# New tool cabinet WIP



## Karl (13 Sep 2010)

Hi all 

I'm about to start on a little project (well, probably not quite so little!), and i'm in the process of putting a design together. This won't be a quick WIP, as I intend to do it in between all my other stuff, but i'd like to try and get it finished before Christmas.

I will be building a cabinet out of Oak, but rather than have normal doors, I intend to create a box door so that tools can be hung inside the door. Similair to that shown in Lord Nibbo's thread here. However, I want the fronts of the doors to have a shaker style - and there's my first conundrum. How do you make such a construction. The only way I can think of is to make the door carcass first and then fix (glue?) the door onto the carcass. I'm not sure how good this would look.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

Karl


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## mtr1 (13 Sep 2010)

This one looks simple enough Karl, just copy it 8)


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## Ironballs (13 Sep 2010)

Looks like it would go up in a weekend that one


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## Karl (13 Sep 2010)

Mark - the actual cabinet is exactly what i'm talking about. Well, twice the size actually. The innards will be a touch less complicated :lol: 

Cheers

Karl


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## Karl (13 Sep 2010)

It looks like the construction method for the front half of the carcass is as I thought - a dovetailed box with a "door" planted on the front. A bit of shaping softens the transition between the two. 

Unless i'm seeing it wrong?

Cheers

Karl


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## mtr1 (14 Sep 2010)

Yes, it has some kind of detail on the corner. The front also appears to be of fairly thin stock 1/2", but it could be rebated in? If I was making a tool cabinet, I would do something similar to what you said, ie dovetail the carcase of the door, then run a bead around the front of this carcase where it joins the flat part of the door. I would also make the panels the same thickness as the door stiles and rails, so I could get fixings in or a biscut/dom.


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## Karl (14 Sep 2010)

Good idea about rebating the back of the door/front. It was the thicknes of a door planted onto the dovetailed carcass which concerned me, but that would solve that problem. A nice moulding detail once it's on and I think it' look pretty nice.

I will be making the panels the same thickness as the doors.

I'll finish my drawings and get them posted up so everybody can see what i'm talking about.

Cheers

Karl


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## Karl (14 Sep 2010)

I've managed to get the general design together. Here's an external sketch 







I haven't bothered doing an internal sketch as this will be worked out as we go along. I know [roughly] how it will be fitted out, but this may be subject to final detail. 

The plan is to build the main carcass (8" deep) as a single unit, with a central divider. This will separate the cabinet into hand plane storage and chisel/mallet sections. Each half will probably have a couple of drawers in the bottom, for sharpening gear, spare blades etc. 

The front carcass doors will be 4" deep, with shaker style frontage. Some moulding detail will be applied to the edge of the doors once they've been rebated into the carcass - probably a stopped chamfer. Not sure yet. The doors will also be used to house tools etc. Details to follow. 

Most of the unit will be solid timber - at the moment I only anticipate using veneered MDF for the backs. I might even use solid t&g for the backs. Not decided yet. 

I've decided to use as much hand tool work as possible, for three reasons. Firstly, this is a cabinet for some of the fine hand tools I own and it seems fitting to build it with the tools which it will house. Secondly, it'll give some [much needed] practice. Thirdly, it is going to be built in my "spare" time, most of which is after the kids have gone to bed and it's not possible to use the machines. I'm not ruling out the use of machinery, but would like to use primarily hand tools. Of course, this may necessitate the purchase of one or two little bits along the way - all part of the Masterplan !

Finally - timber choice. I have pretty much settled on some nice English Oak.

Any comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Karl


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## jlawrence (14 Sep 2010)

Must be the time of year for building tool cabinets. Literally just started mine as well.


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## Karl (29 Sep 2010)

Paid a visit to the timber yard today. It is a local yard, set in some fantastic grounds. A couple of shots of the yard 











Anyway, the yard is run by one guy, working on his own. To get to the timber you have to climb over the stacks, located in the shed behind the logs shown in the second pic - the timber was stacked 10' high ! We worked our way through some really nice quatersawn oak which he had (PROPER quarter sawn, with the boards stacked in sequence).

Having selected a few boards we loaded them into the car, only to discover they were too long. Drastic action required






:shock: 

That little problem overcome, I shipped them home and thought i'd take a preview of my wares






Methinks i've bought too much! OK, there's a lot of waney edge and pith to get rid of, but after that there's about 4.5 cuft. Ah well, it'll come in useful for something.............

Moved the timber into the workshop until I can get chance to work on the timbers. In this shot you can see how nice and straight the timbers are.






That's it for now - next job is to try and figure out which boards are going to be used, saw the crud off and make some general sense of what i've got!

Thanks for looking.

Cheers

Karl


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## woodbloke (29 Sep 2010)

Karl":30g3fi1w said:


> Moved the timber into the workshop until I can get chance to work on the timbers. In this shot you can see how nice and straight the timbers are.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Karl - if it were me, the next job would be to stick it and leave it for a couple of months in a moderately cool place...you don't need me to tell you why :wink:  - Rob


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## Karl (29 Sep 2010)

Ha - sorry Rob, you may have missed a bit of the story (my fault - i've edited my original post). The timber has been stored in the shed behind the logs shown in the pic above. It is nice and dry and, seeing as the cabinet is going in the 'shop (single un-insulated garage), I don't think it'll need any more drying.

Cheers

Karl


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## Ironballs (29 Sep 2010)

Come on Karl, get that timber on the planer and show us what it looks like


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## woodbloke (30 Sep 2010)

Karl":1g7m5t14 said:


> Ha - sorry Rob, you may have missed a bit of the story (my fault - i've edited my original post). The timber has been stored in the shed behind the logs shown in the pic above. It is nice and dry and, seeing as the cabinet is going in the 'shop (single un-insulated garage), I don't think it'll need any more drying.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Karl


All is clear now :wink: - Rob


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## Karl (30 Sep 2010)

Just for you IB






Pretty much all the boards look like they'll have the same distinctive colouring, so should make for an interesting piece.

Cheers

Karl


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## OLD (30 Sep 2010)

The wood yard looks like wild woods at Peover Hall.


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## Karl (30 Sep 2010)

That's the one, OLD.

Cheers

Karl


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## BradNaylor (30 Sep 2010)

So come on you two, spill the beans!

Why don't I know about this Wildwood place?


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## Karl (30 Sep 2010)

Well, it's all a bit hush hush. Don't want anybody just going in there and ripping all the quality stock out of there!

Google "Timber Suppliers Peover" and it'll come up - 01565 723300. Although it's not actually on Long Lane, Peover. And if you phone, it'll take 10 phone calls to actually speak to the guy..........

English Oak £30 plus vat cu/ft for 1". All waney edge though, but he's quite generous in what he allows you for wastage.

Let me know if you need any other details.

Cheers

Karl


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## OLD (1 Oct 2010)

My old linkhttps://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/interesting-wood-yard-near-knutsford-cheshire-t29573.html
The pictures have gone but the directions are still handy.


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## Karl (1 Oct 2010)

Made a little progress tonight by chopping up some of the boards to get the panels for the doors. A little suface planing to reveal the grain pattern. 4 panels needed, and managed to find a reasonable match. 












Obviously they aren't sized yet, so for now they will be put to one side.

Next job is to find a good match for the rails and stiles.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers

Karl


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## Ironballs (3 Oct 2010)

Nice looking oak Karl, most of the QS I used last year had the same dark stripes in it that yours does, adds a nice bit of character though the Yanks would probably hate it


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## Karl (3 Oct 2010)

I'm beginning to like the timber IB - I was a bit overwhelmed to start with, and wondering whether it'd look too busy with all the figuring.

I've sorted out the timber orientation for the stiles today, and thought that this evening I would tackle the panels for the doors. I am not going to do the raised panels on the doors, and will instead be going for a plain inset panel. Time to bookmatch a pair of panels from the 1" board I had allocated.

Started off with the timber clamped at 45 degrees in the vice. Marked out (by hand) a rough line midway from the 1 previously prepared face. Then proceeded to rip along this line until I reach the opposite corner.











By repeatedly flipping the board and sawing at 45 degrees work progressed very well. Wedges were inserted as there was a little bit of closing up, but nothing major. I didn't bother marking out the line down the length of each edge - one edge was waney (after bark removed), so I just judged by eye.






When I reached the right depth on the diagonals, the board was put in the vice vertically so that the final ripping could be done (the board is oversized so that it could be clamped without closing up the saw kerf)






After trimming to length I realised that I hadn't gone quite far enough






So I just joined up the kerfs to reveal the bookmatched board






Quite pleased with how they've turned out. They're about 9/10mm thick at the moment, and they need skimming to clean them up and bring them down to final thickness. They aren't going to be joined, but will form separate panels within the same door, with a quartersawn stile splitting them. 

Got to do the other board tomorrow.

Cheers

Karl


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## Paul Chapman (3 Oct 2010)

Excellent bit of sawing there, Karl 8) 8) 

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## Karl (3 Oct 2010)

Cheers Paul. It's one of the reasons why i'm going heavy on the hand tools (ie to practice some skills).

Cheers

Karl


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## Karl (5 Oct 2010)

Just to prove that the first set were no fluke, I got the second set of panels cut tonight






Cheers

Karl


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## mtt.tr (5 Oct 2010)

Oh im not jealous 



:evil: :evil: :evil: 

Brilliant cutting


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## Karl (11 Oct 2010)

Well, to coin Alf's phrase, I fell right off the Neanderthal bandwagon today  

I had started thicknessing the stock for the door fronts this week. Flattened the face of each piece. Lovely. Easy peasy. Then started marking out for the 3/4" thickness I was going to bring them down to. Got one piece done, which went ok, although a bit tedious trying to avoid tearout, yet wanting to work quickly and get as near as possible to finished thickness with the jack before turning to the smoothing plane. 

That was at the end of last week. Then today, I found that I had a spare hour before going to collect the kids from school. "HHhmmmmm...... better get the planes out and get another piece flattened" I thought. Just as I was about to start I could almost hear the Sedgwick p/t whispering "you fool". 

So I succumbed to temptation and fired up the Sedgwick. Boy does that machine sound sweet  

So that's it. I gave in, and stock prep will now be done largely by machine. Which will make the job go quicker - which it needs to. I'm booked up to Christmas with work, and today i've been asked to make a dining table to compliment a kitchen i'm fitting in Nov/Dec. That'll have to be done in my "spare" time too - I really should learn to say no to people :lol: 

I'll post some more pics later on in the week when there's something more interesting than flat pieces of timber knocking about. 

Cheers

Karl


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## LuptonM (11 Oct 2010)

That was some insane sawing. :shock:


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## Karl (29 Apr 2011)

I think I said at the outset that this might be a long WIP.......

For various reasons, I haven't had chance to do much more on this. Work was one reason, but I also hadn't made a final decision on design/layout of the internals. So the parts have just sat on a shelf awaiting some inspiration.

I've now made my mind up on how the cabinet is to be set out, so decided to get to work on smoothing out the panels for the doors. Couldn't resist putting a coat of finish (Osmo satin) just to see how they would look. 






You can see the finish better in this pic






Note - toy car is my sons, awaiting repair. I've not been playing in the 'shop, honest.

I've got all the rails/stiles cut for the doors, so will be getting onto making the doors up over the next few days. Will give me chance to try out the new Trend M&T jig.

Cheers

Karl


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## Bremner (30 May 2011)

Wow, I wouldn't even think of attempting to hand saw a board in half like that I am seriously impressed!

Good luck with the rest of the project.


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