Thread: A Real Workshop

Thanks for the advice guys.
The winching technique is improving. Only one black fingernail so far. A good reminder not to be careless in future.

The dining table goes on a truck on Monday for delivery to Adelaide.
One less job for Fletty.

The winch was helpful turning over a laminated 4 x 2 bench. Only 1200 x 800 so not too heavy.

The I-beam would be great for moving jobs from bench to bench but it will have to wait for a while.

I have one long wall above the bench that will be used for the main cabinets.

The layout tools will be near the workbench, next to that the chisels and rasps, then the drilling and routing bits and pieces and down in the corner will be the glues and finishes.
The upper part of the cabinets will have the stuff I have but don't use every day.

My plan is to build several cabinets and mount them on French cleats. My thought is that it is easier to handle several smaller cabinets than one large bank of cabinets along the length of the wall.

Part of the wall already has a clamp rack. In front of it I have the bandsaw and morticing machine.
I need to put my bench drill on the bench too. Not sure which end of the bench yet.

The slope of the ceiling has me wondering what to do at the top of the cabinets. Do I follow the angle of the ceiling or step the height of the cabinets?

How deep to make the cabinets?
Deep cabinets might be awkward above the bench.
At least deep enough to fit a 4l tin of finish.

How high above the bench?
High enough so I don't hit my head on them (neighbours complain about my swearing) but low enough so I can reach most of the tools without a ladder.

A few years ago I bought a heap of cabinet doors at an auction for a cabinet making business that had closed down.

Really cheap, maybe $1 each but I can't remember.
I think they were used for display or were leftover from jobs. They are well made and had a range of finishes.
Of course they were different sizes and styles and timbers.
I like the different doors for the shed but now I had to design cabinets to fit the doors.
A bit of a challenge.
Plus they had been poorly stored under a tarp for the last few years and would need some TLC.

Last year I bought some Silky Oak and Rose Butternut boards at he annual Boutique Timbers auction for making my cabinets and benches.

This years auction is on this weekend so I want to use what I bought last year so I know what I need to buy this year!!
That makes sense doesn't it?

After measuring every door, I decided the cabinets would be 820mm wide. That gave me enough doors to fit. I think.
Height will be 1200, 1400, 1600 and 1800......
Depth will be 200mm.

So I pulled the rough sawn silky oak boards out from the bottom of one of my timber stacks, dressed and glued them up.
Once they were cut to size I drill holes with my woodpecker shelf pin template.
I made a rebate for the top and bottom and decided to add a fixed shelf in the middle for some added stability.
The back will be half inch plywood so I will be able to drill or nail things to it. It will be glues and screwed into a rebate.

the door on the right looks in good nick!

Originally Posted by Scally

....The slope of the ceiling has me wondering what to do at the top of the cabinets. Do I follow the angle of the ceiling or step the height of the cabinets?.....

I would step the cabinets or have them all the same height.

Originally Posted by Scally

One less job for Fletty.

BUGGER! I've been waiting at Byron Bay for the call? Now I'll have to stay here longer

Thanks Christos, that is what I decided to do too.
It seemed too much trouble making tops that exactly followed the ceiling.

So sorry Fletty. I will shout you a drink on sunday.

You have sharp eyes Nick. Some of the Tassie Oak doors were unfinished and sealed in cellophane. When it was intact the doors were pretty good. Also some that escaped moisture and had been finished came up very well after a scrub.
The glue had given way in many of the doors but the timber and joinery was good. I recall that he had a SCM mouler and power feeder. It did a good job. Some of the doors had been strengthened with dowels through the rail and stiles.

Where the finish had started to breakdown I had to sand it back and re-oil the doors to get a reasonable finish.

A couple of cabinets glued and screwed together.

They were given a couple of coats of Danish oil. I hope it makes it a bit easier to keep them clean?

My willing helper scrubbed the doors and I dismantled and re-glued the ones that needed it. They went together without too much drama.

Then gave them a coat of Danish oil.

Played musical doors with the cabinets to check which doors fitted which cabinets. They aren't perfect fits but a bit of fiddling should get them to work.

My plan is to use Euro hinges. They will be easier and cheaper than good brass hinges.
Plus the self-closing/soft close might save me a few bumps on the head.

I am making a jig to help locate the holes for the hinges. Trial and error so far but the jig should take away some of the stress once I get it right.

Here is the jig I made for marking the location of the cup and screws for the euro Hinges.

I did several test runs and it works pretty well.

Initially I was going to have the bottom of the cabinets 60cm above the bench like Kitchen cabinets. Plenty of head clearance but limits what I can reach.
I lowered them to 50cm as the cabinets are 20cm deep, much less than kitchen cabinets.

I attached a french cleat to the top of the cabinet and placed it on the wall. It fits and looks fine so I marked the location of cleats to match the middle and lower cleats......added protection.

Then I took the cabinet down and fitted the four doors. They don't quite cover the cabinet so I added a 60mm wide strip along the top.

After I put it back on the wall I adjusted the doors and put a few things in it to see how it looked.

So far so good but the peeling finish on the bottom left door doesn't look good.
I will see if I can fix it later.

Cabinet two is twenty cm taller than cabinet one.

The green door is a bit long so I had to trim about 16mm off the bottom.

The Oregon tall door on the bottom right is a bit too wide. I trimmed about one cm off the knob side. It already had cup holes for hinges so i couldn't take half off each side.

The other dors are close to 40cm wide. The adjustment available with the hinges was enough to get them to fit.

I was a bit worried about having a lime green door but it adds a bit of interest.

The burl on the centre door is solid timber. I think it is birdseye Huon.

The doors for Cabinet three looked a bit boring.

Too much Tassie Oak.......Four large doors all the same but they didn't have a finish.
I decide to add a Walnut stain to the centre two and a Jarrah stain to the bottom two.
All the doors had a single coat of finish before staining to get a more even stain and not be too strong.

It worked pretty well.

The top to doors are Australian cherry ( it was written on the back of the door) and Tasmanian Myrtle. Very nice doors.

I moved the cabinets along until they were together.

I like them................it is going to be fun filling them with tools........and having tools out of drawers in two shed and on display right beside me.


But.......there is a pretty big blank wall down near the timber rack?

nice timber harlequin effect

Thanks Nick.
Me too. Different colours and styles but I think it still goes together.

Might need to find some Purpleheart......

They look great just the way they are.

Ross