Workshop Improvements

I came up with this project leading up to the Christmas holidays and have this Dickens-ish voice in my head as I write. To slightly misquote George C. Scott’s rendition of Ebenezer Scrooge, "Kenneth Finley’s cabinet making skills are dead as a doornail. Of this you must be certain or nothing wonderful can come of this story." I’m speaking of a bit of magic— not Christmas magic—but magic all the same. If you look in your shop, do you find yourself wanting more space?

I’d be surprised if you weren’t as each piece of shop equipment takes up space. Of equal importance, each item you use the equipment for requires space about your tooling and I’m certain you have found space cramped on occasion. Inside corners often become liabilities, but what if I could show you how to turn outside corners into an asset? I found the idea for building a free-standing multi-function workstation in a kit plane builder’s planning guide for freeing up shop space.

They assumed most kit builders would start building their plane in a garage where space would be a premium. I considered it because I had more shop tools than workbench or spaces to build more. I also had some scrap materials that I believed would lend themselves to the project, keeping the costs down. The project took shape on an old yellow notepad. I had a couple of doors from a set of school lockers I had scavenged a few years ago. I still had one set of lockers made of stapled-together particle board.

They are flimsy but were perfect for storing gunpowder which local fire marshal codes require to be stored in wooden, but Not drawn to scale. not sturdy, containers. My daughter had one of those platform beds with drawers under it that she outgrew. The platform bed was constructed of cheap particle board that had disintegrated but I still had the drawers. I also had some 3/4-inch plywood decking that I had salvaged from an old store.

I threw all that into my "plan." Assuming a roughly square structure, the height and width of the locker doors set the basic dimensions. The doors were 14 inches wide by 37 inches tall. Allowing some depth for the thickness of the walls and a lip around the base, I settled on a 32×32" base dimension. This was close to what was recommended in the kit plane book. I also expected to build the top a couple of inches larger all around to keep from stubbing my toes while working.

Again, these dimensions are arbitrary and based on the materials I had to work with. Material choices were also arbitrary as I used what I had with the consideration that I wanted a mobile structure that would be rock solid but still not break the budget. With the rough design established, I began to think what operations could most easily share workspace back-to-back. I was certain the lathe was not a good choice, nor was my welding rig as I do not like sparks or open flame around a wood structure.

I planned to route electrical and compressed air up through the center of the column, so including a power distribution strip seemed easy enough. As a preliminary choice, I elected the

It is always a good idea to countersink screws for a smooth finish. Far The sides and dividing wall in an "H" pattern were fastened to the base using wood screws and white carpenters’ glue. The lines drawn on the base told me where to drill for the screws. band saw, belt sander, drill press, and grinder. You may decide a different set would be more useful. Base and Structure As a first step, I constructed the 32×32" base plate.

It is composed of two layers of 3/4" plywood glued and screwed together with all screws countersunk to avoid snags. Using a carpenter’s pencil, I drew the outline of the workstation on the base. I then drew corner-to-corner diagonals to locate the center feed where I would run electrical wiring and an air hose up the center of the structure. I took a 3" hole saw and drilled through the center for power and air. I had a spare set of heavy-duty castors laying around and I fastened those to the base as well.

My locker doors set the height of the column. I measured the two sides to be an inch taller than the doors for some swing room. As a result, the sides are 31×38". I also created a center dividing panel to join the sides in an "H" pattern. I offset the dividing panel to allow more depth on the drawer side. This also allowed clear passage for cords and hoses coming up from the center of the base. The primary H-frame was secured to the base using the usual glue and screw method.

Since all of the plywood was salvaged, there was some warp encountered during the construction. I pulled it as straight as I could during assembly. As a final step, I added 2×4 stringers across the open sides to hold the correct dimensions across the top. The leftover space is handy for storing odd lengths of materials like gunstocks when working on actions. My drawers were not as wide as the width of the workstation. I added a second vertical partition to support the drawer runners at the proper distance.

Scrap 2×4 set the proper spacing top and bottom, leaving along, narrow space on the side for storing awkward long pieces of material. I also used the glue and screw method to secure the new partition to the cross partition of the basic "H" framework. Scrap pieces of wood as horizontal stringers on each side of the panels support the drawers when slid into place. Again, I am no cabinet maker and this was intended to be a functional shop utility built on a budget.

Work Surface The one place I spent money building the cabinet was the top. Up to this point, it was open. I wanted the workstation/bench work surface to be sturdy and easily repaired if needed. I purchased new 2×6 boards to build a solid bench top fastened to the 2x4s I used to true up the top of the base frame. I used countersunk wood screws so the top would be reasonably smooth. The 2×4 framing underneath allows for a very robust mounting and allowing some overhang, my actual worktop surface is 36×36".

It is solid and takes the weight of the shop machine tools easily. The top could have been completed with

The 2×6 construction is solid and vibration resistant. Note the overhang on the edges making it easier to stand close to the work surface. apiece of kitchen countertop and worked just as well but at the time of the build, the 2×6 boards were easier to obtain. Once the top was installed, I drilled out the very center to allow passage of power cords and an air hose. With this arrangement, all power cords are inside the cabinet, protected and out of the way.

A simple heavy-duty power strip mounted under the worktop provides power for all the tools. After some thought, I arranged for the power cords to fall down between the back of the drawers and center partition. That left the cabinet space on the other side completely free. I now had a sturdy "island" multi-function workstation I could move around. This was a spare time project and one surprise was once the worktop was in place, even though incomplete, the workstation was immediately useful.

The first tools moved in were a sander, drill press, and grinder, with all three easily sharing space on top of the cabinet island. The handiness of having these three available in closer proximity made itself immediately apparent.

I had to fabricate a couple of small metal parts for a shotgun I was working on, and being able to move quickly among these three reduced my work- Salvaging them from a defunct bed frame gave them anew lease on life and generous storage for small accessories supporting the tools mounted to the workstation. time. The band saw soon followed when I cut out some small wood pieces for pistol and revolver grips that needed shaping and mounting holes drilled. As an aside, I host an annual pinewood derby workshop.

This setup has provided facilities for car design and execution, allowing three families working at once on various stages of car building. If you get the chance, it is a very rewarding way to spend a day. Drawers and Doors My next opportunity was installing drawers. They had been collecting dust for years but were still serviceable.

The drawers give me a place to store bench tool accessories—bits for the drill press, special clamps, a V-brace for drilling round objects, and a three-way milling fixture to use in the drill press for small milling projects. That is just the first drawer. The drawers do not take up the entire vertical space available. I had originally intended to mount them close the top and leave an open space below to store odd-shaped objects.

On reflection, I installed them from the bottom up, leaving the space at the top to make it easier to access the power strip mounted on the underside of the worktop. I am planning to add a pull-out flat

The space behind can be configured to the builder’s specific need. work surface to extend the possibilities of the workstation when the materials are available. To hang the doors, I needed some hinges. I scrounged a couple of pairs from an old cabinet upgrade project. They had fancy bends that I straightened using my arbor press, working slowly so metal wouldn’t break. As I said earlier in the design phase, the island height was set by taking the locker door height and adding an inch.

A small piece of shim wood placed just under the doors when hanging them provided just enough height to open and close freely. For now, the cabinet space behind the doors is open. Once I decide how I want to use that space, I will install a shelving system. Tool Arrangements My rough sketch included a piggyback tool arrangement. This came about because I have one heavy duty grinder with coarse and fine shaping wheels complimented with a smaller Edison outfitted with wire and polishing wheels.

One risk using power to polish metal is being too aggressive can overheat and "burn" the surface. The Edison’s motor is low torque and low speed, great for rust removal, deburring, and polishing without risk of overheating metal. This is especially critical for small or thin parts and also a factor for making and sharpening knives. I often move between the larger grinder and the Edison during metal shaping and polishing operations and decided to piggyback the two on the benchtop.

Placing the Edison on bottom turned out to be the better arrangement, a fact learned after a couple of impromptu projects. For the framework, I shifted from 3/4" plywood to 1/2". Again, all the wood I used was from my scrap bin; even the screws were left over from another project. The frame is still very solid with long screws fastening the frame to the benchtop. Placing the mounting The heavy piggyback frame does not vibrate when using the grinders and provides a stable platform.

The platform also provides a sturdy mount for the vertical post supporting an air hose and the Foredom tool. screws on the outside of the framework makes it easy to remove the frame if sections of bench top ever need replacing. There is sufficient room to move the Edison to the front for easier access with awkwardly shaped parts. While designing the piggyback for the grinders, I decided to add a good place to mount a Foredom drill motor.

I decided to mount a vertical post (a leftover piece of wooden clothes rod) to the back of the piggyback platform. I drilled it to fasten it to the platform side and drilled the center to insert an arm constructed from a file folder hanger salvaged from a defunct set of file cabinets. While shaping the hanger, I decided this would also be a good place to hang the air hose from my compressor out of my way.

With the Foredom suspended near the center of the workstation, its functions are available anywhere I need them. Having had several generations of Dremel tools

There is plenty of room for more. The necessary space required for routing cables is shared at the rear of each device, leaving the front and sides unobstructed. over the decades, I have plenty of bits for the Foredom. I took advantage of the solid core construction of the repurposed locker doors to provide storage for over 100 bits.

I have room for plenty more, and all are easy to reach at need as I laid out various bit spacings on the door and finally decided my big fingers needed more space between bits, deciding on one-inch spacing for each. I used a drill frame jig to drill an open grid of 45-degree holes, allowing grouping bits by type. Spare collets, polishing compound, sanding drums, and cut-off wheels are stored in one of the workstation drawers. With this arrangement, I can expand the storage if needed.

It is always handy to have compressed air around the workstation—for cleanup, if nothing else. I decided to use a scrap piece of airhose and fittings to feed air up through the center of the workstation. This allows me to feed compressed air along with electrical power. I only have to deal with one air hose and one power cord to supply the workstation. Once I routed the hose to the worktop, a coil hose gives me flexibility. Conclusion The fully operational workstation has multiple shop tools sharing their space.

By careful planning, I combined six shop station functions onto a surface measuring one square yard. While my original drawing had my tools placed on the corners, after some use, I shifted to the sides. On the corners, there was some equipment overhang—acceptable for a graceful individual. As I have now passed 70, I am not so graceful and using the sides provides me a margin of safety. My multi-function workstation build was a seat-of-the-pants, learn-as-you-go journey. The design evolved as I built.

If you are space challenged, you will be amazed at how much this opens up your options in small workplaces. Hopefully, what I learned will save you some grief during your own project design and build. Some of the ideas I incorporated may inspire unique innovations for your build. For example, before I settled on the pullout shelf space, I considered using an old piano hinge to have a spare work surface hinged on one of the smooth sides that could be unfolded from the side at need. Mine is a rawedged utility space.

A friend of mine is wonderfully skilled at woodworking and builds all his shop accessories using beautiful birch plywood. If he were to build one of these, I’m sure it would be furniture quality—a work of art. I’ve received feedback that my station is too high for some. I could have shortened the locker doors and built something less elevated. When I was working on model railroads, I got used to benchwork at eye level. For me, having a tall workstation is less fatiguing and easier on the eyes.

On the other hand, I didn’t anticipate how high the castors would lift the whole platform. I may at some time remove those, though I have been using a little stepstool and that seems to work really well. You do what is right for you. The workstation gives you four outside corners to work around sharing the waste space typical behind large machine tools. The outside-in aspect of the extra four corners works a satisfying spaceutility magic. AG