 
Have
you ever gotten irritated by not being able to find the right bit for your
drill press when you needed it? Probably never had that problem have
you? Yeah right!! Well me too, and as I was leafing through
some back issues of Shopnotes Magazine
(Number 16), I ran across a nice plan for a cabinet that would house many
types of bits.
It
didn't look too difficult to build and could be made from some scrap pieces
that I had laying around in the shop. You can see the completed cabinet
with its magnetic catch and mounted on the wall directly behind my drill
press in the southeast part of my shop in these two photos (above).
I think it looks pretty neat and it sure solves my previous problem of
not finding bits when I need them!
 The
plans called for cutting the pieces for the sides, tops and bottoms of
both halves in the total of their widths and then (after assembly) cutting
the completed box in two halves on the table saw. So, I started out
by cutting the pieces to size. After the pieces were cut out, I set
up a dado set on the table saw and cut rabbets on the tops and bottoms
of the pieces. The photo on the right shows the pieces after the
rabbets were cut.
I then
took the pieces to the router table to rout grooves along the lengths of
the pieces where the front and back pieces were to fit prior to splitting
the "box" in two. You can see a couple of pictures of the pieces
just prior to assembly below.
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Full side piece showing
both the
routed grooves and the dado
cut rabbets.
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Another view of the
side and top pieces
after dados were cut and
the grooves
were routed.
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Next, I began the process
of inserting the front and back pieces (sorry....no pictures of the front
and back pieces) into the grooves and glued up the sides, top and bottom
making an enclosed box. You can see the "box" in the photo on the
left after the glue up and clamping had been completed. That wasn't
too tough to do!
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After the glue had dried, I
took the box to the table saw and cut one of the long sides, the top and
the bottom at the center of the box. Before I cut the last long side
in two, I placed a narrow, 1/8" thick scrap piece of wood into the groove
made by the saw blade and taped it into place with masking tape.
This of course, was to prevent the box from collapsing and pinching the
blade while making the final cut to split the box.
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At his point I was ready
to mount the piano hinge that would hold the two halves of the box together.
You can see an opened view and a closed view of the two halves after mounting
the hinge to both halves in these two photos. Prior to mounting the
hinge, I routed a relief into the two sides where the hinge was to be attached
and at a depth matching the thickness of the hinge.
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The next operation was to make
the pivoting tool holders for the inside of the cabinet and the stationary
shelf that was to be mounted in the door half of the cabinet. Each
slot width in the pivoting tool holder had to be cut at different widths
and the plan didn't call this out since everyone does not have the same
kinds and sizes of bits and tools. So it was left up to the builder
to determine how many slots and at what widths they were to be made.
After I took a look at the diameters lengths of the shanks on my forstner
and spade bits, I began this time consuming process. A few photos
along the way with this task are shown below:
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  There
were a couple more steps involved in this project but, all in all the completed
drill cabinet looks good and is very functional for the purpose for which
I decided to build it.
The photo on the left shows
the tool holder in the straight up position that is the normal position
when the cabinet is closed. The photo on the right shows a view of
the cabinet with the tool holder tilted outward which is the way it was
designed to access your tools.
This project was designed
for function instead of the use of really good materials. I used
left over hard maple, poplar and plywood to make the cabinet. You
could use better looking materials for a really nice looking case but in
my shop, there will be dust collecting on it which I'll have to clean off
and I decided not to waste really good wood on it. Bottom line is
I had a lot of fun making it.
Your comments are welcome
and you can get them to me by the e-mail address below.
Dave
dave@oldaveswoodshop.com
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