The Cabinets

So, as you can see below, my garage is a mess and in need of organization. One of the first things I did was to build 6 cabinets to get stuff up off the floor. This was a big project without a proper work space. Depending on good weather to coincide with my time off was a challenge. I will say that I over built some parts but I did not want these cabinets to ever fail. I used 3/4 inch plywood to make sure they were sturdy.

Yes, what a mess.

I used my Paulk work bench and cross cut jig to break down the plywood into the tops/bottoms and sides. I wanted to maximize the size of the inside of the cabinet while making efficient us of the plywood. I cross cut the sheet of ply to 30 1/4" for the tops and bottoms. The interior width of the cabinets is 30 inches. Each end fits into a 1/8" rabbet in the sides. The ply was then ripped to a width of 11 7/8". I added 3/4 poplar edge banding giving me just shy of 12 and 3/4" for the interior depth. I was able to get all 12 tops/bottoms out of one sheet of plywood. I cut the sides also using the Paulk bench and cross cut jig.

The tops/bottoms and sides waiting for some edge banding.

I marked one top/bottom and side for the location of pocket screws and biscuits. I then used that piece as a story stick to transfer the marks to all of the other pieces. This is one place I may have over built - using pocket screws and biscuits to attach edge banding.  Glue and a brad nailer would have been sufficient and would have been A LOT FASTER. However, I was not sure if the glue bond would be good enough without using clamps and I do not have near enough clamps to have done this. So, pockets screws served as my clamps.

I used my table saw and fence to help cut the biscuit slots. I used the biscuits to keep the edge banding aligned while I screwed in the pocket screws.

I trimmed the edge banding flush with each piece using the Paulk cross cut jig before I plugged the  pocket holes.

The pocket holes were filled with the plugs.

 Ok, so I had a very LARGE number of plugs to trim and I was not going to use a saw to cut them nor was I going to sand them all down. That would have been a real pain.

 So I built a flush trim router jig out of some 1/2" plywood

The bottom of the bit is just shy of being flush with the bottom of the jig.

 The plugs are sanded after being trimmed with the jig. The jig saved me SO much time.

I used my Dado stack and a sacrificial fence to cut the rabbets in the top and bottom edges of the sides. The rabbet is 1/8" deep.

I used a Kreg shelf pin jig to drill the pin holes. With 12 sides and only one jig, it took a while.

I drilled pocket holes on the outside of the cabinets as they will not be visible. I drilled them in the top and bottom edges as well as the back edge for the bottom pieces.  I only drilled them on the back edge of the side pieces.

I put sides of the cabinets together while sitting on the back pieces. The back are 3/4 plywood and slightly oversized.

I used squaring jigs that clamp on the inside of the corners. I also measured the diagonals to confirm the squareness of the cabinets.

You can see the back piece is proud of the sides/top/bottom. I used a flush cutting bit in my router to trim them to size. 

Here are the 6 cabinets stacked - waiting for the French cleat to be added.

I started to hang the cabinets by putting the French cleat on the wall. The cleat goes all the way to the corner but the cabinet will not go into the corner. I will hang 5 cabinets along the back wall and one cabinet on the right hand wall. I mounted the first cabinet and double checked for level. I used 2 stainless screws per stud. Had to make sure they were long enough to go through the 3/4" ply and 3/4" drywall and get enough purchase into the stud - 2 1/2" screws did the job.

I hung the second cabinet. I put another strip of ply on the wall to tip the bottom of the cabinets out and make them hang perpendicular. I had the make some adjustments to the left side of where the 3rd cabinet will hang. Seems the guys that built our house could not build a flat wall. There is a SIGNIFICANT hump in the wall at this location. Shims were used the make cleat level. 

The third cabinet is now up on the wall.

I had to use a lot of shims to make the cleat level for the last 2 cabinets.

Finally I have 5 on the wall. Once all of them were hung I put a second 1" wide strip of ply directly underneath the cabinets - drilled into the bottom strip - works like a ledger board. Just extra added support as I will be putting a lot in these cabinets

I loaded them up with a lot of stuff to clear up the floor space. You can see the 6th cabinet on the right. The shelves are 30 inches wide and may have significant weight on them. I cut a piece of poplar edge banding wider than the width of the shelves. I then cut a 3/4"wide and 1/4" deep rabbet for the shelf to fit into. This will greatly decrease the potential for the shelf to sag.