Custom Project

Whats A Bastard Wall Cabinet Without More Shelves

The plane shelf Ive built into the Bastard Tool Cabinet is designed to fit my bench planes. Since Ive already got a few specialty planes (shoulder and router) and Im sure that I will acquire more, I made the plane shelf lift on a hinge. In the triangle shaped plenum behind the plane shelf Ive mounted two standard, horizontally installed shelves.

The Shelf Pieces Test Fit.

In order to install the shelves behind the plan shelf, I began by resting the semi-assembled cabinet on its back. I then took two cutoffs of 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood I had left over from cutting the carcass components and slid them under the plane shelf. I positioned each one as high as I could, given the clearance behind the plane shelf, and took a look. As my dumb luck would have it, the cutoff pieces ended up being just the right width. I made a pencil mark under the edge of each shelf and pulled them out.

Squaring the fence for the Domino.

Next I flipped the plane shelf out of the way and using my Woodpecker 12" try square, I extended the shelf marks perpendicular to the carcass side. I cut the shelves to length and began Dominoing.

In order to reference the Dominos in the back of the carcass, I clamped in a temporary fence along the bottom edge of the shelf positions. I referenced the bottom of the Domino machine against this fence and used the retracting pins in the face of the machine to determine the Domino frequency.

Dominoing the shelf ends. The notes will hopefully prevent me from screwing the matching Dominoes in the carcass side.

In order to Domino the shelves, I clamped them flat to a piece of OSB and referenced the back of the Domino machine against the OSB sheet. Even though I havent begun to Domino the side pieces (or the top, back or bottom of the carcass for the side pieces) I decided that Dominoing the ends of the shelves to attach them to the side piece would be too difficult after they were installed. In order to pre-Domino the shelf ends I again clamped the shelves to a piece of OSB which I referenced off of. In order to account for the fact that when I Domino the side it will be referenced from the back of the cabinet I used a 3/4" Baltic Birch spacer to set the location of the first Domino in the drawer ends.

Clamping the shelf.

When the Dominoing was finally complete I glued in the shelves one at a time. I squared the shelf using my Woodpecker Clamping Squares and because the shelves only run the 16" width of the plan shelf, rather than the full with of the cabinet carcass, I used a rather oversized piece of TimberStrand as a caul so that I could ensure clamping pressure at the inside edge of the shelves.

Arent Dominoes pretty?

With the two shelves installed behind the plane shelf, my planned interior organization is done (Ill figure out the rest after the fact). Now its on to finish assembling the carcass.

Do you remember to install hard to reach interior components when you should, or do you fight them into a finished carcass?

Other Bastard Wall Cabinet Posts
Winter Wall Cabinet Wonderland
The Bastard Wall Cabinet (for tools!)
Trudging Towards Tool Storage
Cutting the Cabinet Carcass (in relative terms)
A Home For My Planes
Continued Wall Cabinet Assembly