Many of you might have a hunting hobby, and some are interested in collecting guns, for decorative or security purposes. When not in use, the rifles and shotguns hanging on the wall are a traditional cowboy-style trend that has now become obsolete. Now is the time for the wooden gun cabinet with glass doors that not only adds decorative effect but also allows you to keep your luckiest guns in a safe display. So, if you want to show off these hunting weapons in your living area, gun cabinets are the best alternative to traditional wall-hanging options for displaying firearms.
How Tall Should The Gun Cabinets Be?
On average, the glass gun cabinets are usually 60” inches tall so a common person with an average height can put the rifle into these cabinets conveniently. The width of the cabinets may vary based on the number of guns and the types you want to display inside these cabinets.
Which Glass Types Can Be Installed on Gun Cabinet Doors?
1. Tempered Glass
The display cabinet for firearms with a tempered glass door gives excellent safety because tempered glass cannot break easily. Whenever it breaks with a hard impact, it turns into small pieces of rounded chunks that are completely harmless.
2. Bullet Resistant Glass
If you are afraid of security and want your cabinet safe and secure, use bullet-resistant glass that is resistant to hard impacts.
3. Acrylic or Plexiglass
Acrylic is several times stronger than glass but gives the same features as glass. For this reason, acrylic glass can also be used because it can hardly be broken and ensure maximum safety.
Now that you are familiar with glass types used to build a sturdy glass gun safe, let’s explore the procedure of building a DIY gun cabinet. The project is lengthy, so we have divided it into three stages. Every stage includes step-by-step instructions to make the project smooth and easy to understand.
DIY Gun Glass Cabinet Building Procedure:
Required Tools:
- Lumber
- Jointer
- Wood glue
- Pencil
- Tape measure
- Biscuit joiner
- Wood biscuits
- Wood hammer
- Clamps
- Sandpaper
- Brad nails
- Pocket hole screw
- Screw driving machine
- Drill machine
- Saw blader
- Clear glass
- Stain
- Polycrylic
Stage 1: Building Main Shape and Gun Cabinet Body
- Buy some pieces of lumber and trim them down to size after taking appropriate measurements.
- Make sure all the edges of the pieces are perfectly cut. In order to do so, send these lumber pieces to the jointer to make the edges of each piece perfectly square.
- Place them together such that every piece perfectly fits with the other piece side-by-side, so they are ready to glue together.
- Make some appropriate marks so every piece should be perfectly in-line with the other piece to avoid any mistakes.
- Attach these lumber pieces together by using a biscuit joiner that creates some holes along the joining sides of the lumber pieces.
- Apply wood glue on the edges, and insert wood biscuits inside these holes with the wooden hammer to join the lumbers together until the glue gets dry to make them super strong. Put clamps and tight them as much as you can, and leave them for at least 24 hours until the glue dries.
- After the glue gets dry, take out any excess glue that is left over by sanding down the wooden surface to get smooth finishing.
- Fill in cracks or holes in the wood surface, if any, with the mixture of wood glue and wood filler. Apply the filler all along the joints and then sand the surface again after the filler dries out. If the cracks and joints will hardly become noticeable anymore, you are good to go to put all the pieces in place.
- Start assembling the gun cabinet, attach some large pieces with brad nails, and put some glue on the small pieces to join them airtight. Additionally, use pocket hole screws in the back, once the glue dries to give the cabinet body a lot more strength.
Note: It’s hard to go the nail directly into the wood, so be careful when doing so.
Stage 2: Building Gun Cabinet Frame & Gun Slots
- Cut down the pieces of lumber based on the measurements of the cabinet body to build the gun cabinet frame so you can attach the glass door in the third stage.
- Start framing up the trim around the gun cabinet. Put some glue on the frame and nail it nicely to make it airtight. Also, attach the base and the bottom frame with glue and brad nails before finishing the trim.
- Attach the square molding inside the corner of the cabinet with brad nails, and on the face of the door too.
- Mark the rack that will hold rifles. Keep the marks evenly spaced and drill on those marks to build holes. The dia of each hole should be slightly greater than the dia of the rifle bore.
- Take the rack to the saw blader and cut the corners of the holes at 45° which makes it easier to put the rifle inside the gun cabinet.
- Here, you need to clean the rack before attaching it to the gun cabinet. For this purpose, take it to the jointer and clean the edges for smooth finishing.
- Place the rack inside the cabinet at some appropriate height, which can be found by putting a few rifles inside, and test this if every gun seems excellent and the rack holds the firearms securely in place and easily gets through the rifle top as well.
- Make a few slots for the stock of each rifle handle so it easily slides down into a firm and fixed place. By doing so, you will finish the gun rack inside the cabinet.
Stage 3: Building Glass Door, Sanding, Staining & Finishing
- Measure the cabinet frame and take the lumber to the jointer to cut the uneven pieces into perfectly straight pieces.
- After getting nice and straight lumber pieces, cut them so the glass can fit into the door. You will need to put the molding around so it holds the glass well in place.
- Screw the door pieces together with the glue. After that, put the glass, which you have bought from GlassGenius marketplace, and put the molding to make the glass nicely fixed into the door.
- Install the hardware to hang this door on the cabinet. Add a handle to the door for ease of opening and closing. Also, you may install the locker as well for safety purposes.
- After the assembly of the cabinet is finished and the glass is installed, remove the doors off and sand down the cabinet wood from inside as well as outside, and then prepare for the stain.
- Apply stain evenly all the way on the wood and don’t make a thick layer that could hide the wood layers if you want a delicate and fancy finish. After it dries, apply polycrylic after staining the wood for the final finishing.
Bottomline
A gun cabinet with a glass door gives a permanent location for your rifles. All you need is a few necessary equipments and a medium level of skill to put things in the right place and make your DIY gun cabinet building project nice and smooth. You may lock this cabinet as a secure storage place for guns. Excellent quality cabinets may cost four figures, but DYing this project will save you a huge amount and limit the cost to only three digits.
