Tool Cabinet Build

[Joe A Faulkner]

I had some left over rough sawn 3/4" cedar (I think it is eastern white cedar) from some exterior trim done on the house a few years back. I decided to use it as the main lumber for a tool cabinet build. Progress on the cabinet is slow. My first attempt at hand cut dovetails. The cedar does not pare easily. The fibers are like brittle straws. I initially was chopping the dovetails, but then switched to the coping saw. Fit and finish is not great, but things improved as I moved from the carcass joints to the joints for the sides of the door frames. I had some spalted maple I salvaged from a down tree branch in the back yard a few years back that I decided to incorporate into the door panels. I still have a lot of work to go, but the project is starting to take shape. 34" tall, 32" wide, 15" deep. Photos of the door fronts don't do the spalted maple justice. I'll have to go for nicer pics once the project is finished. Primarily designed for planes, chisels, and a few back saws.

[Winton Applegate]

Joe,
Looks like a pleasing and useful project.
I like it.

[Richard Hutchings]

What a great looking combination of materials. Way too nice for a work shop.

[Mark Stutz]

My only concern would be that it's too small! Nicely done. I like to look at nice things in the shop!

[Stew Denton]

Joe,

The project is neat, and although I can see details it looks fairly nice from what I can see. It looks like it is coming along nicely.

The wood selection looks great together, and it is even neater that it is lumber you had left over from work on you house and the spalted maple from a tree limb from your back yard is way cool. I love it.

Your dovetail job is looking pretty good IMHO, especially for a first set. I hope to make a somewhat similar cabinet myself, but it will have to wait. I am still restoring planes and chisels, and getting them sharp. Then clean up a work area in my garage. Lots to do before I can get to the place of making one myself. I will get there though, Lord willing.

Thanks for posting the photos.

Stew

[Joe A Faulkner]

Thanks Stew. I know a bit about the effort and elapsed time to convert the garage to a workshop:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...shop-Make-Over.

Some say the shop is the one project that is never finished. I'm beginning to buy into that line.

[Mike Allen1010]

Joe, very nice-I LOVE the spalted panels! Cedar is a tough wood for hand tool joinery-brittle and not very forgiving. I'm sure you're next set of DT's will be a lot easier.

Thanks for sharing the picks. I look forward to seeing the final result.
Best, Mike

[Joe A Faulkner]

My daughter got engaged in May, and we agreed to host the wedding on our property, so most of my discretionary time over the summer was spent getting ready to host 240 wedding guests. In addition to sprucing up the yard, I needed to mow and trim to provide parking for 100 cars. As a result the tool cabinet build has been collecting dust, but this weekend I spent some time in the shop. I plan to store a few small backsaws in the cabinet which has lots of storage reserved for yet to be acquired molding planes. The shop floor mess goes to show that I actually did some handwork on this build. Most of the curlies were made planing the four dividers in second shelf.

[Frederick Skelly]

Nice cabinet Joe! Can't wait to see it with those lovely spalted maple doors attached.

Congratulations on your new son-in-law!

Fred

[ken hatch]

Joe,

Nice use of the spalted Maple, the center stile does a good job of breaking up the figure so it doesn't overpower.

BTW, when I first opened the thread I was surprised to see the post from Winton, then I noticed the date, shame I miss his posts.

ken

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Slowly and surely it keeps looking better and better!

[Mark Almeidus]

Realy nice work, and inspiring.

[Joe A Faulkner]

I still have some work to do on chisel racks and the rack for holding my dovetail and small tenon saws, but the cabinet has a finish on it, and is now up (French Cleat). I think I'll store a few braces and other tools as well - more storage tweaking to follow.

[David Eisenhauer]

Go Joe from the Kokomo. looking very good.

[Bruce Page]

I really like the care you took on the dividers. Very nice.