I’ve managed to get all of the old shelving torn out, and below are a few before and after shots of one of the walls. These shelves were too hard to get to, and didn’t allow me to use the space as efficiently as I’d like:

Before: Shelving built by the previous owner.

After: Lumber storage with room for equipment underneath

From what I’ve experienced so far, there’s a lot of things to consider when setting up a shop for woodworking. Workflow, wiring, heating, and tool storage are all paramount in establishing a shop that is both efficient and comfortable to work in.

When it comes to tool storage, not only do you want a place to put all of your crap, but you also need to keep your crap protected from dust (my shop gets a ton of it). Wall-mounted tool racks and tills are cheap and easy, but some tools warrant a little more protection than a few pieces of wall-achored plywood can offer.

Cheap 'n easy - plywood clamp racks built in an evening

More simple than a hanging tool cabinet, but offers no protection from dust

So far I like the idea of putting everything in some sort of rolling toolbox or cabinet, so I can easily move things around the shop. Or, in case I ever move, it’d be easier just to roll everything onto the truck without having to pack it all. I’ve already built a router table on wheels from Norm Abram’s plans, and it keeps all of my router equipment in one location protected for the most part from dirt and dust. Plus it’s easy enough to move it around the shop if you need to.

Now, I’d like to do the same for all of my hand tools. After reading Christopher Schwarz’s book on tool chests, I think I’m going to build a traditional tool chest that will house all of my woodworking tools. That way everything is in once place and protected. I guess that will be my next big shop project – that is, if I can find time to squeeze it into my kitchen re-model…

No fancy joinery or materials were used here, just left-over maple plywood from my kitchen project, along with glue and screws. Sometimes it’s best just to keep it simple.

If you haven’t tried to learn a CAD tool for furniture design, I’d encourage you to do so. With a tool like Sketchup, you can draw every part down to the last detail. It’s become an invaluable aid in designing the rest of my kitchen since I can design all the details and measurements without guess work.

Below are some examples of the sink cabinet box I recently finished last week. I’ve made all my boxes (including the backs) out of 3/4″ maple pre-finished plywood, not unlike the “Dream Kitchen” article by Norm Abrams. Buying pre-finished maple is a tad more expensive, but it’s much less of a hassle since I don’t have to finish the insides of the cabinets.

Sketchup model

Completed box

Stay tuned for some more photos as I progress. Now that the boxes are built, the next step is the face frames which have been rough cut and are acclimating in my shop – I just need to get off my duff and start working on them.

I’ll be honest. Up until a few months ago, I really didn’t pay one iota of attention to our 70′s era kitchen cabinets, that is until the drawer bottom to our silverware drawer fell out one day. I guess drawers made out of thin, MDF just aren’t made to stand up to constant use by an active family – imagine that! A few weeks later another drawer bottom fell out of yet another drawer, and it seemed like the whole kitchen was falling apart.

I started to inspect the rest of the cabinets in an attempt to come up with a repair/refinishing plan, but even the insides of the upper cabinet sides were in pretty bad shape – heck, everything was in bad shape. Re-finishing would be a waste of time. I contemplated gutting the kitchen and building all new cabinets from scratch, but it seemed like a daunting task (and it still is), but then I ran across a kitchen building article by Norm Abram in Fine Woodworking Magazine. Norm made it sound doable, so I decided to go for it.

I’m posting this blog rather late in the process. I’ve actually been working on the cabinets for a few months now after work and on the weekends. The photos you see are the fruits of my labor thus far. I’ve already finished the upper cabinets, but I’m still in the process of building the lowers.

I’ve decided to go the traditional, custom cabinet route. Since I’m taking all the time to build from scratch, I might as well go the extra mile – maple face frames and doors, custom bead work, and inset doors with traditional hinges. Here’s a picture of one of the larger cabinets before painting. I’ve borrowed some construction techniques from Crown Point Cabinetry. I happened to stumble across this company on the web, and they happen to be one of the top custom cabinet making companies on the east coast.

Yes, that’s MDF I’ve used for the door panels. Now before you call me a heretic, please hear me out. Making good choices in building materials are all about context – it’s perfectly fine to use this type of material for door panels. In fact, I prefer it. Since the panel resides in a frame, there are no stresses on the material that will wear it out over time, as it would in a drawer side or bottom. MDF is dimensionally stable – I can even glue the stuff in my door frames without worrying about them swelling and destroying the door. Plus it’s dirt easy to cut. If you’re going to paint your cabinets like I am, then MDF makes a good economical choice for door panels.

I’ll try to provide more construction details as I progress. Although I drew the upper cabinet plans on paper, I’ll be designing all the lower cabinets using Google Sketchup in order to make sure I get all the details right, so stay tuned.

The saw ended up being in very good condition, with all the original parts minus the original switch housing, goose egg motor cover, and a lock down lever for the fence. I found a goose egg cover for sale on the owwm.com “bring out your dead” section, and the switch cover on eBay. Someone on the owwm.com site was nice enough to give me an original locking lever and knob for the Micro-Set fence for free.

I stripped down everything down to the last nut and bolt and cleaned, polished, and re-painted with Rustoleum Smoke Gray on the outside and Rustoleum Machine Gray on the internal parts. There were a few broken welds in the cabinet in addition to a few extra holes that had been drilled, all of which were re-welded and ground smooth. I ground and polished the tilt and elevation wheels with a series of emery paper grits and sand papers to a chrome-like finish, and then coated with Renaissance Wax. I coated just about every other piece of steel that wasn’t painted with Boeshield T-9.

The previous owner had replaced the bearings in the 1 phase, 1 hp bullet motor, but I had to replace the arbor bearings myself which went off without a hitch. The saw runs very smooth and overall I’m very happy with how it turned out. I didn’t spend a lot of time cleaning up the rails to perfection since I’ll probably replace them with a Biesemeyer fence system in the very near future.

Ok, so I used to not be too thrilled with the Shaker style. Before getting into furniture making as a hobby, I used to snub Shaker furniture as appearing too simplistic or dare I say “country”. Maybe as I have gotten older my tastes have changed, or possibly as I’ve begun to build pieces in this style I’ve learned to appreciate the true craftsmanship of the originals. Learning how to build with hand tools makes you appreciate the true craftsmanship that used to be involved, and what separates handmade furniture from the mass produced stuff you see at Walmart or IKEA.

Maybe the experience is similar to when I started to learn electric guitar in my late 20′s and discovered for the first time the likes of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Van Halen after I tried to learn to play their music (don’t laugh – I grew up sheltered, but that’s yet another blog). As I sought fun songs to play, my tastes quickly gravitated towards music which emphasized the guitar.

In retrospect I guess maybe this is similar. As I’ve started to learn the basic techniques, I’ve learned to appreciate the skill that goes into making even the more simplistic furniture pieces. Now simple well-crafted details that I used to take for granted appear in a new light.

Take for instance the photo at the top of a Shaker bureau found at the Hancock Shaker Village built in the early 1800′s. Yes, it’s pretty basic – the Shakers didn’t believe in frivolous, ornate details. Form was to follow function if at all possible. But upon close examination, you’ll come to appreciate even its simplistic form. For starters, it’s hand made of solid cherry wood. Cherry wood was rather plentiful in those days, so it made a natural choice for a furniture wood. No particle board here. Also, keep in mind that the whole bureau has been crafted with hand tools alone, from the finely executed dovetailed drawers to the hand cut mortise and tenon joinery of the solid wood paneled doors. It’s a piece that signifies the Shaker tradition of craftsmanship. And it’s still solid to this day, after almost 200 years of use! My “Queen Anne” style bedroom set I purchased 4 years ago at one of those “fancy furniture stores” is already starting to fall apart. The drawers have warped, and now they don’t close properly. I guess that’s to be expected from mass produced furniture for the masses.

So, as my skills develop, I’m looking forward to taking on projects that will be reproductions of these wonderful pieces of furniture so they can be used in my own home. Maybe one day I’ll work up the nerve to take on a chest of drawers to replace the one in my senescent bedroom set. In the meantime, my wife has a wish list made out for me which begins with a “Shaker style” sewing cabinet. Not a reproduction of an historic piece, but one that follows the form nevertheless. It’s a leap forward in complexity from my humble cupboard I built a few weeks back, so the build should prove interesting…