[Chaincarver Steve]

In an on-going effort to rearrange my shop to be more usable and efficient, I'm building various fixtures and storage solutions. Right now I'm in the middle of building a cabinet to store my rotary tools and accessories (Dremel-style and Foredom-style tools). The idea and plan is from an issue of Shop Notes Magazine. I've made the vertical bench top belt sander they featured in another issue. And I'll be building several more of their projects in the near future as well. Interspersed amongst many other projects that are also on my plate, that is.

Most of the dadoes came out great.

But I screwed up and bumped the stop I had clamped (not tight enough, obviously) to my table saw crosscut sled. So a couple of the dadoes came out too wide :furious:

Well, this is a shop aide, not fine woodworking. So I'm not remaking the erred parts. I decided to make some shims to glue into place.

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

The shims run the entire length of the dadoes. After being glued in, they were cut and sanded flush. I think they look decent enough. The one in the first picture will be hidden by a hinge anyway.

Carcass assembled.

The drawers have rabbets to accept the bottoms.

The frames of these drawers are poplar.

 

[Old Air Force]

Nice idea. I probably ought to give this some consideration since my Dremel stuff seems to be in about four different places.

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

Gluing the bottoms in place.

Drawers in place.

Bottom drawer. This one is walnut with poplar sides.

I have the doors fairly close to completed as well. That will be in the next update.

 

[Hunter]

Looks great! If I had room to put one, I would build one too.

Hunter

 

[jharris2]

Nice work Steve.

Subscribed!

 

[davesplane]

LOOKS GREAT!!!
nice idea, might have to make one for myself.:yes:

 

[mike1950]

good idea and nice save

 

[Longknife]

Looks very good so far with the drawer back of walnut and all . Nice fix of the dado, too.

I'll follow this with interest since I need something similar. My Dremel tools are all over the place and it's somtimes hard to find the right one (or even remember I have it :laughing
Are you planning to make the tool stand and downdraft box too?

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

Looks very good so far with the drawer back of walnut and all . Nice fix of the dado, too.

I'll follow this with interest since I need something similar. My Dremel tools are all over the place and it's somtimes hard to find the right one (or even remember I have it :laughing
Are you planning to make the tool stand and downdraft box too?

I am thinking about making the downdraft lap table and the cubby for it. Most likely the arm for hanging the motor as well.

But I'm also seriously considering making a roll around base unit to mount this on to of. The base cabinet would be for my Rotozip, my hanging Foredom-style motor and flex shaft. And possibly to hold all of my carving chisels and so on. That way, most of my carving stuff can be in one unit that I can roll to wherever I need it.

There's a cabinet I've been eyeing in a book and wanting to build for a long time now. It might make the perfect base for this. So yes, I plan to build this entire rosary tool cabinet as presented in Shop Notes. But I doubt I'll add the French cleat hanger on back. And I doubt I'll be stopping where the plan leaves off.

Though I'll probably end this particular thread at the end of the Shop Notes build then start a separate thread when the time comes to proceed with the base unit.

Thank you guys for following along and for the comments. I'm getting ready to glue the bit holders to the doors. More pictures to come later.

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

Looks very good so far with the drawer back of walnut and all .

I can't go around having the back of the drawer looking less than beautiful! You think I'm some sort of savage animal? :laughing:

When I was looking for wood to make the drawer from I came across a walnut 'scrap' (actually, a cut-off from the Baileigh build... that I'm not done with... yet) that happened to be the exact width and length I needed for the front and back of the lower drawer. But I had to re-saw it to thickness, which gave me two pieces the exact size I needed. It was a no brainer at that point.

Now I'll get to see the nice looking walnut back whenever the drawer is opened or taken out. I'm OK with that.

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

Finished drawers.

Doors.

Door joints. Not quite perfect but, considering I had to remake the short pieces because of lousy layout/setup at the table saw, it's good enough.

One of these days I'm going to make a nice drill press table like one I saw in a magazine a while back. I thought it was in a Shop Notes. But I've scanned my collection of hard copies and didn't come across it. I'm thinking now that it may have been in a Wood Magazine. Gotta' dig a little deeper.

Until that day comes, it was easier to rig up a cradle to hold my bit holders at the appropriate angle for drilling the bit holes. I made the bit holders out of mahogany. I failed to get any photos of the process. But I did simplify it somewhat from the design in the plans. I also added one more hole per holder.

The lines I drew on the cradle are to allow for even, consistent spacing of the holes.

 

[gstanfield]

Very nice work on a really useful project; even the mistakes turned out good! I think I may have to steal this idea for my own rotary tool collection, it's all currently in three different boxes in my shop.

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

Very nice work on a really useful project; even the mistakes turned out good! I think I may have to steal this idea for my own rotary tool collection, it's all currently in three different boxes in my shop.

If it was my own idea I certainly wouldn't mind at all if others recreate it. I'd encourage it, actually. But this project is being built from plans in Shop Notes Magazine, which makes it even easier for others to make their own. :thumbsup:

This has been mentioned many times around the forum already but, anyone who still does not subscribe to Shop Notes is really missing out on a lot of great ideas.

You mentioned my mistakes. I thought about not mentioning them at all. But, well, it doesn't help others to gloss over or pretend that I don't have errors in my builds. Even the masters do. But it's the recovery that seperates the decent from the crap. Rather than hide that mistakes were made or be embarrassed by them, take pride in creative solutions and successful recoveries. In the end, no one else will ever know.

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

I went with a different profile for my bit holders than what is demonstrated in the plan. I failed to take pictures of how I cut these. It was as simple as cutting 6 pieces from a long strip of mahogany. I then beveled both sides of each on the table saw. Finally, I ripped each one in half to give me two holders, for the total of 12 the plans called for.

The plans show 7 holes drilled in each bit holder. I went with 8 instead. No since making a large holder only to hold less bits.

This picture shows the spacers I used to align the holders. The widths are largely arbitrary. The important thing is that they allowed me to get even, consistent spacing on the holders.

All of the holders are glued to the insides of the doors now. The plans show them glued and screwed. I decided that screws are unnecessary and that they would be aesthetically detractive. That's also why I changed the profile of the holders.

You may notice the wider spacing in the middles. I'll be using that space to create a few custom holders for things like the collets, the collet wrench and whatever else strikes my whim. Though I almost wish I'd just made two extra bit holders like the others. But at this point I'm not going back and making any more to match. Since these ones are already glued in place I can't readily alter spacing now.

 

[SebringDon]

I really need one of those, and since you're nice enough to do a build thread, I can "look over your shoulder" as I work on mine.

Can you tell me which issue of ShopNotes this appeared in? Thanks!

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

It's in issue # 124, July/August 2012. I should have mentioned that in the first post.

 

[gstanfield]

If it was my own idea I certainly wouldn't mind at all if others recreate it. I'd encourage it, actually. But this project is being built from plans in Shop Notes Magazine, which makes it even easier for others to make their own. :thumbsup:

This has been mentioned many times around the forum already but, anyone who still does not subscribe to Shop Notes is really missing out on a lot of great ideas.

You mentioned my mistakes. I thought about not mentioning them at all. But, well, it doesn't help others to gloss over or pretend that I don't have errors in my builds. Even the masters do. But it's the recovery that seperates the decent from the crap. Rather than hide that mistakes were made or be embarrassed by them, take pride in creative solutions and successful recoveries. In the end, no one else will ever know.

I have just started a subscription to this mag and so far I agree 100% that it is well worth the price. The how-to threads with pics are incredibly valuable to guys like me who have some woodworking skills, but are still fubling around with some of the finer details.


As to the importance of how to recover from mistakes, I agree wholeheartedly on that. At work I do monthly training for my guys and most of the time I base them off of situations that started off going bad and then ended well. We all make mistakes, the seperator in life is those who learn from the mistakes and those who continue on without learning anything. :thumbsup:

 

[Old Air Force]

The is only one way to totally avoid making mistakes: don't do anything.

 

[Chaincarver Steve]

Now to make the special holders:

I cut two holders out of padauk. The profiles are different than the bit holders. Since these are custom holders I needed to decide exactly what I wanted them to hold.

The four holes on the right are for a set of four collets. The bigger hole to the left of them is for an extra collet nut. I first drilled a hole large enough for the round part of the collet nut to fit inside of.

After that, I drilled a smaller hole (inside of the larger hole) for a dowel to be inserted. I also cut a slot to hold the collet wrench.

Not that the collet nut would fall out, but I like the idea of a dowel in the hole for that extra snugness. Plus, it looks cool!

The first accessory holder is glued in place. I filled it to demonstrate its usage.

For the other door's accessory holder, I started by making a holding slot for my Foredom-style chuck key.