Tool Cabinet

Ok so here’s one from the archives. This is my first and so far my only tool cabinet. It is still in use today and until I decide that I have enough time to warrant building another one this will probably be my last tool cabinet. I also now keep most of my hand tools on the wall behind my bench so that I don’t have to keep opening and closing the doors every time I want something. With this system I can see when something is missing and put it back right away. Anyway, I built the cabinet after getting a copy of the Toolbox book by Jim Tolpin from our local library. Since I was a beginner I chose to use pine and birch plywood as the bulk of the cabinet and use a little of the air-dried cherry and air-dried walnut that I had received from a buddy. He was not into woodworking but had a farm with some stickered wood located under an old shed at the edge of his woods. He estimated it at being about 20 years old.
Since this was my first big piece I decided to make it in a shaker style with the simple frame and panel doors and the graduated drawers. The doors are cherry frames with 1/4” birch ply panels, and the drawers are walnut with pine backs and 1/4” birch ply bottoms. I used a half-lap joing that I cut on the table saw to join the door frames and the drawers are hand cut dovetails. The pulls are generic hardware store pulls that were stained to somewhat resemble the walnut. The plane shelf is fixed and angled about 15 degrees. The three other shelves are adjustable. It is ultimately more utilitarian than stylish but I had a blast building it because I love woodworking. This picture was taken in 2001 but I built the cabinet in 1998/99. I just didn’t have a digital camera until after I got married (wedding gift).

-- Joe, Indiana, http://www.crookedshack.com