Wall cabinets...cont'd

I last wrote that I was completing a second identical wall cabinet. This has been done since with not too much difficulty. The difficulty was raising the cabinets to the proper height for attaching to the walls. I devised a setup utilizing my rolling shop cart and a spacer which consisted of a wood crate that happened to be very close to the correct height. The rolling cart has lockable casters and this helped considerably. The cabinets are quite heavy since they are mainly composed of baltic birch ply although I lightened some components by using solid poplar and cherry shelving and the doors are fairly light in comparison to the cabinet. I snapped the picture at an angle to display the reinforced corner joinery which consists of long screws capped with contrasting wood plugs. The corner joints are rabbeted and glued together.

I decided to apply light , thinned tung oil to the cherry door frames to both protect the joinery from any moisture change and to keep the wood from staining and attracting dirt. These frames will slowly develop a nice aged cherry look with a patina. My next challenge was attaching the cabinets to the different walls. I gave some consideration to the weight of the cabinets and the tools I would be placing in them and decided on a mounting rail. The mounting rail is installed in the interior of the cabinets at the very top where the top and back intersect. I used hardwood cherry for this and glued and screwed it to the cabinet through the top and then attached the cabinet through the cherry mounting rail to the wall studs using large wood screws. I also screwed the back into the wall studs along the length of the back.

I like to remove any doubt as to the strength of the hanging cabinets as you can see. On the other cabinet I also installed a hardwood cherry cleat below the cabinet and into the wall studs for additional strength but realized afterwards it was not really necessary. It was enjoyable making these cabinets and I now have so much more room for small tools and hardware in my studio. It's great when everything works out as planned!