While most woodworkers I have met are comfortable with making small boxes and projects, they hold back from the larger projects that would benefit them and their shops the most. They think that designing and building a cabinet is just too complicated for them. They build most projects from plans. Their workbenches are built from 2x4s, or built from purchased plans or kits. Their tools are stored in the original boxes on open shelves, or maybe they have some old recycled kitchen cabinets on the walls. Gentlemen, there is a more practical way. You can design and build your dream cabinets in any size you want, very easily, very quickly, and without having a huge shop and fancy equipment.

This book also covers upgrading basic shop cabinets to those being very suitable for office equipment or home furniture, furniture that is far stronger and more durable than the assemble it-yourself, paper-covered desks and bookcases that are so common today. The design and construction of shop vs home cabinets is identical except for the face frame material. If it suits you, you can upgrade the standard shop equipment in the same way.

Here's one true story to think about: A dear friend and I both built the desk shown on the right, at nearly the same time, from the plans in a magazine. He built his out of solid hardwood and veneered particleboard according to the plans. I changed the construction to all plywood, used self-closing kitchen drawer slides so the drawers would work effortlessly, and added a lap drawer because I couldn't imagine having a desk without one. He built his masterpiece in six months. Mine took one week. I like mine better because it is very practical to use, and my drawers work far, far easier. As you read through this book, just remember that one way is not better than the other. Practical Shop Cabinets is going to show you my way to build shop cabinets and office furniture very quickly.

Cabinet Making For Dummies? That is the name first picked for this book. Someone has probably already written that book, or at least owns the copyright to the title. But after stopping and thinking it over for a while I decided that it would not be a fit title anyway; any person who has woodworking for a hobby is no dummy! They enjoy building and creating things. Most of the dummies in the world are glued to their TV screen most of their waking moments, watching drivel. Woodworkers spend what time they can in their shops, creating and dreaming of projects they would like to build, working on the current project, or reading woodworking magazines and catalogs, and dreaming about what if…

Every time I have guests into my workshop, the first thing they remark about is all the cabinets and all the drawers. The next thing they ask is where did I get all the cabinets. When told I built them, they can't believe it. Maybe I just don't look the part of a woodworker, or maybe they simply can't imagine themselves sitting down and designing what they need, and then going out into their shop and building it themselves. The simple truth is I did my homework, read the magazines and woodworking books, and then took the time to decide how to simplify the construction so I build the projects stronger and faster. It is far more enjoyable to design projects yourself than to follow the usually confusing construction methods found in many of the woodworking books and magazine articles. Besides, those projects are usually more suited to someone else.

The beauty of all the projects in this book is that they are all built the same way, using very simplified, yet very strong, construction. This makes them easy and fast to build. The reasons for not conforming to many of the time-tested regular woodworking practices is simple: Time! From the moment a new project is first thought up, my biggest priority is to finish it and start using it. Of course the process of sketching the design, cutting the wood, assembling, and finally finishing the project is also very enjoyable. Although many old woodworking methods are intriguing, I won't believe for a moment that the hobbiest of a thousand years ago would stick with their old hand methods if they had today's materials, glues, and power tools available to them. They would marvel at the speed and simplicity at which they could construct their projects.

The author spent his working career as a contract machinist, and owned his own shop for 19 years. In the highly competitive world of machine shops, the only work you get is when you are the low bidder, often after bidding against many other companies. Then you have to be able to do the work fast enough to pay the bills, meet payroll, make a profit, and live through the beating Uncle Sam gives you when you are finished. The only reason I mention my background is that for most of my life working efficiently was a top priority, and after a while it actually becomes fun to be able to produce just what you want in a minimal time frame that seems very fast to others. This is the way most successful businesses survive. After working in this mindset for what seems to be a lifetime, it has become hard to learn to slow down and work at a more relaxing pace for the pure enjoyment of it, instead of working to make a profit.

Of course there is no reason to rush while enjoying a leisure activity, but if you can't work efficiently, it is hard to accomplish much in a reasonable amount of time, and if you can't accomplish much in the time you do get to spend in the shop, then you really won't have a lot to show for it. During my working days, hobby time was always precious, and I had to use what shop time I could steal to good advantage.

For years I was in a couple of woodworking clubs. I would still be in one, except we now live in the boonies and there are no clubs around here, and for that matter, probably not enough residents to start one. Of course the meetings were fun. Usually someone put on a demonstration of some woodworking technique, and you learn a lot from watching and asking questions. The programs were almost always entertaining and informative. However, to me, the best part of belonging to the clubs was the time spent in other member's workshops.

Poking around in other people's shops, seeing how they do things, and seeing how they had their own shops set up was fascinating. I found that there was usually plenty of room for improvement in the shop cabinet area.

"Boy, if I had a shop like this and all these tools, I could build cabinets like these too!" I have heard that line repeated more times by more people standing in my shop than I care to think about. The truth is that is just a convenient excuse for why most of the things in their shops are still stored in boxes, or on open shelving. Having a nice woodworking shop of course makes the job easier, and more importantly makes the projects go faster, but all you really need to get started is a hand-held circular saw, a router, a sander, and an electric drill.

I built all three of the parts cabinets shown on pages 4 and 28, before I ever had a table saw. I made a rough sketch of the project sizes, drew all the parts on plywood, cut them out on a band saw, and then glued and nailed them together. I did have a cordless drill for driving screws, and a nail gun for driving finishing nails. If you need the storage capacity you will find a way to do the job. A fancy shop and equipment just makes the job go faster. It's not necessarily more fun though! The fun is in building the creation that you designed, and the enjoyment comes from the years of use you get from these projects.

The slides that wouldn't. Replacing an old Craftsman roll around steel cabinet with one that the drawers were actually a pleasure to use was a priority. The old hard-to-work metal slides are tiresome to keep opening and closing all day. I longed for drawers that opened with a slight fingertip's pressure.

Then we had a meeting at a fellow woodworker's shop. This guy was a pro at building furniture for a hobby, and his full time job was as a self-employed finish carpenter. He had a wonderful shop filled with all the latest high-end equipment. He had built cabinets that hung on the walls that all had nice raised panel construction. And he had a bench full of drawers that could hardly be opened. He said that wooden slides are great for light-duty applications, but if you put any weight in them they become very difficult to open and close. Lesson learned! I wanted my future cabinets that I had planned to work as easily as the average kitchen drawer.

The next day I ordered a book on kitchen cabinet making. I really didn't want any kitchen cabinets, but the shop sure needed something, as the telescope parts I was building were stacked everywhere. As I read the book I couldn't help thinking that while the cabinets in the book got the job done, and made nice looking products, they sure were going about building things the hard way. At that time I had built enough wood projects to understand the basics, and it just seemed absurd to build a face frame separate from the cabinet and then expect it to fit right. Why not just build it right in place in the first place? The purist may scoff at those of us who use nail guns and then fill the holes, instead of using a biscuit joiner, but believe me, nail holes can be made nearly invisible. All face frames can still be built in place and attached with just glue and biscuits if you prefer. I prefer building the faster, and I think, stronger way.

Shop space is precious and you can't afford to waste any space, no matter how much you have. It has always been my philosophy that there is never an inch of space that you can afford to waste! Good shop cabinets double your effective space! As you look at the photos in this book you will see that there are drawers in every place that would otherwise go unused. Most of the machine stands have been replaced with large cabinets that offer storage space under them, protected from shop dust. Most of the open shelving simply has been removed. Open shelves are hard to keep clean in a wood shop environment, even one with good dust collection systems. The tools that are used the most should be kept right at your fingertips, so they can be used without a lot of fussing around.

Designing Projects. The challenge of taking a quick thought, a simple idea, and turning it into reality is satisfying! Building things out of wood is a soul-satisfying experience. The hours in the shop are relaxing and fun. Everything from the first shimmer of a rough idea, to sketching the design, and then the actual cutting of the parts, to the assembly, and finally the finishing of the assembled piece, is a blood-pressure-lowering experience for many of us. The years of being able to enjoy our creations is just icing on the cake.

Just the act of making a simple hand-drawn sketch of what is needed, then building it, is fun. To me, cutting, routing, and assembling the individual parts must be something like the enjoyment some people get from working jig saw puzzles.

The idea to write this book started out from the urging of my friends to publish an article about my router table. It was so different from what everyone else had ever seen, so practical, so easy to use, so easy to build, and so space saving. Not only did the router table work extremely well, but the cabinet did not waste an inch of space and was super convenient to use. Five drawers hold router bits, templates, fixtures, and all those other things that you never seem to have a place for.

I decided to write the article, and then problems started to surface. Who should I send it in to? I expected that the so-called high class magazines would freak out when they saw that I leave exposed edges to the plywood face frames and drawer edges. Even though this is shop equipment and not a piece for the dinning room, they would never buy the idea, and I was not about to change my construction ideas to suit them, or even worse, have them rewrite my article into the same thing they always publish, eliminating the real reason for writing the article in the first place.

How about the more typical woodworking magazines? I don't think so. Every article they run seems to assume that their readers are all nincompoops, and have to have material lists, fancy drawings, and of course every part has to be dimensioned. God forbid that the customer would want to think for themselves, or change something, or build the cabinet larger or smaller! In these pages we are going to do the exact opposite. My goal is to urge you to build a cabinet in whatever size you need, to suit the space you have, or to fit you.

What if the person is taller than my short 5' 8"? They may wish to make the top higher so they don't have to bend over so much. But what if they don't have much room, and love the idea and need a smaller version? What if they want to make the cabinet larger?

After a few years of occasionally thinking about writing an article about my router table, it finally came to me that I would just have to publish this book, and show all my designs my way, with lots of photos instead of fancy drawings. Instead of perfect drawings I could urge the readers to use their heads, study my basic construction techniques, and encourage them to sketch their own versions. That way when you find yourself in the predicament I was in, you will know what to do. In my home office I was building furniture for, I had a 54" space, and needed a desk for my computer. Try to find a dimensioned drawing for that! A standard desk is 30x60. I had recently finished the double pedestal desk (a roll-top without the roll-top), so I made a quick sketch, and started cutting wood. I made the one pedestal much larger, and still left lots of room for my legs. Now, 15 years later the desk is well used, yet looks like the day it was finished, the drawers have each been opened a million times or so and still work smoothly, and I still love it. The computers have come and gone every three years or so, but the desk is eternal.

I wanted to show the simple hand-drawn sketches that I draw before starting a project. Can't draw? No problem! Look how I make my hand-drawn sketches, and you can certainly copy that. You could use a CAD program and design every part in the computer, and show great 3-D drawings if that is what you like–but I will probably finish building the desk before you finish your drawing. Either way, the bottom line is for you to fill up your shop with useful, time saving, and space saving projects, and not just talk about it, like most of the woodworkers in my woodworking club spent their time doing.

Build for value. Check out the Swedish workbenches in the woodworking supplier's catalogs. They have one that is 23.5" wide by 93" long, has six tiny drawers and one small cabinet under it, and costs only $1999.00. I have a good chuckle every time I see it. For that price you could probably build every project in this book, and have enough left over for a couple of new woodworking tools. They must sell a lot of those benches because they have been using expensive catalog space to advertise them for years, but I just don't think that workbench would work for me. You could get seven of my workbenches for the price of one expensive and not very practical Swedish antique design.

While writing this book I read about what one author called the perfect router table. It only cost $1000–not including the router! I started laughing. There were no drawers for bits or templates, just an open stand. The router was out in the open and probably twice as loud as mine. An enclosed router is much quieter. My table would cost under $250 with the router. I would rather have four or five of mine for the same price, thank you very much.

This book is about the other end of that spectrum from the typical Swedish workbench and router table above. You can build your own highly efficient storage cabinets, or a customized workbench built exactly to suit your needs. These low-cost projects work much better than anything else seen in other books or magazines. They are quick and inexpensive to build, and will last many lifetimes. Read the whole book through quickly, and then go back and study the construction techniques shown in each chapter. Also see all the shop tips in the last chapter, including the straight edges for cutting long straight cuts and routing slots.

Start building your own custom cabinets and your shop will become better than you ever dreamed possible.