Small(er) drawer cabinet

wanted a a tool cabinet with smaller drawers to hold tools. I got tired of looking in a drawer that was over full with junk or wasting space with only one small item.

Started by making a standard box out of ¾ ply:

Tool Cabinet Box

Then I gave it the seal and sand, nothing fancy, just a couple coats to keep the Kool-Aid stains off it.

Tool Box 2 Kool-Aid

I cut up the wood for 5 drawers:

Drawers all cut up

Glued them together, ignore the ugly ones….

Drawer pieces glued together

Mounted them up with full extension drawer slides. Shout out to habitat re-stores!

Cabinet drawers mounted with full extension slides

Put the faces on and finished it up with some pulls I had.

Finished tool cabinet with drawer faces and pulls installed

Here is an action shot before the face plates made it on:

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Storage bins

I found some neat storage bin plans here: https://wilkerdos.com/product/storage-bins With some extra plywood I had laying around, I made some.

Made a couple large:

Pair of large plywood storage bins built from scrap wood

And a couple small:

Pair of small plywood storage bins built from scrap wood

I think they came out pretty good, just going to use them in the shop. The scrap I had was ¾ “ so the will hold just about anything .

After you get the build down, you can make any size to fit your needs.

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Parts Washer

Got me a Harbor Freight parts washer and moving thing to put it on. There are a ton of videos on modifications and how to put it together on the internet. Not going to put you through all that. Just going to show what I did.

I will not be using this for heavily soiled auto parts or farm equipment. Mostly weapons and parts, and to ‘finish’ clean other items.

Harbor Freight parts washer mounted on a moving dolly

I purchased the Oriflo With Hose (OR101H) Flow-Thru Parts Washer Brush and Immersion Water Heater from Amazon. The rest of the items I had laying around.

I did not realize the heater came with a timer, the price was the same as the ones with the timer. I removed it and put a standard plug in it place.

Timer removed from the immersion water heater and replaced with a standard plug

Before I put the plug back on, I drilled a hole above the full line for the cord and put a grommet in.

Grommet installed in a hole drilled above the fill line for the heater cord

Ran the cable and put the plug on:

Heater cord routed through the grommet with the plug attached

I dont want the big metal sprayer thing. I took it off and put a fitting in its place:

Metal sprayer removed from the parts washer and replaced with a hose fitting

I cut the end off the brush hose. It was designed to fit over the end of the metal sprayer. I then slid it over the fitting and clamped:

Parts washer brush hose cut and clamped onto the new fitting

I had to order the drain plug as it is metric:

Metric drain plug installed in the parts washer basin

I built a PID for casting and I have an extra temperature sensor. I drilled a hole in the wash shelf and ran the cable through the grommet.

Temperature sensor cable routed through a grommet in the parts washer shelf to the PID controller

The only other modification I made for now is putting a block of wood on top of the power switch to stop some of the wobble.

Block of wood added on top of the power switch to steady the parts washer

Next up is testing.

Sweet success! I used plain water for the the just in case. It took a long time for the flow to start. So long that I removed the brush and blew air through the tube to make sure it was clear. That must have primed it, started flowing after that.

Parts washer brush flowing water successfully after priming the line

No leaks at the drain after 24 hrs….

Parts washer drain checked for leaks after 24 hours, none found

The PID worked as well. Set it at 100 degrees for now. Can adjust as needed.

PID controller display showing the parts washer heater set to 100 degrees

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Staying on track!

I wanted to add some T-Track to the end of the counter in the office. I could then do some medium and light work in the Better cooled Office area.

I started by making a couple passes with the router, going a bit deeper each pass until I got to the right depth. ½ inch.

T-Track slot routed into the office counter in progressively deeper passes

Then I tapped it in and made sure it was flush:

Making it flush
Making it flush

Got it screwed and and tested with the Present Arms setup.

Testing
Testing

Works great!

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Keeping it Cool!

Installed portable Air Conditioners not only to keep things cool but to drop the humidity as well.

First I cut a 4 inch hole in the wall for the exhaust, hit a 2×6 on my first attempt…

Keeping it cool!

Put a vent cover on, sealed and painted it up:

Keeping it cool!

The exhaust pipes on these 2 units gets VERY hot. They might heat the room more than the unit cools it. I bought some insulated ducting and ran the exhaust pipe through it:

Keeping it Cool!

It worked! It is not cold, but it is probably 75% cooler.

Getting the Electrical work done!

One of the first things we did was run power for the lights. I decided to do switched plugs, that way if I wanted to change or add more light I just needed to attach a cord and plug in.

Getting the Electrical work done! lights
Getting the Electrical work done! lights 2

I ran 3 – 20amp circuits in the Shop:

Back area:

Back shop plugs

Front:

Front Shop Plugs

And side:

Shop side plugs

Hung the lights and fan in the office area:

Office Lights

Then ran 2 circuits Back and side. Both are shown here. You can see the hole in the side circuit, I will be adding plugs to the desk area when I build it.

Office Plugs

Thats it for now. I will post some stuff on the AC later…

Shop Wall and Ceiling work

Working on the walls and ceiling. We decided to go with 6 inch tongue and groove. Is was easy to install for the wife and me. We started in the office:

We are starting at the bottom and not going all the way up with our drywall until the ceiling is finished. We are trying to be productive with what we have on hand.

and

We insulated the dividing wall to help with noise reduction and climate control:

Then we started with the shop:

Ceilings complete!

Closed up the drywall in the office:

Finished up in the Shop and store room:

And:

Still need to float and tape, but the heavy lifting is done.

Shop interior framing

We got the interior framing done. We started with the external walls:

Then we added the fire breaks: Thanks to the guys on MeWe for helping me decide to add them. https://mewe.com/join/home_workshop_

Next we added the slats to the ceiling:

We got the spray foam done in between things

Got the interior office/man cave wall built. It is 15 feet in and the entire 30 foot length.

And here is the 10×10 storage room:

Next up ceiling and ceiling