Thread: Tool cupboard (updated)

Everyone has already said what I wanted to say.

Definitely something to aspire to.

Get rid of the television and put this in the lounge room.. Much nicer to look at.

so jealous, can't keep reading...

Originally Posted by BozInOz

so jealous, can't keep reading...

Well Boz - you got the bench now - nothing holding you back....

Cheers,

Ian - beautiful work

I know the point is to look whats on the inside of the cabinet but do you have a shot with the doors closed you could share?

I like the saw cupboard.

What a wonderful and functional work of art.

Kevin

Wow !!!!, lovely job.

Originally Posted by Pac man

Ian - beautiful work

I know the point is to look whats on the inside of the cabinet but do you have a shot with the doors closed you could share?

Not a very good one, but here it is, with a couple of drawers to show how they are organised:

And if you want more statistics, the frame wood is NG Rosewood - leftovers from a kitchen job. The front panels are spalted & blue-stained Mango - given to me because it was 'no good' (I was happy to save them the hassle of burning it. ) The drawers are (northern) Silky Oak, while the shelving for planes and fittings inside the drawers is Camphor Laurel, partly because I have barrow-loads of scraps of it, & but mainly it's a good wood to use for the purpose because it isn't full of nasty, rusting tannins.

Cheers,

Ian, that is such splendid work. Absoluuuutely toooo good for a workshop! I am surprised that Trish hasn't requisitioned it for the house

It must have been your original post - I just have not have time to reply. The week has been frantic - but I found myself cleaning up my workshop and building doors for the "cabinets" (such a poor excuse they are for such a grand name). While it will not look like yours () it will keep the dust out.

Next time don't send me wood, send a cabinet!

Regards from Perth

Derek

You've all made me feel like a bit of a show-off.

It's my boast that every bench & cabinet in my shed is built from scavenged, recycled or self-harvested material - even this one. Actually, there is one exception - the top of my main bench was bought, in the rough, from a small Mennonite bush mill when I was living in Canada. I might have bought the odd sheet of ply for drawer bottoms, too, but most are off-cuts or recycled packing crates.

I didn't intend to make a piece of elaborate furniture when I started on this tool chest, but I did want something that looked like it was made by a semi-competent cabinetmaker. The old structural ply cabinet that had housed my tools for many years had reached bursting point, and nothing was convenient about it. It was also VERY fugly - & the coat of grey paint I put on it to make it blend into the background only made it worse! I wanted to replace it with something like the tool chests of old, a plain but neat exterior, with a few nice touches inside.

What happend was more chance than forward planning. I helped a friend out by slicing up a heap of NG Rosewood baulks his son sent down from N.G., and one of the payoffs was that I got to keep the 'scraps'. (I made sure he got only the very best pieces! ) There were no really wide boards in my lot, so a frame & panel construction was the logical choice. When I looked around for some panels for the doors, I spotted the Mango I'd been given. They seemed to go together rather well, so that was the outside decided. And the drawer fronts are another windfall - they came off these huge banks of drawers that were once in the old Qld Museum, for storing various specimens. Some of the stuff was transferred to a shed on the campus where I was based at the time, and as eack bank of drawers was emptied, they were chucked out in a heap & burnt! I was away on an o/seas job while most of this was going on, so only managed to grab a few at the end, but at least a couple of the old drawer fronts got a second life...

So there's the full story. P'raps I should enter my shed in the AWW competition in the "most scrounged" category..........
Cheers,

P'raps I should enter my shed in the AWW competition in the "most scrounged" category..........

I believe that there is a category this year. I was thinking of entering mine in the "film set" area, that is, for the workshop that lurks incomplete at the rear of a garage and selectively comes to light in pics.

Seriously Ian, I love the work you have put into your cabinets. I also happen to know that the house if full of your work, and the workshop is the only room left to which you can add something. In my case, and likely with others here, we are still prioritising the house, and dream of oneday getting to build the fantasy workshop ... inspired by the likes of you. Don't stop.

Regards from Perth

Derek