Sjöbergs Elite SM04 Workbench Storage Cabinet with Doors & Drawers For Sjöbergs 2000 Workbench, SJO-33464

The Sjoberg Elite workbeach is highly rated in a review by Fine Woodworking. However, I reluctantly agree with the other reviewer. The accessory storage case is way overpriced. And, as the other reviewer noted, it requires a great deal of work with handplanes to fit the drawers. Also, the packaging was poor. Given its weight, the packaging, expecially the corners, should have been far more robust. Mine was damaged in shipping. Amazon offered to replace it without charge but, when I said I didn't want to go through all that, they volunteerd to knock some off the price to compensate for the damage. By all means, buy the Elite Bench itself, but consider making a compatible case of drawers yourself.

It's going back! I ordered this product and put the cupboard box together and then all the drawers. Several hours work. Then I found that the drawer heads were not only warped, but the three drawers on both sides don't have enough clearance. No real way to fix without considerable shaving and trimming. Way too much for a $699 Cupboard. Very disappointed. Drawer heads were only oiled on outside which lets moisture enter the backside and warp. I expected more from Sjoberg.

At the full seven hundred dollar price, I would NOT recommend this cabinet. I got it as part of a "combo" with the Elite 2000 workbench, and when bought that way the price is about four hundred. Even at that, I would say it is over priced.Not that the cabinet is all that bad. It just isn't as good as the price and brand might lead you to conclude. It is well-designed and all parts are precision cut / pre-drilled. But it is more like a lightweight Ikea cabinet at a heavy-duty Sjoberg price.The cabinet arrived via FedEx Ground, shipped from OH to WA without any damage. There were a couple of visible tears on the box, but no damage to anything inside.The sides, top, and bottom are a good grade of beech plywood and are a full 5/8" thick. The back is 1/8" plywood (nominal 3/32) and retained by a dado cut at the rear of the top/bottom/sides. It is functional but a little light for this application; I would like to have seen 1/4" here.Unlike the previous two reviews (both from 2008), I did not have any problems with drawer fit. The drawers -- in fact all parts of the cabinet -- aligned and went together perfectly.The drawer sides and back are unfinished poplar. The sides attach to the backs via 6 screws driven through the sides into the backs (all holes are pre-drilled). The sides attach to the fronts with 4 dowels and two camlock fastners. No glue is provided or called for in the instructions, meaning the dowels are for alignment only and the weight of the drawer (and contents) will be pulled by those two camlock fasteners. I didn't trust that so I added glue to the dowels before assembly.Although the 6 drawer fronts vary in height (4 shallow, 2 deep), beware that the drawer sides and backs are all the same (shallow). So those two deep-looking 7" drawer fronts actually have 3" drawer sides/backs behind them. The drawer bottoms are made from the same 3/32" plywood used for the back, and I would say this is WAY too thin unless you're using this cabinet for your socks and underwear. Don't plan on putting any heavy tools in there, or the bottoms will likely split.The drawer and cabinet fronts are made from 2" strips of solid beech, edge-laminated to make the panels. One of the cabinet doors had already split about half-way down one of the lamination lines; either not enough glue was used or it just failed. I forced Titebond-II into the joint and clamped it overnight. Fingers are crossed.The glue joint failure may have been contributed to by the lack of any finish on the insides of the cabinet doors. The outsides of the doors (and drawer fronts) have an oil finish, but the insides are unfinished and the doors had already started to warp. Two solid beech strips (battens) are included in the kit, and mount horizontally across the inside of each door to reduce warping, but the doors already warped while in the packaging. Sjoberg really should consider finishing both sides of the drawer fronts and doors, and pre-installing the battens before packaging.Summary PROS: All parts precision cut and pre-drilled. Easy and fast assembly. Fits in the bench trestle perfectly. Able to start on other projects right away instead of spending time building a storage cabinet.Summary CONS: Expensive. Drawer bottoms very thin. Expensive. Deep drawer fronts backed by shallow drawers. Expensive. Parts finished on outside only. Oh, and did I mention Expensive?If you buy this cabinet, I recommend: (1) Carefully check the door fronts for warping and glue joint failure prior to assembly; (2) Apply an oil finish to all the unfinished areas (drawer sides/backs, drawer bottoms, inside of all drawer fronts and cabinet doors before assembly; (3) Use glue on the dowels connecting drawer fronts to sides; and (4) Consider widening the dado in the drawers and replacing the provided 1/8" bottoms with 1/4" plywood.I think most woodworkers would be better off building their own cabinet.