voiceover:the woodwhisperer is sponsored by powermatic, the gold standard since 1921 and by rockler woodworking and hardware, create with confidence. (lively music) marc:all right. now it'stime to start the assembly and an honor of norm retiring recently, we're going to start some assem-buh-lee. if you get that joke,you're a big wood nerd.
i'm going to start very slowly. i'm not going to rush this one. in this case like i saidwith the type of tongue and groove joints that we have going here, it's not quite self squaring but it's hard to reallyget it out of square. i feel confident doingbasically one piece at a time. making sure it's alllined up, square it up. apply a little bit of clamping pressure
as long as it's fully seated, you don't need a wholelot of clamping pressure. start with the left side and then i'll work myway to the back panel and then i'll put in the other side and then the center partition, and then we'll put the top on. now i'm just going to fillwith my fingers back here to make sure that these groovesare in perfect alignment.
now i'm just going to apply a little bit of clamping pressure and this whole time that i'm doing this, i'm going to keep a square in place because i want to makesure i don't knock it one way or the other and i don't need muchclamping pressure here. that's pretty much good enough. now the key to a goodglue up in my opinion
is reducing the number of variables and a number of things that can go wrong. gluing one piece up at a time like this, making sure it's perfectly square before i move on to the next thing is really a way for me to ensure that i just don't make any mistakes and it really makes fora stress free glue up. i'm going to follow that patternthrough this whole thing,
realize though sometimes on some projects you have no choice, you haveto glue all the parts up in one shot or you might be in a situation where you need to hurry. that's when you look into other things like slow setting glues and stuff that will make your life a lot easier but for me this works. i'm in no major rush.
i don't want it to take all week but it doesn't necessarilyneed to be all done tonight. well it's getting late in the day. i think we're just going to letthis one panel dry overnight and tomorrow i'll come in, i'll be able to put the back panel in, follow it up with the side panel and then the center partition. we'll be moving right alongbut for now i need some dinner.
now it's time for the back panel. i know from experience withputting this thing together in a dry assembly that the back panel actually presents some difficulty for me ingetting it installed perfectly. i want to get the grooveon the back panel, lined up with my grooveright here in the middle. i want to make sure it'sfully seated up against this groove on the side
and fully seated down on the bottom. to make sure this all goes pretty smooth, what i'm going to dois switch over to epoxy instead of yellow glue. i'm using this west systemepoxy in these pumps and that will give mesome more working time. let's give it a good mix and just apply it like any other glue. here we go.
that slid in a lot better with the epoxy than it did in the dry assembly. the epoxy is more or lessacting almost like lubrication. whereas a water basedglue gets into the fibers and absorbs into the fibersand causes them to swell and that's what makesthe joint fit tighter after you apply glue to it thanit did on the dry assembly. i'm very, very happy with mycall to use epoxy on this one. again, i'm checkingthis center groove here
to make sure that i'm in alignment. actually that looks perfect and now a couple of clamps just to apply some downward pressure. it's early, so i'm goingto get some coffee. now the back panel is prettywell set up at this point so i'm going to put inthe center partition. this is going to be fairly fast so all i really need is yellow glue.
plenty of glue there now, i can insert it. it's going to need alittle bit of help here. it looks good. now i'm going to gluein the final side panel. yellow glue on this one too and this one shouldjust pop right in place. i'm going to try anotherone of these bow clamps here on the side to help distributethe clamping pressure. that worked very nicely.
just one more clamp at the front and i think we're in business. this is interesting thing to notice now. in the back of the case, it's dead on. if everything was cut square and that first piece was aligned square, you don't really tweak it out of position, everything should besquare from here on out. it's always good to double check.
when i check at the back, it's dead on. at the front, it widensout a little bit here which means that this clampis causing the left side to tilt over to the left a little bit. i'm just going to adjustmy clamping pressure to kind of bring it back that way. no big deal. it might not even affect anything because it's all the way out here
but it's nice to have it perfectly square while the glue is drying. now it's do or die time, time to put the top on. i've got some epoxy here again, i need that little extrabit of working time and i'm just going toput it on the tongues and into the dados and grooves and hope it all goes together.
let's see if we can makethis happen without crying. just a little clamping pressure will drive those joints home. we are well on our way. i'm just going to add onemore clamp here in the front just to add a little bit of pressure on that front center partition. see just a little hair line gap and i want to close that up.
basically i'm just going to let this dry for the rest of the day and in the meantime i could start taking the measurements and making the finalplans for the two doors. now we're going to focus on the doors. i've been through acouple different versions of what i wanted to do with the doors. remember initially i wasgoing to do sliding doors
after talking to beau and seeing the doors on his tool chest, it kind of gave me thethought that i really think that's the best way togo for the most people because everybody could reallyuse this extra storage space. now what i have here is alittle mock up of the door. what we're going to have is over an inch, maybe about an inch anda quarter inside depth that somebody can hang thingson the inside of the door.
the outside of the door is just going to be a verysimple half inch panel with a little bit of a[riviol] all the way around. this baltic birch, that striping pattern will carry all they way around and it should look pretty interesting. there's going to be abevel here on the inside and a bevel on the outside. if you look at the inside of the door,
i've got a little bevel here as well. again, no areas for you to get a splinter or anything like that. interestingly enough, i know i said i was going to do everything out of the baltic birch but number one, i wanted to lighten upthe doors a little bit. i don't want them to be excessively heavy and the most i'm reallygoing to do with the doors
well, you'll see laterwhen we start adding in some of the cool stuff to the cabinet but you could still with half inch ply you could still put adowel in there easily and get enough supportto hang the light tools that you would be hangingin the door anyway. adding that three quarter inch panel in addition to all this stuffyou're going to hang in there just seem like it was a little excessive
so i went with the half inch. the real reason i went with the half inch was because i didn't plan properly and the leftover material that i had that i was going to use to make the door. well, one panel had the graingoing in the right direction and the other panel had thegrain going horizontally which is not what i wanted. it's either have one up and one sideways
or go buy some material. i just went out to home depot and i bought one of those pre-cut two by four panels that they have and this stuff was nice and straight, i eyeballed it. it's not the best plywood in the world but certainly good enough for these doors, so that's what we're going to use.
two versions of the story there, i'm going to stick to the first one. i'm not going to go toodeep into the construction of the door because it's pretty muchexactly the same stuff that we did to make the case. i used the dado stack to create the groove all the way through the pieces. the only difference here
is we don't have to do anyprep work to this panel. i basically use my dado stackto get the exact thickness for this piece of material and there was no problem with that. if you don't want to use the dado stack, you could certainly useyour router to make this and just make sure you useone of those undersized bits. this panel happens tobe correctly undersized for the types of bits thatthey sell in the market.
i made all these grooves and one thing i do want tobring your attention to here is when you make a groove allthe way through these boards. there's going to be a pointwhere these two boards meet and if you have that groovegoing all the way through depending on how youjoin these two pieces, that groove may be visible from the top and bottom of the door. it's kind of like when youare putting a drawer together
and you put the groove for the panel. it's a same concept. you don't want that peeking out the front. you have to come up witha way to disguise it and what i decided to dowas make a little knob, little guy tenon here. i mean it's not very substantial at all, doesn't really need to bebut that is going to go into that groove so that from the top view
and the bottom view itdoesn't look to bad. there's no big gaps herethat we have to contend with. now for fine furniture,this wouldn't exactly do but the key is we'returning our frame pieces for the doors up on their side. normally frame pieces for doors would be oriented in this way and then you could put somemore substantial joinery or some sort of a tenon or a hunch tenon.
we can't really do that here because the pieces arefitting together this way. it's a little bit moreof a challenge there but i think this works really well. it's nice and supported. the panel is cut to fit perfectly with enough glue around the outside, i think it's going to be a decent joint. i have really no concerns about strength.
i'm going to start cuttingthe rest of the pieces and then it's just a matterof gluing them together. now the only thing i do wantto bring your attention to that was a little bit different than what we've done in the past. when i cut these little tenons on the end, i actually had to raise thedado blade up pretty high to make this cut here but what i would just recommend doing
is using your miter gauge, using your fence as a guide and then put a backer board and that's what i have here is a backer board supporting the fiber so you get a nice cleancut on the exit side. i have the epoxy mixture again, i need that little extra working time and i'm just going to addsome glue to the groove here
and in these deep groovesit's really important that you get the side walls and it's hard to do this and not be messy. just do the best you can. now on the pieces with the little tenon, you want to make sure you get a good amount ofglue here on the end grain and on the tenon itself on all sides. in order to prevent having to put any glue
on the panel itself which in this case sincethere's no tongue here, it's going to be kind of tricky to know how far to put the glue in. i was just extra generousabout how much glue i put into the grooves themselves and it should be enoughto distribute the glue on to the work piece. top piece.
i'm going to place it in the clamps and you notice that i've gotthe clamps laying down flat instead of upright. the reason for that iswith this type of setup, if i have the clampgoing vertical like this, a lot of times what's going to happen is it's going to push thetop of this piece forward a little bit more than i want. i really just want thepressure to be focused down
on where that joint is and then the top, we'lljust line up in place where it's supposed to,in theory of course. apply a little pressure, i want to make sure i'mnice and flush at the bottom which i'm not. how's the view in my back? voiceover:great. marc:it's nice and flush,
a little tappy tap. that's nice and flush and now i'm going to run acouple clamps across this one. i don't really need a lotof clamping pressure here because the joints can only go in so far once the dado is seated,it's seated and that's it. i'm just trying to close upany little gaps that i've seen. make sure everything is nice and tight. now before we attach the doors,
i want to play withthe layout of the tools and it's just going to be much easier without the doors installed. i have the whole cabinetlaying flat on the table and i'm just going to play on the inside, move some things around and show you exactly howi'm going to stabilize these hand planes and therest of the tools in here. really this is where yourcreativity is the only limitation.
there's a lot of differentthings that you can put in here and you've just got to comeup with ways of securing them. i'll show you what i'mgoing to do for mine and i would love to hear the suggestions that you guys come up with. what we've got here isa nice overhead view of the right compartment and i'm going to show you howi'm going to arrange things. now the primary things
that i am concerned about storing here are my planes, i currently have zero storage for these. everything else i kindof build up over time. the way i'm going to dothis is by spacing them about a half an inch apart and i'm going to usethese baltic birch strips that i cut to do that. it will also help keep themfrom moving back and forth
if i put this in as guides. i start with my longest one here, right up against the edge theni bring in the number seven. i go to the next longest one. there's the number fiveand the next one down. just put it up right against each other. here's a smoother. now this guy, i actually want to rest on the back end of the case like this
so i can't put one ofthese sticks all the way in because it's going towind up hitting this guy but all i really need is aguide inserted somewhere there so i could just install that one somewhere around that location. now this is great if thecase was to stay on its back. obviously if this is standing up straight, we need something more substantial to hold these guys in place.
that's what these little clips are. essentially just rabbeted on the back, a little bit of a circle so that as i rotate them back and forth, the corners won't hit. it's spaced each one,it's basically rabbeted just the right amount so itfits over the appropriate plane and they're all prettyclose to begin with. what i have here is alittle pan-head pocket screw
and the reason i chose this is because the screw holehere is pretty well oversized. this is not what i would normally do because i really don't wantit to grip too much on this. i want it to grip reallywell into the back panel so that once this goesthrough, if it gets stripped, i should still ... the whole point is to be able to turn it but not loosen the screw.
that's kind of what i'm going for and a pan-head screw is nice, it doesn't have a big taperat the bottom to contend with. these guys will sit likeso and hold them in place and when you need to geta particular plane out, you just rotate thelittle clip out of the way and then you could pull theplane out of its position. that's what i'm going to do so far. i have one idea that involves magnets,
i'm not a 100% surethat i'm going to use it but it's a maybe at this point so if i do i'll definitely show it to you. now for these littledoohickies, it's very simple. all i do is make sure thatthis screw tip is protruding just by a little bit. place it about where i think it should be and then use that tip to pivot around and i'm just confirmingthat i have free rotation
and that i can move thatthing out of the way when i need to. once i'm there, i give ita little tap with my hammer and make sure it's not goingto slip out of the way on me. now, just drive it home. now i did decide to try putting in some rare earth magnet just to see how it works out. [not] really going to hurtanything, it can only help.
just putting in a half inch,whole with the forstner and it should just go in like that. a little epoxy should do the trick, let's hope. i highly recommend rightbefore installing it, confirm which side you need up. clearly, i don't want that there. clearly this side goes down. let me keep it from spreading too much
and getting on your finger. push it down with a paper towel. when i squeeze, out comes up, it goes right into the material. now we're going to install the doors and this is going to be theeasiest hinge installation you'll ever do. the hinges that we're going to use are called piano hinges
and if you're not familiar, this is what a piano hinge looks like. it's just a very long butthinge for the most part. now the cool thing about a piano hinge is that it can support a lot of weight because you have so manypoints of attachment as you go across the length of the hinge so you can use it for very heavy things. this is going to be perfect for the doors
especially if you have alittle bit of extra weight and other tools being hung on those doors. now the application of thehinge, you can get tricky, we can try to mortise maybe. i don't know why you wouldnecessarily want to do that but i find it easiest installation is right on the outside of the case. now some people may notfind that attractive. here's the problem,
i really don't wantthese screws going into the end of the plywood, that's not nearly as strong as when screws go into the face of plywood. for me i don't think itreally looks that bad, it's just the side. it's a piano hinge, whatare you going to do? to install these, this isso simple it's ridiculous. all i'm going to do is
let me get the right bit in here first. all i'm going to do is line it up by eye. well first of all you wantyour door lined up, right? that is also eyeballed. there's a nice even gapon the top and bottom and if you flush on this edge, you're ready to install that hinge. all i'm going to do iscenter the hinge by eye and make sure the barrelwas pretty much right on
the gap there and drive in a screw. now, an important thing to notice here, a lot of times these hinges come with really nice brass screws and those are incrediblyeasy to strip out. i highly recommend you use thecheaper small steel screws. put your initial holes in with that and then go back andinstall your brass screws.
especially if your doing this, this plywood's not that hardso it's not that big of a deal but if you're using areally dense hard wood, you're going to stripout those brass screws before you know it. always make your hole firstwith your steel screws, they're not going to strip and then go back for your brass screws. i have one on one side
and i will come over andsecure the other side with another screw. double check my gap, that looks good and another one here at the top. i've got plenty of these brass screws so i'm going to try them out now that everything is relatively secure. i'm just going to drive oneand see how well it goes. that's no problem.
this plywood's definitelysofter than hard wood. let's just give it a test run here. that's nice. here's the other greatthing, it opens all the way. one thing i forgot to mention is these hinges typically come much longer than you need and the chances of finding one that's exactly the size thatyou need is pretty slim.
you're going to have to cut them down. just cut it very carefully,put it in to a vise and if you can try tocut right in the seam between the barrels and it'll make yourlife a whole lot easier. here it is, our finished tool chest. now the first thing you'llnotice is the doors, they're still open. what i need to is add alittle magnetic catch.
i don't happen to have one but it's a very inexpensivepiece of hardware that just screws into the top and a little metal plategoes on the inside here and we'll catch it and make sure that the door stay closed. another thing i want to showyou here are the handles. since this is going tobe mounted on the wall, chances are it's goingto be quite a bit higher
than where it's sitting right now. the easiest way for me to open those doors is a handle that actuallyscoops up a little bit and these are perfect because my fingers can go right into that little cove there. now to make these, i start it with a doublestacked thing of plywood, basically the same thing like we made the top and bottom from.
then i just cut it to aboutan inch and a quarter in width and basically cut a stripthat was long enough to make two handles so that way i don't have to work with really, really tiny pieces. i used a big honking covebit to create the inner cove and then i use the biggiant round over bit to make the rounded over edge and the rest was justdown to hand sanding.
a nice comfortable handle,pretty nice to look at. now let's open it up. even have a squeak in italready, that's awesome. on the inside you couldsee the arrangement is pretty similar to what i used to have in my old tool chest except for this one's much more organized and much more secured. first of all, this was the big concern
was how to get all thesetools in here looking good and nice and secure and safe. just to review of course the planes. now those magnets workedout great, check this out. yeah, i wouldn't trust the magnet alone but it certainly helps thingsas you place a plane in there, the magnet grabs it and it gives a prettydescent amount of resistance. it's the same thing for the number seven.
just by itself with nothingholding it in place, it's up there and thenwhen you add the clip, now you're talking aboutsomething that's secure and not going anywhere and the guides of course on the sides keep everything from moving around. on top here, i've gotbasically just two dowels into the back panel and that was why we wanted that back panel
to be three quarters of an inch thick because we want to put dowels into it and i've got my spokeshaves up there. two dowels hold my littleshoulder plane in place. on the left side of course we'vegot the adjustable shelves, block planes, various different planes that are a lot harder to hang. my router plane, got some bits down here, some bits up top.
basically sky is the limit, it's just whatever you wantto use that's based for. now like i said the inside of my doors, the reason i went with doors was because i thoughtit would be more useful to most people. i don't know what i'mgoing to put there yet, i don't really have a need for it but the great thing is
you always need more storage eventually. that's a future storage option. on this side i decided that i would put a few of these little metal clips and i bought a couple different types. there's ones with thelittle metal arm here and this one is just a springloaded that you lift up and oops, that's what i installed here. i thought what a great idea
to be able to store my papers and things as i'm working on a project. this project is a perfect example of one where i've got a stack ofpapers and sketch up drawings and they just kind of getscattered all over the place and this is a nice way tostore them for later use. you can even put something like maybe a little pencilthrift down at the bottom or something so you couldput some pencils in there
and you may consider puttingthese on the outside. for now i want to just look at wood, i don't really want toput papers on the outside but these things are so easy to install, why the heck not. at some point you may really enjoy having access to them there. that's it for the most part asfar as the interior storage, the only thing left to show you
is the french cleat in the back. the french cleat storagesystem is one of the simplest but one of the most heavyduty ways to hang something and this cabinet is heavy especially when it'sloaded down with tools. you need something thatis secured to the studs and you want to be absolutely sure that the entire piece is supported. it's really easy to make,
all you need to do is takea two to three inch strip of your plywood and puta 45 degree bevel on it, and just make sure you have two pieces because one piece is going to be installed and of course i wouldwant the actual piece, this is just a sample. my actual piece is going to go full length from one side to theother and it gets glued. you might even screw it in place,
whatever you want to do but i would definitely usesome sort of attachment to the back panel because i don't want all of the weight to be pushed on to this topthat puts a lot of weight or a lot of stress on these joints here. if i glue the entire cleatto the back panel as well that helps to distributethat pressure a little bit. once it's all the way across,
make sure that the angleis going upward here. this guy gets secured to the wall and the great thing isthis is plenty long. you should easily beable to hit two to three studs with this. this guy gets screwed to the wall and hanging it is so easy. all you need to do is lift it in place and drop it onto the cleat like that
and it will be completely secure, it is not going anywhere once you do that. that's the french cleat system. well i don't know about you guys but this project really excites me and the tool chest is great but it's not so much theproject itself that excites me, it's the level ofcommunication that we had going into this.
you guys picked the project. you guys gave me informationand advice on the joinery, on the doors, thank you [boas]. it was a constant back and forth as i went through this process and now finally the final product is here. you guys can take that information and use it to make your own stuff. to me, that is why i created the guild
is to create this sort of community where we can all learn from each other, teach each other and just share thisinformation back and forth making us all better woodworkers. hopefully in the future aswe get into more projects that aren't necessarilyjust shop furniture, we're talking real deal projects, it's just going to get better and better.
thank you guys forbeing along for the ride and please let me knowif you decide to build something like this, i want to see it because i had an absoluteblast building this project and i know you guys will too. thanks for watching.