Building Shop Cabinets

[WoodWrangler]

My January weekends have been partially filled with building cabinets for the shop. They are nothing fancy ... plywood boxes, pocket hole construction, and rough-lumber fronts. This was my first time building cabinets of this sort and I found it to be VERY different than "fine" woodworking which I've aspired (perspired?) to do.

The cabinets are made of 3/4" ply, the drawers are also 3/4" ply (overkill, I know, but it's what I had). The tops are double-stack 3/4" ply with a laminate applied. The drawers are using 100lb drawer slides (el-cheapo's from Amazon, work great!). The drawer fronts are the outsides of very rough boards I had mix-matched around the shop. Next up will be the drawer pulls and doors, then I move on to wall cabinets.

All in all there are 8 cabinets in total.

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[JimD]

Looks good to me. Good practice for kitchen and bath cabinets. Upgrade the materials and you would be there.

For shop cabinets, I like to use a layer of 3/4 plywood or waferboard (cheaper and almost as strong) topped with a layer of 1/4 hardboard edged with hardwood for the counter top. Cost is lower and I tend to mess up my countertops (it is a shop after all) so the ability to inexpensively replace the top surface is attractive. My messes are more on the workbench than the counters, however. Laminate is durable and more attractive.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Very nice cabinets Jeremy. They look really sturdy and should hold a ton of [STRIKE]toys[/STRIKE] tools. I've got several cabinet/drawer units in my shop I'd like to eventually upgrade like yours.

 

[bwat]

Be sure to allow cabinet space for your new Festools. Their new diy drawers fit really well.

 

[WoodWrangler]

Be sure to allow cabinet space for your new Festools. Their new diy drawers fit really well.

Those new slides look nice ... but I've already built cabinets for mine and are working pretty nice. The Festool's live on the other side of the shop in some cabinets themselves ... I'll get a picture of that uploaded (expect to be underwhelmed, they are still a WIP)

 

[Endless Pursuit]

Been doing a lot of the same thing myself. You did a lot of work in 1 month of weekends.

 

[WoodWrangler]

A few progress pictures ... slowly but surely getting there!

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[JimD]

Very neat and orderly.

 

[NCJim]

Nice job

 

[toolman]

Great looking cabinets...

 

[bwat]

Very bright and neat, great job. Plenty of cabinet vacancies for growth too! I like the rough lumber drawer fronts! Making your pulls too?

 

[WoodWrangler]

I like the rough lumber drawer fronts! Making your pulls too?

I'm either going to make the pulls of wood, or buy some very rustic ones (founds these railroad-nail ones on Etsy that are very cool)