Table Saw Cabinet With Blade Caddy

My current table saw setup is less than efficient, so it's time to update it to provide additional storage and better access to all the accessories. This is a project that I've been meaning to do for a while, and I'm finally getting to it. Right now I'm using an old fiber board book shelf (the super cheap kind you find at big-box stores) to store table saw blades and miscellaneous things. We used it in our first apartment so many years ago, but after we bought our first house and acquired real furniture it found a home in the garage. You can see how crowded and poorly placed it is in the following image:

Fast forward to today. I want to build a dedicated cabinet to store all of my table saw blades, table inserts, arbor wrenches, and any other accessory that fits. The primary function of the cabinet is to serve as a place to store blades, so the design will be built around that. This is an old problem, so I started by looking around the web to see what other people have come up with. Why reinvent the wheel, right?

After looking at a few different ideas, I came across an old article from Rockler which showed a table saw-mounted box specifically for storing blades. I liked the basic design, and it fit nicely with the larger cabinet idea I was thinking about. I noted the measurements, made a few changes to help it fit within my design, and started drawing the cabinet in SketchUp.

A quick note about SketchUp - SketchUp is without a doubt one of the most user friendly basic 3D modeling programs available. It is widely revered in the woodworking community for its ease of use and ability to render almost any design. The best part is that it's free. There is a paid 'Pro' version that comes with a handful of useful tools for professional users (as well as a license to use the program for commercial gain), but for the hobbyist woodworker the free version has just about everything you need for project visualization.

Here you see my overall design. The cabinet measures 30 inches wide, 30 inches high, and 14 inches deep. There is a shelf that divides the cabinet into two areas: The upper area is 12 1/2 inches high. The lower half is divided into two sections - one for the blade storage, and a smaller area that measures 15 3/4 inches wide by 12 1/4 inches high, which serves as additional storage. The joinery is all rabbet and dado joints. On the back, there is a 3 inch high by 2 in deep notch cut out of the bottom to allow the cabinet to fit over the rack on which the table saw sits. The moulding along the bottom hides the notch in the drawing, but I will probably make a corresponding notch in it so that everything fits under the table saw as intended.

Here is a closeup of the blade storage. You can see that I've kept most of the essential design from the Rockler article, but with a few minor modifications. Instead of using staggered tabs for the drawers, I plan to drill a 1 inch hole in the corner to act as a finger pull. There is a second 1 inch hole near the center which can help 'pop' the blades out if needed. In the center is a 3/4 inch peg that stands 3/16 inch high, which holds the blade in place. I chose not to include the inset from the Rockler plan since everything will be fairly contained in a stationary cabinet, and I'm not too concerned with things moving around. The blade caddy measures 9 3/8 inches high, with a small space at the top to store things like a table saw manual or the insert that came with my dado set. In the future I plan to build a small drawer for the space at the top, but for now the basic cabinet will suffice.

I've included the following exploded views to show the dados (plus a simple mortise and tenon for the middle shelf).

That sums up the design. Some time ago, one of my neighbors had a large stack of cabinet grade plywood he was looking to clear out of his garage, and I was happy to take it off his hands. The plywood was salvaged from a renovation at a local mansion. It was previously used in garage cabinets (how fitting!), and so the pieces were in various shapes and sizes. Luckily, I had two pieces large enough for all of the core elements, and I had some 1/4 inch plywood left over from a previous project to use for the back and blade drawers. With everything I needed already on hand, it was time to start cutting.

The top, bottom, shelf and sides are all cut and I made all the necessary dados. Next step is assembly of the core cabinet and construction and integration of the blade caddy, which I'll cover in a future post.

Update June 17, 2014 Jump to the second and final posts for this project:
Second Post
Final Post