Michael Schwartz
10-15-2009, 4:21 PM
Here is a picture of a small tool cabinet with plane till I recently finished. The project had been on the back burner for some time while I was moving into and setting up my shop. I started the cabinet as my case piece project while attending the 12 week intensive course at the center for furniture craftsmanship.
Design wise my original intent was to build a krenov inspired cabinet on a stand to hold liquor. But somehow during the project I lost interest and motivation, and after seeing one of my planes sitting on the shelf I suddenly got an inspiration to convert it to a tool cabinet. Its a bit small, and not the greatest design for a tool cabinet, but most of my hand tools live on a 9' long tool rack above my bench so it works nicely.
The case and door frames are solid cherry cut from one 14" wide board. The shelf is joined with tapered sliding dovetails which were tight enough I chose not to glue them. The door panels and door fronts are obviously curly maple. The drawer is constructed with hand cut dovetails and I shaped a pull by hand onto the front.
The doors are recessed in a rebate in the front of the case. The reason for this is to hide the thickness of the case sides. The back panel is baltic birch plywood I veneered with cherry on the face, and poplar on the back. The back panle is also recessed in a deeper rebate so the french cleat is contained and the case sits flush on the wall.
For the doors i used Bruso 5/8" offset knife hinges, and the finish is just a few very thin coats of minwax antique oil wiped on with a cheap rag.
The joinery I used for the case miters is pretty interesting, and not very common. Before cutting the miters I cut 3 mortises into the end of each board for the case parallel to the face. The miters are basically then joined with an L shaped or dogleg tenon.
I had based this joint on a sample I saw that used dovetails or box joints to join 2 pieces of wood to form the tenon. Upon a suggestion from an instructor I decided to mill the tenon by laminating small squares of baltic birch plywood to a thickness of about a foot or so, and then milled a solid tenon on the table saw, and cut it down it down into the 12 individual tenon's plus a few extras.
The case was glued up with a slow setting epoxy.
I apoligize for the one picture that is formated sideways, I Rotated it in my editor but somehow it didn't save that way.
Design wise my original intent was to build a krenov inspired cabinet on a stand to hold liquor. But somehow during the project I lost interest and motivation, and after seeing one of my planes sitting on the shelf I suddenly got an inspiration to convert it to a tool cabinet. Its a bit small, and not the greatest design for a tool cabinet, but most of my hand tools live on a 9' long tool rack above my bench so it works nicely.
The case and door frames are solid cherry cut from one 14" wide board. The shelf is joined with tapered sliding dovetails which were tight enough I chose not to glue them. The door panels and door fronts are obviously curly maple. The drawer is constructed with hand cut dovetails and I shaped a pull by hand onto the front.
The doors are recessed in a rebate in the front of the case. The reason for this is to hide the thickness of the case sides. The back panel is baltic birch plywood I veneered with cherry on the face, and poplar on the back. The back panle is also recessed in a deeper rebate so the french cleat is contained and the case sits flush on the wall.
For the doors i used Bruso 5/8" offset knife hinges, and the finish is just a few very thin coats of minwax antique oil wiped on with a cheap rag.
The joinery I used for the case miters is pretty interesting, and not very common. Before cutting the miters I cut 3 mortises into the end of each board for the case parallel to the face. The miters are basically then joined with an L shaped or dogleg tenon.
I had based this joint on a sample I saw that used dovetails or box joints to join 2 pieces of wood to form the tenon. Upon a suggestion from an instructor I decided to mill the tenon by laminating small squares of baltic birch plywood to a thickness of about a foot or so, and then milled a solid tenon on the table saw, and cut it down it down into the 12 individual tenon's plus a few extras.
The case was glued up with a slow setting epoxy.
I apoligize for the one picture that is formated sideways, I Rotated it in my editor but somehow it didn't save that way.