Let's Build Something Together
I need a cabinet for my shop to store solvents and finishes up high away from toddler fingers since my daughter frequently "works" in the shop with me. Since I have a hand tool only shop, these are really the only dangerous items that need to be kept from her grasp (well sharp tools as well but those are already out of her reach). As I decided what I wanted to build, I thought that this would be a good project to document and post. I know I like to read build threads and from what I've read there is similar interest by others here. It's also a good project for beginners to the craft, or seasoned veterans looking to work on more hand tool skills. Heck, you can even use power tools if you like :D !
Firstly, the cabinet can be built with very little lumber. I'm using mostly leftover pieces of Eastern white pine from other projects but you could get all the required boards for this project from the local home center for about $25. Second, I'm going to be doing this using a lot of traditional woodworking joints; case dovetails, rabbets, dados, blind mortise and tenon, through wedged mortise and tenon, edge joining, and raised panel. Finally it can be made with relatively few tools and is not complicated to build using only hand tools. If you don't have any means of making molding, you can buy premade moldings from the home center since they come in unfinished pine.
The cabinet this is based on is one built by Mike Dunbar in an old issue of Fine Woodworking (Sept/Oct 2001). The main difference is that I'm making this to hang on the wall and his was a free standing design. I also changed the dimensions slightly since it will be hanging on the wall and to better use the lumber I already have. I'll start the documentation of the build in the next post and update as I get a chance to work on the piece. Hope you enjoy!
Thanks, and please continue...
Robert -
I recently wrote an email to a well respected craftsman\author pleading with him to write a book about the apprenticeship system. Partly to capture the history and stories, and partly to help me understand how all the pieces (methods) fit together. We have book chapters, videos, and magazine articles that rehash (and rehash, and rehash) every method for accomplishing every woodworking task.
What is sorely missing is a guiding hand of a master; starting with the basics and moving toward the complex. I'll never have the means to attend North Bennett, spend months at Marc Adams, the College of the Redwoods, or take David Charlesworth's "long course."
Your effort is very much needed, and very appreciated...
Kind regards,
jbd in Denver