Cabinets for my garage

[Chris Harry]

I need some better garage organization than I have now (steel utility shelves, everything gets piled up, dusty, dirty, etc).

I know store-bought stuff is probably more convenient and better value but I want to learn cabinet building so Ill use garage stuff to start with ("oops" cabinets are OK out in the garage )

So far one of the questions I have is how I can build a cabinet with movable shelves. My worry is that, without a stationary shelf in the area of the vertical center, the carcass wont be strong enough. I know a back on the cabinet will help strengthen it, but I wasnt sure how the front would work with just a face frame around the outer edge.

I wanted an "open" (i.e. no shelves at all) cabinet so I could add things like slideout drawers to store tools on, etc. I also wanted a few cabinets to allow for different height items based on whatever I put in there, so I wanted shelves that can be moved/removed instead of stationary.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks.

-Chris

[Jerome Hanby]

If you will have access to both sides of the cabinet and you don't mind the look, you could drill shelf "pin" holes all the way through the sides, counter sink the holes on the outside of the cabinet, and drill each hole in the edge of the actual shelf to take a threaded insert. When you position the shelf, you would be forming a butt joint held in place with machine screws. Not as strong as a permanent shelf that's dado'ed into place, but better than a floating shelf sitting on pins. Even if you didn't have free access to the sides, you could mount them on a French cleat and just take them down to reposition the shelves.

I guess if you were really ambitious you could make a bunch of sliding dovetail slots in the sides at regular intervals and cut the shelves to slide in them. That sounds too much like work to me .

[Angie Orfanedes]

Our kitchen cabinets were made by a cabinet shop, and they have adjustable shelves in both the base and the wall mounted cabinets. The face frames are 2 x3/4 solid poplar, and the backs are 1/4 inch plywood. But we never readjust the shelves. So if you can figure out where the shelves should be, fixed shelves held in dadoes would make the cabinet much stronger.

I do remember building our kitchen cabinets for an old house we bought years ago. One of the wall hung cabinets for the china was about 4 ft long. I made the shelves out of pine boards with no center support. One night when friends were over, the shelves started sagging so much, the china came spilling out of the cabinet. So, you are right to be concerned about strength, especially for the wall cabinets.

[Ed Hazel]

I built my garage cabinets with 3/4 bc ply I uses the 3/4 for the sides and the back used a rabbit on the top and sides dado in the bottom they are plenty strong enough. I used Poplar for the face frames and for the sty/rails for the doors for the center panels in the door I used bead board ply.

For shelf supports I just used some 3/4 x 1.5 x ? blocks that I screwed to the sides and back of the box.

I have some heavy stuff in mine and no problems.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Personally, I'd start with OSB for the garage. It is cheap,it holds up very well, and can be painted. MDF works well, too.

Just

[Chris Harry]

OSB might be a thought. Murder on blades though, I can always pick up a cheap TS blade I guess.

Really like to avoid MDF in such a humid area, even if sealed I still dont trust it.

[glenn bradley]

My first project was a rolling work table. I took advantage of needing "everything" to practice my skills. I tried a different method on each fixture. This maximized my experience and got me the workbench, tables, stands and cabinets I needed. Mine are just A/C ply and MDF to start, then 3/4" BB ply as I got better. There are still some MDF cabinets that I built when you couldn't get BB ply there for awhile. Once the MDF is sealed, it holds up great out in SoCal. I've got MDF cabinets I have been working for years that look and function fine.