Simple cabinets and drawers for a non-woodworker

[AndyCBR]

Hello guys,

I'm looking for some direction on what is the best way to make simple cabinets with drawers for a person who isn't a cabinet maker by trade. Full disclosure I don't really love woodworking.

I'm looking to replace a few 2x4/plywood/4x4 workbenches with cabinets with siding drawers and maybe a double 3/4 plywood work surface. I just need more storage for small stuff and the space under the benches is mostly wasted and totes and shelves are a PITA.

Also making a few shelving units with drawers for screws and hardware.

Nothing fancy, just strong and functional. I don't care if screw heads are exposed and the most finishing I would do is round over the drawer faces with a router.

I don't have a table saw but I would be willing to buy a small, cheap one or invest in a track saw. I would buy a dado blade setup if I had to.

Thanks in advance.

 

[extropic]

Have you considered using the Harbor Freight 44" base cabinets (about $350 on sale) for your drawers and building (or have built) a steel frame to house the HF cab and provide your bench frame/surface?

I've seen a number of such custom builds on this site and The Hobby Machinist site.

It depends on your tools and skills, but if you're "a non-woodworker", are you a metalworker?

 

[ssdave]

There is no way I would build a cabinet/bench with the information you have given me. I'd go right down to Harbor Freight, and buy the 44 inch toolboxes. For $340 that they're on sale now it isn't worth it, since you don't love woodworking and don't have the tools. http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352972


You'd have probably at least $300 in some kind of a saw and the materials, and they wouldn't work as well when they are done. And, if you move, the toolboxes are moveable and saleable. Just make a top to go on them to use as a workbench.

I've always made my workbenches before; my new shop I'll have to make one heavy duty workbench that will have vises and such on it, but the rest of it will be HF boxes with a top manufactured for them.

Adding a postscript since extropic posed while I was typing: You don't have to make a fancy steel frame and such to go on the tool cabinets to hold the top. If you were willing to live with homemade cabinets with exposed screws and minimal finishing, just build a top that will go over them, bolt it on with some carriage bolts or blind screws in from inside the cabinet, and you'll have very little work in them. You can also frame some wood in around them if you want. Or, you can make a showcase bench out of them; as mentioned there have been some great custom setups showcased on here. If you want a bench that is wider than one cabinet, just screw them together with small bolts through the side of the tool boxes to gang them together.

 

[chaosracing]

Hello guys,

I'm looking for some direction on what is the best way to make simple cabinets with drawers for a person who isn't a cabinet maker by trade. Full disclosure I don't really love woodworking.

I'm looking to replace a few 2x4/plywood/4x4 workbenches with cabinets with siding drawers and maybe a double 3/4 plywood work surface. I just need more storage for small stuff and the space under the benches is mostly wasted and totes and shelves are a PITA.

Also making a few shelving units with drawers for screws and hardware.

Nothing fancy, just strong and functional. I don't care if screw heads are exposed and the most finishing I would do is round over the drawer faces with a router.

I don't have a table saw but I would be willing to buy a small, cheap one or invest in a track saw. I would buy a dado blade setup if I had to.

Thanks in advance.

Till you would go out and buy all the tools, you are better off either buying something at HF, TSC, Sears, etc or finding someone to build you what you want.

Just FYI, small table saw cost is around $499+, dado blade $100, router $150+, router bits $15 up to $100 per bit, you can buy sets to. Then factor in material cost and your time and aggrevation.

You could also just scour craigslist for used kitchen cabinets and then modify to suit your needs.

 

[nine4gmc]

Hey Andy, pick up a few 2 or 3 drawer file cabinets, build a base frame out of 2x4's on edge with a setback for a toe kick and put your double plywood top on. You can get file cabinets with different size drawers, standard and lateral file cabinets.

Or cruise around and look for people throwing out base cabinets during remodeling if you want wood.

 

[Stobal]

You would be very surprised what you can accomplish with a pocket hole jig (such as a kregg), a decent circular saw and cutting guide, and some plywood. It won't be super fancy, and will take some time with just a circular saw but it is doable. Since you said you don't enjoy wood working you might find it especially tedious without nicer tools to increase efficiency. It is hard to suggest any one design or solution because, we don't have a lot to go on from your post. I would also say that all the previous ideas are sound advice. The HF 44" boxes are great and you can design a lot of divider organizing systems for those drawers. There are plastic trays, small plastic jars, plastic bins etc.

 

[MarkG]

Buy 'em somewhere. Doesn't sound like you have the experience, tools or desire to make good ones, so don't even spend money on 'cheap tools'----that would just make your experience doing something you already don't love, even worse.

Alternatively-----hire a trim carpenter.

 

[AndyCBR]

Thanks all for the suggestions.

1) I own the HF 44 top and bottom box. OK for tools but as a basis for a workbench for me it would be lots of wasted space mostly due to the depth. I am looking to make drawers a little wider, much deeper and taller than the HF44 drawers.

2) I own a router and miter saw and I'm not a total doofus when it comes to trim carpentry. I've made a small finished shelf or two, installed cabinets (pre made) and put up crown (coped and all). I was mostly looking for the simplest cabinet construction ideas. I don't really have room for a table saw and would probably go the track saw route to accurately knock down the large stock. But, no table saw, no dado which makes true cabinet work more of challenge.

3) I may just draw something up and have a cabinet guy build something. Unfortunately, I live in post flood Baton Rouge, LA. Who knows how far cabinet shops are out and I have heard their prices have dramatically increased if they would even return your call in 6 months. I know some people are going out of state for cabinets and having them shipped in.

 

[chaosracing]

Thanks all for the suggestions.

1) I own the HF 44 top and bottom box. OK for tools but as a basis for a workbench for me it would be lots of wasted space mostly due to the depth. I am looking to make drawers a little wider, much deeper and taller than the HF44 drawers.

2) I own a router and miter saw and I'm not a total doofus when it comes to trim carpentry. I've made a small finished shelf or two, installed cabinets (pre made) and put up crown (coped and all). I was mostly looking for the simplest cabinet construction ideas. I don't really have room for a table saw and would probably go the track saw route to accurately knock down the large stock. But, no table saw, no dado which makes true cabinet work more of challenge.

3) I may just draw something up and have a cabinet guy build something. Unfortunately, I live in post flood Baton Rouge, LA. Who knows how far cabinet shops are out and I have heard their prices have dramatically increased if they would even return your call in 6 months. I know some people are going out of state for cabinets and having them shipped in.

Instead of buying a track saw (those are pricey) you can buy a regular circ saw. Kreg has a set up for ripping down large sheets of plywood (Lowes sells or get online $35) Buy a Kreg K5 pocket hole kit. ($100-150) You can also make your own track out of plywood as well. Go to Home Depot or Lowes and have them rip a piece of MDF at 12" and one at 2" Glue and screw the 2" on top of the 12" so that on one side you have 8" single layer and the other side is 2" single layer. Then run a circ saw down both sides (8" side gets the wider base, the other side use the narrow base) and boom, you have a track saw.

Since it sounds like you are planning on this not only for storage, but to work on, build a frame out of 2x material and use drawer glides. Then make plywood boxes to go in between the frames. You can close off the ends with plywood. Thats probably the easiest. The more complex would be to build a plywood box for each section and then screw them all together to form your base. Then build drawers out of plywood.

 

[lilredex]

Have a look here, about a simple as it gets, if you want to build your own.

 

[eric_koski]

http://sawdustgirl.com/how-to-build-a-cabinet-with-pocket-hole-screws-2/

 

[mike93lx]

track saws are very useful, but if you don't break down a lot of sheet goods, making a saw guide is a much cheaper option: http://www.woodmagazine.com/woodworking-tips/techniques/sawing-solutions/circular-saw

With one of these, you could easily build cabinets. A table saw makes repetitive cuts, especially relatively thin ones a lot easier though.

 

[Sticks McGee]

With what you have you could do a very simple design:

Make a framework for the bench and storage underneath out of 2x4s. The areas where you want to make drawers underneath frame 2x4s running up and down for a place to attach your drawer slides. The back can be left open if it goes against the wall. Each end can just be skinned over with 1/2" plywood. The framework being out of 2x4 you can just use the 2x4 as a face frame. Figure out your height, width and depth of the drawers and just build simple boxes. I would build the sides of the drawers out of 3/4" ply or maybe 5/8". The drawer bottoms can be 1/2" ply. These all can be assembled with deck screws and glue. The cabinet boxes will be framed with 2x4 and skinned with 1/2" ply and would be very strong. Use deck screws and not drywall screws for their better shear strength. This method would give you the flexibility to build the bench/cabinets/drawers whatever depth, width and height you want. This is what I plan to do in my garage.

I am going to build a work bench 16' long. I am going to divide the underneath basically into four 4' wide sections. Two of these I am going to leave 4' wide and the other two I am going to divide those in half. The 4' wide sections are going to have two doors to open and there will be basically an upper and a lower shelf to put things on. The other two I am going to make two banks of 24" wide drawers in. I will decide on the drawer heights when I make them.

 

[chrisBTSC]

Check out my garage thread. I was in the same boat as you with a 2x4 and plywood bench/shelf. I ended up using Ikea kitchen cabinets. So far they have been great and not expensive at all.

http://http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=349732/

 

[Squashfest81]

Jump on Craigslist, you should be anyway, and grab some lateral file cabinets. Nice deep drawers that are perfect for all your larger tool storage. I have a 42in wide 5 drawer that holds all my large tools and even spare electric motors. They can handle the weight.
Post up when you do.