SCRAP- WOOD STORAGE CART : PHASE 4: ALL FINISHED

THE ASSEMBLY

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Well it has taken a little while to complete but we are finally at the assembly phase of the Scrap - Wood storage cart project.

Let me recap on what we have done so far in the project:

• Phase 1 we built and assembled a vertical shelving unit that will sit on the left hand side of the cart. The unit was assembled using dado groove joinery and screwed and glued into position.

• Phase 2 we had to make the central cubby storage unit, in this we cut angled sheets of plywood, used a router to add dado grooves and added 4 dividers that created the cubby holes.

• Phase 3 we finished up creating all the other components which included the base, the back and the front. We added casters and a decent amount of cubby holes.

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THE ASSEMBLY

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The assembly was done in the following sequence.

• Attached the vertical shelving unit to the base

• Attached the back to the cart

• Attached the Central storage cubby unit

• Attached the front

ADDED GLUE TO THE BASE

Before I secured the shelving storage unit to the base I added glue to the cart base. This would secure that even if the pocket hole screws failed the unit would still be secured to the cart.

VERTICAL SHELVING UNIT

I positioned the shelving unit onto the cart and squared it up with the corners of the base.

POCKET HOLE SCREWS

Since I already drilled the pocket holes into the shelving unit all that I needed to do was to add the screws and drill away securing the unit onto the cart base and that’s it. The glue will do the rest.

ATTACHED THE BACK

Now that the shelving unit was attached I could proceed to attaching the back to the cart. A you can see I added plenty of glue to the back edge of the cart from the squeeze out, I used some pocket hole clamps to secure the back temporarily to the shelving unit and drove home all the screws into the base and the shelving unit.

Here you can see a close-up of the pocket hole clamps securing the back to the shelving unit, these clamps are the extra set of hands I needed to secure the back. Now you see why I added the vertical shelving unit first as I needed somewhere to secure the back panel

LAYOUT LINES

Now it was time to switch my attention to installing the center cubby unit. Before I could attach the unit I first lay the cubby onto the base and position it according to the plans, Then I made some pencil marks so as that I know where to add the glue.

ATTACHED THE CUBBY UNIT

With the cubby now sitting on the base with the glue spread onto its footprint I went about securing the cubby with you guessed it pocket holes. I cant really show any pictures of that but you can guess what it looks like from the countless pictures I have taken of making the pocket holes. Its finally looking like a cart.

ADDED THE END CAP

This little piece of plywood is what sections off the end of the front panel, is flush with the end of the center cubby divider. As you can see I secured using pocket holes and glue, but I attached this before I secured the front of the cart, although the pictures show the front in position I forgot to take a picture before doing this step.

INSTALLING THE FRONT

All that was left to do was attach the front panel to the cart, I really love this concept its basically a very shallow storage area that is about 48” long but its only 6” wide. But it allows me to store so many different pieces as the time goes by. As the rest of the cart I applied glue to the bottom or cart base and then secured the front with the pocket holes and screws that I have done already. I added all the pocket holes on the inside faces of the project so as that they would not be visible from the outside of the cart.

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ALL FINISHED

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Well that wraps up Phase 4 and the cart is also completed. I really love how the cart came out, its mobile and can be moved easily around the shop although I don’t think it will be move much except when I need to get access to the panels stored in the back of the cart. I also love the shelving storage unit I am keeping most of the small solid wood offcuts that are in abundance in the shop and it will be really nice in having a nice organized way of storing them. Although I made something like this cart a few years ago it didn’t have this added storage unit and the cart is all the more functional for it.

Before I close off this project I wanted to show a before and after picture so as that you can see how much this cart can actually hold. Until the next project take care and Ill catch you the next time…

BEFORE THE NEW CART

AFTER

Vertical Shelving Unit

I really love this added storage solution and as you can see it stores a lot of wood

Front of the Cart

I really love the little storage area on the front it allows me to put whatever I want wether it is more little offcuts or smaller panel goods, the options are endless.

In its glory

Scrap - Wood Storage Cart : Phase 3

Here are the parts I will be working on in Phase 3, The Back, Front and the Cart Base.

Phase 3 deals with the cart Base, Front and Back. This section is the final section where I will be cutting the final components of the cart before I start my assembly.

Here are the tasks that I completed in this section:

• The Base and Casters

• The Back and Pocket Holes

• The Front

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THE BASE & CASTERS

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THE BASE & CASTER WHEELS

The base is pretty basic stuff but its role in the cart is crucial. The base is what all the other components that I made sit on, so it needs to cut to the exact size in order for everything to fit on it. As far as skill needed to create the base its very basic stuff but here is the order of events that went into prepping it.

REINFORCING THE CASTERS

4 Plywood squares and screw them into the underside of the base. These square reinforce the corners of the base where the caster will be position. I also countersunk 4 screw holes where the screws will be inserted to secure it to the bottom of the cart. Then I used glue and screws to secure it.

SECURING THE CASTERS

To secure the casters to the squares I just screwed to the cart base, I used 4 Hex Head Sheet metal screws into the 4 holes of the casters. I really like these Hex Head screws because I can use my drill to attach them using a head bit in it. I used to use bolts , washers & nuts to do this but I hated that I needed the bolts to protrude through whatever base I was adding casters to then securing the caster in position with nuts. With these screws they do not protrude through the base and they are out of sight. Some time whatever you are attaching them to get in the way of other components.

Here are the hex screws I was referring to.

2 DOWN : 2 TO GO

Here is the second caster I added all that was left was to add 2 more on the front end of the cart, and basially the cart base is ready.

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THE BACK

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The back of the cart is basically a plywood panel that is secured on the back edge of the base, this panel defines the sheet goods storage space that I am building into the cart. In hindsight I wish this space was wider, because at 6” deep it really doesn’t cater to storing that much storage space, but anyway hindsight is a beautiful thing. The panel is basically a quarter sheet of plywood with pocket holes all the way along the long edge so as that it can be screwed into the base of the cart, I also positioned pocket holes on the back edge so as that I can secure the panel into the vertical shelving rack I built in phase 1.

THE BACK PANEL & POCKET HOLES

Here you can see the back panel which is 48” x 24” in size, you can also see all the pocket holes that I drilled on the bottom & back edge so as that I can secure the panel into the cart.

THE FRONT

Basically the front is a long piece of plywood that is positioned on the front of the cart, as you can see in the image there is very little to it. I basically cut the panel to 48” x 6” wide. But what you don’t really see is that I have drilled pocket holes into the back face of the plywood panel in order to secure into the base. Basically anything that is being secured into the base is pocket hole screwed with glue.

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PHASE 3 COMPLETE

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Phase 3 basically wraps up all the table-saw work, all the pocket hole drill and basically all components are ready to be assembled into 1 pretty well organized cart. All of these phases could of been stand alone projects on their own. So lets recap we have made a vertical shelving unit with 4 shelves, a cubby with 4 compartments to store wood in, a base where we added casters.

All that is left to do is assembly and that will be Phase 4 pf the project.

Scrap WoodStorage Cart : Phase 2

PHASE 2

The second phase of the scrap wood storage cart dals with the central storage option. This is basically a bunch of cubbies that I plan on standing lumber in vertically.

The storage unit basically has 2 sides and 4 cubbies . The sides of the cubbies is angled from the back to the front.

Here is the order in which I made the cubby

• Breakdown plywood panel

• Cutting the Dado’s in the side panels

• Pocket Holes

• The Dividers

• Assembly

• Finish Phase 2

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BREAKING DOWN THE PLYWOOD PANELS

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SETTING UP

I needed to set-up a working area as the plywood panels were kind of big. I purchased some foam insulation board as a sacrificial surface to lay my workpiece on, that way I cut through the plywood and not damage anything when using my circular saw. Here you can see the sawhorse with a plywood on top then I laid my pink insulation board on top of that.

BREAKING DOWN THE PANEL

In this image you can see the plywood panels with some layout lines and my straight edge on top of the plywood to guide the circular saw. As you can see the plywood panel will be angled (27” at its highest side & 12” at its lowest) all that was left to was to cut the plywood and it came out great.

PLYWOOD SIDES CUT TO SIZE

Here are the 2 sides of cubby unit and as you can see they are angled. I also took the opportunity in laying out the dado cuts which the dividers will sit in.

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JOINERY

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CUTTING THE DADO’S

In this image you can see the plywood side with my dado router jig on top and I used my plunge router installed a 3/4” router bit to remove the material. The depth of the dado is 1/4”. The idea of the dado jig is to align the router using guide rails screwed together and then clamped to my table to guide the router through the workpiece. There was a total of 3 dado’s and 1 rabbet at the front of the side (12” high end).

A close-up of the dado jig

COUNTER-SINK & POCKET HOLES

I decided to pre-drill all the holes for the unit now rather than after the unit was assembled. I positioned counter-sunk holes in the outside face of the side, this was done to help me position the screws which will secure the plywood dividers that make up the cubbies. To kelp me pre-drill I used a very small diameter drill bit and drilled through the inside groove then came back and flipped the side over to its outside face and used my counter-sinking bit to finish the hole off. The counter-sink bit helps bury the screw inside the plywood that way the screw isn’t that visible.

POCKET-HOLES

I also placed pocket holes on the inside face of the sides this was the method I chose to secure the unit onto the base of he cart. I drilled pocket holes on the bottom and back of the panel. This enabled me to also secure the unit the right side of the vertical storage unit I just made.

Pocket Holes Applied

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THE DIVIDER PANELS

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THE DIVIDER PANELS

The divider panels are what I used to separate once cubby from another. Since the sides of the unit are tapering from back to front, I needed to cut these panels on the table-saw in decreasing heights in order to match the profile of the sides of the unit. (All these dimensions are in the plans)

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ASSEMBLY TIME

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ASSEMBLY TIME

The process I used in the last glue up was the same in this glue-up. Here are the steps I took in completing the central storage unit.

• I placed the right hand side panel on its back making sure the grooves were facing up. I applied the glue into the grooves.

• Next I added the divider panels making sure hat they were placed in sequence according to their height so as to match the profiled slanting on the side panel.

• Next I added glue to the tops of these dividers, then placed the left hand side panel with the dado grooves facing down, and screwed the panel in place. I needed to use clamps to keep the panel tight to the divider panels.

• Finally I flipped the whole unit over onto the right hand side of the unit and then added the final screws completing the assembly. The screws were a great solution as I didn’t want clamps all over the unit and they worked great.

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PHASE 2 COMPLETED

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Here is the finished central storage unit. I love that it is tiered which allows functional storage for different lengths of lumber

Here I both unit as hey will appear in the final cart

Scrap-Wood Storage Cart : Phase 1

This is the section of the cart that I will be working on first, The Vertical Storage Shelves. Its the brown highlighted section.

As I mentioned in my previous post I will be tackling this project in 4 phases, this is the first of 4. Before I head into this part let me first breakdown what I will be writing about in this post.

• Research & Design

• Materials & Tools

• Left Side Panels

• Shelves

• Pocket Holes

• Vertical Shelf Unit Assembly

The cart has a ton of storage within a small footprint, this shelving unit that I am making has a decent amount of work to make it, I will be using pocket hole joinery ,dadoes, screws and glue to assemble it. So lets start.

RESEARCH & DESIGN

I wish I could claim credit for this design but I was not the one who designed it. I came across this project on Pinterest and the original design came from DIY Montreal, you can find her website in the link and she also has free project plans to help make it. She also documented a project video on YouTube and you can wtch it below.

As far as design I did also complete my own set of plans for this project and I will also post these free plans on my site after the project is completed. But you can see my Plans Cover page below. I designed my plans on Sketchup like I almost always exclusively do.

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MATERIALS NEEDED

This project requires the following materials & tools in order to make the cart. Ask the home center to break down the 2 big plywood sheets, they are available in both sets of plans.

• (2) Full sheets of 3/4” plywood

• (4) 3” Casters

• Wood Glue

• 1-1/4” wood screws

• 1-1/4” pocket hole screws

• #12 3/4” Hex Head Slotted Sheet Metal Screws (I use these to secure the casters to the base)

TOOLS NEEDED

• Tablesaw

• Dado Stack

• Skill Saw

• Router

• 3/4” Straight router bit

• Router Dado Jig

• Pocket Hole Jig ( I used the Kreg K4)

• Drill & Driver

Here is the 2 sheets of plywood cut down to manageable pieces, I had this done at the home center.

Here are the 3” casters & Screws. I also have my trusty plans to help me build this project especially to help me with dimensions of the various parts of the cart.

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VERTICAL SIDES

The vertical storage sections is basically made up with 2 sides and 4 shelves, the shelves are secured with glue and screws into the dado’s that were cut using a dado stack installed into my tablesaw

LAYOUT

When I was at the home center I had the plywood boards cut into certain sizes, I did this to cut down on the work I had to do and this is one of them boards, this boards measures 48” x 36” this was cut to these dimensions as I could cut the dado’s all at once, the dadoes are placed 8-1/4” away from each other into 1 panel and then cross cut the panel into the 2 sides. I did this because I wanted to guarantee that all the dado’s measured up when it came to installing the shelving. As you can see I used pencil marks to position where I wanted the dado’s to be cut on the tale saw.

CUT THE DADO’S

Here you can see the same panel with all the dado grooves cut into where I had previously made my layout marks. These dado are places 8-1/4” away from each other, thus giving me equally spaced shelving. But still notice that it is still one panel. To cu the dado’s I used my 23/32” wide dado stack in my table-saw and cut the dado to a 1/4” deep.

CROSSCUT THE SIDES

Now that the dado grooves were cut into the board I was able to crosscut the boards that will ultimately become the 2 sides of the vertical shelving unit on the cart. I installed my 60 tooth table-saw blade into the saw and crosscut and as you can see the dado grooves all line u with each other.

COUNTER-SUNK TIME

Since I will be using glue and screws to secure the shelves into the dado grooves, I decided to place all these holes now as it would be a quick process. So I used my drill installed with a counter-sunk bit to place 2 holes on either side of the panel.

POCKET HOLE TIME

I will be using pocket hole joinery in certain parts of this project, here I am placing pocket holes in the bottom outside faces of the vertical side panels, this is how I will be securing the shelving unit to the base of the cart. Here you can see me using the Kreg K4 jig , I like using this method sometimes as it is quick and I don’t need a lot of big clamps to secure the workpiece as I wait for the glue to dry. This method allows me to keep working on the project.

Here is the front side of the jig

SIDE PANEL

Here you can see one of the side panels all outfitted with counter sunk holes and pocket holes all ready for the assembly phase, which will be soon.

DRY ASSEMBLY

In this image you can see that all the shelves have been cut, there is nothing to do with these panels other than to cut them to the plan dimensions which is 24” x 11’. I am putting them into the dado grooves that were cut earlier and making sure that they all line up.

ASSEMBLY TIME

All that was left to do was to assemble the shelving unit. These are the steps I took to assemble the unit.

• I place one of the sides flat onto my assembly table with the groove side up, I placed glue into all 4 grooves and then installed the shelves into the grooves, but no screws yet as I don’t have access to this side as it is laying on the table.

• Next I placed the mating side piece onto the shelves this time with grooves facing down, after adding flue to the edges of the shelves I use my 1-1/4” screws to secure the side panel onto the shelves.

• All that was left was to flip the shelf unit over and secure the other side panel with the 1-1/4” screws, and that was it.

Here you can see the shelves sitting in the dado grooves, these shelves are not going anywhere. I will need to sand the unit down but its made.

I had some difficulty getting this unit square and it had nothing to do with my layout work or even my screw placement, I discovered that the plywood panel that these pieces were cut from had a bow to the panel, be careful selecting plywood from big box stores as they sometimes are not the flattest. In the end I managed to get everything square and plum.

Well this wraps up Phase 1 of the project build and next I will be working on the central storage bins for the cart.. catch you then.

Scrap - Wood Storage Cart Build

As most woodworkers realize how impossible it is to keep your lumber supplies organized. Over the past 5 years I have created so many projects in my attempt to solve this dilemma and to be honest some of them worked for a while and others failed miserably.

At the present moment I have 3 units that I currently fit all my scrap lumber and sheet goods into and they take up a decent amount of room in the shop. So I decided to try and fit all my scrap wood and sheet goods into 1 unit and alleviate some of the space that my current set up is taking up.

I will be breaking this project into 3 sections and they are:

• PHASE 1 : Building the Vertical Storage Unit

• PHASE 2: Building the Central Storage Section

• PHASE 3: The Base, Front & Cart Back

• PHASE 4: Cart Assembly

PHASE 1: Vertical Storage Section

PHASE 2: Central Storage Section

PHASE 3: The back, front and base

PHASE 4: ASSEMBLY

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OPENING BLOG

Like I usually do in big projects I break the project down into manageable parts and to the same degree I blog about each part in the same manner. Below is the sequence of events and activities I do to make the cart.

• Research & Design

• Materials Needed

• Phase 1: Building the Vertical Storage Unit

• Phase 2: Building the Central Storage Section

• Phase 3: The Front, Back & Base

• Phase 4: Assembling the Cart

This is what I will be making, on the left side of the cart is a vertical storage unit with 4 shelves, in the middle is a central storage area with 4 bins, on the back is a slot to store my sheet goods and in the front will be a shallow cubby to store my odds and ends.