The Bastard Wall Cabinet for tools!

The Wood Whisperer Guild Winter Build is upon us, and for those of you new to the site, Ill be participating as loudly as I can. Rather than go Marcs suggested route of a fancy, nice piece of furniture to hang in the house and proudly display, Im opting to make a utilitarian, sheet good tool cabinet. Call it my Bastard Wall Cabinet.
When a wall cabinet was first suggested as the next Guild build I knew I would turn mine into a tool cabinet. Yet, it wasnt until this passed weekend that I gave it any serious thought (and truth be told, I wouldnt even have thought about it yet, had it not been for Adam Kings egging me on to share it). As I suspect that Im not the only woodworker in need of a tool cabinet I invite all my fellow Guildites to bastardize their cabinets too. Ill share mine as frequently as I can, but let this serve as a warning: Im not Marc & Im not trying to co-opt his build. If youre turning your Guild cabinet into a tool cabinet, its best you follow along with him and modify the Guild design as necessary to suit your particular needs (Im guessing Im the only one who need the final cabinet to be exactly 17 3/4" deep).

The original bastard.

My DesignThe first design parameter I have to meet is the size of my current sliding storage cabinet. As the tool cabinet will hang on the wall immediately next to the sliding storage cabinet and I plan to build more cabinets to hang next to the tool cabinet, I want the tool cabinet to match the height (27-3/4") and depth (17-3/4" + French cleat) of the existing slide out cabinet. Since the cabinets will hang immediately against one another, Im also forced to design doors which will open and swing without requiring any side clearance.
Understanding those parameters, I watched Marcs previous Guild video on the design of his tool cabinet. I was intrigued with the idea of storing the planes on their side. I went as far as to create a SketchUp using that storage method late Sunday night. As you can see, storing the planes on their side would be great if I could make the cabinet shallower than 17-3/4", but in my case it left a plenum of dead space behind. My first thought was to make the front portion of the cabinet pull out to reveal the plenum. After a good nights sleep and lots of consideration (and a helpful email exchange with Marc) I decided to scrap my first design. Making it pull out would not only be overly complicated, the clearance required for the slides and exterior frame would dramatically reduce the size and utility of the plenum they would be revealing.

The right side of the new bastard.

My next source of ideas was an article entitled "Tool-Cabinet Design" by Chris Becksvoort from the 2001 edition of Fine Woodworking Tools & Shops (its a members only article). In the article Becksvoort arranges his planes vertically on an inclined shelf that hinges up to reveal storage space behind it. I thought this would be a better and easier choice to use my 17-3/4" depth and developed my second design.
One element that has stayed the same are the doors, with 3" deep recesses behind them. After seeing The Village Carpenters shop, I plan to copy Kari and make removable racks for my chisels which will fit in the 3" deep recesses.
Thats about as far as Ive come with the design so far. Ill keep the blog updated as it evolves.
Whos inspired your tool cabinet design?

The left side of the bastard.

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Boxing in the Bastard Tool Cabinet

Those of you following along have now realized that I havent posted about the Bastard Tool Cabinet for a few weeks. Lately Ive been busy attending the Woodworking Shows in NJ and preparing for the Northeast Woodworkers Showcase in Saratoga (more on that in some upcoming posts). Ive also had tons of work to do at my day job, which has frequently become my night and weekend job too.

So many woodworking shows. So little time.

Through most of the Bastard Cabinet build the posts have been about a week behind my actual progress. As its been a few weeks since I worked on the cabinet, this week the post will catch up. Hopefully the cabinet build will jump ahead again soon.

Dominoing the top.

The most recent work Ive done on the Cabinet was to install the top and sides. As with all of the other joinery on the Cabinet, the top and sides are attached with many, many dominos. For both I referenced the Domino off its base rather than its fence. This let me rest the carcass and Domino on the bench, eliminating the wiggle that occurred when trying to balance the Domino fence on the 3/4 edge of the Carcass back. When I was Dominoing the top and sides, I clamped a fence to their edge to provide a reference and then rested the face of the Domino on the face of the top & sides. Lining the Domino mortises up was as easy as using the pins in the face of the Domino to reference each of the previous. As long as I remembered to begin on the same edge (which I did, thankfully) all the mortises line up with each other.

Thats 23 Dominos holding on the right side.

Once the parts were Dominoed it was just a matter of clamping them. I glued up the top first, then the sides. For both I used my clamping squares to ensure a square glue up.

Lots of clamps and clamping squares for good measure.

A word of warning, as is preached by almost all woodworkers, do a trial glue up first. While gluing on the right side, I had to move the carcass with the side and clamps attached from my bench to saw horses. Not having moved the carcass with side and clamps attached before, I was surprised by how heavy and awkward it was to hold. In the process of moving it, I found that the plane shelf hinged out and hit me in the face/head too many times. Once I had it positioned on the saw horses, I took a screw to the plane shelf and temporarily attached it to one of the shelves beneath it so I wouldnt get hit anymore.

Did you finish youre Wood Whisperer Guild Wall Cabinet Build yet, or are you as far behind as I am?Other Bastard Wall Cabinet PostsWinter Wall Cabinet WonderlandThe Bastard Wall Cabinet (for tools!)Trudging Towards Tool StorageCutting the Cabinet Carcass (in relative terms)A Home For My PlanesContinued Wall Cabinet AssemblyWhats a Bastard Wall Cabinet without Shelves?

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Whats A Bastard Wall Cabinet Without More Shelves

The plane shelf Ive built into the Bastard Tool Cabinet is designed to fit my bench planes. Since Ive already got a few specialty planes (shoulder and router) and Im sure that I will acquire more, I made the plane shelf lift on a hinge. In the triangle shaped plenum behind the plane shelf Ive mounted two standard, horizontally installed shelves.

The Shelf Pieces Test Fit.

In order to install the shelves behind the plan shelf, I began by resting the semi-assembled cabinet on its back. I then took two cutoffs of 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood I had left over from cutting the carcass components and slid them under the plane shelf. I positioned each one as high as I could, given the clearance behind the plane shelf, and took a look. As my dumb luck would have it, the cutoff pieces ended up being just the right width. I made a pencil mark under the edge of each shelf and pulled them out.

Squaring the fence for the Domino.

Next I flipped the plane shelf out of the choice and using my Woodpecker 12" try square, I extended the shelf marks perpendicular to the carcass side. I cut the shelves to length and began Dominoing.
In order to reference the Dominos in the back of the carcass, I clamped in a temporary fence along the bottom edge of the shelf positions. I referenced the bottom of the Domino machine against this fence and used the retracting pins in the face of the machine to determine the Domino frequency.

Dominoing the shelf ends.
The notes will hopefully prevent
me from screwing the matching
Dominoes in the carcass side.

In order to Domino the shelves, I clamped them flat to a piece of OSB and referenced the back of the Domino machine against the OSB sheet. Even though I havent begun to Domino the side pieces (or the top, back or bottom of the carcass for the side pieces) I decided that Dominoing the ends of the shelves to attach them to the side piece would be too difficult after they were installed. In order to pre-Domino the shelf ends I again clamped the shelves to a piece of OSB which I referenced off of. In order to account for the fact that when I Domino the side it will be referenced from the back of the cabinet I used a 3/4" Baltic Birch spacer to set the location of the first Domino in the drawer ends.

Clamping the shelf.

When the Dominoing was finally complete I glued in the shelves one at a time. I squared the shelf using my Woodpecker Clamping Squares and because the shelves only run the 16" width of the plan shelf, rather than the full with of the cabinet carcass, I used a rather oversized piece of TimberStrand as a caul so that I could ensure clamping pressure at the inside edge of the shelves.

Arent Dominoes pretty?

With the two shelves installed behind the plane shelf, my planned interior organization is done (Ill figure out the rest after the fact). Now its on to finish assembling the carcass.
Do you remember to install hard to reach interior components when you should, or do you fight them into a finished carcass?
Other Bastard Wall Cabinet Posts
Winter Wall Cabinet Wonderland
The Bastard Wall Cabinet (for tools!)
Trudging Towards Tool Storage
Cutting the Cabinet Carcass (in relative terms)
A Home For My Planes
Continued Wall Cabinet Assembly

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