Tool Gabinet

The tool storage you need for the type of woodworking you do is a personal thing.

- Erich Lage

It takes time to figure out what warms your soul and makes you want to spend time in the shop. That's when you'll know you've arrived in your woodworking journey and want to graduate from the mishmash of cabinets that house your tools (old kitchen cabinets can only be modified so far).

OPTIONS. This is a two-part cherry cabinet that sports frame and panel joinery for the doors which enclose storage spaces that will meet all your needs. As you see in the photos here there is an array of drawers and trays that allow you to choreograph not only the storage of fine tools, but the ability to take them on the road to the workbench, or project at hand.

start with a Solid Base

The base of the tool cabinet provides storage for the larger tools in your arsenal. As you see in the Figure 1 above there's a large opening where an adjustable shelf will reside behind a set of doors you'll make in a little while.

The cavity above that space will hold the tool cabinet's largest drawer. The building process starts at the table saw.

The bones of the base cabinet are all plywood parts. After you've wrestled the big sheets into the more manageable sizes of the sides and dividers, it's time to change out the blade for a dado set.

DADOES. The sides of the base have three dadoes. The lowest dado (detail 'a') holds the divider that is the bottom of base. The upper two that you see above in the Side View are next in line. The one in the middle is for the divider that's the bottom of the drawer cavity. The upper dado is for the mounting cleats you'll use to attach the top.

There are a couple of dadoes left to do in the upper divider for the drawer dividers - detail 'b' shows their location. Also, drill the holes for the shelf pins, they're shown in the Side View.