DIY Tool Cupboard with the Ryobi ONE+ range
In our home workshop it's pretty busy. There is always a couple of projects on the go there and there is always one constant, “where is the somethingerother?!!”
So it was time to get onto making a home for all our hand tools. We needed something to get them off the workbench and shelves, something that could be closed to keep little fingers out and something that held the particular tool safely and in their best condition.
Tool Cupboard DIY with Ryobi ONE+
With thanks to Ryobi we got some of the One+ range out and made this tool cupboard that holds our growing collection of hand tools, with each tool having its own place. It keeps them off the bench and shelves which is giving us much more space for our projects and space on the shelves for our growing power tools!
The Ryobi One+ range is that range that has the one battery pack that you can interchange between your One+ tools. Not having cords in the way when using power tools is amazing actually, it's so much easier and safer. Having the option of just swapping over the battery in your power tool is so much more efficient. You no longer have to have multiple chargers and batteries to complete a job or worse stop and wait for hours till it's recharged to finish whatever you were doing. Life changing move to the Ryobi One+ !
To make this tool cupboard we used the following Ryobi One+ powers tools all available at Bunnings.
18V ONE+ 184MM BRUSHLESS CIRCULAR SAW. MODEL: #R18CS7-0.
18V ONE+ 125MM RANDOM ORBITAL SANDER MODEL: #R18ROS-0
18V ONE+ 3 SPEED IMPACT DRIVER MODEL: #R18ID3-0
18V ONE+ 125MM BRUSHLESS ANGLE GRINDER MODEL: #R18AG7-0
18V ONE+ TRIM ROUTER MODEL: #R18TR2-0
We also had a 18V ONE+ 5.0AH LITHIUM+ BATTERY 5 PACK MODEL: #RX18B-550 and a
18V ONE+ 6-PORT SUPERCHARGER MODEL: #RC18627U so if the battery went flat I just swapped the battery pack over. Ahhh so cool! No need to down tools!
18V ONE+ HYBRID SHOPLIGHT MODEL: #R18HS-0 ok so I didn't neeeeeed this to complete my project but Ryobi were so generous in giving me one. I use it everywhere. In the workshop I could put it on the floor, shelf, bench or even take it outside so i could get that extra bit of light at the end of the day to finish what I was doing. I’ve also used it with my craft projects. I do a lot of freelance craft work so I am often sitting at the kitchen table or on the lounge at night when I’m tired trying to paint, sew or draw something. The Ryobi One+ Shoplight is amazing to be able to carry it around, sit it next to me, move the light arms, adjust the amount of light. It has the battery pack but it also has a cord so i can plug it in at my desk and leave my charged batteries for another time. The light is also excellent to have by the BBQ, at night when you need something in the shed and if you’re going camping … you’ll love it.
This tool cupboard I (with a little help in parts, don't think my kids want to help sand ever again) took me about five or six weekends on and off around sports and life. It didn't take a great deal of time really. Waiting for the glue to dry which takes a couple of days with big things like this probably used most of the time. You can’t do anything but wait whilst it's all clamped drying. (Of course not dropping pieces after they have set causing you to waste time re-gluing which may I may have done here adding more delays would also speed up your project)
THE PROCESS
1. So to start I cut and measured all the timbers. We used the 18V ONE+ 184MM BRUSHLESS CIRCULAR SAW to cut through the 18 mm plywood we are using for this project.
2. Once cut we added a 18 mm wide x 9 mm deep rebate to the top, bottom and sides of the doors and cabinet pieces using the 18V ONE+ TRIM ROUTER .
3. Next we glued all the doors and cabinet sides together with their respective top and bottom pieces, taking care to ensure the rebate was aligned forming a housing recess for the cabinet back and the door fronts. Clamping them together and leaving to dry was time consuming, I only have so many clamps so gluing the doors and cabinet frames took a whole weekend.
4. When the frames were dry the cabinet back and the door fronts were added to the frames, this required a little massaging to ensure a good fit without taking the frames out of square.
5. When everything is dry it's time to start sanding. We used the 18V ONE+ 125MM RANDOM ORBITAL SANDER for this. It's easy to hold and direct so was great to be able to enlist some ten year old help. The kids love helping so the initial sanding is great for them to help with. Changing the pads on the sander is nice and easy and it's a comfortable sander to use.
6. Whilst that was all drying It was a good time to get onto making the dowels to provide the strength needed to hold the cupboard together. To do this I used the 18V ONE+ 125MM BRUSHLESS ANGLE GRINDER to clean up some scrap steel we had. First we used the cutting disk supplied with the grinder to cut the scrap to a useable size and then the cutting disk (also supplied) to clean the surface rust off the scrap.
7. Then I used the old Ryobi Drill Press (certainly not a new fancy Ryobi one but it works well) to drill holes marked out into the steel. I cut down some scrap Merbau decking boards into long lengths approximately 10mm x 10mm and then I used the 18V ONE+ 3 SPEED IMPACT DRIVER to cut the dowel wood down to the right size.
8. Next I marked out where I want the dowels to go on the cupboard and drilled in the holes. Clearly I used a drill we had here not a One+ and you can see that cord is in my way! Ryobi One+ Drill is on my Santa list. In all the YouTube woodworking videos I’ve seen there is no such thing as a little PVA, it seems to be the more the better so I filled the hole with PVA and then hammered in the dowel. Trimmed it down with the saw and then just sanded it to make it neat.
I quite like the dowels they were my kinda artistic crafty touch and fun to make.
9. I added the hinges and then with a final sanding done it was time to hang our cabinet. I used a French cleat system to hang the cabinet. To make the cleats we used four pieces of 2 x 4 building lumber. The 2 x 4 was simply cut to a length equal to the width of the cabinet (818mm) and a 45 degree bevel was cut on one edge. We started with the top piece we measured and drilled into the wall and then remeasured and drilled the second piece into the back of the cupboard. Hubby did lift it on and off the wall several times because there is no way I can lift this on my own let alone up there. Once the top was on I then repeated the process with the bottom of the cupboard.
10. Tah Dah the cupboard is now finished. It will take a while to fiddle with the inside making sure things fit properly and making a place for each tool but I am certainly happy with the way it has turned out. I think next I’ll make a side table kinda thing with a shelf to sit underneath the tool cupboard where I can keep the 18V ONE+ 6-PORT SUPERCHARGER.
Huge thanks to Ryobi for helping me out with the ONE+ range allowing me to get it done easily and efficiently with that fabulous one battery system. There is over 70 products in the Ryobi ONE+ range and they are exclusively available at Bunnings Warehouse. There is a product in the ONE+ range to suit almost any project I think, I've got my eye on a ONE+ Stick Vacuum and a drill next and because of the fun I had on this project I'm going to need a ONE+ table saw to help cut some more wood for the growing list of projects I want to do !
RYOBI is so confident in their ONE+ tools, they back them with a 6 year replacement warranty*
* 6 year warranty applies to cordless products registered at www.ryobi.com.au. Batteries and chargers have 3 year warranty only. Corded tools have a 4 year warranty.
You can check out the Ryobi ONE+ range here:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/RyobiAU
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ryobianz
Website: www.ryobi.com.au/power-tools/products/list/family/one-plus
