Shop Upgrades

these are nice. I particularly like the corners.

That is a beautiful job. I love when folks apply their skills and turn out nice stuff that they will use themselves. We so often have stacks of ‘recycled’ particle board kitchen cabinets with loose doors hanging from broken hinges to hold our stuff in the shop.
Best is if you want to take on comissions, and folks come to your shop – they see byt the condition of your surroundings that you are serious. I am guilty myself that I have made stuff for others that is much nicer than what I keep myself. A ‘nice’ shop gives customers confidence that a deposit they make for a commisioned piece, isn’t money down the crapper.

-- Its never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

Great work! The deep red color with the contrasting natural wood trim is very attractive. That’s nice looking furniture that could be used anywhere in the home as well. You’ve obviously put that Shopsmith to good use.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

Very nice, I like this upgrade .

-- Mike, Bruce Mississippi = Jack of many trades master of none

Great looking cabinets! You did a beautiful job on them. Are the red side panels, doors and drawer covers painted or laminate? I really like the contrasting red and natural finished parts. I need to make my shop cabinets yet and might do something similar. Thanks for the inspiration. I have done a lot of laminate work over the years and will probabaly go with laminate. You need to get your work shop listed. Love to see an organized shop.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

The cabinet sides are 3/4” MDF painted. The natural parts are just construction grade lumber and plywood except for the edging on the worksurface which is red oak for durability. This is after all shop furniture and I didn’t want to go everboard with either the work or the expense.

beautiful stuff!

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

great job! i’m building some of the same elements from Shopnotes as well… working on the drawers right now. Quick question for you… what did you use on the top? I increased the edging to account for 1/8” hardboard that i added on top, but didn’t add any finish as of yet… it looks like you’ve got a nice finish on your work surface?

Your shop looks great! I just set up my Shopsmith shop. My next thing is an out feed table.

Mark

cotfessi,

My top is two layers of 3/4” MDF laminated. I used red oak edging to give the edges some durability. The top is finished with satin poly. It can easily be sanded and refinished when required.

If you are looking at the Shopnotes version, you’ll notice that my configuration is a little different. I modified the left pedestal to be all drawers instead of 1 drawer and a cabinet. I also built my top in 3 pieces so it could be dismanteled and moved if required. I spaced the distance of the pedestals so the cart would fit underneath instead of using one pedestal and a leg like the Shopnotes version did.

All in all I’m pleased with the results and really like the consistant look of my shop now. Much better than a wooden door across two saw horses that it replaced.

Awesome looking! Where I can I sign up for a set?

-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com

You’re not going to use those are you ? They’re too pretty !

-- Odie, Confucius say, "He who laughs at one's self is BUTT of joke". http://woodstermangotwood.blogspot.com/ (my funny blog)

treeman… thanks for the advice on the top… i took the shopnotes guide and modified it a bit myself… i did make the miter saw area and two cabinets, but the work surface is much longer than the plans originally called for… I also built the pegboard area which has worked out great! I was surprised how easy it was to make – after i figured out the setup on the table saw for the various cuts.

Looks nice.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

wow very nice work

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

treeman, it’s been a few months… any regrets? I have this issue of shopnotes and have been planning on making some of these peices for a while now. Probably will start after christmas. I have one wall in my garage which is my shop and I can’t affoard any more space. This is one of the best setups I have seen for my situation. Just waondring if you would have made any other changes.

-- If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!

Rex,

I have no regrets. I really like this setup and have built a couple of additional pieces. I like the change I made to convert one of the bench pedestals to full drawers instead of 1 drawer and a cabinet. I use my shop practically every day and at this point I don’t see a need for any changes. It has tremendously inproved my organization and ability to find things when I need them.

I would suggest you start with the rolling work cart as it was VERY handy when I constructed the additional pieces.

Rex,

I built this setup as well… it’s been working great for me as well… I tweaked the plans a little bit – much longer bench and longer peg board assembly. Overall it’s pretty easy to build – once you get the settings correct on your saws to make the necessary cuts, you can batch the whole thing!

As I posted in one of my earlier comments, I increased the height of the hardwood banding of the bench top surfaces to allow for an additional layer of 1/8” hardboard – attached with screws – that way I can always swap it out if it gets too damaged.

I would second treeman’s comments about making at least one of the pedestals all drawers. There is a lot of wasted space in those lower cabinets – I actually added a removable shelf in my lower cabinets to increase the amount of stuff i could store in each.

Thanks for the info catfessi. I too was planning on adding the hardboard replacable top. I got the idea from an assembly table The WoodWhisperer made in one of his videos. Other than that the same plan with very minor modification suits me perfectly.

-- If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!

Hey treeman,
I totally missed your post. I was going to start with one of the tower stands to store some of my tools but you make a good point about the roller cart. I am tired of using my table saw for assembly and having to clean it up afterward.

-- If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!