Another workbench

[Craig Che]

I am making a workbench on casters and want to have the middle be filled with drawers. Here is a picture of the design and a list of things to be put in the drawers (short list, not a ton of tools yet).

I don't know what future tools I would want/will have, so your help is welcomed for drawer sizing/arrangement. Are more medium drawers good, or short or tall??

Thanks

Craig

[Craig Che]

So nobody has any help? How about the way I designed it with it essentially being a cabinet with posts on the 4 corners? Will that be strong enough, I am planning on a 1" center support but do I need legs going to the ground also in the center?

[Matt Mutus]

Craig it looks to me like you have a pretty decent variety of depths there.

Personally, I would want more shallow drawers near the top for hand tools that you might want within easy reach.

Also I think that the bottom drawers are too deep - unless you want to store items that specifically need that much height. 16 inches is a very deep drawer.

[glenn bradley]

The answer to which-drawers-go-where will depend a lot on how you work. If you're anything like me I can almost guarantee that your best laid plans will change before you get the first drawer hung. I'm no specialist but I can speak from my own experience and it'll be worth just what you pay for it ;-)

Things I've learned about drawers:
- There's rarely enough of them
- A drawer more than 18" to 20" deep (front to back) has only about 16" of usable depth, the rest becomes junk as you never see it and often forget what it even is back there. A variation on this is that the rest of the drawer depth hides precious goods that are transported to another dimension causing you to have to go buy another one.
- A drawer deeper (top to bottom) than about 5" suffers the same fate compounded by the fact that you can't push all that extra "stuff" to the back; it is always in your way and what you want is always under something else. The exception to this is a purpose specific drawer such as your DT jig drawer; it should have inserts to hold specific items and no additional "stuff" should ever be allowed.
- Although I have a couple extra routers in the bottom drawer of my RT, they are not in the case and are there to swap in and out of the table. My "regular" routers live at about chest height in a wall cabinet where I can see what I'm doing without stooping (is this where I mention that the age of 50 is a bit behind me now?).
- Drawers for chisels, rasps and such should be as shallow as possible while allowing enough height for that dream-chisel you've been coveting.

I guess that's enough "wisdom" outta me, eh? Enjoy the challenge and the task ;-)

[Steve Mawson]

Looks like a nice assortment of depths to me. However I agree that your really deep ones would be a little deep for me. I like to have only one layer of tools in each drawer. As far as how deep front to back, I usually stay around 24 inches and use a full extension drawer slide. That way you can see what is really at the back of the drawer.

[Greg Muller]

Craig,
I like it...

I also have been working on a rolling bench with storage and trying to determine the drawer size. That would help lead me to whether I want to build it frame and panel or cabinet carcasse construction.

I really like the 16" drawer. I was also considering this size for containers full of small parts or a place for my rechargeable tools to go.

I would like to see the rest of your plans and a few pics when you are done!!

Good luck,
Greg

[Terry Sparks]

Hi Craig,
I am building a work bench on casters too, and have the bottom framing (2 x3's)w/casters mounted on, the top frame assembly done (2x3's) and have mounted the face frame to the front of the soon to be cabinet (I have temporary 2 X 2's that are pocket hole screwed on all four corners supporting the top & bottom frame assembly). The cabinet I am building is very simular to yours and have come up with drawer sizes I think should work fairly well for me.

I have 12 drawers, 4 drawers accross the top @ 5" deep, the next row down will have 4 drawers @ 8" deep and the bottom row will have 4 drawers @ 11" deep.

My two biggest drawers are on the bottom and are deep enough 11"D x 22"W x 28"L, along with full extension Blum accuride drawer glides, sturdy enough to store gallon size paint/varish (10") in the back of the drawers and have the front half sectioned off to store tools (nailers, routers, dovetail jig ect.).

The cabinet it's self will be 37"H x 80"L x 30"W, and have a top of 1.5" of MDF with a 2" over hang on the front and sides for clamping. The back of the cabinet will be hinged to hang an additional 16" section that can fold up/down to provide a 48" wide table top when needed. The reason I am building the cabinet to be 37" tall, and on casters, is to use it as my outfeed table for the TS. I'm expecting this cabinet to get heavy when loaded with tools and other things, so I have installed 6 quality casters (4 lockable) to spread the load and keep it mobile enough to move around the shop when needed.

If you would like to share ideas, PM me and I'll get back to you, I'm interested in your ideas and what you have come up with before I finish the cabinet.

[Craig Che]

Thanks for the replies, I am doing drawer slides so I hope I can use most of the approximately 20" of depth. Here is another picture of an updated drawer setup. I need atleast 1 drawer 6" deep for hand planes, the 9" will hold various stains.

One concern I have, is 24" enough depth that I don't have to worry about the table being easy to tip over? Should I extend it out (equal to the over hang) so it is 36"?

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for the replies, I am doing drawer slides so I hope I can use most of the approximately 20" of depth. Here is another picture of an updated drawer setup. I need atleast 1 drawer 6" deep for hand planes, the 9" will hold various stains.

One concern I have, is 24" enough depth that I don't have to worry about the table being easy to tip over? Should I extend it out (equal to the over hang) so it is 36"?

My bench top is 30" deep, my legs 24" and I have full extension drawers about 21" deep, no problems.

[Todd Crow]

Here is my rolling workbench. It is 88" long and 42" wide. I have 22" deep drawers on the one side that hold a huge variety of hand tools and supplies and on the other side I have 14" deep shelves for routers, nailers, cordless drill sets and other hand power tools. There is a "spine" of 3/4 ply vertical between the drawers and shelves, and a bottom frame between the casters of 2x4 Oak to keep the bench flat.

I put electrical outlets on both ends of the bench. Down the center I installed a row of bench dog holes.

When I built the bench I had the outside bottom drawers 12" deep. I found that for me that was a complete waste of space. I have since cut the drawers apart into a 8" and a 3 1/2" drawers. Even the middle bottom drawers a a bit deep for my taste at 9", but they are not worth cutting apart.

I would recommend using drawer slides that have the 1" over travel and roll-out prevention built into the slide as well so the drawers stay closed when you push the bench around (don't ask me how I know that). Also, this bench when full is HEAVY. I have ruined 2 sets of casters prior to getting these. The current casters are rated at 600 lbs each. I ended up bolting metal plates to the corners of the bench and then bolting the casters to them to keep the casters attached to the bench. Even with casters it takes EFFORT to get the bench to move.

Todd





Construction Pictures

[Craig Che]

Very nice design Todd, I am only doing larger drawers/shelves because I have specific things to go in there.

Here is an updated design, I made the bottom go out a bit farther for more stability. Is 6" of overhang enough or too much, never having had a workbench I don't know if I will want more than that. Should I do less, like 3" instead as it would certainly make the drawers easier to access?

[Phil Thien]

The only problem I see with that design is the amount of work it will take to build it. You know, most of the time will be in tool setup and stuff. Cutting/assembling the wood is only a fraction of a project like that.

So, seeing as you're building one you may as well build two, one for me and one for you!

I'll even let you have first pick of your favorite.

-Phil

P.S. I think it is going to be outstanding and I wish I had a bench with nice drawers like that.

[Todd Crow]

Craig,

I have 2 1/4" overhand on my bench. I have never had a want for more overhang.

I have had issues accessing stuff in the back of the top drawers, and I have 1" over-travel slides. The top drawers are about 1" from the bottom of the top.

If you are going to be putting the workbench on casters I would suggest you put them into your design. My casters require 6" of height.

Todd