Hi all,

I recently picked up my first shaper, a Shop Fox W1674 from a fellow on craigslist. I've gone through the whole machine and tuned and cleaned it up, did a few test cuts and it runs really well.

One thing is bugging me... The steel cabinet is almost empty! It's just a big open area inside that isn't usable for anything! The motor and spindle only take up a small part on one side. How crazy would it be to discard the steel cabinet and build a new cabinet from nice 3/4 ply, that had lots of built-in storage options, such as drawers for bits and cutters, wrenches, jigs, etc. Alternatively, I have a welder and metalworking tools so I could modify the existing cabinet to allow storage to be mounted inside it.

Lets assume that such modifications would be done to a high standard of quality - with that being said, if I resell it, would this destroy the value of the tool or make it better? No change?

I have a really small shop so I'm constantly looking for ways to pack things more densely.