Project - Hand Planes Cabinet


A cabinet for my hand planes

Tools that are not close at hand tend not to be used. I have had to stow away most of my hand planes because of lack of storage space in the area where I do my woodworking.

This became a problem because I found Jack Planes were the most useful whereas the ones I had space for in my work area were all number fours. Thus sprang the need for a cabinet for hand planes particularly my Jack Planes.

A STACK OF PLYWOOD FOR THE PROJECT

The aim was to quickly put together a plywood cabinet with pocket hole joinery, white glue and a few housings.

The basic carcase came together quickly as it does when using pocket hole joinery but then things slowed down a bit.

HOUSING ROUTED FOR THE SHELVES MAKE FOR ACCURACY
 BASIC CARCASE CLAMPED
6MM PLYWOOD BACK IN PLACE

I needed to glue on wooden strips on the exposed plywood edges for which I had to painstakingly edge clamp each piece and wait for it to dry.

GLUING AND CLAMPING WOODEN  EDGES

I also decided to use real veneer ply for the sides to cover the plain plywood. Real veneer is available laminated on 2mm plywood sheets. Prices range from Rs. 40 to Rs 200 per square feet depending on the kind of wood used; great looking burls can cost upwards of Rs 400 per square feet.

PLYWOOD VENEER STAINED AND POLISHED


VENEERED SIDES

I usually go for the cheaper varieties as it serves my purpose, which is to cover raw plywood with a material that can be stained and polished. I prefer stain and polish exteriors to painted ones, though there are times when paint is preferable.

One lesson I learnt while painting the interior of the cabinet, which is difficult if the gap between shelves is narrow, is that it is better to paint the shelves before assembling the cabinet. I'll keep that in mind for any similar projects in the future.

FETTLING THE DOORS

Making the doors took longer even though they were made with mortise and tenon joints and were of a plain Shaker style. For the panels, I laminated oak veneer on plywood and nailed it into rebates routed in the insides of the frames.

I lightly stained and polished the oak fame and panel. The doors are stopped by two magnetic catches on the top. It is a simple but functional home for my three Jack Planes (which I find myself using all the time), one old but great Ambika jointer plane, a couple of block planes, a small shoulder plane and an assortment of scrapers.

The other lesson I learnt was that its far from easy to get things done as quickly as one would like to.

THE COMPLETED CABINET



Indranil Banerjie
17 February 2017 



Comments

  1. Nice. I saw the hinges are showing outside.While doing interior renovation, I saw the carpenter guy was using a spring hinges (not sure about terminology) which were not showing up outside , so the finish was better looking but the problem with those hinges were it's durability. Sir did you purposefully avoided that in this project . What's your general view of those hinges because I see they definitely gave better look for cupboards.

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    Replies
    1. I have no idea about spring hinges. I don't have any aesthetic issues with normal butt hinges.

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    2. I think EURO HINGES are in discussion here. I think they would be too expensive for a handplane cabinet.

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  2. wow, this kind of cabinet will fit in my office. Thanks for sharing, love the inspiration.

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  3. Dear Indranil sir,
    Very simple and nice cabinet. I am a newbie, exploring woodworking and stumbled upon your blog recently, going through article by article and amazed with the amount of information specific to Indian woodworking. I watched many youtube videos of Paul sellers, and struggled to map that into indian context, like wood selection, which plane to use etc. I got all the necessary tools from Sobha, after going through your blog post. I appreciate your efforts of putting things together in a blog which can be searched and used by many more like me. Thank you very much for this fantastic forum!!

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    Replies
    1. Dear Rajarajan,
      Comments like your's make my day and assure me that this blog is worth the effort. Many thanks.

      Delete

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