In Search of a good Shop Cabinet

[Curly Qsawn]

I知 looking for a perfect cabinet design as the basic element of my shop cabinets. It needs to be economical from a perspective of maximizing sheet goods, minimal setups for rabbet or dados, easily repeatable setups for tools (I知 thinking of maybe a story stick, or set of sticks, as a setup guide), adaptable to drawers, open shelves or doors, able to use castors for mobility, adaptable to sizing needs, adaptable to different materials (Ply, MDF, Melamine) and yes I壇 like it to look good from a proportion standpoint. My initial thinking is that pocket screws or biscuit joinery would be easier and quicker than tongue and groove, but strength and durability are certainly factors to consider. I was going through some back Shopnotes issues last night and there were certainly some good designs. Just searching around for that perfect compromise should anyone have a link to a plan that has worked well for them.

[RayintheUK]

It needs to be economical from a perspective of maximizing sheet goods,

So, a 4' wide unit will be your ideal width - but that's too wide for shelves that will have to take heavy tools, so reckon on a central divider. This has no impact on good sheet use, however, as each shelf will be just under 2 feet wide. Run adjustable shelf pin holes both sides of the central divider (before assembly!) and each side.

.. minimal setups for rabbet or dados,

If you inset the back into the base and sides, one dado width and depth does it all, including the rebates (rabbets).

easily repeatable setups for tools (I知 thinking of maybe a story stick, or set of sticks, as a setup guide),

The only "variable" is getting the ideal cabinet height - it's useful to have them level with (or just a hair under) your saw table, so that you can use mobile units as outfeed/infeed support. Once this is decided, subtract the overall castor height and there's your base unit height.

adaptable to drawers,

just needs a dust frame at an appropriate height for two drawers with doors beneath, or sets of runners for a single stack of drawers and a cupboard, or even two sets of drawers.

open shelves or doors,

No problem - I use European hinges (no face frame) because it makes the cabinets easier to clean. Shelving is carried on adjustable pins, 1" on center spacing.

able to use castors for mobility,

Using 3/4" sheet goods, castors would be no problem either.

adaptable to sizing needs, adaptable to different materials (Ply, MDF, Melamine)

As long as you determine the height correctly, everything else is a multiple of/fraction of the standard unit.

and yes I壇 like it to look good from a proportion standpoint.

Beauty, someone once said, is in the eye of the beholder!

My initial thinking is that pocket screws or biscuit joinery would be easier and quicker than tongue and groove, but strength and durability are certainly factors to consider.

Workshop cabinets take a load of weight and abuse and their structure needs to be bomb-proof ("over-engineered," if you like). For this reason, I would always construct with housing joinery (dados) and only use biscuits or pocket-hole techniques to attach to the base unit, not to form the unit itself.
I've never used a plan, but I've taken some time over designing stuff, based on the sort of questions you posed here. Hope some of this rambling gives you food for thought.

Ray.

[jziegler]

You might want to look for the Danny Prolux book on building shop cabinets. I have a couple of his books (home office and workbenches) and his plans look very easy to follow and to modify as well. From having those books and various comments on his kitchen cabinet books, I think that the shop cabinets book should be close to what you want.

Jim

[DonHo]

Danny Prolux likes to use 5//8" melanine covered particleboard and just uses butt joints. He does use particleboard screws. He makes his drawers using butt joints also and sets the drawer box on the bottom and attaches it using particle board screws also. I have not used particleboard , but I use 3/4" HD "birch" plywood and use butt joints and pocket screws with glue in the joints. I have made quite a few shop cabinets this way and have not had a joint failure yet and I have my drill press, 12" bandsaw etc on the cabinets so they have stood up to a pretty good load. I use either the 3" or 4" locking swivel casters from Hartville tools, they are very good quality and at a good price. As Ray suggested, I also use the european hinges.

I don't disagree about dados or rabbets being a great way to build cabinets but I feel the pocket screws and glue are plenty strong and they are much faster to put together.

DonHo

[bigsteel15]

Danny Prolux likes to use 5//8" melanine covered particleboard and just uses butt joints. He does use particleboard screws. He makes his drawers using butt joints also and sets the drawer box on the bottom and attaches it using particle board screws also.

His Woodshop Workstations book is excellent IMHO. I adjusted his plan to fit for a cabinet under my existing portable workbench.
the drawers in this case were not PB, but 1/2" Baltic Birch, with dadoes and glue/brads and a false front of 3/4" BB.
I also plan to use his basic cabinet design for my Miter Saw station.
This is the book at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155...Fencoding=UTF8

[DonHo]

I have that book by Danny Prolux, I like the book a lot although I didn't actually use any of the plans. I took lots of his ideas and modified them to fit my needs. Actually I took the use of the pocket screws from his Pocket Screw Projects book. Kinda took a pinch of plans from the workstation book and a pinch of joinery from his pocket screw project book and cooked up my own shop cabinet stew
DonHo

BTW, I also use 1/2" birch plywood for drawers but I use pocket screws to join them also.
I like pocket screw joints before I got the Kreg Master kit, I love them now!!

[Curly Qsawn]

Thanks - I'll look for the Prolux book at the library. My original thought was to see if I could develop a dimension of a cabinet that maximized the sheet of ply then see if multiples of that dimension would work as infeed and outfeed carts. Essentially getting work surfaces on the same plane and only having minimal scraps left over. My real hurdle now is that a comfortable work height doesn't really work out with the dimensions of a 4x8.

[russd]

American Woodworker #87- June 2001 has shop cabinets made of MDF & butt joints, with cutting diagrams.

[JTimmons]

I have been using butt joints, glue (Titebond III) and pocket screws on my MDF shop cabinets also. I haven't seen the book mentioned above, but have had excellent results doing it this way. Just my 2 cents.