HOW I MADE MY LUMBER CART

Steve Ramsey (Woodworking for Mere Mortals) posted a great video on how to build one and I took his idea and fit it to my needs. Steve approaches projects for the average DIYer using basic tools and knowledge. His videos are very informative. Another person I truly admire is April Wilkerson of Wilkerdo. This lady tackles anything -- and I mean anything. She shows no fear tackling any project from laying patio bricks, to welding, to building a workshop bigger than my new house. What a girl!

My challenge was to maximize my small shop space. I used 1/4 of a 2 car garage. There were scraps of lumber all over the place. The lumber card made the most sense.

Look over to the left of this picture and you will see all sorts of lumber haphazardly stacked. Needless to say, there was much more. Thus the need for a lumber cart.

I didn't even have a truck to cart full sheets from the store (Home Depot's delivery was not an option--too costly) so I ordered 3 sheets of 4 x 8 half inch ply cut into 2 x 4 pieces with plans to build a cart 2' deep and 4' wide. I bought two 8' 1 x 4s for the bottom and 4 casters to make it mobile. It would have three divisions in increments of one foot high partitions. A one foot high front, then two foot high, then three and the back was four. This will become clearer in a bit.

I joined all the pieces with biscuits and glue and nails and screws. I wasn't looking for PRETTY I wanted functional. For the one foot high division I just cut one of the two foot high boards in half. The two foot high division--simple enough since I had the pieces cut to two feet. The three foot was just a matter of attaching the one foot high piece cut from the first division and attaching it to a two foot high piece. The four foot was just a matter of attaching two of the two foot high pieces together. I used square pieces (those black squares) of scrap to keep the partitions square during the assembly.

That first picture is my mobile work bench. When my BBQ rusted away I saved the base and put a 2 x 4 top on it. Like my mom would always say: Waste not, want not. I installed partition dividers to lean small pieces against and keep scrap from falling down into the belly of this beast. Once the four partitions were attached I tilted it over and put on the 1 x 4 base and the casters.

This has been so useful in helping me organize my shop. Since I built this, Wifey and I down-sized to a ranch. The movers were able to roll this cart onto one of their trucks and deliver it to the new house. I'm now in the process of setting up a new shop and will post some more pictures as I progress.

I hope this was helpful and enjoyable. Let me know if you have any questions. And, yes, comments are always welcome.