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Walk into a typical small cabinet
shop, and you’re likely to find
simple, functional cabinets made of
inexpensive sheet goods. Not that these
pros couldn’t make furniture-grade
cabinets for their shop if they wanted,
but when there are customers waiting
and bills to pay, shop cabinets get built
fast, cheap and solid.
These cabinets are right out of this
tradition. They’re fast to build, so you
can move on to building real furniture
for your home. They’re sturdy and
flexible, so you can adapt them to all
sorts of storage needs, even heavy tools
and hardware. And best of all, they’re
cheap.
All the material and hardware should
be available at your local home center.
Multi-purpose cabinets
These basic cabinets can be used on
the wall, on the floor, on wheels, backto-
back—any way you want. As you
can see, we used them as the foundation
for several basic pieces of shop furniture.
The drawers range in size from
a bit more than 1-in. deep, for small
tools, to almost 6-in. deep for heavy
stuff. The drawer design is so simple
you can easily modify the dimensions
and customize the sizes.
You can also use these cabinets as
outfeed support for your tablesaw.
With a 3/4-in. top and casters or a
base underneath, the total height of the
cabinet will be 34 in., a common height
for tablesaws.
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Click any image to view a larger version.
Rolling shop carts are
always handy. This one uses two
cabinets, and is the same height as
our tablesaw. You could also use
four or six cabinets for a larger
rolling assembly table or an outfeed
table.
A rolling tool chest is
made from two drawer units, with a
top and casters. Because this chest
will carry a lot of weight, reinforce
the bottom with braces.
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