Cabinet Saw Room Refinements Part 2

The real focus of this post is the cabinets I mentioned a few weeks ago. But before that, I have some insulating to do. For some context, the exterior deck/garage ceiling also extends over a small section of the cabinet saw room. I had a lot of small pieces of OSB sheathing left over from insulating the garage ceiling, so I bought some more insulation material and got stuck in.

I'm covering up several electrical junction boxes, so I was sure to mark the appropriate panels with red tape. This way I'll know which panels to remove if I ever need to get at any of the electrical.

All done. I'm not looking to add structural support to this area, so I was able to make use of a lot of what would otherwise have been scrap OSB sheathing.

Put the lights back:

Now onto the real business. This is how the table saw room looks after I installed a timber shelf/platform and wall-panel over the somewhat uneven concrete.

Fast forward to the weekend just gone and I picked up some 3/4" Baltic birch plywood on the way home from work. This is expensive material but is also extremely flat and well known for its easy machinability and screw holding strength that’s superior to other plywood options. These qualities mean it is dense material, but that is not a problem for this particular project. You can learn all about Baltic birch plywood here.

 

I spent a couple of hours building my prototype cabinet, and checked that it would fit and look ok.

There is a gap of about 3/4" between the top of the cabinet and the floor joists, in case I want to finish the ceiling in this area, although I think that's unlikely.

Time to go into production! I need a total of eight (8) cabinets, so seven (7) more to make. The plywood sheets are actually too heavy to lift on my own, so the first step is to cut a strip 30-1/4 inches wide off each board using the "track saw."

This piece can then be trimmed to precisely 30 inches wide with the table saw. 

I can just about lift the leftover two-thirds of a panel on my own, and pass it twice through the table saw, so that after almost 45 minutes of hard manual labor, I ended up with a pile of 30" x 48" panels.

The top, bottom and both side panels are all the same size: (30" x 11-7/8"), which means I can cut four, enough for one cabinet, from a 30" x 48" panel, without any waste. 

I've always hated sanding, but it's a necessary evil...

Sanded side panels (14): 

I'm joining the panels with pocket screws. Apart from being quick and cheap, I can take the cabinets apart later if I ever need or want to:

Sanded top and bottom panels with pocket holes bored (14): 

I modified an earlier jig to work with 3/4" plywood:

Assembly is of the "build two halves and then connect" variety. Since all the panels are the same size, I don't have to worry about orientation.  

I checked every cabinet for square before installing the pocket screws.

The inset back panel measures exactly 30" x 28-9/16" because the plywood is actually 23/32" thick instead of the advertised 3/4."

The strength in the cabinets comes from the thickness of the plywood and the excessive number of pocket hole screws which secure the back panel: 

Peg holes were drilled with the Kreg™ jig. I bored three sets of peg holes because most of the shelves will not be the full depth of the cabinets.

I'm assembling the cabinets in batches of two or three because they take up a lot of space in my workshop.

I'm installing the cabinets in the cabinet saw room in two banks of four, starting at the workshop side. I placed and leveled the far-left cabinet first and then aligned the other cabinets with that one.

I used the laser level to help me get the cabinets lined up perfectly.

I left some 3/8-inch gaps between pairs of cabinets to allow the power cords to pass through.

The first three cabinets were straightforward but then I ran into the heating duct... 

I could work around the duct, but instead I am going to redirect it. The first step is to cut out the 90-degree bend:

The old piece is on the right. I will be replacing it with the smaller piece on the left.

I'm installing ducting which consists of a flexible plastic-wrapped core that is sleeved with fiberglass and aluminum foil.

Connection #1: flexible duct to 45-degree elbow with foil tape:

Connection #2: 45-degree elbow to area below vent with A LOT of foil tape:

Connection #3: flexible duct to rigid duct followed by placement of fourth cabinet:

The end cabinets were secured to the base panel/shelf...

...and all cabinets were secured to the floor joists and to each other. I didn't buy any of the brackets for this project, I just used up whatever I had in the shop because ultimately none of them will be visible.

Section one complete. I'll be calling these cabinets the "Left Bank" for identification within the (future) lighting system.

It makes sense (to me) to start installing the right bank at the point where the older part of the building meets the area below the deck, since there is a difference in the height of the ceiling, and then work right to left. 

Two down, two more to go....

After placing and securing all four of the "Right Bank" cabinets, I have a gap at the center:

This is useful since I can still access the 220 Volt outlet for the cabinet saw, but the real purpose of this space is to house the lighting control module and a couple of other things.

I installed a two-inch-wide strip of plywood below the cabinets to cover the imperfect transition to the mounting panel and then I fixed several outlet banks at intervals along the wall.

All cabinets and electrical secured:

I made some shelves from the leftover plywood.

I will be making doors for at least two of the cabinets which will be used for storage. I want to make something a bit more interesting that a plywood door, so I am looking for ideas at the moment. The other cabinets will be used to display some of my collections and will have either glass or polycarbonate panels at the front.

To be continued....