Tool cabinet

Eventually I will have to do kitchen cabinets. Thought I’d practice on a tool cabinet. The wood is cheap white wood from Home Depot stained with natural oil stain and cherry stain. Top coat is water-based polyurethane. Rails and stiles have pegged mortise and tenon joints. Panels and case sides are put together with tongue and groove joints and glue.

Doors are inset with butt hinges, which created more details when I included drawers inside the cabinet that had to clear the hinges. Case sides and drawers have hand-cut dovetails. The face frame has a quirk bead profile which had to be mitered to make it look ok. Door panels have raised ogee profiles.

Dividers and shelves are inserted from the back in stopped dadoes. I double beaded the front edges.

Another difficulty was fastening it to the wall. Two studs 8" apart were near the top; but no studs could be detected near the bottom. (It’s an old pantry area in a 1950’s home, so who knows what the heck has been done with the walls.) The first screws hit something inside the wall and wouldn’t go in all the way. I had to use thick lag bolts that were shorter. Whew!

The tools are a lot happier now. Grandpa’s heavily used Fulton 5272 smoother can bond with the new guys. Plus it is warmer and lighter than in the garage.