New shop cabinets.....finally!

[Dave Houseal]

Well, I finally got to build some base cabinets for my shop. About 5 yrs ago I made the upper cabinets, when I was in a different shop with the intention of making the bases shortly there after, but sometimes other things take precedence. Especially after moving to a new house 3 yrs ago.

I followed the Tom Clark style since I was looking to keep this simple and quick. Tom if you're out there, thanks for you're willingness to share what you've learned along the way to building out your fantastic shop.

I used 1/2" birch ply from the borg to keep costs down and that worked pretty well. I also after much debate used 1/2" ply for the drawer bottoms. I thought a lot about using 1/4", but my drawers measure 26 3/4 wide by 22 deep and I knew I'd be loading them up with heavy items. I'm glad I went with the 1/2" in hindsight. It didn't cost that much more and the drawers are rock solid. I can't say the 1/4" wouldn't have worked, but I'm happy and that's what's important right? :-)

[Jim Rimmer]

Really nice cabinets for your shop. They could go in the house.

[Michael W. Clark]

Very nice! Did you use 1/2" ply for the case as well? I like the upper cabinets too, what did you use for the door panels?

Mike

[Van Huskey]

Some very nice shop cabinets!

[Dave Houseal]

Very nice! Did you use 1/2" ply for the case as well? I like the upper cabinets too, what did you use for the door panels?

Mike

Yep...1/2" ply for the cases as well as the drawers. At one point I was starting to get concerned that they were a bit wobbly and I should have used 3/4", but once I tacked the hardboard backs and screwed down the top they are rock solid.

The upper cabinets are quite the interesting exercise in cost consciousness...lol. The door panels are hardboard. They're half inch particle board with all the joints dado'd and pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle so they lock together and the particle board doesn't sag or pull apart. Pine face frames and door frames.

[Tom Clark FL]

Nice looking cabinets Dave! It is always fun to see work from someone who has read my book and then followed through and built their cabinets.

I have been busy as I just moved my shop and home from Florida to New Mexico, and haven't been online much lately, so sorry for the delay…

Yes, all of my two dozen shop cabinets went with me. Many are approaching 25 years old, and are still as solid as the day they were first built.

I still would recommend the 3/4" sidewalls, but I really load my cabinets down, many with heavy machines on them. And yes, I still think 1/4" plywood drawer bottoms work fine, even on heavily loaded drawers. Never had a failure yet on over 100 drawers just in the shop - plus many more that have migrated into the house.

[Dave Houseal]

Thanks Tom!

That must have been one heck of a move. Hopefully with movers involved, because that is a big shop. Probably 2 or 3 times the size of mine. When I moved 3 yrs ago, we moved the house and then I didn't even move my shop for another 6 months. Both were chores, but with some good friends everything got situated in its new home.

I have some spare pieces of ply left laying around. Maybe I'll have to build a 1/4" ply bottom just to play. Part of the reason I did 1/2" ply for everything is that it really did simplify things a bit by only having to use 1 size of sheet stock. I also have very little left over stock since I was able to use the leftovers from the sheets I cut the bottoms from to make the majority of my sides, fronts and backs for the drawers.

I've thought about doing 3/4" for the main case next time, but mostly because I think the 3/4 would really strengthen the rails for the fronts and backs. The design really is quite strong even with the 1/2".