: :lol:

Mine are all in ready made drawers and cupboards salvaged from a college skip, bloody vandals but my gain as they're oak, plus wall cupboards from old kitchens.

My problem is the more cupboards I have the more I seem to need. #-o 
This shows about 1/2 of them, I started sanding some of the doors and drawer fronts several years ago - never finished.


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## MikeG. (20 Oct 2019)

Lons":10aiyn5z said:


> MikeG.":10aiyn5z said:
> 
> 
> > Lons":10aiyn5z said:
> ...



I can't help but think of Waka's tool cabinet etc (at least, I think it was him). All beautifully finished hardwood and so on.......the ultimate nightmare for me in a workshop. I'd be frightened to use stuff like that, frightened of putting a tool down too heavily or, frightened of dinging it with a piece of wood. That's why "furniture" and "workshop" aren't a hugely positive combination in my eyes.


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## Lons (20 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":2jd7hes9 said:


> I can't help but think of Waka's tool cabinet etc (at least, I think it was him). All beautifully finished hardwood and so on.......the ultimate nightmare for me in a workshop. I'd be frightened to use stuff like that, frightened of putting a tool down too heavily or, frightened of dinging it with a piece of wood. That's why "furniture" and "workshop" aren't a hugely positive combination in my eyes.


I admired that project as well Mike, beautiful piece.

What about calling it workshop furniture then?
Dovetails etc. deserve at least that.


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## SammyQ (20 Oct 2019)

Jings Bob, that is some place! Nice bit of recycling.

Sam


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## MikeG. (20 Oct 2019)

Trivial update. I put the handles on and filled the parts bins:











This involved hours and hours of sorting out screws and so on. "Do I chuck out these 2-1/2" black Japanned dome-headed slotted screws I haven't used in 25 years?".............

And I spent a whole day just cleaning and tidying the rest of the workshop. From this:






To this:






So that's it. Done. No more posts on my workshop. I've sorted out my timber racks and storage and will be starting on an unusual stair build in the next week or so. Now that I've created the space I am looking forward to using it properly.


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## sammy.se (20 Oct 2019)

Thanks for taking us on the journey!


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## MikeG. (20 Oct 2019)

My pleasure, Sam.


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## Lons (20 Oct 2019)

SammyQ":2ddtwo7q said:


> Jings Bob, that is some place! Nice bit of recycling.
> 
> Sam


It's just a double garage Sam, organised chaos! :lol: 

The cupboards were a lucky find for me though I was furious at the waste at the time. I got a call asking if I wanted any as they had been ripped out of a college science lab and standing out in the rain. I got what I wanted but less than half of them as I just couldn't store them at the time, wish I had found the space for the lot as they were skipped in the end I understand. 
Solid oak drawer fronts, door and face frames and oak faced blockboard carcases, they could easily have sold them for college funds. :roll:


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## Lons (20 Oct 2019)

sammy.se":10s3zenv said:


> Thanks for taking us on the journey!


+1

I take it you're restoring a few handsaws Mike?


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## jimmy_s (20 Oct 2019)

Looks good mike

My wall cabinet is made out of a staking pallet frames and some scraps from refurbishing the old kitchen. Not as nice as yours but functional. I used the hinged corners off the pallet frames as the hinges for the doors.

I can barely see my bench. My bench also has drawers from a chemistry lab that was stripped out and skipped.

Amazing what gets skipped - I got my Harrsion M300 metal lathe from a high school that was getting refurbished that I was working on - they dumped all the tooling though.


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## Lons (20 Oct 2019)

jimmy_s":v80mz7oh said:


> Looks good mike
> 
> My wall cabinet is made out of a staking pallet frames and some scraps from refurbishing the old kitchen. Not as nice as yours but functional. I used the hinged corners off the pallet frames as the hinges for the doors.
> 
> ...


The amount of waste drives me nuts and I've salvaged where I can over the years, I guess that's why I have so much "stuff".

Apparently if I get within arms length of a skip I'll suffer a fate worse than death according to swimbo. :shock:


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## jimmy_s (20 Oct 2019)

We moved house and I lost out on workshop space - the new workshop is the garage I can hardly move for stuff. I need to build a new workshop but there's so much to be done on the house I can't get to it. Despite all that I came across a morso guillotine in a skip on one the the sites I'm working on a few weeks ago. I couldn't find the arm off it but Couldn't let it get scapped so I went in after it and rescued it. Its now in my garage taking up the little bit of space I have left. I don't really have a use for it but felt it was a crime just to let it go to the dump.


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## Lons (20 Oct 2019)

jimmy_s":3a7109p7 said:


> We moved house and I lost out on workshop space - the new workshop is the garage I can hardly move for stuff. I need to build a new workshop but there's so much to be done on the house I can't get to it. Despite all that I came across a morso guillotine in a skip on one the the sites I'm working on a few weeks ago. I couldn't find the arm off it but Couldn't let it get scapped so I went in after it and rescued it. Its now in my garage taking up the little bit of space I have left. I don't really have a use for it but felt it was a crime just to let it go to the dump.


A man after my own heart. =D>


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## Jonathan S (21 Oct 2019)

Looking good Mike, and some interesting design's.....looking forward to the staircase build....a few years back, before I discovered forums I made my first cut string staircase....took a lot of head scratching and looking at old books.


Sent from my SM-J530F using Tapatalk


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## Trainee neophyte (21 Oct 2019)

Looking at your new space, "Beautiful Wasteland" springs to mind. 
How will you find anything, if you can't see it?
[youtube]-nUkqYlUhfU[/youtube]


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## Trevanion (21 Oct 2019)

MikeG.":21wvt6w5 said:


> This involved hours and hours of sorting out screws and so on. "Do I chuck out these 2-1/2" black Japanned done-headed slotted screws I haven't used in 25 years?".............



As soon as you chuck them out someone will come in the next week asking, "Have you got any screws like these?" #-o


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## MikeG. (21 Oct 2019)

Trevanion":2n5rg41l said:


> MikeG.":2n5rg41l said:
> 
> 
> > This involved hours and hours of sorting out screws and so on. "Do I chuck out these 2-1/2" black Japanned done-headed slotted screws I haven't used in 25 years?".............
> ...



Yep. Always happens. I chucked out most, but not all, of those sorts of screws, keeping a dozen or so of each in a mixed drawer of assorted odds 'n ends. So unless the need is for dozens, I shouldn't have jinxed myself too much.


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## Stanleymonkey (21 Oct 2019)

sammy.se":1p1m7w0x said:


> Thanks for taking us on the journey!




Definitely - I guess a lot of hours have been spent staring at that wall thinking 'what if?' Like the way it all works together. Shelf under the screw sorters is for your cup of tea I reckon!


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## MikeG. (21 Oct 2019)

Stanleymonkey":2r9ahjos said:


> ....... Shelf under the screw sorters is for your cup of tea I reckon!



It is. And for my big box of tissues (damn this cold!). I did think of putting a double socket there for battery chargers, but I'd rather keep it uncluttered because that is deliberately designed to be a place for the ends of long boards on the bench.


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## MusicMan (21 Oct 2019)

Very nice work and a very interesting thread, Mike.


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## MikeG. (21 Oct 2019)

Thanks MM.


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## Racers (22 Oct 2019)

Can you pop round and tidy my workshop next :wink: 


Nicely done.


Pete


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## delaney001 (22 Sep 2020)

Amazing thread, some resource of good ideas


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## Cabinetman (22 Sep 2020)

Nice one Mike, I love looking at other peoples workshops and I went back through quite a few pages on here but there are very few workshop tours, so I appreciated yours. I might do one of mine when I get chance.
Things in skips. Well not quite a skip but a Barclays bank had closed down and was being stripped out and me being nosy I got talking to the chap and he was delighted that I would take all the old Victorian mahogany away as it broke his heart to burn it every time, he was stripping a different bank every week, this was probably 15 years ago. It really is beautiful timber. Some of it reminds me of rosewood. Ian


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