Turn the Knob

As I was turning all of the knobs for my tool storage cabinet, it occurred to me that this might make a good video. So here it it is.  Click on the picture to watch.

Before and After

I had an old office desk that I did not need in my office so it wound up in my shop. I thought the drawers would be useful and it had a big horizontal surface that might be useful. Unfortunately, I think there is a Murphy's law corollary that goes something like, " Any horizontal surface in a shop will fill up until it is no longer functional." Here is a picture of my Before view with the desk.

So I decided to solve this problem by designing a storage cabinet that could also serve as a desk for those times I need a desk in the office or when I do pyrography. I analyzed my storage requirements and thought about how I could incorporate a desk unit. This is what I finally came up with after many hours of design consideration and  two weeks of dedicated flat work. I wound up with a unit of 12 drawers and 6 doors.  I thought about the pulls I wanted. I have more than 60  brass knobs from my kitchen after my wife wanted oiled bronze. But I am a turner so who wants to use old brass knobs when you could turn knobs and make the unit more distinctive. I am also writing an article on turning knobs so this gave me a reason to gain some knob turning experience and make pictures for my article. So I made a screw chuck and a few days later I have my 19 knobs. All are face grain except for the shaker style pull needed for the slide out desk unit.

I was able to use some of the plywood from the shipping crate from my Rikon bandsaw. The slide out desk tray was a scrap of cabinet top I salvaged from a neighbor's kitchen renovation and a scrap of melamine I had on hand was perfect for the inside surface. 

And a side benefit was being able to move the desk into my wife's sewing area to serve a new life as the base for her quilt cutting table! This was the most complex flat work project I have done.  If I have to do something like this again, I will certainly take the time to obtain and learn to use some type of design program.