# Side of the Road Cabinets for Garage Woodshop



## JakeG (Jul 22, 2017)

Hello!

I found some free cabinets on the side of the road and I'd like to put them up on the walls in my garage (unfinished) for some enclosed storage. Right now I have open shelves. Lotta dust.


















I'd really like to put a top on the 4 base units and make a workbench along one wall of the garage, but I don't know if that is realistic. It might make more sense to build a workbench with cantilevered supports and sandwich the cabinets between them.

Anyway they got some rain and I found some mouse crap on one of them, but it isn't too bad.

The face frames and doors look good, but there is some delamination on some of the plywood. I was thinking about just doing a light sanding, then painting them white, and hanging them. I read that I should probably reapply glue to the rabbets and clamp them. I also read that regluing the delaminated plywood would be a good idea. Should I consider replacing the back panels? I don't really have any budget and I have limited time, so the less of either that I have to invest, the better.

They don't have to be beautiful, just stay on the wall, not turn into moldy mush, and hold tools.

Here are some close ups of the damage to the wall cabinets.


































Sorry the pictures are showing up sideways.

I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have!

Thanks,


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

Now ya know why they were on the roadside. 
Bill


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Use them! Kilz makes a decent enough primer, BTW….


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## JakeG (Jul 22, 2017)

That's probably where they belong, but the house was being completely gutted.

The house was built in 1900, but I imagine these are not the original cabinets.

I think they will probably be fine. They did a pretty good job of removing them without destroying them. I wish I'd gotten there before the rain, but I did not.


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## JakeG (Jul 22, 2017)

Thanks Bandit, I Kilz'ed my whole kitchen (shiplap) before we painted it. I will definitely be wearing my respirator .


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## JakeG (Jul 22, 2017)

I've mounted 1 wall cabinet and it's working great. Still need to paint the face frame and figure out the doors.










Before I install them, I've been trying to re glue the places where they have gotten wet. It's going pretty well although the rabbets don't fit into the dados very well anymore due to the old glue still being in there.










I was hoping to put a countertop on top of the cabinets. I was thinking 2'x4' 3/4" melamine over 3/4" sandeply from home depot. There are two problems with this as far as I can tell.

1. The top of the cabinets are not flat and square.
2. I'm worried about attaching the bottom cabinets to the studs of the garage.

I think that the garage floor is a slab on grade which means that it will move a lot with frost heave (I live in upstate New York). The base plate for the 2×4 studs of the garage are on a thicker concrete pour (maybe 6" above the slab) so I assume that this footing also extends deeper than the rest of the slab (possibly below the frost line). So the walls will not move at the same rate as the floor.

I would like to use the weight of the cabinets for a workbench, and I would like to attach that workbench to the wall. But I'm concerned that if I couple the lower cabinets to the wall and the garage floor sinks, that I will be putting too much strain on the studs. Am I overthinking this?

My current idea is to use diagonal bracing off of the studs to support the workbench and just fit the cabinets in between the supports, but I figured I would ask in case anyone has a better idea.

Thanks!


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## richardchaos (May 12, 2017)

Its always baffles me WHY people trash out old cabinet's. Hell you would have to remake all those carcasses. Resurface the frames make new doors BOOM! NEW CABINETS…


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## OleGrump (Jun 16, 2017)

Ditto the above. PLUS, while you're working on them, you can CUSTOMIZE the interior to suit your needs. OK, so they'll never appear on some "Orgasmic Kitchen" home-improvement type program, but Hell, you picked them up to use in your SHOP, right….??? Repair with lumber on hand, customize, Kilz and paint. (And remember, kiddies, "Putty and paint makes things what they ain't…....)
It's YOUR shop. They're YOUR cabinets. Use 'em and enjoy 'em !


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Attach to the studs via slotted holes, to allow things to rise and fall with the floor. Slab would be a "Thickened Slab" where the edges are thickened down into a trench. Some add a "curb" above the slab, to contain a spills.


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

You really don't need to attach the cabinets to the wall. Just make a base of 2×4's and set your cabinets on them.


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

I am a little confused. It looks in the picture that your floor is a concrete slab? Aren't the studs for the wall sitting on that same slab and would move together? Personally, I like having my light workbench attached to the wall to give it a little more umph. To allow me to more easily move it around , which I have not found a need to do that since I installed it, I attached it with barrel bolts which would sort act like a hinge in your situation and provide a little bit of flexibility but still hold it tight against the wall. Just a thought.

Also, wood glue is notorious for not binding well with old glue though perhaps the binders in plywood are different? For future reference, an epoxy or even Gorilla glue might be a better choice for relaminating the plywood.


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## JakeG (Jul 22, 2017)

> Attach to the studs via slotted holes, to allow things to rise and fall with the floor. Slab would be a "Thickened Slab" where the edges are thickened down into a trench. Some add a "curb" above the slab, to contain a spills.
> 
> - bandit571


That's a good idea! And yes, that sounds like my garage slab!



> You really don t need to attach the cabinets to the wall. Just make a base of 2×4 s and set your cabinets on them.
> 
> - MrRon


Point taken. And in fact, if I'm making a base of 2×4s… Might as well make a top of 2×4s and some legs to connect them together, then I can actually have a workbench.

Is there any reason why everyone puts the stretchers at 6" off the ground? I would like to put mine between 0-2.5" off the ground.

That will allow me to achieve my target benchtop height (40-42") and also fit the cabinets between the stretchers and the skirt.

Here's my plan for the cabinet holder/workbench frame:










I would appreciate any criticisms. Will this stay flat with 6 legs and 2×4s? Would it stay flat with 4 legs?

Thanks

PS -



> I am a little confused. It looks in the picture that your floor is a concrete slab? Aren t the studs for the wall sitting on that same slab and would move together? Personally, I like having my light workbench attached to the wall to give it a little more umph. To allow me to more easily move it around , which I have not found a need to do that since I installed it, I attached it with barrel bolts which would sort act like a hinge in your situation and provide a little bit of flexibility but still hold it tight against the wall. Just a thought.
> 
> Also, wood glue is notorious for not binding well with old glue though perhaps the binders in plywood are different? For future reference, an epoxy or even Gorilla glue might be a better choice for relaminating the plywood.
> 
> - Lazyman


Judging by the number of cracks in the floor… no part of the slab moves together with any other part . There are no cracks around the thicker pour under the walls, so I assume that it's all moving (or not moving) as one piece (if it wasn't I imagine my roof would be pretty messed up).

Good call on the epoxy. Way faster too. I wasn't thinking about all the old glue that was in there.

When I went down to the basement, my 2 part epoxy was… 1 part. It is about 5 years old. So I picked up some when I went to the borg for 2×4s today. Thanks.


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