Mobile Assembly Table | Popular Woodworking Magazine

Storage and utility in simply the fitting measurement.

It’s usually mentioned {that a} store format isn’t actually full. While which may be true, I’ve found a precious asset in my store that may transfer and adapt to altering layouts. I’ve been testing a cell store cart during the last a number of years to ensure it holds as much as the trials of woodworking.

The key’s center dividers that act just like the webbing of an “I-Beam.” With this examined development method, all the cart varieties a inflexible base to help the highest. The work floor is a double-layer of thick MDF, forming a flat prime that may deal with every day use and abuse in a store surroundings. Special options embrace pass-through doorways, slide-proof adjustable cabinets, and a inbuilt clamp rack for even better utility.

Construct the Base

1. The finish panels are rabbeted to suit over the underside panel, and the center divider sits in a shallow dado. The clamp rack wall can also be housed in grooves on either side. Glue the principle case collectively, and add the cleat strips to lock it sq..

Cut plywood elements to measurement, and full the essential joinery proven within the element rendering. Start with the underside panel, which has a dado to obtain the center divider. Cut 6“ vast x 3/4“ notches on the prime corners of the center divider. These notches will ultimately obtain lengthy cleat strips, which perform to lock the dividers sq.. Install the top panels, that are rabbeted to suit over the underside panel.

2. Secure these lengthy strips flush to the top panels with three pocket gap screws. Add glue to strengthen this butt joint.

As you put in the primary finish panel, you’ll seize the “clamp rack wall” in vertical grooves. Add a bead of glue to the underside of the clamp rack wall element and reinforce this butt joint with screws from the underside. Now add the opposite finish panel, and glue and nail it in place with 18-gauge brad nails. Finally, add the cleat strips to lock all the pieces in place. The cleats are screwed into the center divider from the highest and connected to every finish panel with pocket gap screws.

Wheels and Clamp Rack

3. Clamp rack wall is like webbing of an i-beam. The clamp rack wall is vital to the carts design, and features to forestall each racking and sagging. Reinforce the connection to forestall each racking and sagging. Reinforce the connection to the cleat strip with glue and 11/2″ lengthy #Eight screws.

Before the cart will get too heavy, flip it the other way up and add 4“ locking casters at every nook. Finish the carcase by including maple edge banding to any uncovered edges. I used iron-on edgebanding and trimmed it flush as soon as it cooled down.

4. Cover any uncovered edges with maple edgebanding. I exploit the iron-on selection, and align one edge to the plywood veener as I’m going. The reverse edge overhangs the plywood, and might be trimmed of later.

Take a second to sand any sharp edges, and add the final fastened half to the bottom, a hardwood clamp rack. Use a 1/2“ vast dado stack to chop evenly spaced notches in a 293/4“-long x 51/2“-wide board.

5. Plane a board to suit the dado, and minimize a sequence of notches with a half″ vast dado stack. Crosscut the clamp rack to suit, and glue it within the shallow dado.

The clamp rack is put in in a 1/4“ deep dado within the clamp wall panel. Three small brackets provide further help to the clamp rack. I sized mine for small parallel clamps, nevertheless it might be tailored for varied clamps in your store. It’s a helpful spot to all the time have a clamp on the prepared when assembling initiatives.

Making Drawers

6. Attach three small triangular helps with glue and fasteners. Now your clamp rack is full and prepared for years of service.

I knew the drawers on this cart would carry a heavy load, and needed them to final a lifetime, so I constructed them with strong hardwood lumber. The drawer containers function maple sides and walnut entrance and rear panels.

7. A variable spaced dovetail jig and router make fast work of the usual by dovetail corners. A dovetail bit handles the tails, whereas a straight bit cuts the pins.

The drawer bottoms are plywood panels. I used 1/4“ fragrant cedar plywood for the small prime drawer, and extra substantial 1/2“ maple plywood for the decrease two drawers. The corners are joined with by dovetail joinery, and had been minimize with a variable spacing dovetail jig.

8-9. One template handles each draw entrance cutout shapes. Adhere the template to your workpiece with double-sided carpet tape, and clamp them to a workbench, earlier than trimming to closing form

Once the drawer containers are constructed, set up the full-extension drawer slides within the cupboard. Hang the drawers and check them for correct operation. The crowning glory is the maple utilized drawer fronts with curved cutouts. Mark the semicircular shapes for the drawer pulls, and joinery-exposing curves on both sides.

Rough minimize the shapes on the bandsaw, and end the job with a router and template setup. I made a two-sided template from a scrap of 1/4“ MDF to deal with each shapes. Attach the template to the drawer with double-sided carpet tape, and chuck a bearing guided flush-trimming bit in your router. Once the ultimate trimming is completed, ease the sides with a 1/8“ radius roundover bit.

Pass-Through Doors

10. With a sanding block or shoulder airplane, shave the door rail tenons till they nestle into their mortises. Take mild cuts and test the match ceaselessly for greatest outcomes.

One limitation with typical store cupboards is lack of house for lengthy and hulking objects. I needed house to retailer my dovetail jigs and dowel inventory, so I designed the cart with a pass-through cavity. It options lengthy cabinets which might be accessible by a door on both facet of the meeting desk.

11-12. The 1″ lengthy x 1/4″ deep tenons are haunched to suit the door stiles. The further tenon size provides energy to the joint.

Build the doorways with easy mortise and tenon development, however make the tenons further lengthy for improved energy.

The door is a strong maple panel, rabbeted to a 1/4“ tongue. If you’re working low on hardwoods, 1/2“ maple plywood is an inexpensive substitute.

13. Use a spacer persist with set the 1/16″ hole between drawers, and fix the drawer fronts with carpet tape. Permanently safe the drawer entrance with 5 screws pushed from contained in the drawer field.

Attach every door to the cart with a pair of overlay cup hinges. Cut two lengthy cabinets to suit, and set up them on six shelf pins every.

Extra Thick Top

14. No metallic knobs right here, which might intervene with clamps when the cart is in use. Instead, a cove minimize that aligns with the highest drawer cutout making a handy finger pull to open the door.

The prime work floor is built-up from two layers of 1“ thick MDF. Cut a chunk of thick MDF 58“ x 38“, and use the remainder of the sheet to make 8“ and 12“ vast strips. Attach the strips across the perimeter of the worktop, in addition to over the carcase dividers.

15. Attach a sturdy laminate floor to the thick MDF prime with contact cement. Once the contact cement tacks over, press the laminate firmly in place with a J-roller or workpiece help curler.

This stiffens the countertop, in addition to achieves ample bearing on the cupboard framework. Instead of attempting to align the sides completely, let the strips overhang the highest panel barely. Attach the strips with glue and screws, and flush trim the sides as soon as the glue dries.

16. Install a laminate trimming bit in a compact router, and trim the floor flush.

Now add plastic laminate, for a piece floor that’s sturdy and simple to wash. Apply contact cement to each surfaces with a low-nap paint curler and permit it to tack over till it feels dry to the contact.

17-18. Install 6 shelf pins per shelf, and hint the placement of every one. Then minimize shallow recesses with a router, earlier than dropping the shelf in place.

The paint rollers for clean partitions with a 1/8“ or 1/4“ nap appear to work greatest. Apply the laminate, permitting it to overhang the highest in all instructions.

19. Load the drawers along with your most ceaselessly used instruments, and so they’ll be inside attain in your subsequent mission.

With a trim router and laminate trimming bit, flush up the plastic laminate across the edges. Use a J-roller, or prime half of a store workpiece help curler, to press the laminate firmly to the substrate. The closing step to finish the highest is so as to add hardwood trim across the edges. I dressed the highest out with 2“ vast x 3/4“ thick maple boards, mitered to suit. The maple edging is connected with biscuits and glue and clamped in place.

20. Even cumbersome router saved upright will disappear into the outsized drawers. Just like the cupboard doorways, skip metallic drawer pulls for unfettered entry when clamping workpieces to your desk.

Applying end is non-compulsory, however I like so as to add a number of coats of one thing for a little bit of safety—normally no matter I’ve readily available. This meeting desk is completed with waterbased polyurethane, which I’ve used on a variety of my store furnishings. It’s easy to use and makes issues simple to wash up. All that’s left to do is load it up and begin working.