WOOD GUITAR STORAGE CABINET

The cabinet is essentially the wooden guitar stand, built into a box.  The idea was to keep the guitars out of sight and protected from direct sunlight and dust, while also providing a means to stabilize the humidity.  The doors are attached with spring loaded hinges and secured with magnetic catches.  Its no safe, but the doors do interlock and a keylock will keep out the casual intruder.    

The cabinet is constructed of 3/4" thick pine laminate board, 18" wide.  The overall dimensions of the cabinet are 37-1/2" wide, 44" tall, giving an internal space of 36" x 44" x 18".  I would have preferred to build the cabinet about 18" taller, with room for a shelf, but at that time the longest board available at the local supply was only 48" long.

This photo shows the cabinet built to hold six guitars.  The neck brace had six cutouts and the bottom support was just two boards covered with carpeting.  However, with this arrangement, it wasn't practical to store more than six guitars, since there was no way to stop the guitars from rotating or moving into each other.  
 

So, a different base was designed.  After many unsuccessful designs and trials, I settled on a padded base with a compartment for each guitar body.  I got this idea after looking at a Fender portable guitar case.  The neck brace plans are shown in drawing on the left, and the base on the right drawing.  Both were constructed from  poplar board 3/4" thick.  The base was made with board 3-1/2"" wide, and the neck brace from 3" wide board.  The base bottom is 1/4" plywood.

  

 

 

After much searching at the local fabric store, I found some furry dark brown cloth, similar to what is in some guitar cases.  However, it wasn't thick enough so, I decided to pad the base with foam first.  I bought a roll of 1/8" packing foam from a nearby office supply store and secured it with some 3M spray adhesive and staples. (Note:  buy an electric staple gun-- you won't regret it!)  The photo shows the base partially padded.  Note that the dividers in the base were attached with wood screws, because I originally designed the base to have removable dividers, but later scrapped that idea.

  

 

The base fully padded with the foam.  

It took a while to develop a technique for attaching the furry cloth.  What worked best was to do the sides first, using a single piece of cloth, cutting as I went, then attaching the middle part.  Thus, the entire base was covered in three pieces.  The cloth was secured with the same 3M spray glue and a few staples.  The cloth was only stapled in areas which wouldn't contact any guitar bodies.  .  

The completed base.  This is the result of several attempts, before I got it right.  Good thing I bought 3X more cloth then I needed.  

The new neck brace, just after attaching the felt to the front edge.  

Empty cabinet with the new 8-position brace and base.  Note that the dividers in the base are positioned so that they line up with the spaces in the neck brace between the guitars.  The right photo shows the top inside, padded with carpeting, and the front edge is also padded with felt.  

 

Completed cabinet that holds 8 guitars.  Note that the two spaces on each end are a bit wider to accommodate wider-bodied guitars.  

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