Ive been MIA for a while........

[Krynn72]

Coming along well coffee! Do you plan to paint them? And are you building these for specific items or just general extra storage ?

 

[coffee]

Coming along well coffee! Do you plan to paint them? And are you building these for specific items or just general extra storage ?

Well, I am building for general storage in the workshop. My workshop is in the basement of my house and its a total disaster right now. I just built this work bench from Harbor freight to replace a big ugly executive desk I was using from Steelcase. It was old and kinda rusty.

Havent thought about painting them. I did think maybe a varnish over them or something like that. But for the time right now I am going to leave them as they are. In the spring I will make doors for them and plan on having some tool holders on the inside of the doors. I want to also make some add on shelfs to put my computer and home theater reciever to get them off the workbench.

 

[coffee]

Update to new workshop :

Ok, Last night I finished cleaning up the garage, Removing the ugly desk I was using in the shop, moving everything out of the shop area of my basement. Today after a service call at 11:00am I will begin mounting the new cabinets on the wall! Im pretty excited. I went to bed last night rather early and remembered I have some paperwork I have to print off for the service call. So..... I got up at 3:30am and started assembling the new workbench. Ugh! Then I just got my printer/ computer /monitor on it and hooked it all up so I can print out my paperwork. Too bad I didnt think of that before I tore everything down lol.

I think hanging the cabinets will not be that difficult (famous last words). Should go rather smoothly. Whats interesting is that I might have built too many cabinets for the wall space I have. I have this big 52x90 projector screen I built to watch movies and its kinda in the way. So... I am entertaining mounting the screen behind my desk / chair and painting it green. Like a green screen. Then use openbroadcaster and I can change the background to whatever I want and do some live broadcasts - Ha ha ha.. I think that would be pretty funny.

Ok, No pictures on this post as I am too embarassed to show off the big mess I have going on. Let me get the cabinets up and clean up. Then I will post some. Hopefully tonite.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. This really has been a labor of love for the shop. Lots of hard work that I hope pays off!

coffee

 

[Altster]

coffee,

Here is a video that talks about "a French Cleat System" for hanging tools. You could use it for your cabinets too. Would make it a lot easier to do this by yourself.

I follow this young lady on youtube because she has built some mighty neat items in the past.

Put a cleat at the top of the rear of the cabinet and a standoff at the bottom and attach 'em that way. If you left 'em loose you could always re-arrange in the future.

 

[Krynn72]

He's mentioned that that's what he plans to do. French cleats are a cool invention that I never knew about until I started watching woodworking videos on YouTube.

 

[coffee]

Concerning my original idea of french cleats, I do not have the panel boards needed for the backer board. My walls are also 2x4 studs with insulation between them. I could just run 1x3 wood strips for the cleats and then do the same on the back of the cabinets. However, I do not have any more 3/4 inch plywood left to make these strips. Have to do a bit more thinking on that. What I do have is some pine 1x3 strips about 8 foot long. I am thinking I will use a top one and then one along the bottom - on the wall. Then on the back of each cabinet I will fasten 1x3 strips measured to the width of each cabinet. Then the cabinets would rest on these against the wall and I would use cabinet screws to fasten them to the studs. The weight will be supported by the 1x3 strips on the wall which I will have 2 of them. One for the top of the cabinet and one for the bottom. Then, I will have a 2x4 to support the bottom of the cabinets. The only difference between the french cleat idea and this is that there is no 45 degree cut and the cabinets are screwed in place.

I really do not feel all that confident of my table saw or saber saw to make 45 degree cuts. I will think on this though as I do like the idea that you can easily move the cabinets around.

I will be starting this very soon today and will start posting pics as the work progresses.

I really hope that this inspires others to update their shops. I think this should rank very near the top of what to do when starting a home based business. It really becomes a major issue when you have no good storage options and it gets out of control as it has for me.

 

[coffee]

I have finished my cabinets!!

I worked until shortly after 11:00PM last night to get them hung on the wall. I ran into some issues where the stud work was not even and I had to install some cleats to to get the depths correct. I was out cutting wood late last night. I bet I annoyed my neighbors a bit but its not like every night I am doing this

Here is how I mounted them to the wall:

I used 1x3 wood strips and then put the same wood strips on the back of the cabinets. This way the weight of the cabinets rides on these strips. In the future I can see using 2x4 instead as it will give better adjustment for uneven studs. I did go a bit overboard on the amount of wood screws used to secure the cabinets to the wall. But, They will never fall down

Below is the completed project. The height and width is perfect. I can reach everything easily.

Now I have to look into building perhaps a small table for the printer / computer / HTR that are on the desk. What is nice is that the space between the full cabinets is the length of my new workbench - 60 inches. So, It will slide in just nice and then I have a new 32 inch monitor that I will install with a wall bracket to get it off the bench. So, I will just have keyboard and mouse on the desk.

I think one question to ask is - "Would it not have been better to just buy some used cabinets?". I will answer that now, No it would not. At least not for me. These cabinets are much stronger and nicer looking than anything I could have picked up at used stores. I figure my cost per cabinet is around 30.00 . You cannot beat that. Also, The sense of pride every time I look at them a lone is worth the work. I think I will add a few more cabinets at a later date on the right side. Probably two more or just shelving. I have not made up my mind yet.

So, Anyone looking to expand their storage this is probably the best way. The only major tools I used where a Saber Saw, Table saw, A couple of screw guns.

Now after I clean up and get things put away in the shop I can be proud of my workshop and also be able to find things easily which will improve my work flow quite a bit

There you have it! Any questions or comments are welcome

coffee

 

[Mike McCall]

Very cool! Great job!

 

[Krynn72]

So it's been about a week, how are you liking them? Any ideas for further projects yet?

 

[coffee]

So it's been about a week, how are you liking them? Any ideas for further projects yet?

Hello Krynn72,

Yes, I love these cabinets! I have started to slowly fill them with my equipment and supplies. But I have started to get busy again and have about 4 laptops in the shop and some remote service calls building up. Every day I seem to take a minute and just look at them in amazement really.

My next little project is building a small printer table with some of the left over wood. This will get the printer, computer and HTR off the work bench and free up more room to put things like my microscope. I have to hurry as the weather is starting to get colder here and cannot do any more projects really in the winter.

I have this projector screen I built that I am interested in re purposing. Its pretty large - 90x52 . I was at one time making a home theater center in the basement years ago. But that has changed. So, I am going to paint it green and use it as a green screen and probably start doing some live shows on the internet. Not sure of subject matter yet but its a good winter idea. I might do it on Linux to help further the cause. I dont know.

This spring, The cabinets will get doors on the front and then on the inside of a few of the doors I will make tool holders.

Thanks for asking!