Plane cabinet

[Dave Cav]

I finally more or less finished the plane cabinet I started a couple of weeks ago at the start of Christmas break. I had originally planned to make it from solid lumber, but the weather didn't cooperate and I wasn't able to get out, so I used some teak plywood and solid stock material from a couple of previous projects. The hardest part was getting the planes the way I wanted them, all vertical. It took about four days of messing around and false starts, but once it started working it all fell in place. Each other section took a day or so. The biggest problem was getting everything I wanted into a particular section and still getting the doors to close. Since I wanted to have all my user bench planes in one place it ended up being bigger than I initially planned, but at least most of the stuff is all in one place adjacent to the work bench.

Thanks for looking.

Dave C

[Zahid Naqvi]

nice, I plan to make one, one of these days. I really like the folding pannel you made to hang the rules and files just over the bigger planes.

[gary Zimmel]

Great job on the plane cabinet Dave

You may of changed my mind on how I'm going to finish
a couple of my upper cabinets in my current project.

Thanks for the post

[Seth Poorman]

Hey Dave
Ive been thinking on building a Plane cabinet myself,but Im not sure how I want to lay it out yet with the tools that I have,and the tools that I have yet to get..:confused:
Good Job!!!! Looks Great !! Seth...

[Don Dorn]

I have but one simple project between now and building one for myself. I have saved all of your pictures as it gave me some great ideas - in fact, for the most part, mine will be nearly a copy. Great job and thanks for posting it.

[Dewey Torres]

Studley would have been proud!

[willie sobat]

Very nice!

[John Keeton]

Nice job! Mine didn't turn out that compactly designed - and I have already rearranged. Fortunately, there is enough flexibility in the way you have done everything that changes are still possible - just in that rare instance when one may purchase another toy;).

[Dave Anderson NH]

That's a nice looking cabinet Dave. Very good use of space. As for using plywood, who'll ever know or notice?

[Archie England]

Oh my, another project yet to do. Thanks for the excellent photos and ideas.

[Jim Becker]

That's really beautiful! Wow...nice!

[Jerry Olexa]

Nicely done I say with envy....Great job.

[Dave Cav]

Thanks for all the responses. I had a thought- if I made it an inch or two deeper, I could have made full length interior doors instead of the partial section where I hung the squares and rasps. Since I have a fair amount of room on the wall where the cabinet is hung, I may just do that- next Christmas break!

I am going to put a couple of my other projects over in the Projects section- a set of display cases for my wife's cut glass collection (where most of the extra teak for the tool chest came from), a Murphy bed for our guest room and maybe some other stuff.

Thanks again

Dave

[Bill Hansen]

I have looked at many pictures of cabinets for plane storage, yours trips my trigger more than any others.

Great job.

Bill

[lowell holmes]

Great job!

What do you use the large mallet for?

My mallets have much smaller mass than that one appears to have.

[Johnny Kleso]

Looks Very Nice :)

Thanks for Sharing..

[Matt Edwards]

Two thumbs up! Nice work!

Regards!
Matt

[Dave Cav]

I just made the large mallet last summer. I haven't used it a great deal, but it has been handy for chopping out the corners of router cut rabbets and some mortise work. I usually use it on butt chisels and save my longer socket chisels for paring and lighter work. It's probably a little bigger than I need, but I'll never break or lose it.

[Tom Henderson2]

Nice!

Could you share a few overall dimensions, and describe how your planes are retained in their cubbies? It looks like the plane cubbies are somewhat modular... is that correct?

Thanks....

-TH

[John Maus]

Very Nice Job Dave. Thanks for sharing your photos

[Dave Cav]

Nice!

Could you share a few overall dimensions, and describe how your planes are retained in their cubbies? It looks like the plane cubbies are somewhat modular... is that correct?

Thanks....

-TH

It's roughly 42 inches high by 22 inches wide, exterior dimensions. The plane cubbies (good word) are more or less modular, and all made of 1/2" hem/fir, planed down from 3/4. The left side with the jacks and jointers (#8, #607, #606 bottom, #5, #605, #605 1/2 top) is all one section, as is the bottom right section (one #4 1/2, a #604 1/2 and a #5 1/4), and the top right section (smoothers- #2, #603, a #604, plus a #60 scrub plane because it fit best with the smoothers). The dividers were generally set into dadoes in the top and bottom pieces, and are mostly solid wood except between the smoothers, where I used hardboard due to a lack of space. All the modules are screwed in place so I can remove them later for reconfiguration. When I made the sections I made the ends (or tops and bottoms) of the section 1/2" less wide than the sides, then assembled them with the top edges flush. This gave a 1/2" hidden relief under the top and bottom boards. The bottom edge of the sole (heel?) sits in the bottom relief and the top end of the sole in front of the knob is in the top relief. To remove a plane you lift it vertically then swing the bottom out, then bring it vertically down. Replacement is the reverse, insert the toe all the way, swing the heel down, then let it drop in place. This required some fairly careful fitting and messing around to get all the clearances to work just right, and is a lot easier with jointers and jacks, which have a lot of room at each end past the totes/knobs, than it is with smoothers. In fact the smooth planes have no protruding sole past the tote, so I bandsawed out pieces for the bottom of the plane sole/tote to sit on, that extended up around the tote and over the sole on each side. If this isn't clear I can post a picture of the cubby without the plane in it. Fitting the smoothers was REALLY fussy, especially the #2.

After the separate modules were fabricated and everything fit, I riped 1/4" strips as wide as the sides and dividers and pinned/glued them in place to hide the dadoes/rabbets.

[Tom Henderson2]

Thanks Dave. I thought that was what you had done, but I couldn't tell for sure.

Living here in Earthquake Country (SoCal) we worry a lot about things falling off of shelves/racks....

I just love the modular approach.... gives a lot of flexibility.

I gotta build something similar; I hope mine works as well as yours.

-TH

[Dave Cav]

We have a little experience with earthquakes up here, too (Puget Sound) and that was one of the things that I had in mind when I designed the plane cubbies. I am also tempted to put some sort of latch on the cabinet doors for the same reason, to keep the doors closed in case of an earthquake; I just haven't found a latch design that won't spoil the looks of the front of the cabinet. Right now I am using magnetic cabinet latches to hold the doors closed, but they are anything but positive. I might put the latches on the top or bottom where they would be more or less out of sight.

[Jim Koepke]

For the latches, you may be able to mortise the top and bottom of the cabinet and the doors.
Then place bar magnets inside the door mortise and use magnets on the outside to move them or hold them in place when the door is to be closed or opened.

We were in Kalama, WA today. That would be a natural for a tee-shirt shop, Kalama tees.

The building I was in was right near I-5. When a truck went by, the building would shake. The first time had me thinking earth quake for a second, but I could also hear the truck.

Got a nice saw there, see my post.

I am thinking of using some of your ideas for a tool cabinet myself. Have been thinking of making it free standing so it can be moved around in the shop easier. Still have not decided. So many other things going on, it will have to wait a while.

jim

[James Schulist]

Lee-Valley sent me a catalog of hardware.. might wanna check them out for the latch...

[Peter Evans]

Nice plane cabinet. I am a long way from finishing mine. A question on the plane dividers:

Do you need the vertical dividers between the planes?

My thought was to have all planes on the same level on the bottom, and then a variable "framework" along the top for the toe to slip into. The variable height top will be inserted into grooves on the back and sides. A lot less timber, lighter and easier to get one's fingers in to release the plane from its "cubby".

Have I missed something?

The cabinet, sized same as Studley, is being made entirely with timber picked up from the footpath throwouts, so I am happy to experiment.

Peter Evans in Sydney
(where it is summer)

[Dave Cav]

I believe your idea would probaby work; the biggest problem is the smaller smoothers have very little excess sole at either end to hook on to. I put dividers between my planes to minimize bumping them into one another and putting nicks on the soles. If you have sufficient depth and are not worried about earthquakes, then you can put the planes in at an angle or incline and not bother with having the toe of the sole captured.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Looks great! Well organized. Nice wood. What more could you want? Nice job.

[Brian Kent]

I really like the swing door for measuring tools.

My problem in thinking about a project like this - how do I know which tools and how many I will have a couple of years from now?

You did a fine job, sir!

Brian

[Brian J. Williams]

Very well executed, Dave. I've been trying to lay out something similar that would fit my current crop of iron and woodies (35+) plus chisels and saws. I've almost come to the point where I'm thinking of two cabinets. I really like your concept, though, and like one of the other posts above, I'll probably borrow some of your ideas.

Insofar as the seismic issues and things mounted on walls (and speaking as a guy who does seismic engineering for a living), you probably want to put a fair number of long screws through the cabinet into the studs- I'd figure 3-inch #10's, no more than 12" center-to-center on each stud that the case crosses. It may sound like overkill, but you don't want all that hard-to-replace iron falling on the floor and breaking. Now if you happen to get hit when the big one (rather, a series of big ones) lets loose, the plane cabinet will probably be the least of your worries.

Brian