Building Storage Cabinets: An Introduction

Since we're talking about storage cabinets and not cabinets that will go in your formal dining or living room, it makes sense to buy cheaper or strong, yet roughly finished storage shelves for outfitting a shelf section of your garage or other storage area.

Building storage cabinets for a garage or other storage space is the perfect project for families and others looking to exercise their basic or advanced woodworking skills. There is plenty of room for flaws as these cabinets will be used for storage areas and as such as purely functional pieces.

There are some basic components to any storage cabinet project:

• Carcass
• Kick plate
• Strong back
• Face frame
• False front
• Doors (optional)

It will also help a great deal to become more familiar with some woodworking terminology before begin your project:

• Dado - channel cut across a board into which a second piece of wood is fitted
• Miter cut - an angled cut across the thickness or width of the board.
• Kerf - the width of the blade
• Rabbet - an L-shaped cut
• Countersink -
  
  
  
  to set a screw head at or below the surface of wood
• AA lumber - lumber which has a good finish on both sides of the boards
• Dowel - a wooden pin shaped piece of wood that is used to provide alignment and strength
• Ripping - A cut made along with the grain
• But joint - the square end of a piece of wood that butts up against the flat surface or end of a different piece of wood
• Shim - A thin and wedge shaped piece of wood that is used for spacing or leveling

For more information on building your storage cabinets, check out a do it yourself site such as http://www.diynetwork.com where you'll find many plans and tips for your next do it yourself project.


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