Thread: Learning WIP - Wall Cabinet

So unclamped it today and it looks kinda straight so I'm pretty happy. It was pretty fragile being just the top, bottom and sides so I wanted to get the back sheet into it as soon as possible and stiffen it up a little.

I ended up gluing and screwing the back into place. I didn't really want to use the screws but thought, once hung, they won't be visible and felt they would provide a bit of extra support in keeping it all together.

Attachment 99954Attachment 99955

I then hit the machines to get the stock for the legs down to the right dimensions. The wood actually came up quite nice and should look pretty good once finished. Sorry about the focus on this one.

Attachment 99956

Finally today, got the dowels trimmed down to size and couldn't resist a quick test fit to see how it's coming together. Actually starting to look functional.

Attachment 99957

Got all of about an hour in the shed this week for woodworking so not a lot of progress.

Here it is though. I only managed to cut, biscuit and glue up the leg frame.

Attachment 100787Attachment 100788

The next step is to score another piece of the recycled plywood for the table and start looking at some hinges for both the table and legs.

I have been watching this thread / WIP. I thought that you might be busy with other stuff so little worrk can be done on the hobby.

I got that as well.

Originally Posted by stevemc32

G'day All,

So first off the rank is a simple wall cabinet for the shed that will be used to store small rolls of fibreglass, carbon and kevlar. I use these to build model aircraft and it's important that they remain dust free in storage.

I've designed the cabinet door to swing down and be used as a cutting table when open. I'm hoping to latch the door closed with just a small cleat at the top of the cabinet but haven't really worked that out yet...


Grabbed a piece of wood from my pile that was rescued from a demolition site and got rid of the nails. I then hacked at it with the sacrificial electric planer to get all the junk off the surface. Turned out to be a nice red colour, not sure what type of timber though. It was 2.7m long and pic 3 shows a ~20cm piece I had to cut off the end as there was one nail that I couldn't remove.

1. Won't be dust-free when you open the door and use it as a work table.

2. Wood looks about right for Jarrah. Burn a sliver, if it burns to ash it is not (but could be Karri). Jarrah burns to charcoal.

G'day Christos, it is pretty disappointing when other things cut down the time available for the shed. Doesn't look to be easing up anytime soon either so I'll be continuing fairly slowly unfortunately.


Thanks for your comments johncs, I agree it will be impossible to keep all dust from the inside of the cabinet especially when it will be used in an open manner. The real intention is just to prevent contamination of the glass cloth with wood chips and larger dust particles. To this end I plan to keep the cabinet firmly closed at any time I'll be working with wood in the shed. The only time the cabinet will be opened and the table in use will be when measuring and cutting cloth.

I'll give the burn test a go and check the results. Was Jarrah used to build houses in the Eastern states?

Went looking in Bunnings today for hinges to attach the table to the cabinet and the legs to the table. Couldn't decide what type of hinges would be most suitable so I left empty handed.

The problem was that the size of the hinges I was planning on using all required quite large screws and given that there is a max depth of about 13.5mm to screw into I'm worried that the screws would project through the full thickness of the ply.

I did see some 8g x 16mm screws that would probably do the trick if the tips were filed off but not sure if that's the way to go. The other option would be to use through bolts and maybe a backing plate but that certainly won't look as nice as the hidden screws. Would a full length piano hinge be more suitable? Not sure on the cost of those though.

Is this a common dilemma and are there any other options or should I just file down the screws?

Thanks for your help.

I'd be inclined to use piano-hinge because you will be placing some pressure on the "table". As far as screws are concerned, use the longest you can without penetration.

soth

Thanks Soth.

I think I am leaning towards the piano hinge as this will also help to keep the dust out by fully closing up the join between the cabinet bottom and table.

Interesting thread and very well documented and graphically great. Just one question though, How do you do all that work without making any sawdust.?

Originally Posted by munruben

Interesting thread and very well documented and graphically great. Just one question though, How do you do all that work without making any sawdust.?

G'day John,

Thanks for the comments. Since the shed is used for composite construction as well as woodworking it's important that I try to keep it as clean as possible. I usually clean up after using each of the machines, just by pulling the dust extractor hose off the machine and doing a quick vac around with it.

The more messy jobs like routing and using the mitre saw are relegated to the "outside work space" to minimise the cleanup required. Too bad about the weather in Sydney today though as I was hoping to get some routing done on the legs...

The biggest factor in cleanliness at the moment is the fact that the shed is still fairly new. Give it a year and no matter how hard I try to keep it clean I'm pretty sure there'll be a solid layer of dust over everything in it.

Originally Posted by stevemc32

Went looking in Bunnings today for hinges to attach the table to the cabinet and the legs to the table. Couldn't decide what type of hinges would be most suitable so I left empty handed.

The problem was that the size of the hinges I was planning on using all required quite large screws and given that there is a max depth of about 13.5mm to screw into I'm worried that the screws would project through the full thickness of the ply.

I did see some 8g x 16mm screws that would probably do the trick if the tips were filed off but not sure if that's the way to go. The other option would be to use through bolts and maybe a backing plate but that certainly won't look as nice as the hidden screws. Would a full length piano hinge be more suitable? Not sure on the cost of those though.

Is this a common dilemma and are there any other options or should I just file down the screws?

Thanks for your help.

The piano hinges are one option.

You could also support the lid-cum-table with a lip projecting from the cabinet. Its support at the other end would prevent its twisting, it just needs support.

you could also make your own hinges. If the lid extends a littlw wider than the cabinet, that allows you you have a piece at rightangles that covers the outside, bottom of the cabinet. You could then bore holes and insert dowels to make the hinges. these hinges then would become features, to add visual interest to an otherwise fairly ordinary box.

From the edge, imagine a pear-shaped buldge at the bottom.

That's an interesting idea there John with the dowel hinges. The advantage of that system would be that the weight of the table and legs would be carried by the sides of the cabinet instead of the bottom. I like that.

As designed, both the table and legs will be fully enclosed within the inside perimeter of the cabinet when folded away, which means the dowel hinging would need to be internal to the cabinet. The visual feature value in this case would likely be lost and the ordinary box look would still prevail...

Definitely some food for thought, thanks for your suggestions, always much appreciated.

Got another hour or so in the shed today so did a little bit of work.

Had a chance to poke around Bunnings for a while too and decided that the piano hinge would be the most effective (easiest ) method of attaching the table to the cabinet and picked one up for fitting.

Collected another sheet of the recycled plywood and cut myself a table. Again it has been painted on one side so I started sanding back the paint as I won't be able to hide the paint on this part. Destroyed my last two sanding disks and got about half way through it so had to call it a day on the table...

Attachment 101438

As mentioned earlier, I've been a little concerned about the weight of the table and legs being borne by the bottom of the cabinet. I decided today that some support would be necessary in this area and attached some brackets to help carry the load. I guess this is cheating a little but I didn't want to risk having the bottom fall out of it once hung.

I've put them on the outside bottom of the cabinet to hide them as much as possible once the cabinet is fixed to the wall.

Attachment 101439

Still looking good.