Nail Gun Cabinet

This week's project was a nail gun cabinet. I have been wanting to make an organizer of some sort for my nail guns for a while now and when I came across a design from FixThisBuildThat I was sure I could make it work. The plans were for a hanging tool cabinet and I knew I could easily morph the plans to fit my needs. 

This was a pretty simple build and under normal conditions can be easily built in a day! I chose to make the project a little more difficult by using dados for the joinery and adding a drawer to the bottom for nails and misc. stuff.

The final dimensions of this cabinet were 22 3/8" wide by 23" tall with a 4 1/4" tall drawer for extra storage. I started by ripping and cross cutting all my parts at the same time, makes the assembly much easier if you have everything cut to the same size.

I used dados and counter sunk screws for the joinery of the cabinet itself. I also took the time to go ahead and cut the dados in the shelves for the dividers. I routed a few extra grooves an inch apart for extra room for maybe larger items in the future or more nail guns.

I used some leftover 1/4 plywood I had for the back, I also drilled some pocket holes in the top shelf to help attach the cleat on the back.

I waited to cut the dividers till after the case was constructed to make sure I could get a really nice fit.

I decided to add a drawer to the bottom of the case for nail storage. I cut the parts for the drawer out of 3/4 ply and pocket screwed them together and dado'd a 1/4 groove for the bottom and screwed it into the back after sliding it in the groove.

I made a false front out of some scrap Alder I had lying around the shop and made a simple pull out of the same material by cutting a simple 7 degree angle. I used a piece of tape to mark the location of the pull so I could pre drill and nail and glue the false front on.

My small screw driver came in handy for attaching the pull from the inside.

I wiped on two coats of polyurethane on the drawer front to help protect the wood.

And there you have it, an easy to build awesome nail gun cabinet. I should have built one of these a long time ago. I would like to thank Brad over at FixThisBuildThat for the inspiration for this project and allowing me to make this video of his build to show you guys.

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Cedar Planter Box

So my mom celebrated her birthday this past Tuesday and I had been trying to come up with what I was going to make for her. Spring time is basically here and I got the fever. My mom loves to work in her yard and decorate outside, so I figured it would be the perfect time to make her a planter box. I I always enjoy building outdoor projects anyways. I wanted to build something a little different from the usual planter boxes and decided that a sort of Greene and Greene style would be cool.

This is really a simple project to build especially if you have a Kreg Jig. I started out with 4 1x4x8 cedar boards from the home store. I cut the short boards on all four sides 3 inches shorter to achieve the look I wanted and inset each end 1 1/2 inches. The cuts for the sides are as follows: four at 21", four at 11", two at 18", and 2 at 14". I also got to use my new planer to smooth out the rough surface on one side of the cedar boards!

  I used 1 inch Kreg screws and outdoor wood glue for the assembly. I drilled pocket holes even across the joining boards and on the end of all the short boards from each side to screw the panels together.

 I cut the frame to fit around the bottom after assembly and the same way for the slats, just measure once the box is built and cut to fit. To make the perimeter of the frame I ripped a 1x4 down the middle on the table saw.

Make sure to leave a gap between the slats for drainage.

Once the bottom is in you can line it with plastic( I used a lawn and leaf bag and cut it down to fit) and fill it with dirt and the flowers of your choice!

Click Here to Download Plans for Cedar Planter Box

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Lumber Rack

Well this project is long overdue and a week late after getting strep throat last week (never want that again). I basically used Marc Spagnuolo's design and adjusted it to fit my needs. I have way more lumber right now than I would normally have in my shop because of all the wood I got in the craigslist deal. I figured by building this rack I could get a lot of my floor space back, and as most guys with small shops know, floor space is paramount.

I cut all the vertical supports to 46" in length, I didn't wanna go all the way to the floor with it due to lack of space in the shop. I used four 6" flat head fasteners from the home store to attach the verticals to the wall.

The shelf brackets are lengths of 2x4's sandwiched in between two pieces of 3/4 plywood. I cut them at different lengths and made the bottom ones just 10" in length as to not protrude out from the wall so much where I would be working. I used my track saw to cut the plywood lengthwise into 6" strips and then cut them to length with my miter saw.



After making a mark 3 1/2" from the top at the front and the bottom at the back I used a straight edge to draw a line between the two and taped them together and cut them on the bandsaw.

I used glue and screws to attach them together and used a scrap piece of 2x4 to set the depth on the plywood pieces.

Once the vertical are all attached to the wall into the studs on 32" centers it's time to attach the shelf brackets. I used 1 1/2" screws on both sides and one 3" screw on both sides to go all the way through to both pieces of plywood (maybe a little overkill).

 After all the brackets are screwed into place it's time to stack the lumber onto the rack and clean the place up.

 I wasn't able to get all my lumber up on the rack but I got enough where now I only have one stack of lumber in the floor about 10" from the wall. The main thing is that now I have my floor space back and have room to move around again in my shop.

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