Lista Cabinets come to the 12-Gauge Garage -- and I've got questions
I'd like to say that Lista Corporate saw a great marketing opportunity and sent a truck with some nice green cabinets for me to choose from. But of course, that's not ever going to happen.
Instead, I bid on a couple of old and abused cabinets (and in my opinion paid double what I should have), but decided I wanted them even if they were overpriced. I think Lista (as opposed to Equipto, Vidmar, Rousseau, or Nu-Era) carries a name-recognition premium now, kind of like Wilton in the vise world.
Here's what I had. It's not just a 'perfectly fine' setup, it's a damned nice one. The desk is made with Equipto cabinets and the tool boxes are good ol' Craftsman.
I think the proportion between the desk and the tool stack look pretty great (not that I think about that sort of thing too much). But the problem for me has been the depth (and capacity) of the Craftsman stack. Since I don't roll it anywhere, the shallow drawers don't offer any real tool-holding benefit. I've got room there in that corner for more storage -- and it's been eating away at me. I don't like wasting space. And I've got too many tools for the stack.
The idea is to replace the tool boxes with a single cabinet with a bunch of nice, deep drawers.
So, cut to the ebay auction and the impulsive bid. I ended up paying just over $500 for two very beat-up Lista cabinets. I mention the price because it irritates me. I wish I had gotten them for less. If I'd been more patient, I'm sure I could have.
Also irritating is the fact that I didn't really plan for these kinds of cabinets in this space when I built the work bench. The upshot was that there wasn't enough room for a 29"-wide cabinet next to the bench, so the bench top had to be shortened by 2" to make room for the new stack.
First, everything had to come apart:
Then the cuts:
I should have cut it upside down. I know that. But I'd already done the line on the top -- and the edge cleaned up all right. And I hit it with some of the same stain.
I don't think losing the 2" will kill me. But now the pegboard and shelf up above the bench will be just slightly off center. For me, that will just have to be one of those 'relax, it's a garage' things. I had to re-radius the outside corners:
Bosch jig saws are the best.
So, having bid yesterday, I went out and picked them up today. Here's the old Jeep with over 800 pounds of cargo stuffed in the back:
The heavier of the two has 11 drawers, arranged kind of crazily, with a bad repaint and a swapped in drawer that leaves an inch of gap for no good reason.
The other one has a punched out lock and the same bad paint. I'm not sure why someone attached the one handle crooked like that.
They need a good cleaning, but there's a lot of configuration options with them.
And it's nice to have a drawer this big with complete access and a ridiculous weight capacity. The dollar is to show scale.
They're green. Which would be great if I planned on keeping them green. But my instinct is to paint them red with black drawers, just like I did with the Equipto cabinet I cut up for the work bench. I've considered painting them green with black drawer faces, but I'm leaning against it.
It would be nice to have a green cabinet chip green. But they're a different shade of green from the rest of my cabinets.
My plan is to take the two units and combine them into a single stack with 14 drawers and a space at the 36"-37" mark to prevent a drawer from hitting the edge of my metal-topped bench when they extend out. The drawers will be arranged as:
2”
2”
2”
2”
2”
3”
3”
4”
4”
Gap Frame 1-1/2"
4”
4”
6”
6”
12”
If there's enough room, I'm going to also put one of the 2" drawers under the bench top where I sit.
Here are my questions for any Lista experts out there.
First, are they actually Lista cabinets? No tags are left on them. Second, are they BOTH Listas? They're the same depth and width. But there are construction differences which are going to keep me from mixing and matching the two into a single stack without any regard for what goes where. The heavier (480 lbs) one has this kind of interior:
The lighter one (350 pounds) has a different setup:
Is this an age difference thing? Or a model difference? Any information would be appreciated.
Great video too!
