Cob Jockey

I've been working on this project for so long, some of you might not even have been reading this blog last year when I started it.  I had an old set of kitchen cabinets that we took out of my kitchen. and Connor's Aunt Mary inspired me to turn them into a vertical tack locker.  This is the original cabinet:


When you last saw it, it looked like this:


It was primed, had a door frame but no face, and temporary MDF sides while I figured out how to make my recycled kitchen cabinet carcass look good.  Today, it looks like this:



I worked on it as I got a little money here and there through the winter.  Because I am using about 75% recycled materials (read: wood I took out of my house), I ran into some problems that I wouldn't have if I started with new wood.

Problem: There are like six different types of wood of varying qualities in this thing.

Solution: Paint it.  This is the solution to more than one problem!

Problem: I built the door intending for saddle pads to hang on dowel rods horizontally, but 1) the kitchen cabinet carcass was just slightly too narrow, and 2) I hadn't yet figured out a way to hang the little dowel rods in a way I was happy with.

Solution: Drive nails (or maybe hooks, later on) into the center door support and hang them vertically by the billet straps.

I only usually keep "active" pads in my trunk now anyway.  I'm going to add strings that go across them to keep them in place, too, like the bandage lid of a normal tack trunk.

Problem: The door isn't quite square, because I framed it with a ripped down closet shelf original to my 1963 house, so the board wasn't quite straight anymore.  It doesn't affect the door's swing or latching, but it was pretty obvious due to the way I painted it:

Bright white stripe indicates slightly not-square door.

Solution:  Paint the face of the cabinet carcass (yes, that's really what they're called!) navy instead of white.  Paint and caulk hide a LOT of sins.

Problem: The size of the kitchen cabinet's carcass made my intended magnetic latch not quite meet up when I put the metal pieces on the door itself.

Solution: Scrap wood.  Some days it feels like this entire cabinet is being held together with scrap wood.


Problem, sort of: I intentionally put my door facing on the outside of the frame, because it seemed like the best solution for my built-out door intended to hold saddle pads.  This led to some less than attractive seams, which I knew going in:

Solution: Aluminum trim.

It's just taped on here to show what it will look like when finished.

The aluminum trim creates a new problem: how do you cut, and also do classy looking, ideally mitered corners, with metal trim?

Solution, maybe:  

This was an earlier picture, and a first coat of paint.

Shelf, treat box, whip holder (it holds six whips), basket with additional pegboard hooks of varying  types.

Almost there...