4. Storage
Shelves, Drawers, Doors and Available Space
There are certain things you want handy on your brew day: thermometers, hydrometers, and other instruments. Additionally I wanted to stash away the propane tank as best as possible to un-clutter my brew space. Finally I needed a control panel with all of one switch to operate the pump. I figured I would add an outlet there as well incase anything needed a convenient plug down the road.
Originally I imaged a pretty unified front to my rig, with draws and cabinet doors covering up the innards. I spent a lot of mental cycles trying to figure out how to get a set of doors in front of the pump without making it hard to get to the pump, and for a while I was imaging the slide back doors you see in entertainment centers. After a while I realized this was going to be costly and time consuming, and ultimately would not have the same utility as just leaving it open, so the door plan got axed.
For the other parts I settled on 1 pull out shelf, for setting down recipes, the laptop, or whatever else, and one 4.5 inch drawer. I had recently gotten a new router and this little project was the perfect excuse to see if I could up my game on some cabinet joinery.
The pull out shelf was really simple with 1x2 hemlock forming a box. Support pieces were run underneath and 1/2" AC plywood was attached for the shelf. I considered (and tried routing a channel to recess the plywood, but the hemlock is pretty soft and the 1" face is pretty shallow to accurately rout. I settled on the simpler design. A piece of 20" hemlock across the fron face finished it.
The drawer was more complicated. I built a jig for making 3/4" finger joints and made a bunch of sample joints before I felt like I had the hang of it. I used 3/4" BC plywood for the sides. I doubt I will ever try that again, it would have been so much simpler with some straight 1X4 wood stock. The plywood was pretty brittle and the router left some divots whenever it found a void.
Reference
Previous | Contents | Next
4. Storage
Shelves, Drawers, Doors and Available Space
There are certain things you want handy on your brew day: thermometers, hydrometers, and other instruments. Additionally I wanted to stash away the propane tank as best as possible to un-clutter my brew space. Finally I needed a control panel with all of one switch to operate the pump. I figured I would add an outlet there as well incase anything needed a convenient plug down the road.
Originally I imaged a pretty unified front to my rig, with draws and cabinet doors covering up the innards. I spent a lot of mental cycles trying to figure out how to get a set of doors in front of the pump without making it hard to get to the pump, and for a while I was imaging the slide back doors you see in entertainment centers. After a while I realized this was going to be costly and time consuming, and ultimately would not have the same utility as just leaving it open, so the door plan got axed.
For the other parts I settled on 1 pull out shelf, for setting down recipes, the laptop, or whatever else, and one 4.5 inch drawer. I had recently gotten a new router and this little project was the perfect excuse to see if I could up my game on some cabinet joinery.
The pull out shelf was really simple with 1x2 hemlock forming a box. Support pieces were run underneath and 1/2" AC plywood was attached for the shelf. I considered (and tried routing a channel to recess the plywood, but the hemlock is pretty soft and the 1" face is pretty shallow to accurately rout. I settled on the simpler design. A piece of 20" hemlock across the fron face finished it.
The drawer was more complicated. I built a jig for making 3/4" finger joints and made a bunch of sample joints before I felt like I had the hang of it. I used 3/4" BC plywood for the sides. I doubt I will ever try that again, it would have been so much simpler with some straight 1X4 wood stock. The plywood was pretty brittle and the router left some divots whenever it found a void.
Reference
Previous | Contents | Next
