Rolling Troop Cabinet "Plans"

Several people have asked for plans for the rolling cabinet.  To be honest, the project was pretty much built on the fly, with the only real "thinking" going into the dimensions of the storage trays.  I'll summarize the logic below and provide a cut lists so, hopefully, that helps.

In the past I have used a lot of the plastic "Really Useful" boxes for storage and transport.  Iv'e got a ton of them and over the course of the years have made some interior organizers and wanted to make sure those fit inside the new drawers.  The internal dimensions of the standard 4 liter Really Useful box is 12.5 inches long by 8.5 inches wide x 2.75 inches high.

Those dimensions set the lower bounds of the drawer size.  The final interior dimensions for the drawers was set to:

9.5 inches wide
15.5 inches long
3 inches high (but wait there's an adjustment coming)

These would allow me to use all my past organizers and give a bit more storage space.

Now there was on more consideration in drawer design - the runners.  I could have gone with store purchase metal runners that attach to the sides but decided against that due to both cost and weight.  I went with very simple fixed rails that the drawers sit on top of.  The minimum size of the rails was guesstimated to by 1/2x1/2 inch and 16.5 inches long.  I used a 2.5 inch spacer to ensure the rails where space properly and then glued and screwed each rail into place.  The placement still wasn't perfect so there was a lot of hand sanding afterwords to get all the rails level with one another.

In hindsight it would have been a lot easier and more accurate to have cut dado's (slots into the plywood) before assembling the case.

The 1/2 inch height of each rail needed to be deducted from the drawer height to allow room for the drawer to slide in, thus the overall height of each drawer was reduced to 2.5 inches.

The drawers themselves were constructed to there width of plywood.  1/2 inch plywood for the fronts and backs, 1/4 inch for the sides and 1/8 inch for the bottom.  You could use the same dimensions - say 1/2 inch but that adds a lot of weight to an already heavy item that is intend to be mobile.

The final cut list for each drawer is:

Drawer Front and back:
- 2, 10" x 2.5 inch, 1/2 inch pieces of plywood with a 1/8 deep x 1/4 inch wide rabbet cut along the bottom.  A rabbet is just a section cut out along the corner of a piece of wood to allow another piece to fit snugly.

Sides:
- 2 15.5 inch x 2.375 inch lengths of 1/4 inch wide plywood

Bottom
- 1 10 inch x 16 inch piece of 1/8 plywood

Now do all those cuts 14 times......

The cabinet will hold the really useful boxes if the lids are removed but I liked the look of wood better than plastic - majestic miniatures soldiers should be stored in wooden boxes not mass produced plastic ones - it just seems to be the right thing to do!

The drawers are assembled upside down when glued together.  Since this is a receptive task, I strongly urge using a jig to keep all the section square and speed the build process.

Whew - that was probably more to type out than actually do.

With the drawer size set the next step is the build the cabinet.  I wanted to use 1/2 inch plywood and liked the look of two columns of drawers  in the cabinet.  Therefore, the width of the cabinet was set with the following very arcane and complicated formula:

width of 2 drawers:  2 x 10" = 20 inches
plus with of 3 1/2 inch pieces of plywood:  3 x .5 = 1.5 inches
plus 1/4 inch of room to allow drawers to slide easily = 1/4 inch

Total Width = 21.75 inches

The depth of the box was easy as the drawers were already set at 16.5 inches long.   I added another two inches to allow for storage in the drawers so the overall depth is 18.5 inches.

The height was the tricky part.  This thing needs to be able to fit in my car, which limited the overall height to be now more than 24 inches.

Butt joints and screws plus glue was used for the joinery - simple and strong.  The cut list for the case is

Sides and interior support
3 x 1/2 inch plywood 23 inches high x 18.0 inches deep
 (why isn't the height 24"? to account for the width of the top and bottom which are attached to the sides as pictured to the left.  Same for the width but with 1/4 inch plywood.

Top and bottom
2 x 1/2 inch plywood 21.75 inches wide and 18.5 inches deep

Front and back
2 x 1/4 inch plywood that is 24 inches high and 21.75 inches wide

Its really important when assembling the carcass of the case that everything be square - the drawer need to fit all along the width of the openings.  As you can see in the picture to the left, I cut some spacers and clamped them in place to ensure the box would be square and everything fit.

Rolling Base
The rolling case is just a simple 3/4 inch plywood box.  I went with 3/4 inch plywood to make sure the base was sturdy enough to securely carry the weight of the cabinet.  The dimensions of the base are 13.5 inches high by 22.75 inches wide and 19.5 inches deep.  The width and depth are one inch longer than the actual cabinet so I can fir a mounting lip around three sides.  The height was based on the plywood I had left but you don't want the base too much higher for stability concerns.  The cut list is

Sides:
2, 12inch x 19.5 inch 3/4 inch plywood

Tops and Bottom
2, 19.5 inch x 22.75 inch plywood

Back
1 12 inch x 21.25 inch 3/4 plywood

Doors
1 22.75 inch x 13.5 inch piece of 1/2 inch plywood that is then cut in half.

The mounting lip made of sections of 1/2 inch plywood.  There are 3 3 inch wide strips that run across the sides and back of the case with 1.5 inch protruding over the top.  2 18.5 inch x 1.5 inch strips are added to the sides to snug up to the cabinet and hold it in place.

The wheels are simple workshop rolling casters.  The front two have a locking mechanism which is really important - when loaded with minis this case could weight upwards to 90 pounds and that could gain a good bit of momentum if it was left on a slight incline....  Locking wheels are a must!

I think that's all the info I can provide on the "plans" for the case.  Perhaps the most important piece of advice I can give you if you find woodworking daunting is to just give it a try - it's easy after you get a little practice and anyone with the artistic skills to paint miniatures can easily acquire the more basic skills for elementary woodworking.

Good Luck!