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Homemade Fossil Storage Cabinet


Sagebrush Steve

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I know there have been several threads on TFF that talk about storage cabinets for fossils, but since they are all a bit old I will start a new one to describe the storage cabinet I am in the process of making.  It's not done yet but I thought I would show progress as I make it.  A few things about the design.  First, I wanted it to look at least somewhat presentable so I wouldn't have to stash it in some out-of-the-way location in our house.  To keep the cost down I am going with oak-veneer plywood for the outside case, not solid oak.  I'm using ordinary sanded plywood for the drawers, with solid oak dress panels at the front.  The overall dimensions were driven by a couple of factors.  First, I don't own a table saw or miter saw, so it had to be something I could make by just using my handheld circular saw.  (I use a guide to make long straight cuts.)  Also, I don't have a pickup truck so I had to have the 4x8 plywood sheets cut in half at Home Depot so they would fit in my SUV.  That limited the maximum dimension to somewhat under 48" (Home Depot saw cuts are pretty atrocious on plywood).  I decided to go with a design that had 10 drawers whose inside dimensions are 20x17".  The lower two drawers are an inch taller than the rest.  I also decided to use drawer slides for a smoother operation when opening the drawers.  That meant the overall cabinet design was just about 36" high by 24" wide by 20" deep.  Since I'm an engineer by training I felt it necessary to design the entire thing in Visio and use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the dimensions of each piece, taking into account the exact measured thicknesses of the plywood.  Here's what the design looks like:

 

5a1afd4a0a878_FrontView.thumb.jpg.bfdf3ef2a17f50ffc2b8f2ee4fd4e608.jpg5a1afd5d78cb3_FrontCutaway.thumb.jpg.fb1ac34ff3081f88cf12ea2385f7e7d7.jpg

 

I've been leisurely working on building it for the last couple of weeks and estimate I still have about a week to go.  Here's what it looks like so far:

 

Partially assembled, held together by clamps and screws:

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Drawer design.  Note that I have done a somewhat unusual design.  Instead of using 1/4" hardboard that is held to the sides by dado cuts (which would be OK if the drawer was for storing lighter things like clothes or towels), I used much more solid 1/2" plywood screwed to the sides.  You might question this design, but look closely at the drawer slides and you will see they have "L" shaped ledges that screw to the underside of the drawers.  So the drawer slides are supporting the drawers by their bottoms, not their sides.  This design is better for holding heavy objects like fossils.  To keep the cost down I used inexpensive drawer slides rated for 50lbs each, which should be sufficient for the invertebrate fossils I collect.

Drawer.thumb.jpg.c5104a6c8c6ca13aac9c844e5a8ca673.jpg

 

Now I need to finish gluing and ATTACHING all the sides together, add the top, install the dress panels around the top and bottom, cover the screw holes with wood plugs, cut the drawer dress panels to final size and mount them, stain everything, and add a clear polyurethane coat to finish it off.  Should be done by Christmas.

 

 

 

 

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That's pretty cool! You certainly have some great skills. Will you also be adding some kind of spacer in the back so that when you pull the drawer out, all the fossils are visible? It is a common problem with pull-out cabinets like this where the upper drawer tends to obscure the view of the specimens placed way at the back. I suppose the easier solution is just to not put specimens back there. :P 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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WOW! Very nice!! I’m very impressed!

 

I want one!! Only I’m certain I can’t afford your hourly rate. LOL

You must be some kind of design engineer or architect or you just plane missed your calling in life. That is a superb piece of design work and craftsmanship to put it together. I’m left in awe of our knowledge and skill to develop that from the bottom up. So very cool.

Please do share the finished product with us when you get there. It is already very impressive.

I am not a professional in that area. But a couple years ago my son decided he wanted to build a solar water distillation device for his 7th grade science project. They had size limits for and device that were ridiculously small. It had to be something like 15 x 18 x 12 or something like that. I had what I thought was the perfect plan and design in my head until I saw the size limits. Anyway, I helped him build it. I did a lot of work with him. We had to revise the design a couple times due to leaks, but we eventually got it to mostly work. I thought it looked pretty pathetic, but 

he actually ended up winning first place in his category with maybe 275 kids in his category of water purification. He refused to go to the state competition with it. Argh! But he ended up with the science award of the year.

That tiny project took so much work from my son and I and it looked pretty pathetic. So, I can’t even imagine the work you’ve put into this to make it look so amazing already. Kudos!

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Very nice.  I recently  built a cabinet after having looked for something appropriate for some time. It has 8 drawers, each 28x18x4 1/2.   Making the drawers was a lot of work.

20170601_183408.jpg

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3 minutes ago, Kane said:

That's pretty cool! You certainly have some great skills. Will you also be adding some kind of spacer in the back so that when you pull the drawer out, all the fossils are visible? It is a common problem with pull-out cabinets like this where the upper drawer tends to obscure the view of the specimens placed way at the back. I suppose the easier solution is just to not put specimens back there. :P 

Yeah, I’ve thought about putting a false back on the drawers so you can’t put fossils back there.  Then I can use that hidden space to store jewelry, gemstones, and spare hundred dollar bills. :D

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5 minutes ago, Sagebrush Steve said:

Yeah, I’ve thought about putting a false back on the drawers so you can’t put fossils back there.  Then I can use that hidden space to store jewelry, gemstones, and spare hundred dollar bills. :D

:rofl:

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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3 minutes ago, KimTexan said:

WOW! Very nice!! I’m very impressed!

 

I want one!! Only I’m certain I can’t afford your hourly rate. LOL

You must be some kind of design engineer or architect or you just plane missed your calling in life. That is a superb piece of design work and craftsmanship to put it together. I’m left in awe of our knowledge and skill to develop that from the bottom up. So very cool.

Please do share the finished product with us when you get there. It is already very impressive.

I am not a professional in that area. But a couple years ago my son decided he wanted to build a solar water distillation device for his 7th grade science project. They had size limits for and device that were ridiculously small. It had to be something like 15 x 18 x 12 or something like that. I had what I thought was the perfect plan and design in my head until I saw the size limits. Anyway, I helped him build it. I did a lot of work with him. We had to revise the design a couple times due to leaks, but we eventually got it to mostly work. I thought it looked pretty pathetic, but 

he actually ended up winning first place in his category with maybe 275 kids in his category of water purification. He refused to go to the state competition with it. Argh! But he ended up with the science award of the year.

That tiny project took so much work from my son and I and it looked pretty pathetic. So, I can’t even imagine the work you’ve put into this to make it look so amazing already. Kudos!

Thanks for the compliments!  Yes I was a design engineer before I retired, but that was for electronic products.  Your story about your 7th grader reminds me of my own 7th grade science project.  That was when I still planned to be a paleontologist when I grew up, so I wanted to do something along those lines.  Since there were no dinosaurs to be excavated nearby I decided to do the next best thing.  I had a pet rabbit that had died a few years earlier and was buried in our backyard, so like a good paleontologist I took shovel in hand and excavated her.  Fortunately she was mostly just bones by then.  With wire and glue I was able to fit her back together, and although she also looked somewhat pathetic I won first prize.  My aghast mother made me bury her again afterwards.

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Gosh Steve, that was so nice of you to make me a cabinet.  Your a swell guy...I don't care what everybody else says about you!

 

 

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1 hour ago, caldigger said:

Gosh Steve, that was so nice of you to make me a cabinet.  Your a swell guy...I don't care what everybody else says about you!

Of course!  Here you go.  You only need scissors.  It's just like cutting out paper dolls:

 

Cabinet Design v4a.pdf

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2 hours ago, Sagebrush Steve said:

Since there were no dinosaurs to be excavated nearby I decided to do the next best thing.  I had a pet rabbit that had died a few years earlier and was buried in our backyard, so like a good paleontologist I took shovel in hand and excavated her.  Fortunately she was mostly just bones by then.  With wire and glue I was able to fit her back together, and although she also looked somewhat pathetic I won first prize.  My aghast mother made me bury her again afterwards.

That is a pretty funny story. You must have had a very patient mother who had a lot of self-restraint. I’m not sure I would have permitted one of my kids to dig up their cat that we buried in the back yard. Your project was much more interesting than any science project I ever did in school. 

It seems all my projects involved growing something. In middle school I remember doing a project on phototropism with bean plants. In college I did a circadian rhythm study on drosophila fruit flies. 

In my clinical studies for my laboratory scientist degree I grew clinically relevant fungus so I could create a mycology atlas for a teaching aid and reference guide.

Thankfully when I got into real life scientific research it was a lot more interesting and rewarding. I got to study human white cells and develop new assays. I even have one method that is used around the world now in organ transplant for the majority of solid organs that get transplanted. My department got moved a few years ago so now I only do clinical work and don’t get to do clinical research anymore sad to say.

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That is a beautiful design, well done. Might want to put some kind of a stopper block in the back edge so you can't accidentally pull the whole drawer out and dump everything on the floor

Old map cabinets make good storage cabinets also if you can find any

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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5 hours ago, Sagebrush Steve said:

Now I need to finish gluing and all the sides together, add the top, install the dress panels around the top and bottom, cover the screw holes with wood plugs, cut the drawer dress panels to final size and mount them, stain everything, and add a clear polyurethane coat to finish it off.  Should be done by Christmas.

 

Well I just learned something interesting about this forum.  If you carefully read the first sentence in the above quote from my first post you will conclude there seems to be a word missing immediately after the word “and.”  It was a verb that describes inserting screws into the sides of the drawers and is a word that ends in “ing.”  I first thought I had forgotten to type it but I’ve tried to edit it twice and both times it won’t insert it.  I guess I understand the reason, but for those of you who are scratching your heads wondering what I wrote, hopefully this helps. :)

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1 hour ago, Herb said:

That is a beautiful design, well done. Might want to put some kind of a stopper block in the back edge so you can't accidentally pull the whole drawer out and dump everything on the floor

Old map cabinets make good storage cabinets also if you can find any

Thanks.  The drawer slides I am using have automatic stops.  You can’t pull the drawer all the way out unless you first tilt it upwards.  The drawback of this design, as @Kane pointed out, is that the last quarter of the drawer remains partially hidden by the drawer above.  It’s a price I’m willing to pay.  I agree about map cabinets and also old dental cabinets.  A retired dentist across the street from me has some really nice ones.  He’s moving to Dallas and wants to sell them but he is asking $1500 each, well out of my price range.

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We are all putting you on our list as your recipient for next years Secret Santa and crossing our fingers.  

Ya the cost of the dental cabinets I have seen are insane.  I was lucky to get a homemade architectural drawing cabinet off Craigslist for not too much. 

 

 

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Nice job Steve, I know some members were looking for designs to build their own cabinets and you've done a better job that I ever could of illustrating.

I never used those mechanical slides for my fossil drawers but they are pretty slick, and sturdy. I used the old 'tongue-in-groove' type slides for my fossil units, but recently built a cabinet for my CD collection and used the metal slides like you have. I've learned that if you're careful you can lift them up a bit (up and over the little kink that stops it from rolling) and pull them out further to get a look at the fossils (or CDs in my case) in the back, so you don't have to have wasted space back there. You just have to keep ahold of them as they will drop down otherwise, but this is no different than my old tongue-in-groove drawers. So far I've not had any disastrous accidents, knock on wood.

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Nice job! I've been thinking about building something myself. Any idea of what something like this cost you to build if you don't mind me asking? 

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Nice job.  I used to work in a furniture shop... we made handmade lodgepole pine furniture and we used the same drawer glides.  They are really smooth and strong.  I recpommend them to anyone else making a fossil storage cabinet.

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23 hours ago, Yvie said:

You could spice it up a bit,like this one I saw advertised in an auction!

Screenshot_2017-11-26-21-13-03.png

I want that! What auction @Yvie no doubt I’ve missed the boat. 

20 hours ago, Sagebrush Steve said:

Well I just learned something interesting about this forum.  If you carefully read the first sentence in the above quote from my first post you will conclude there seems to be a word missing immediately after the word “and.”  It was a verb that describes inserting screws into the sides of the drawers and is a word that ends in “ing.”  I first thought I had forgotten to type it but I’ve tried to edit it twice and both times it won’t insert it.  I guess I understand the reason, but for those of you who are scratching your heads wondering what I wrote, hopefully this helps. :)

:rofl:

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4 hours ago, Ropterus said:

Nice job! I've been thinking about building something myself. Any idea of what something like this cost you to build if you don't mind me asking? 

Sorry, not cheap.  I estimate I have $350 into it counting all the drawer glides, oak veneer and sanded plywood, screws, glue, etc. not counting the new tools I used this as an excuse to buy. :)

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Nice job! The cost (other than labor) is in the finish materials, but even at $350 it's nicer than what you would otherwise get for that amount. I built mine with full-extension drawer glides but that runs the price up even more.

 

If you added cut sheet layouts for the various parts this would be a complete how to.

 

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Man, Cali is expensive, haha. I made this one for right around $350, and used some soft close full extension drawer slides off of ebay.

 

Plan on making a second. They are replacing the 3 metal flat file cabinets I currently have storing everything. Top is 28x42 with 4 (ea) 3" deep drawers and 4 (ea) 5.5" deep drawers. I used some salvaged Pecan (from hurricane Katrina) for my drawer fronts, still need to plane and run some 1x6's through the jointer for the bottom drawers that are missing.

 

Even at $350 you cant beat the price. The particle board version sold by Martha Stewart (@Home Depot) is up around $550...

 

20171029_195159.jpg

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2 hours ago, erose said:

Nice job! The cost (other than labor) is in the finish materials, but even at $350 it's nicer than what you would otherwise get for that amount. I built mine with full-extension drawer glides but that runs the price up even more.

 

If you added cut sheet layouts for the various parts this would be a complete how to.

 

Thanks, erose.  I thought about adding insert dividers but didn’t for a couple of reasons.  First, from a practical perspective I don’t have a table saw to easily make the dado cuts in the drawer sides.  There are ways to get around that, but since I am still in the early stages of my collection I am not too sure about what I will be collecting or the range of sizes.  So I thought I would have more flexibility by using a variety of trays salvaged from things like packaged meats, various food containers, old drawer organizers, etc.  Not the most elegant solution but should work for now.

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