Opinions for tool cabinet woods

[Adam Cruea]

Soliciting opinions here for a tool cabinet.

I seem to have a small plane problem. Until I build a tool cabinet, SWMBO has put the kibosh on buying any more planes. :(

As some of you know, I built a bench out of hickory. Yay, right? Let's just say it's satisfied my desire to work with hickory on a large scale for a long, long time, so I'm looking for suggestions to build a tool cabinet to hold my planes, saws, rules, and other hand tools. I think I'd like to make it out of birch, beech, or maple, buuuuuuut. . .I'd like opinions on those who have worked with them for the stability, how they were finished, etc. I don't really want to use Borg pine because, well, I want experience working hardwoods.

I started to make this thing from hickory, but after planing a 5 foot long piece that was 2 inches wide, forget it. It's overly hard for a cabinet, stringy, and a pain in the lily white buttocks to work with. So, from the 3 previous selections, any suggestions? The cabinet will be going in a basement, so I'd like to keep it a light wood to keep the basement atmosphere light, but at the same time, I like to use any project as a learning experience on how to finish, etc, so *technically*, any wood is open to suggestion.

TIA, y'all.

[David Weaver]

I would make it out of poplar.

If not poplar, common cherry (as in not FAS)

And if not common cherry, soft maple.

What part of the country are you in? If you're working it by hand, none of the above should be too expensive unless you're in the PNW, west or southwest.

Beech is out unless it's quartersawn, and even then, you don't need something with that kind of hardness, it will just be very heavy on the wall. Anything traditionally jointed will be strong enough.

I have never made a legitimate "fancy" tool cabinet, though. Instead, I bought the plastic and metal racks at home depot (type depended on what goes on them). If my wife ever wants them enclosed, I'll literally staple off white curtain material to a piece of plywood that's the same dimensions as the rack surfaces and drape it from the top.

[Adam Cruea]

I'm in MD.

I had actually thought of cherry, but I was afraid of the pink tint it can have. Poplar crossed my mind, but I was unsure if that would be too soft for a large floor-standing cabinet and it might eventually start to sag.

*snerk* My wife would *not* be happy with something like that. Believe me, I've tried. lol

[Tony Wilkins]

I was thinking poplar when I read about the go with so much hickory. Do you need it all to be the same wood? I was thinking of suggesting soft maple for the carcass and any high stress shelves etc and white pine or poplar for any secondary woods or where ultimate strength isn't needed.

[Adam Cruea]

Nah, it doesn't need to be all the same. My stuff in my workshop is the "mad alchemist experiment" area. Everything there is where I learn how to finish, etc, so if it turns out looking like crap, there's no loss. Thus far, most of the things I've done are from hickory, and frankly, I'm sick and tired of it. It's stringy, overly hard, but extremely good for shock-resistant objects (benches/mallets).

[Bill Haumann]

Poplar takes paint very well and works very easily, it's a common secondary wood for drawers and such.
I agree with the posts above on beech, and haven't worked birch very much myself.
As to maple I would definitely suggest soft maple.
Personally, I would rabbet and nail a poplar cabinet together and move on to buying more planes to fill it, but a fillister plane would make quick work of the rabbets, and a dado plane for the shelves, and side rabbet planes to make them wider if need be . . . (oops, sorry!)

[Jim Stewart]

I vote for Poplar as well. It is fun to work. Reasonable cost. It can be beautiful as well. My nephew has a Poplar cabinet that is 1800's and it has a beautiful bronze hue to it.
I can relate to the Plane disease as well. Man that new #607 is really running sweet.

[Chris Griggs]

Poplar would be my choice unless you specifically want something for appearance, or something a little harder just because. In that case I'd go with what others said and use cherry or soft maple. But really, poplar is just so nice and easy to work I'd rather use that. I'm sure its plenty strong enough for a tool cabinet, and like others have said it paints nicely if you choose to go that route.


My stuff in my workshop is the "mad alchemist experiment" area. Everything there is where I learn how to finish, etc, so if it turns out looking like crap, there's no loss.

I believe you described my living room....ugly stained pine end table (my 1st project), big sorta ugly red oak coffee table (my 2nd ever project), and then several other nicer but in no way matching things...curly maple cabinet...painted pine bookshelf..etc... I've decided from here on out I just need to make everything that will be out and visible in the living area's out of cherry, so there is at least some aspect of the furniture coordinating.

[David Weaver]

If it's going to be a big freestanding cabinet that has to look relatively pretty, but is still shop furniture, I'd build it out of cherry and soft maple, just my opinion. Both of those woods are fairly easy to work as long as they're proper from the mill and take a nice surface finish.

If it didn't have to be that pretty, I'd go poplar, just because you should be able to find good 4/4 poplar for $1.50 a bd foot. Around here, the store price for cherry is $5 a bd foot for ho hum, but you can always find some for a couple of bucks on craigslist (though it sometimes is not in quantities that you want).

Anything that would cause sagging in poplar could be designed out or built out.

[Gordon Eyre]

Alder is a decent looking wood and is easy to work with. Either that or poplar would be my choice for a cabinet in my shop.

[Stew Hagerty]

Just my 2 cents... I like Butternut. It's relatively soft which makes it easy to work. It's also reasonably stable which is always a good thing. And it can be very beautiful when finished.

[Frank Drew]

Adam,

Of the three woods you mentioned, and depending on availability, I would go with birch for both appearance and workability. Sugar (hard) maple is very attractive but a bit harder to work. I am not a big fan of poplar except as a secondary wood or painted.

[Steve Voigt]

Adam,
Your wife has ordered you to build a tool cabinet!?! You're a lucky man…
Do you have any small sawmills in your area? If so, I suggest you take a drive, and see what's plentiful, cheap, and good-looking, before you settle on a species. I'm planning a tool cabinet build myself, and recently picked up some great-looking EWP, 11 1/2 wide by a full inch thick, for less than a buck a board foot. The only problem is that this material has not yet spontaneously formed itself into a tool cabinet, but is just lying passively on a shelf. Very disappointing.

-Steve

[Adam Cruea]

Well, looks like it'll probably be poplar, as I can get that (4/4) at 2.20/bf. Everything else is at least $4/bf, but at least with poplar, I can get a carcass made and then go from there.

Thanks for the suggestions, y'all!

[john davey]

Adam, I am in MD as well. Cherry up the road a bit in PA is dirt cheap. Check CL for adds. Like mentioned earlier it does not have to be FAS. I purchased a truckload of the stuff for around .75 a BF a few years back. About 75 minutes drive each way (I am in College Park). All boards were air dried on the guys land and were all 6' long and various widths from 3 to 9 inches. All slightly over 1 inch in thickness. I am still working on that pile and it stands nicely in the corner of my shop in the basement of the house. meaning I did not need a lot of space to store it....John

[Dave Parkis]

I built a wall cabinet from maple and I'd use it again in a heartbeat. I used maple because its actually less expensive around here than poplar.

[Derek Cohen]

I build my tool cabinets out of Pine, then edge in something hard, such as Jarrah. What about ply with edgings? It can look a million bucks and remain cheap as chips, take less time, and get you back to other things.

I guess it all depends on whether the shop furniture is as important as other. That is not a value statement - because many of us here just enjoy being in the shop without even building something to justify the tools, and I consider this fair. For myself, I like something for the shop that looks good, but I do not want to use much of the good stuff for it.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Adam Cruea]

I build my tool cabinets out of Pine, then edge in something hard, such as Jarrah. What about ply with edgings? It can look a million bucks and remain cheap as chips, take less time, and get you back to other things.

I guess it all depends on whether the shop furniture is as important as other. That is not a value statement - because many of us here just enjoy being in the shop without even building something to justify the tools, and I consider this fair. For myself, I like something for the shop that looks good, but I do not want to use much of the good stuff for it.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Regards from Perth

Derek

Eh, I don't necessarily mind pine and ply, but stuff in my shop is the learning experience. If it ends up looking like crap, as long as it's bomb-proof, I don't care. I think my workbench looks like a$$, but I learned *a lot* on it that transfers to making furniture, and it is bomb-proof (I can't even get it to scoot, and it takes a serious beating). This would be an exercise in hand-making cabinetry; I can do it with a router, table saw, and nailgun no problem. Making a cabinet by hand with nothing but hand tools using M&T/DT joints? Haven't done that yet.

Cost isn't *really* an issue, as was stated in another thread, my wife has to push me to spend money on myself. I would be lying if part of the desire not to use plywood/pine is from her telling me I should use something nice because I'm worth the effort and money. She wanted to push me to use Jatoba or the padauk I got a couple of weekends ago. I gently informed her those weren't "carcase" woods.

[Bob Jones]

I used cherry and walnut on mine and I think the two look great together. I've written about it some on my blog, if you are curious. I will say that planning the tool layout is much more important than wood species selection. :) good luck

[Bob Jones]

Sorry, last post was from my phone and did not work right. Some pics of my cabinet should show up this time. I did a few posts on the build here in this forum, if you want to search. Also, I wrote a little about it on my blog. Enjoy your build!

http://thechristiantoolcabinet.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/how-to-build-a-tool-cabinet/

[Richard Shaefer]

my cabinet was made from scraps of various other projects. link to my post of it is here:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?204242-got-tired-of-my-tools-rusting-in-the-humidity-built-a-wall-toolchest&highlight=

don't discount using plywood as the panel materail choice, and don't worry so much about saving money on the frame material. Frames from panel and frame type construction are surisingly efficient for materials usage. you can frame out even a large cabinet with one or two smartly used boards. There's nothing wrong with birch plywood infil panels (well, in my book that's the case)

[Stew Hagerty]

Alder is a decent looking wood and is easy to work with. Either that or poplar would be my choice for a cabinet in my shop.

I agree about the Alder. It's an under appreciated wood that have a lot of very good qualities. It is an extremely stable wood with a fine straight grain. It is soft enough to make working with hand tools a breeze, and yet is even textured enough to produce fine edges and transitions when routing and shaping. And, it can be very attractive.

I think I'll add Alder to Butternut as my possible choices for a tool cabinet.

[Curt Putnam]

If you do a nice job on your floor standing tool cabinet, it will be an heirloom or a real gloat in the future. For ease of working I'd look at poplar or alder (poor man's cherry.) Soft maple is relatively less expensive than other hardwoods (but more than poplar) around here. Cherry would make a gorgeous cab and is fairly easy to work. I have no experience with birch or beech. Hard maple is spendy, relatively harder to work but would make a bomb proof cab that would last many generations.

Enjoy. It will be a fun project and could/should learn enough from it to tackle living room grade fine furniture. BTW, take care of your wife - she's a keeper.

[Matthew Hills]

I agree about the Alder. It's an under appreciated wood that have a lot of very good qualities. It is an extremely stable wood with a fine straight grain. It is soft enough to make working with hand tools a breeze, and yet is even textured enough to produce fine edges and transitions when routing and shaping. And, it can be very attractive.

I think I'll add Alder to Butternut as my possible choices for a tool cabinet.

Alder was the first wood that came to my mind.
IMO, it is more attractive than poplar and works very well.
It does dent easily (but so does poplar and cherry will also dent)
I've bought it on west coast for a bit more than poplar, but less than maple or cherry.


Matt

[Stanley Covington]

You wrote that you want experience working hardwood (besides hickory). But while poplar is technically a hardwood, it is soft and closer to white pine in terms of workability.

Are you going to paint it? If so, color and grain are irrelevant.

Is it going to see heavy use in a high traffic area? If so hardness and durability are important, but if weight is an issue, most high density hardwoods are a problem.

And then there is the issue of cost. Cherry and black walnut are beautiful, but very expensive unless you can get it directly from a sawmill. If you don't intend to paint it, and are willing to put a good finish on it, cherry and walnut would be my first choice. If durability is important, a combination of quartersawn and riftsawn white oak is very difficult to beat and quite attractive if finished properly.

Maple is a great wood, but heavy and bugs love it. On the other hand, striped or highly figured maple is worth the trouble.

If stability and durability are the priority, find some Honduras mahogany. The most stable wood you will find.

Sassafras is a fun wood to work if you intend to paint. Alder is a good wood.

Stan

[Adam Cruea]

Stan:

Nope, won't get painted. I hate painting as I find paint too. . .bland. I was planning on finishing this with poly to seal the wood, have something to look at and admire, and I want to get one or two of the Goldenrods that LV sell to keep the humidity in this thing minimal.

I was trying to stay away from darker woods that way the basement didn't get heavy and dark. Might give me a good reason to run a couple of new lights, though.

I've worked QSWO, and I don't have many issues with it. Oddly, I don't find many issues with Jatoba, either. It's only been hickory thus far that makes me want to kill myself because it's just so hard to work and stringy.

I thought, for a minute, about using QSWO for it, but figured it would be too dark and heavy for the basement (heavy in a decorative sense).

[Chris Griggs]

Hickory is terrible stuff to work. Tough and stringy is the indeed the first word that comes to mind. The wood equivalent of eating broccoli rabe ( i don't know why restaurants insist on serving that stuff).

I think it was a little nuts of you to build an entire bench by hand out of it:)....then again from this point on everything else will feel like cake.

I agree QSWO is much nicer. Despite its hardness it works fairly easily with handtools.

[Stanley Covington]

Stan:

Nope, won't get painted. I hate painting as I find paint too. . .bland. I was planning on finishing this with poly to seal the wood, have something to look at and admire, and I want to get one or two of the Goldenrods that LV sell to keep the humidity in this thing minimal.

I was trying to stay away from darker woods that way the basement didn't get heavy and dark. Might give me a good reason to run a couple of new lights, though.

I've worked QSWO, and I don't have many issues with it. Oddly, I don't find many issues with Jatoba, either. It's only been hickory thus far that makes me want to kill myself because it's just so hard to work and stringy.

I thought, for a minute, about using QSWO for it, but figured it would be too dark and heavy for the basement (heavy in a decorative sense).

If you can get it, and have the patience to build a frame and panel cabinet, perhaps with some Green & Green details, QSWO frames with rift sawn white oak (lots of flecks) for the panels would make a beautiful, durable, heirloom-quality cabinet, especially if you use complimentary hardware. No need to finish it dark, or imitate ammonia fuming, just finish it with enough well-rubbed thinned clear satin poly to seal the wood without building a surface to wear and crack and peel over the years. It would be absolutely classic without appearing silly in a workshop setting.

Heaviness in appearance is more often than not a result of design decisions (or lack thereof). Frame and panel construction tends to appear lighter in weight than solid slabs, especially if the stiles and rails are kept relatively thin, and the width of panels are reduced, and their numbers increased, by adding more vertical interim stiles on sides and front doors.

Edge treatments/moldings on the rails and stiles will add more lines and breaks making the members appear even lighter. A challenge if you do all the work using just handplanes and not a shaper or router, but surely within your capabilities. Don't use a raised panel detail: it will look too much like a kitchen cabinet.

Two cents.

Stan

[Chris Hachet]

Stan:

Nope, won't get painted. I hate painting as I find paint too. . .bland. I was planning on finishing this with poly to seal the wood, have something to look at and admire, and I want to get one or two of the Goldenrods that LV sell to keep the humidity in this thing minimal.

I was trying to stay away from darker woods that way the basement didn't get heavy and dark. Might give me a good reason to run a couple of new lights, though.

I've worked QSWO, and I don't have many issues with it. Oddly, I don't find many issues with Jatoba, either. It's only been hickory thus far that makes me want to kill myself because it's just so hard to work and stringy.

I thought, for a minute, about using QSWO for it, but figured it would be too dark and heavy for the basement (heavy in a decorative sense).My thought would be to find some rift sawn, not quarter sawn, red oak and then finish it natural. Oak will take a lot of abuse, and with sharp tools isn't too much of a PITA to work with hand tools.

[Daniel Rode]

Even though I prefer pine, I typically use poplar for shop projects. Despite being soft, it's strong, easy to work and inexpensive. Around here, 4/4 rough poplar is less expensive than 3/4" clear pine at HD or Lowes. That means after I flatten the boards, I can get 3/4" - 7/8" ready to use. The pre-planed 3/4" clear pine is never flat, so I have to spend more, do the same amount of work and live with 1/2" 5/8".

The down side to poplar is the color and it's soft enough to scratch with a fingernail. I just made a small tool cabinet out of poplar and I'm going to try for a cherry look using dye + shellac sealer + stain. It takes stain blotchy (worse than pine, IMO).

I considered cherry but even at 2x the cost, I couldn't find any locally that looked nice.

BTW - I made my workbench legs out of hickory. Holy cow was that stuff hard and dense.

-Dan

[Adam Cruea]

Hickory is terrible stuff to work. Tough and stringy is the indeed the first word that comes to mind. The wood equivalent of eating broccoli rabe ( i don't know why restaurants insist on serving that stuff).

I think it was a little nuts of you to build an entire bench by hand out of it:)....then again from this point on everything else will feel like cake.

I agree QSWO is much nicer. Despite its hardness it works fairly easily with handtools.

I'm a "go big or go home" type. I have no regrets making my bench from hickory, other than all the XXL shirts my wife got me are now tight in the sleeves and shoulders. :D

I remember when I started working QSWO after planing down the stuff for my bench. . .I about threw the plane out of my hands.

I still have about 30bf of hickory left. I've make a couple of mallets out of it. They are *NICE* and they don't mar easily. I also made my shooting board out of that with jatoba runners.

Stan> Thanks for the detail and suggestions. I do have a router plane, and a plough plane. . .this could be an excuse for me to get a shaper. :-D I was just going to make some *thing* and slap it together, but now that you're poking my idea center in my head, I might actually try to make a nice cabinet.

What hardware would you suggest to go with the QSWO? Something dark or something light? I like the red oak idea Chris has, too. . .

[Stanley Covington]

Stan> Thanks for the detail and suggestions. I do have a router plane, and a plough plane. . .this could be an excuse for me to get a shaper. :-D I was just going to make some *thing* and slap it together, but now that you're poking my idea center in my head, I might actually try to make a nice cabinet.

What hardware would you suggest to go with the QSWO? Something dark or something light? I like the red oak idea Chris has, too. . .

I think the hardware selection would nee to match the design details. But for a working, manly, tool cabinet, I suspect something in simple black iron, whether light or heavy in shape, would be well suited. Simple and understated and not something found at the Borg would probably be best, IMO.

Stan

[Stanley Covington]

Stan> I like the red oak idea Chris has, too. . .

Adam:

Red oak is cheap and plentiful, but it has some serious failings when compared to white oak.

1. RO is humungously open-grained. Unless you fill the pores thoroughly and finish it with a protective finish creating a flush surface (very prone to damage and chipping and peeling and UV damage over the years) dirt will collect in the pores. This is why red oak antiques always have what appears to be black stain in the grain.

2. RO is very durable, but compared to WO, it tends to splinter and split and is not nearly as pleasant to work, in my experience. Now if you were building this for a customer, and they wanted cheap, or specified RO, then you would have no choice, but if you want to enjoy the experience, RO is not going to be as enjoyable as many other woods.

3. RO is not as stable as WO. Some will get upset at this, but the undeniable fact is that the radial and tangential expansion/contraction characteristics of RO are dismal. This means tolerance and clearance problems over times and seasons, and maybe even cracks. Warpage is a serious concern. With care, of course, these can be overcome, but silk purse/sows ear.

I shun RO. It is not worth the time invested. Honduras mahogany is exceptionally stable. QSWO is very good. Almost any wood you might consider for a cabinet like this is significantly better than red oak.

Stan

[gary Zimmel]

A little late to the party.. But my vote would be a shop full of cherry cabinets.