Hiding the 21st Century...

...right below the 21st century.

One thing I love about a hand tool shop is that you can listen to music or talk radio while you work and never really miss a word or a note. I've had my iPod dock and XM radio in my shop from day one and use them every time I'm out there. What I didn't like was how they were just sitting on the floor out in the open. This hanging cabinet was the solution. I had originally planned on just doing a painted poplar cabinet, but I've had this walnut hanging around forever so I figured the no cost feature was nice. And I couldn't bring myself to paint the walnut!

The construction is nothing fancy, just rebate joints top and bottom of the sides and a dado in the middle for the shelf. French cleat to hang it on the wall. Didn't even bother with a back. The one thing I did that was new for me was to re-saw a piece of crotch walnut to bookmatch the panels for the doors. Just did the re-saw with my 22" rip saw; didn't take long at all and did a pretty fine job. Smoothed things up a little with the plane and put a crude bevel all the way around to fit into the mortice and tenoned, grooved frame doors. Finished them up with a card scraper to deal with the crazy grain of the crotch wood. When I went to glue the doors up, I decided that I liked the look more with the beveled panels out rather than in as I'd originally planned. Had I known that I'd have maybe took a little more care with the beveling. Oh well, I'm happy with the look and it is just shop furniture after all. I really like using that excuse; gives me a license to not feel I have to be absolutely perfect.

I didn't want to really spend much on nice hinges, but I didn't want shiny brass either, so I bought shiny brass hinges from Lowes for a couple bucks a pair and gave them a 24 hour vinegar bath. That gave me the look I wanted. The finish is just a couple coats of Minwax Antique Oil Finish. After hanging it and putting in my equipment, I finished things off by plowing a groove in a piece of pine, painting it white, and using that to cover the plug wires heading down to the outlet beneath the cabinet.

I may get around to putting handles on it one day, maybe not. Same goes for a catch. The doors stay closed on their own so no rush there either. Now to replace that ugly grey metal breaker panel door with a nice wooden one...

Here's an old pic I found that shows where the radio used to reside.

The one in progress pic I took; chopping out the rebate, later smoothed out with the rebate plane.

21st century sound box hidden. Right under the split unit heating and cooling system. :-)

What's behind closed doors.

And the cable trough.