Well my carpenter skills are being called up yet again to build some furniture for our Land Surveyors Field Office.

I have been tasked to build a set of 6 lockers to house each crews equipment, the equipment consists of levels, transits, GPS equipment, radios, and other misc gadgetry that we need to get our job done. These lockers will be locked, and the shelves will be adjustable with one fixed shelf towards the bottom quarter of each locker.

 

Here is a overall drawing I made just to get my material list together and to create a cut-list.

 

The ply I am using is really good quality, some of you may remember the crud I used to build the Surveyor's trucks boxes, it was pure crud. I told the command that if they want me to build more for them, I need to have good material, so I was able to get this 3/4 Maple ply that is very tight in ply's, voids are rare, and a pleasure to use.

Also, the ply is pre-finished, it has a wonderful factory satin clear coat both sides, so I do not have to finish these cabinets but for some of the trim and face-frame. The pre-finished was an extra 15 dollars per sheet, we purchased 16 sheets, do the math and its only 250 dollars more,  that's half a days wages for me, and it would take me much more time than that to finish the cabinets as we normally would.

I ripped down the sheets to 24" each, this ply is great to work with in another way as well, they measure 48.5" by 96.5" leaving extra to trim off bad edges created during travel and to also get a full 24" width on the table saw.

 

After I ripped down the sheets, I had to cut them down to 80.5" as the lockers will sit on a 3.5" toe kick frame, we'll have an over all height of 7' per my drawing.

 

I made the cross cuts on my CMS, cut it once, then flipped it over to cut the rest of the way, it worked great. Typically I'd set my straight edge up on the full 4' by 8' sheet and cut the length with my Skil saw, but I wanted the cleaner cut that the CMS gives, so I chose to rip the sheets down first, then finish the cross cut length on the CMS.

 

1st cut

 

Flip and ready for the 2nd cut

 

I assembled the first locker in no time, I am building two lockers at once, two lockers will be in one unit, each unit at 48" wide. I did not take pics of the assembly of the case, sorry, I'll get some on the next case. The pic below show the back panel I am installing, it is 1/2" thick, and I am using it to square up the case, I use the factory edge to secure one side of the case, then I use the end factory edge to square up the top, or bottom, doesn't matter. This way I have a case that is squared up to the back panel, it's very convenient to use this method when working with large case work, as the case can be floppy and racky.

 

I left the back panel run wild, once the case was squared up to the back panel, I used a flush cutting bit to cut the end off, and everything was perfect, I pulled my diagonals with my tape measure and everything was spot on, both sides.

 

Once the end was cut, I screwed it in place as well. This locker is almost done, I have the oak face frame secured, no images sorry, the divider installed, and now I need to route the grooves for the shelf standards. The doors soon to come, but I'll do the doors all at once, after all three 48" wide units are complete and installed.

I have three days to complete three units, we'll see, but it's looking good.

See ya'll tomorrow with more progress shots.

 

As I started reading, I was going to suggest pre-finished.   Good choice.

3 minutes ago, kmealy said:

As I started reading, I was going to suggest pre-finished.   Good choice.

First time I have ever used pre-finished Keith, I love it, if I do case work again that requires a clear coat finish, this is the way to go. Really, no finishing? How cool is that! A money maker if you are in the business of case work, and a great time saver.

Looks good so far John.

Hope you have help to load them. The weight of those units are going to fool folks.

Edited May 22, 20187 yr by Grandpadave52

5 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Looks good so far John.

Hope to have help to load them. The weight of those units are going to fool folks.

They're starting to get heavy already Gramps. I'll have help loading them up for sure, thank goodness!

 

Nice iron in the background...you been holding out on us...?

Looking forward to the rest of the build...

There is something so satisfying about building a box that squares up with that last piece. Nice work. 

 

Those are going to be some mighty fine looking lockers, John!

What are they going to do when you retire for all these building projects? Looks like it will be really sturdy.

love pre-finished plywood.  saves so much time later.  used it for our entire kitchen.

 

you still need some fret-work and corbels.....

16 hours ago, schnewj said:

Nice iron in the background...you been holding out on us...?

Looking forward to the rest of the build...

thanks Bill, the build is going good, it was all aholes and elbows in my shop today trying to meet deadline, but it aint gonna happen. I finally just said, screw it, it is what it is. I started in on the second cabinet today, I am supposed to have the third done by end of business tomorrow, but I called the boss and said, it just aint gonna happen, more like next week, they were fine with that.

 

The iron is my collection I absolutely love, I spent the better part of the last 10 years acquiring those planes you see, they replaced my Stanley's. In the background is a mix of Veritas and Lie Nielsen, I absolutely love them, and they are lovely to use. The shaves hanging on the wall I have not had a chance to use yet, I bought them last year with a little bit of tax refund while I was getting into my shaker rocker, and I decided I want to use some shaves in the process, so I picked up the whole Veritas chair set of shaves, so now all I gotta do is start another chair!

16 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

There is something so satisfying about building a box that squares up with that last piece. Nice work.

Even if it was by accident!

15 hours ago, lew said:

Those are going to be some mighty fine looking lockers, John!

Thanks Lew, they are turning out quite nice, the guys at work should happy.

11 hours ago, Gerald said:

What are they going to do when you retire for all these building projects? Looks like it will be really sturdy.

Well Gerald, I guess they'll see what a real professional cost when they have to go out and hire, and pay prevailing wages for a contractor insured and bonded and with a ton of overhead! Ya, they'll miss me.

8 hours ago, DAB said:

you still need some fret-work and corbels.....

You know, I just may have to surprise the guys with some extra unplanned styling DAB, thanks for the suggestion!

Deadlines.... it’s done when it is done. This is one off custom work. If you can do better, I have other things to do. 

Some long overdue images, sorry for not getting back here.

 

This is how each locker started life out, on the floor, with the sides joined by butt joints and screws, since the lockers are sandwiched among eachother, and between walls, I did not feel a need to get too fancy with joinery, plus time was not on my side.

 

Once I got the four sides together, I set the cabinet on rollers so I could roll it around the shop and outside or wherever.

 

The face frames were pieced on, one section at a time, countersunk and screwed, plugged the countersunk holes with dowels, then sanded flush.

 

The bottom shelf is fixed, to give the center divided stability, then I cut the shelf standards to length and screwed them in. I was going to route a groove to mount the standards into, but again, time was crunching, I was forced to take shortcuts. So I surface mounted the standards.

 

One of three lockers, ready to deliver, no doors yet, I had to get back to my real day job, survey work was waiting on me so we all decided to forgo the doors for now, till I have a lull between survey jobs again.

 

I made a cabinet base from 2x4 DF from the big box, secured the base to the walls, then set the cabinets on the base, then shimmed the cabinets tight and screwed them to the studs at the back and right side wall, and I screwed them to the base as well.

 

3 cabinets, each 24" wide by 84" tall. Finished maple ply with oak face for the faceframes.

 

Looking into the equipment room from our crew office area.

 

Thanks for following along!

 

 

Mystery of the lumber stack solved.

Nice, clean work. Betcha you could hire out as a cabinet maker if this surveying gig doesn't pan out.

what Gene said...

but only...

VERY nice, clean work.....

41 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Mystery of the lumber stack solved.

Well actually Gene, I only need three of those sheets for the doors, the rest goes back to the office storage. The ply sheets on my bench in the other topic were today, before I cleared off my bench to make room for another surveyors office project, a retirement gift for one of our retirees. Those cabinets were installed about a week and a half ago.

 

Thanks for the kudos!