The drill press vise in my woodworking shop sits on the base (near the floor) below the drill press table. Since most of the work in the shop is woodworking, the vise ends up getting sawdust caked in the grease on its acme screws.
The situation is a less-than-optimum for keeping the vise in good working condition. Plus I have a new workshop philosophy to keep things stored away so they don’t get dusty and caked up. Having things in cabinets makes it much easier to clean the workshop, too. So I needed to build something.
There was some leftover Baltic Birch plywood from my Cabin Cabinet build so I decided to make a small cabinet for the drill press vise. The 3/4″ bottom of the cabinet is seated in dadoes on the side panels and the 1/4″ back panel is seated in grooves on the side panels. The top of the cabinet seats in rabbet joints on the side panels.
The door is frame and panel construction using some 1″ x 4″ clear pine for the rails and stiles with 1/4″ Baltic Birch for the panel. The hinges I used are 170º full overlay European style hinges that were left over from a past project.
Finally, I applied some Minwax Clear Satin Wipe-on Poly to seal and protect the wood. It’s easy to apply and dries fast so it suits my purpose for shop cabinets, etc. very well.
