Bill’s Saw
Cabinet 1 - Building Cabinet
by Bill Taggart
I built this simple saw cabinet to better organize some
of my old hand saws. I actually converted an open saw
till that I had built a couple of years earlier by
enclosing the, top, bottom and back and putting a door
on it.
As my shop is a very full one-car garage with wood and
“stuff” piled all over, I wanted them to be protected.
Since the garage faces the street, I also wanted to keep
them out of sight.
As built it holds 12 saws, but the dimensions could
easily be changed to accommodate a larger arsenal – or
you could just build several and hang them in a row.
I built the carcase of ¾” birch plywood, but of course
you could just as easily use pine or whatever other wood
you like. I used the birch plywood because I had some
lying around from some other old project and I wasn’t
trying to make a Krenov cabinet or anything.
Since I was going for expediency and utility rather than
beauty, I used rabbets for the carcase joinery. I glued
and screwed the rabbets, which makes a very strong case
that is easy to square up. I rabbeted the back into the
rear edge of the sides, for strength as well as to hide
the back.
The saws handles all rest on a 1” diameter dowel, as
shown in the drawing.
To locate where the dowel needs to
go inside the cabinet, I clamped the dowel horizontally
in my bench vise and then balanced my biggest hand saw
on it vertically. I wanted the saws to just lean into
the cabinet slightly – just enough to keep them from
falling out – so that they could easily be grabbed and
tipped out. Once I figured where the right saw angle
was, I held the saw there and measured distances
relative to the dowel to determine where the slotted
blade holder and the back, bottom and top needed to be.
The dimensions shown are what I came up with; you should
check the dimensions of your own saws to figure out the
exact dimensions that will work for yours. One thing to
be aware of is to make the dowel high enough up off of
the floor of the cabinet so that the bottom horn of the
saw handle does not hit the cabinet floor. If it does, the saw
will not sit properly on the dowel. Do not ask me how I know
this.
Slots are 1-1/2” apart and 1-7/8” deep. End slots are
3/4” from ends.
The goal is to have the saw resting on the curve behind
the top horn of the handle only, as the drawing illustrates. In
my cabinet, this required about an inch of space underneath the
dowel.
I made a raised panel door to cover the whole thing with. The
drawing does not show the door.
I think if I were going to build it again, I would probably make
it bigger to hold more saws, with two doors, and I would include
drawers on the bottom for files and saw sets and such. The
second drawing shows what it might look like.
December 10, 2005
© Bill Taggart
...part 2
