A New Workbench With Storage

I have quite a small workshop, in there I have a work bench made from a couple of old chest of drawers and plywood, but it is a bit too big for the space leaving little space to work around and the drawers become easily cluttered.

Time for a rethink.

I need a top bench area to accommodate my laser cutter so it needs to be 1200x1200mm (4ftx4ft) but this would make it too large for the available space.

It needs to be mobile but stable and it needs to store the bulk of my tools.

I'm not sure if this counts as furniture, but hey, it's worth a punt in the competition.

Sheets of 12mm plywood 2400x1200 ($50 each)

1 sheet 18mm plywood 2400x1200 ($80)

4x 6m lengths 4x2 ($20 each)

Screws 20mm, 25mm, 32mm ($2.50/jar on clearance)

Woodglue ($10 on clearance)

Drill

Driver

Circular saw

Table saw

Sander

Wheels

Heavy duty clasps

Drawer Furniture

Clamps

Set Square

Pencil

I had the sheet material cut down at the store on their panel saw so I could fit it in the car.

All the 12mm plywood except 1 sheet was cut into 4 pieces 1200x600mm, 1 sheet had 2 pieces 1200x900 and 1 piece 1200x600.

Saved a lot of messing around trying to handle full sheets on my tablesaw.

The 4x2 was bought in 6m lengths from a local wood merchant and cut into roughly the correct lengths in their carport using a battery circular saw, and then using a compound mitre saw I cut all to the exact lengths I would need. (600mm and 1272mm, 4 of each)

A local hardware store was closing down (owner retiring) so I got most of the fastenings at a knockdown price

I marked out and notched the 4x2s to make 2 frames 1.2m x 600mm, these were then screwed together using 90mm screws.

The notches were inset by 90mm/45mm from the ends of the frame to accommodate the legs.

I added the legs (888mm - to give a working height of 900mm) and paneled the sides and base in 12mm ply.

The base size was calculated to accommodate 3x foam inserts (330mm) plus the drawer sides x6, runners x6 and ends/dividers x4 (each at 12mm) so a total of 1182mm

Added a 12mm ply top to both halves (1182x600mm) screwed into the top of the sides with 25mm screws.

I cut out the drawer bases to the size I wanted (in my case 524x378 as the foam inserts are 330x500 (this gives 12mm front and back and 24 mm each side for the drawer sides and the runner)) and used this to layout the position of the vertical dividers, which were then screwed into place.

A back was cut and added to ensure unit rigidity, as you can see there is a small "indent" at the back, this will be used as a space so I can attach power boards, for electrical supplies

I also added a piece of wood to this center void to add stability and link the 2 halves together positively.

I bought some clips from Temu to clamp the 2 halves together, this gives me a large workspace when needed (big enough for my laser cutter) but the 2 parts can be separated and moved back to the side of the workshop when I need space.

Up to this point I had been dragging this around, so time for some wheels.

Again sourced from Temu these will be used to move around when in the workshop and then lowered when in position for stability.

They were screwed in position with the supplied screws (which were made of chineseium/cheese) and the heads stripped out, I may replace with decent screws.

The drawers will be various depths depending on their contents.

The tools are going to be mounted in foam (again from Temu) the dimensions of the foam that I bought was 500mmx330mm (hence the dimensions of the drawer bottoms from Step 5)

I made a template of the foam size from scrap plywood and built the drawers around it to get uniform size, the drawers were constructed from 12mm plywood.

I found these neat little corner clamps (again Temu) that made ensuring that the drawers were square was easy.

As said earlier the drawers will vary in depth according to their contents, however all will have a runner to minimize friction.

Drawer 1 runners were attached using 20mm screws and a piece of scrap plywood slightly larger than the drawer was used to get the correct spacing for the next drawer. This was repeated for subsequent drawers.

The subsequent drawers were fitted, all the runners were waxed with a candle to ensure smooth running, where necessary light sanding was carried out.

Now because I'm going to have to make about 50 drawers, I'll move on to the next bit, as circumstances mean that I'm not going to get them all done in time (I dislocated my kneecap which has slowed me down a bit!)

As you can see in the last picture the foam is a snug fit.

Drawer fronts were added to give a clean finish.

I have just done one section so far so 5 left to do.

I'm going to have to buy some more wood.

I should get 9 drawers from each sheet, so I'm guessing 4 more sheets of 12mm (again I'll get the store to cut for me) plus one sheet of 18mm for the top.

A piece of 18mm thick plywood was added to give a more rigid top surface.

I had the 2400x1200 sheet cut to 2x 1200x1300 and a spare bit by the shop.

I also had this mahogany rail (actually I've got 2, 3m long lengths), they were from the display at the Auckland Home Show for the firm my wife worked for and they were throwing them out! I think I've had them almost 10 years sat in the shed, finally time to use one.

They are 100mmx45mm so I cut a 1.4m length off of one then sliced it into 4x20mm pieces which I then screwed to the fronts and sides.

Footprint of my lasercutter is 1100mm square.

The top centre drawer will hold my laptop and accessories for ease of connection to the cutter.

Again sourced from Temu, some antique style drawer pulls and some metal label holders.

I have started putting tools in the foam (again Temu)and filling the drawers.

I will take photos of each drawer contents, plasticise them and put them on the front of each drawer.

Weighs slightly more than one of Jupiter's moons, but is mobile and practical, can sit to one side of my workshop and be put together when I want a base for my lasercutter.

Obviously I still need to make a load of drawers, but will add pictures to this as I go along.

There may be a few modifications along he way as I think of other useful stuff but the main construction is done.

Smaller tools in Shadowfoam, larger stuff has own stowages