Alan,
First, thanks for the great ideas on building a work island. I have just completed a renovation of an outbuilding on my property – I’ve gained an 18 ft by 30 ft woodshop area (as well as a 24 ft by 30 ft auto shop area).
I plan to build an island similar to what you have described in FWW. Simple question: can you elaborate on the method of cabinet construction. I’m mainly interested in the joinery you favor when building the particleboard cabinets.
Thanks so much for the inspiration.
tg
Replies
tg,
My cabinets are simple boxes, open on the door/drawer front side, constructed entirely from 3/4" thick rectangular particleboard particle board panels. cab.jpg attached shows as an example the unit under my dust collector. The cavity on the left is for the DC chip collection bag, and the right side storage unit has a single shelf. I draw the cabinets out using a computer drafting program to be sure I get the dimensions of each panel correct. I try to cut each panel to size and square to within +/- 1/32". To assemble the units, I clamp the butt joints together, then pilot drill and countersink holes for 1-3/4" #8 square drive screws, setting a screw every 8" to 10" along each joint. I buy my screws by the thousand (about 2 cents each) from wwhardware.com. I lay out my cabinets with 1/8" x 3/4" dados at each joint, (cut with a router) to help with joint alignment at assembly, and I think the dados make the finished cabinets a little more rigid. It would be faster and easier to leave off the dados, just be sure to carefully clamp the panels into position before drilling and setting the screws.
The payoff to building the boxes accurately to size and square (and getting the base platform level) comes when fitting the doors and drawers... so much easier when everything's square.
Alan
Thanks for your reply. As I had expected, your method is simple, yet effective.tg
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