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Designing and building a mobile shop cart and tool support

Frank Pellow

Frank Pellow

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2,332
Location
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
I have recently purchased a couple of tools and received a couple more as gifts and I need to find room for all of these in my crowded shop. I am in the early stages of designing a mobile cart where they will be used and decided to record what I actually end up building and using in this thread.

First of all the tools. They are:

​

Here are some rough drawings that show what I am thinking of building:

cart-3.jpg cart-2.jpg


The cart will fit under the Festool Multi-Function Table which means that it can not be very high. The middle of the top surface will be an indentation into which the bases supporting various tools will fit when they are being used. The sander will be stored in the cart itself. The sharpening tools and the router table insert will be stored elsewhere.

That’s as far as I have gotten.
 
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Anxious to see what you come up with. I have a long wall (<24') that I plan on building a shallow cabinet the full length of it, with an opening in the center that will accept muitiple tools. I have the cyclone ducting already there, and a box bay window to accept the back end of a SCMS so it doesn't stick out into the room very far. The cabinet top will serve as an infeed/outfeed table for the lunchbox planer, and for the SCMS, and hopefully for the RAS, as well as some other tools. So I'm very interested in your cart construction. Jim.
 
I got the inspiration for my mobile bases and carts from a past FWW article. It featured guy who built a variety of mobile base cabinets for his 2-car garage/shop. You can probably get some good ideas from it. I've reduced them down to get under the size limit. If they aren't good enough, PM me your email address and I'll send you full size copies.

Mike
 
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Jim and Shaz, I hope that I come up with something that meets your expectations. I work better under pressure, so part of the reason I started this thread was to put myself one the spot like this.

Mike, another reason that I started the thread was to get some suggestions. Thanks for yours. I have that issue of Fine Woodworking out in the shop and will look it up tomorrow.
 
Frank, I thought you bought a router table also, is that not in the mix with your Triton router?

I'm just about to build myself a flip-top stand for my DW735 planer. Seems like you've got a more complicated plan to put together.

Danny Proulx had a book on shop workstations, and I remember one interesting idea: He had a series of (not too heavy) tools mounted to boards, and they would slide into a tall cabinet for storage. Each mounting board was like a shelf. And he could pull one out and pop it on to a mobile stand for actual use. Seemed like a good idea for smaller 50lb-and-under tools.

My DW735, in contrast, I find too heavy to be muscling it up and down onto shelves, which is why I'm going with the flip-top approach.

(I pulled most of my ideas for the flip top stand from some SMC threads.)

I'll be watching this thread.
 
Art Mulder said:
Frank, I thought you bought a router table also, is that not in the mix with your Triton router?
Click to expand...
I bought a router table top and fence but not a table, that I am building. And, building it is part of this design.

Art Mulder said:
I'm just about to build myself a flip-top stand for my DW735 planer. Seems like you've got a more complicated plan to put together.
Click to expand...
YEP.

Art Mulder said:
Danny Proulx had a book on shop workstations, and I remember one interesting idea: He had a series of (not too heavy) tools mounted to boards, and they would slide into a tall cabinet for storage. Each mounting board was like a shelf. And he could pull one out and pop it on to a mobile stand for actual use. Seemed like a good idea for smaller 50lb-and-under tools.
Click to expand...
That's basicly what I plan to do. I will browse the book you reference the next time I am at Lee Valley and see if it gives me any ideas.

Art Mulder said:
My DW735, in contrast, I find too heavy to be muscling it up and down onto shelves, which is why I'm going with the flip-top approach.

(I pulled most of my ideas for the flip top stand from some SMC threads.)

I'll be watching this thread.
Click to expand...
I hope that I come up with something that is worth watching. :D
 
I have picked a cart to emulate

After spending more than two hours yesterday at my favourite woodworking library (that is, my local Lee Valley store), I have decided upon a cart that will serve as the basis for mine. The cart that I picked is featured in the 90th Issue of ShopNotes. I assume that it is OK to show a magazine cover without breaking copyright (in fact, it is good advertising), so here that cover is:

shop notes magazine.jpg

The ShopNotes cart is very heavy and solid and that’s what I am looking for.
My cart will have to smaller than theirs in order for it to fit under the Festool MFT; but I think that the plans in the magazine can be easily adapted.
 
I have started to build the cart

OK, I have now built the carcass of the cart so and am able to test it out. Here is picture of the cart under my Festool Multi-Function Table (MFT):

Cart carcase under Festool Multi-Function Table -small.JPG

I am going to have to put the MFT up on blocks in order to accommodate the cart. But, that’s not a bad thing because I would like the MFT to be a little higher anyway.

The cart carcass is made of 18 millimetre thick baltic birch plywood. There are double thicknesses on both the top and bottom. The following parts will be added:
- Hardwood trim on all edges
- Two layers of ¾ inch MDF on the top and some ¼ inch tempered hardboard on top of that.
- A square indentation will be cut into the top layer of MDF and hardboard and this “slot” will accommodate the base of all the tools to be used on the cart
- Shelves on both ends as well as on a portion of the back
- Drawers in the smaller of the two openings

Here is a picture of my partly completed router table positioned on the cart:

Partly built router table on top of cart -small.JPG
 
sliding shelf an option?

Hi Frank, your solution is really taking shape, and colour-coordinated to boot!
Have you considered a sliding shelf for the sander? At 40-odd lbs, pretty tight quarters and the location of the hand holds on the sander, might be worth it for both convenience and safety (lifting /back issues).
Jeez, now you've got me thinking that I should revamp my assembly table hmmm.
 
Rick Thom said:
Hi Frank, your solution is really taking shape, and colour-coordinated to boot!
Have you considered a sliding shelf for the sander? At 40-odd lbs, pretty tight quarters and the location of the hand holds on the sander, might be worth it for both convenience and safety (lifting /back issues).
Jeez, now you've got me thinking that I should revamp my assembly table hmmm.
Click to expand...
Rick, I thought about a sliding shelf for the sander but, instead I decided that I would mount some roller bearings such as these:

roller bearings.JPG

to the bottom of the opening, mount the sander on a piece of plywood the correct size for the cavity in the top ot the table, then simply slide the mounted sander out over the roller bearings. I will also instal some sort of stop (yet to be designed) so that the sander does not slide out except when I want it to.
 
Ah, I see. I look forward to seeing the final product. It is certainly more useful and functional than my assembly table. I may have to 'borrow' some of your ideas.
 
Frank!
You are a blessing in disguise. I have everything set up and waiting in the shop for me to make the first cut on my shop cabinets/counters. I know I should, but I rarely put much on paper for a simple project. I have to get it built in my head before I will start it.
I am going to build a counter situation the length of one wall (The shop is 24' X 24') centered on a really big pair of double windows. The counter will be free standing. Instead of building drawers and cabinet space into it, I will build two workstations and park them under the counter at each end. The center is where I will park myself when I need to sit and loaf.
I guess a lot of people like the version in ShopNotes #90. That's the one I intend to adapt.
Anyway.... Something just wouldn't click into place for me for the added weight and strength I wanted these two work stations to have. Your double thickness top "AND" bottom are exactly what I was looking for.
I feel like I have been living in DUH land for the last four days. :doh:
I'll be sure to follow your progress. Thanks for sharing your work. :thumb:

Don
 
Don, I am glad to have been of help.

The shop setup that you plan sounds interesting. Please tell and show us more about it as you progress.

I have been out of town most of this week and only just got home again, so have not done a lot on the cart since my last update. I do expect to make progress in the next couple of days and to post another update tomorrow eveing. I can tell you that the estimated weight of my cart is just over 200 pound without tools. And, my cart is smaller than the one in the magazine.
 
Feb 3rd Update (part 1 of 2)

I made good progress on the cart in the last little while. Here is an account of progress showing some of the steps in the construction.

01) All the plywood edges of the cart were trimmed with hardwood. I used a couple of large rough-sawn boards (probably Beach) that a neighbour gave to me last winter for helping him clear and clean up his basement and garage. In the photo below, I am preparing to put one of the boards through my planer.

Mobile cart 08 -Beach board ready to be planed and cut up -small.JPG

02) The corner posts are substantial. In the following photo I am drilling a hole into one of the posts to support a handle:

Mobile cart 09 Drilling a hole for handle into one of the posts -small.JPG

And here two posts and their enclosed handle are being installed:

Mobile cart 10 -Installing two posts plus a handle at one end of the cart -small.JPG

03) The cart will be heavy (about 200 pounds without tools or contents) so I installed 4 rotateable lockable casters each able to hold 125 pounds.

Mobile cart 11 -Installing caster wheels on the bottom of the cart -small.JPG

Three of the four screws holding each caster are screwed into the hardwood framework.
 
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