- Hey, everyone. My name is Matt. Welcome to my shop. This is my new wall hanging tool cabinet that I just finished
building over in the guild. It features plenty of space
for all my hand planes on those sweet tills in there. Lots of little cubbies and drawers there for all my small stuff. And most excitingly, it features a pair doors, which give me a lot of real estate to hang various tools in the doors, which is super awesome! It also features some
pretty, nice, custom birch crotch veneer panels for the front. So let's get started. Before jumping into the build, I want to make sure I spent enough time working through the design. I start by measuring out the
biggest the cabinet could be to fit on the wall where I want it to go. And then pulled out all my tools, and started playing with the layout. I decided no a layout for the main case with a bank of drawers and
cubbies along the bottom, and a saw and plane tills
as the main focal point of the main case. Next I could lay out the doors. Since I wanted to do two pairs of doors, I had three pairs of layouts to play with. At this point, I was mostly concerned with
grouping tools together, and taking a better visual
inventory of things. I knew I wanted my most
frequently used tools on the inside doors, my secondary tools that
live inside the door pairs. After a good amount of
thought and planning, I came up with a design that I was really happy about, and I could start building. For the case and doors, I decided to use a pair of elm boards. These came from a log I
salvaged in Inver Grove Heights here in the Minneapolis area back in 2016. This is one of the logs
that sat in my driveway while I was building my ban saw mill, and was one of the
earlier logs that I cut. To spice things up, I decided to use a slice of birch crotch that I'll turn into veneer
for the front panels. This tree came from my
next door neighbor's yard. It was growing next to my shed where his shed is now. It was also one of the logs that was sitting in my driveway while I was building my saw mill. With all the materials selected, I could start laying out the parts. Because I have a pair
of boards wide enough, I can lay out the main case and doors. So I have a continuous
grain between the case and inner door, and a bookmatch between the two doors. I'll also have enough stock left over to get the inner parts of the doors and a shelf and divider for the case. I'll break down the stock,
keeping everything labeled, and then roughly mill the parts. (planer buzzes) Once they're cleaned up, I'll leave them to rest for a few days. And in that time, I'll fill any defects with a tinted epoxy. A few days later, I'll run the boards through
the milling machines again, and start dimensioning the
stock for the case and doors. (planer buzzes) I'll start the joinery by
working on the main case. This will be joined with three dovetails, but the front edge will be mitered. I use the band saw to create
the tails on the case side while avoid making the cut
towards the front edge, which will be where the miter will be. This miter will be done by hand. (saw screeches) I'll clean up the waste
from between the tails, and start working on the mitered area. (saw zips) I'll use a hand saw to
create the wall detail, sawing from the inside, and then cut the miter. (saw zips) To refine the mitered area, I'll use a guide block and a chisel to pair away the waste until the block is
right on the scribe line along the base of the tails. Okay, that's the tail side miter. With the tail board all cut, I can transfer the tail locations onto the pin board, and start cutting the pins. (saw zips) I'll scoop out the waste, chop back to the scribe line, and, lastly, pair the pins to final size. (wood scratches) (wood pops) Before putting the joint together, the front pane is mitered and cleaned up. (mallet taps) The same process is repeated
for the other three corners. And that takes care of the case joinery. (planer buzzes) Next I'll add a rabbet along
the back edge of the case, which will receive the back panel. The rabbets on the top
and bottom are stopped. So I'll finish those up with some chisels. (hammer taps) (chisel grinds) Once the rabbets are out of the way, I'll start working on
the horizontal divider. (planer buzzes) This divider will join into the case sides with a crenelated tenon to create more long grain
to long grain glue surface, essentially creating a finger joint in the middle of the board. The shoulders are cut, so they are the perfect distance apart that fit between the case sides, and then a tongue is formed to the thickness that
the mortises will be. The crenelations are laid
out and cut into the tongue. A shallow dado was cut into the case sides to the base of the tenons, and the the divider is set in place. And start and stop points of each tenon is transferred to the bottom of a dado. These start and stop
points are further defined with a knife, and the router is brought back in to create the individual mortises. (router buzzes) (wood crunches) (wood crunches) A little chisel work to
square up the corners. The dividers slight right in. Next, the vertical dividers can be added. They will slide in from the back in dados. The locations are found, and a spacer is used against the case side to guide the router to cut these dados. (router buzzes) The divider stock is planed
and sanded to thickness, and then cut to fit from top to bottom. They will be lapped over the case bottom and horizontal divider. So those cuts are marked, and the notches are cut. (mallet taps) Next I can move on to the cubby area, which is framed out by an L-shaped shelf. This shelf will join to the case side and horizontal divider with the same crenelated tenon joinery. Those tenons are formed first before I turn the stock into an L-shape, which I'll do with a waterfall joint, so the grain flows
seamlessly over the corner. I'll cut a 45 degree
bevel in each direction, making sure to remove only a curve width worth of material. (saw buzzes) These cuts are pretty close off the saw, but I'll further affine
them with the plane, using a straight edge to check my work. The joint is reinforced a few dominoes and some plywood clamping
calls are glued on to the parts. Some glue is added to the
joint and the floating tenons, and clamps can be used to
bring everything together. Once the glue sets, the cauls can be removed by
splitting through the plies, and ernamically sand it away as the joint is cleaned up and flushed up. The mortises can be laid
out and cut into the side and divider to receive the shelf. It's the same process here using a spacer with the router to keep
everything positioned correctly. A little chisel work to square things up, and the shelf is in. (mallet taps) (mallet taps) Next I'll add the dados
for the cubby dividers. These slide in from the back, and are lapped over it just
like the vertical dividers in the bottom area. I'll use a router with a spacer to keep the spacing consistent. (router hums) After a dado is cut, a filler is placed into the dado's serve as a reference for the next dado. I can step down the length, cutting all the dados, and I repeat the process on
the underside of the shelf. I glued up some scrap for
the cubby hole divider stock, re-sawed it, planed and sanded it to the correct thickness to fit into the dados. The stock is cut to fit between the dados, slid in from the back, lap locations marked, and the laps cut. (saw trills) That takes care of the
joinery on the case. All the interior parts and services can be finish prep, and
the glue up can begin. I use epoxy for this glue up, so I can put the whole
case together in one go. Once the epoxy cures, the clamps can be removed, and the dovetails can be flushed up. Next, the back panel can
be cut and installed. It's a two piece back with the lower section
acting as a French cleat. The upper section is
screwed into the case. Next I can move on to the doors. I'll separate the top and bottom into left and right parts, and start on the joinery. I'll use a miter through
dovetail on the doors as well. But in this case, I'll miter both the
inside and outside edges, since both will be visible in the finished piece. I'll make the inside tail
cuts on the band saw, and then clean things
up back at the bench. Next I can add the miter. So again, sawing from the inside face, the wall of the tail can be formed. (saw zips) The bulk of the miter waste is sawn away, and the pairing guide can be brought back to clean up the mitered area. (wood scraps) (wood taps) Once the tailboard is all ready, it can be transferred to the pin board. The pins can be cut, (saw zips) the waste removed, (wood taps) the pins can be cleaned up, and the last of the miters can be cut on the outside pins. (wood scrapes) And it's the exact same process
on the other three corners for this door and for
each of the four corners on the other three doors. So that's 16 of these mitered
through dovetail joints that join all the doors together. (wood scrapes) (mallet taps) Now will all the door frames done, I can arrange them with the case, and breath a sigh of relief that I didn't mess something up, and each side's continuous grain, and bookmatch is still correct. Now I'm gonna start working
on the custom plywood panels for the front doors. I'll rough cut the birch crotch, and then make a mold for it. I didn't wanna surface the crotch, because there are a lot of
small, delicate looking fibers that I want to preserve in
the final encapsulation. I just didn't wanna risk damaging
those with cutting tools. The mold is sealed with a silicone. And once that is cured, the mold is filled with a
casting resin tinted brown. This stuff takes several days to cure, so I've poured this before I went to Texas to help April build her band saw mill. When I got back a week later, I could demold the slab. (Matt grunts) (Matt chuckles) I give it a few passes with my router sled to clean up the top face, and flatten it so it'll be
ready for the next step, which will be re-sawing. At a bit over 20 inches wide, this plank is too big
for my indoor band saw, so I set up my saw mill to slice it into piece of veneer. (saw screeches) I wasn't too sure how
well this would work, but I was relieved to find out that it worked just fine. (Matt laughs) With a bit more confidence, I could reset things
and make a second slice. (saw screeches) That's cool! Can't believe it's worked. Look at that. Epoxy encapsulated slab veneer. (laughs) So excited about this. These veneers were cut to
around a quart inch thick, and then were run through the drum sander to remove the saw marks. The final thickness on the veneer was just a bit under an eighth of an inch. Next, I can adhere them
down to a substrate. I used epoxy as an adhesive, and quarter inch Baltic
birch plywood as a substrate. The plywood and veneer
went into a vacuum bag to clamp them together, and were left under
vacuum for about 18 hours while the epoxy cured. You stronger than me? - No. - [Matt] You think you can do it? (grunts) Okay, grab that. - Ow! - [Matt] Go walk that way and pull. There you go. - Wow! That's cool, Dad! - [Matt] I thought so. Robot? - Yeah. - That's Master Chief. What you talking about robot? Next I needed some veneer for
the backside of the panels to balance them out. I use a no slice with the
birch from the same log, and broke it down and re-sawed it into strips of veneer. Each strip went through the drum sander to bring it to the same
thickness as the crotch veneer. Then I can joint each seam in preparation for
making these into sheets. I added some glue to the seams, and used tape to hold the slices together. The sheet went into the vacuum bag to keep all the seems
flush while the glue cured. Now these sheets can be
veneered to the backside of the panels. (wood scraps) (vacuum hums) Because it's going to be a lot easier to finish these panels before
they're glued into the doors, I'll trim them down to rough size, and bring them through
the finishing process now. The crotch epoxy veneer is
sanded up through the grit starting at 80 grit, and finishing with 1000 grit to bring back the luster in the epoxy. The surface is cleaned, and three coats of wiping
varnish are applied, sanding between each coat
with 1000 grit sand paper. The backside is also
finished with three coats of wiping varnish. But since this side's just wood, it's only sanded to
180 grit before finish. With the panel stock out of the way, I can turn back to the door frames and create the grooves that
will receive the panels. The grooves on the sides are stopped. So those are finished up
with some chisel work. Now the doors can be glued up. The inner doors have a piece of half inch Baltic birch ply wood
installed into the grooves. This plywood will match the look for the stock I've used in
the back of the cabinet. Again, I'm using epoxy, so I have all the time in the world to get the door assembled, and I'll use the case a clamping form so I can ensure the doors
have the same geometry as the case. I can use a clamp on the diagonal to rack the door until it matches. The outer doors are
assembled in a similar way. I pre-finish the inside of the doors, so I wanted to get near the panels with the finished applicator later on. I'll use the inner doors as
a clamping frame this time. And, again, I'll rack the
door until it matches, and leave it to cure. And there's the case and the doors. Next, I get started hanging
the doors on the hinges. I'll lay out the extents
of the hinge mortises, and use a router to remove
the bulk of the waste. (router buzzes) Chisels are used to clean
up up the remaining waste. (wood taps) With a bit of care, the hinges will slide into
their mortises with no slop. I decided to use precision butt hinges from Horton Brasses on this build. I've used these hinges on
numerous furniture projects in the past, and they've always worked out wonderfully. They're well made, have minimal slop, and don't break the bank. Most importantly, their plenty strong to support the weight of the loaded doors. So once I have one set of mortises cut, I can transfer the mortise locations to the mating door, mark those ones out, and
cut those ones as well. (router buzzes) And I'll just repeat that process to work though all the mortises for all the hinges. And it's eight pairs of hinges, so that's 32 individual mortises to cut. Once the mortises are cut, I'll install the hinges with
the temporary steel screws that are included. These will compress the
fibers in preparation for the softer brass screws, and they're easier to get in and out as the doors are hung and removed during the rest of the build. With the doors out of the way, next I can make the drawers. I'm starting with some spalted
birch for the drawer fronts that I've had for a long time. It's beautiful, but it's pretty mushy. So before moving forward, I'll stabilize it with
some penetrating epoxy. Once the epoxy cures, the drawer front stock is much firmer, and can be built to final size, and the individual drawer fronts can be cut and fit to
each respective opening. Next I'll need some stick
for the drawer boxes. I grabbed a piece of ash that I cut with my friend Jim's homemade swing blade saw mill several years ago, and broke it down into the
stock for the drawer sides, backs, and bottoms. The drawer sides are drawing to the front with half blind dovetails. The tails are cut with the band saw, cleaned up, and transferred
to the drawer front. I'll drill it the bulk of
the ways with a forester bit at the drill press, and work back to lines with chisels. (mallet taps) (mallet taps) Next I'm gonna add the drawer back, which is cut pin first. The pins are sawn, and the waste is cleaned up. The back can be placed in the
partially assembled drawer, and the locations can be transferred. The tails can be sawed, the waste removed, and just like that the
drawer box is complete. The finger pull can be
drilled into the drawer front, and the drawer can be glued up. (mallet taps) Next I can make the drawer bottom, which is just a panel beveled
to fit into the grooves. The bottom is secured to the back with a screw in a slot. Now it's time to get the
cabinet up onto the wall, and do the final fitting of the doors, which means it's time for
my old cabinet to come down. I mount the lower section
of the back to the wall with leg bolts and shields. And with two bolts installed, I'll try the old try to rip
it off the wall maneuver. (Matt laughs) Satisfied the cleat isn't
gonna come off the wall, I'll throw the cabinet up onto the cleat, and try to pull it off the wall
by hanging from it. (laughs) Lindsey helped me hang the doors. It's up there. - It looks good, Dude. - [Matt] That's the door. - Looks nice. - And I can flush everything up, and take it all back
down again for finish. Finish on the rest of the project is the same as the panels. I use three coats of wiping varnish to provide a moderate amount of protection without going too far as to
have the significant build. (rag swipes) Once the finishing is done, the cabinet can be mounted
back onto the wall. And I added a couple bolts to
the upper section of the case which allowed me to bring
the cabinet into plumb, so the doors wouldn't swing on their own. Now the last I did was
to create tool holders for everything, and load
this bad boy up. (laughs) The main focal point of
the cabinet is a plane till or rather tills. These are made from a
couple of plywood panels, which are beveled on the top and bottom. Small strips of wood frame out the planes, and the tills are held in
place with a pair of dowels. The saw till next door consists of a block that rests on the shelf, and a block mounted to
the back of the case with curves in it to hold the saw blades. The right doors are the
domain of my chisels. The chisel racks are simply strips of wood with holes drilled and slots cut to hold the various chisels. The squares and bevels just sit on a small rabbeted shelf type thing. And in various places in the case, I sleeved a brass screw with a brass rod to create studs to hang various tools. So just a few other notable tool holders in this door, I have this strip with some slots in it. And that holds my marking gauges. And then on this inside of this door, I have the shelf type thing, which holds my rasps and files. Now over here on the right door, I have this holder for my marking knives. And I just have some
little slots milled into it to accept the blades of the knives. And lastly, probably my favorite holder is this guy right here for card scrapers. So this is a little pull out tray that receives all the
scrapers, holds them nicely, and organizes them so
they're really easy to find, and they're not all rubbing
up against each other in a big pile like they
were in my old tool cabinet. And lastly, I installed
some under cabinet lighting, which gives a little bit of glow on the underside here. It illuminates the desk area a little bit. And then inside the case, I installed this light on sensors, which illuminate the planes a little bit, and give it a little
bit of sparkle. (laughs) So I am super thrilled the
way this thing turned out. I think everything kinda
came together really nicely. And this cabinet's gonna
be a lot more functional than my old cabinet was. Everything is really nice and organized, and feels a lot neater, which makes the workshop itself a little more of an inspiring space. I really like the idea of
having the double doors, because it gives you so much more space to hang even more tools. And the way I've set things
up as far as planning goes, is the cabinet is maybe two thirds to three
quarters full right now, so I have a good amount of
capacity still to add things into the future. And lastly, these incredible
epoxy encapsulated slab veneer panels. That was a really fun experience
just to try something new to see if it would actually work. I hadn't done any kind
of veneering before this. And that was a really cool
process to dive into and try out. And the fact that these are crotch veneer definitely speak to my taste. (laughs) so as I mentioned, this was just finished
up over in the guild. So if you wanna check that out, there are 18 videos over there that I produced, walking you
through the entire process going from design, layout,
all the way through all of the joinery and
construction of the entire case in plenty of detail. And there is also a full
set of plans over there if you wanna build something
similar for your own shop. So I'll leave you a link to that down in the description if you want to check that out. So I think that's about it for this one. Thank you as always for watching. I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments with the hand tool cabinet or anything here in my shop, please feel free to leave me a comment, 'cause I'll also be happy
to answer any questions you might have. And 'til next time, (laugh) happy woodworking.
