I just got the tool cabinet up on the wall, it took my wife, my son and met all together to lift it up high enough. But I’m getting ahead of the story.
I sanded the outside of the cabinet with 220 then brushed on three coats of amber shellac. It’s not fancy, but it will give it a bit of protection from dirt. By the time I’d done three coats on all the exterior surfaces I was pretty comfortable with brushing shellac.
I also slathered the inside of the cabinet with a coat of Tried & True Oil/Wax finish, except for where the drawers will go.
Then I had to hang the doors. I made some little stands to hold them at exactly the right height, which made getting the hinges on a piece of cake. The #4 screws that came with the piano hinges were pretty short (1/2″) so I picked up some longer 1″ screws.
Then I screwed the french cleat to the wall, I drove 3″ deck screws into 3 studs that I was able to span. Below that I have another strip of plywood that I’ll screw into through the back of the cabinet (behind the drawers) to help support the weight.
(off camera, heavy lifting noises)
No ominous creaking sounds. I drove in the support screws and started loading in tools. I still need to make the drawers and hang tools on the inside of the doors. I’ll work on that this week. It feels pretty good to have this much finished. Something about the perspective in this picture make the cabinet look smaller than it is. It’s big, and heavy. It’s about 48″ square by almost 18″ deep with the doors.


























