Let's see your clamshell wall cabinets !

[Lewis Cobb]

I've convinced myself that that I need a couple of big honking clamshell type tool cabinets in my shop. One to store all the drill bits and drill related items and another for all the hand tools etc. over a bench against one wall. I have seen some designs that are quite inspiring that had multiple levels where you open them like pages in a book, but have not been able to locate them easily with searches.

Can some of you that are using these style cabinets toss up a few pics of your creations? The "sketchup" phase will begin shortly :)

Thanks !

Lewis

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
Got the plans for this out of one of the WW'ing magazines ~ 18 months ago.
The plans called for the hinges to be on the inside - what can I say - I'm a sucker for nickle finishes so I put them on the outside. ;) I also used stainless steel pegboard instead of the cheaper plainer looking hardboard type.

I should add - I used B/C plywood since it was - a.) My first attempt at something serious. b.) It was orginally to be a prototype for others if it panned out.
Ends up it isn't at all practical. I'll probably relocate it to a different wall and put up something more uselfull. The two compartment design has a lot of pegboard surface, but the interior is too small for anything larger than screws and fasteners.

[Lewis Cobb]

Hello,
Got the plans for this out of one of the WW'ing magazines ~ 18 months ago.
The plans called for the hinges to be on the inside - what can I say - I'm a sucker for nickle finishes so I put them on the outside. ;) I also used stainless steel pegboard instead of the cheaper plainer looking hardboard type.

I should add - I used B/C plywood since it was - a.) My first attempt at something serious. b.) It was orginally to be a prototype for others if it panned out.
Ends up it isn't at all practical. I'll probably relocate it to a different wall and put up something more uselfull. The two compartment design has a lot of pegboard surface, but the interior is too small for anything larger than screws and fasteners.

Looks nice ! How did you finish the wood - looks like some sort of black stain. The stainless and black is a little to "Nascar" looking for my workshop, bit the concept is what I have been looking for. I'd like mine to mimic a normal cabinet with a rail/stile door on the front but when you open it up - presto - you have all these cool layers and walls of tools.

Thanks for sharing.
Lewis

[gary Zimmel]

Lewis

Here is a picture of saw till that I have.

84875


Inside could really be used for anything and will hold a ton of tools.
The size of it is 48" X 30" ans is about 8" deep.

84876

[Norman Pyles]

Very nice saw till, Gary.:cool:

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello Lewis,
I picked up some latex semi gloss at Lowes that was in their "bone pile".
I added some black to it to make it a dark - almost black - gray.
Then with another can of latex semi gloss, also from the Lowes "bone pile", I doctored it to a lighter shade of gray.
It's hard to see in the picture, but if you look close, you'll see the top and bottom ousides are a lighter gray.
The two colors match the light/dark gray Coleman uses on their pre-made shop cabinets. The stainless steel also mimics the stainless steel trim Coleman uses.

[Mike Heidrick]

Rich, can you take a better picture of how the right side hinges are layed out to allow the nesting of the two cabinets please. Very good work btw. Really like the colors. The pegboard is actually stainless steel or just colored thet way? I have never seen that before.

[Greg Hines, MD]

Here are some photos of my tool chest, including the clamshell doors. The carcass is made of some old 5/8" plywood, covered in perforated hardboard inside and out, along with adjustable shelves inside.

It hangs off a French cleat on the wall.

Doc


Edit: Wow, I had no idea that so many would want to download these photos. Here is the original thread, with bigger photos:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=76875

[Chris Holder]

Here are some pics of mine. It's a bit rough, but one of my first attempts at using various different species of wood. Now all I have to do is collect a lifetime worth of hand tools to fill it.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=61033&highlight=hanging+tool+chest

[Lori Kleinberg]

Very nice looking tool chest, Chris. I may have to steal the design.

[Keith Beck]

Here are some pics of mine. It's a bit rough, but one of my first attempts at using various different species of wood. Now all I have to do is collect a lifetime worth of hand tools to fill it.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=61033&highlight=hanging+tool+chest


Rough? Looks pretty darn sweet to me!

Keith

[Terry Achey]

Here are some pics of mine. It's a bit rough, but one of my first attempts at using various different species of wood. Now all I have to do is collect a lifetime worth of hand tools to fill it.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=61033&highlight=hanging+tool+chest
very nice, Chris! attractive and functional. ;)

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello Mike,
Thanks for the kind words & interest.
The local Lowes has stainless steel coated pegboard. It only runs a couple of buck more than the regular hardboard stuff. I still have about half a 4x8 sheet of it left that I plan to use as the surface on a downdraft sanding table.

Re: the colors. If you look close at the other thread I have from a few days ago, you can see the Coleman shop cabinet in the background.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=85334&d=1206874476

It's a two tone light/dark gray. I picked up a couple of cans of mistints from Lowes for a couple bucks each. One dark almot black and the other - I forget what it was - but by mixing them together, I was able to come pretty close to the two grays Coleman uses.

Here's some more shots showing how the doors are nested. The outer doors open 180* and the inner doors open 90*.
The plans were in the Oct.2006 issue of Wood Magazine. Since it was my first "real project", I followed the plans to the letter - except for the hinges & material list - they specified BB and I used B/C.
If I did it all over again, I'd adjust the sizes and make the whole thing larger and deeper. As it is, it's not wide enough to hit two studs with the mounting cleat on the back - IIRC it's 30 1/2" wide.
IMHO, it's too heavy to hang on just one stud. I had to put temporary 2x4 braces underneath to take up some of the load.

[Dustin Thompson]

Gary Z has a total handsaw fetish. And some impeccable storage.

Jealously,

Dustin

[Bill Arnold]

Here are a couple of photos of the cabinets I built.

[Stan Tilley]

Bill, that is just too nice. Great job!:D

[Arnt Rian]

I recently reorganized my work shop and I made this quick and dirty cabinet for some of my hand tools. I hung the cabinet over my bench (which is a typical traditional Scandinavian style bench; I'm in Norway). I make guitars and mandolins, but these tools are for more general woodworking and few of them get much use when I'm building instruments. I do use some of the planes for thicknessing, jointing and preparing some parts, so it is nice to have them nearby.

Anyways, first is a shot of the outside of the box. I took an old beat up book case, tore out the shelves, glued some plywood to the front and back of it, split a 2" section off it on the table saw, then split this section in half again and the halves became doors.

Most of the tools are hung from dowels and kerfed shelves. The longer planes are stored vertically, smoothers etc. on a steeply angled shelf, and the block planes on another shelf. Some chisels, measuring tools and files are stored on the doors. I want everything to be visible and easily within reach, and my goal is to keep the clutter out of the cabinet. We'll see how that goes; I have a feeling it will evolve over time as needs change and new tools arrive and old ones are retired.

Most of my chisels and instrument makers tools are stored elsewhere in the shop, as I prefer a higher bench for detail work. It is good to keep the tools near the place where you will most often be using them.

BTW, I just found this place (looking for general workshop info); this is my first post. Not that many Europeans here, I think?

[Jim Dunn]

Arnt welcome to SMC. Now closeup the cabinet and back away slowly---very slowly. Seems you have a gloat there and tried to hide it in a cabinet.

Real nice set of tools by the way.

[Paul Wunder]

Lewis,

I caught this Wall Mounted Tool Chest (0313) on the New Yankee Workshop a few weeks ago. Very nice, and plans and or a DVD are available.

http://www.newyankee.com/getproduct.php?0313

[Ray Newman]

"I've convinced myself that that I need a couple of big honking clamshell type tool cabinets in my shop."
--Lewis Cobb

"Big honking clamshell type tool cabinets" -- you want honking big??:D

See Fine Wood Working, "Tools and Shops Annual Issue", Winter 2006-2007, No. 188. Pages 40 - 45 describe construction of a really honkin' big tool cabinet: "Quick To make Tool cabinet." by Zan Zoltowski.

The box jointed cabinet holds 300 tools on only 'bout 12 sq. feet of wall. Constructed from 3/4” Baltic birch plyw’d, it measure 48” tall, 32” wide, and 13 1/4” deep. That is honkin' big!

[Ray Newman]

For a different variation on a wall mounted tool chest, see the latest issue of Woodsmith, vol. 32, #187. See below link for a cover picture:
www.augusthome.com/brands/woodsmith/ (http://www.augusthome.com/brands/woodsmith/)

Instead of opening doors, it has a Tambour door and five drawers. Overall dimensions: 301/2” W, 101/4” D, and 371/4” H.

[zayd alle]

Lewis,

I've admired this one ever since I first saw the article in FWW. It's the one Ray references above. It isn't all that complicated to build either.

The picture isn't that great from my phone, but you get the idea. I had to snap the picture at an angle to avoid the flash glare.

FYI, I found the article in the "Workshop Solutions" edition from Fine Woodworking, June 2008.

[Brian Tymchak]

Fine Wood Working[/I], "Tools and Shops Annual Issue", Winter 2006-2007, No. 188. Pages 40 - 45 describe construction of a really honkin' big tool cabinet: "Quick To make Tool cabinet." by Zan Zoltowski.

The box jointed cabinet holds 300 tools on only 'bout 12 sq. feet of wall. Constructed from 3/4” Baltic birch plyw’d, it measure 48” tall, 32” wide, and 13 1/4” deep. That is honkin' big!

I built 2 of those plus an open cabinet 8" deep to go between them (to allow the inside clamshell doors to open fully). Have lots of room to add new toys.. :D

Brian

[Ray Newman]

See Woodsmith, Vol. 15, M0. 91, Feb. 1994, pages 6 - 12, for another variant.

It is 36" H X 36" W x 17 1/2" D. Tools hang on the doors and on an inner folding out door. Hangs on the wall or rest on a base.

For more ideas:
http://www.woodsmith.com/plans/search?query=tool+cabinet&x=19&y=8

[Jamie Schmitz]

I really like the idea of using the 2 sided peg board doors that were on a previous post. 1 side of PB is really not that space saving.

[Brett Robson]

Looks like I'm late for the party (as usual) but here's my cabinet. It's not huge by any means but it does hold quite a few of my hand tools. I still have more to add, whenever I get around to it. :)

[Navin R. Johnson]

Nice cabinet Brett! Looks like H.O. Studley's cabinet!

I build this one a few years ago (shamelessly stolen from C.H.Becksvoort...I think he got his idea from a Shaker cabinet)

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w187/stickboy27/DSCN3092.jpg

[Ray Newman]

Found another design, inc. construction pictures and drawings.

http://lordnibbo.wordpress.com/category/building-a-tool-cabinet/

Looks like it is approx. 3' H and 5' W --closed. Definitely will hold a number of tools!