Tool Storage Carts With Folding Top!

A while back I built an outfeed table with the intent to design and build some storage systems that would fit inside of the outfeed table. Well, 8 months later, I finally did it!

Meet the Convertible Shop Carts!

These carts have swivel caster wheels so that they can be moved around easily, as well as a folding table top that connects both carts together - creating a HUGE work space when needed! I think these are going to be really handy in the future and will help me avoid pulling out the sawhorses when I need a little bit of extra space.

Lets dive right into it then, shall we?

Check out my Instrucables on how to make drawer pull cutouts

Really quick, be sure to check out the full color step-by-step plans I made for this project. The plans come with shopping lists, cut lists, and dimensions. Ok, moving on...for real this time! :-)

Tools I used (But you don't need all of these)

• Full Color Plans
• Notebook (I wrote a book!)
• Table saw
• Drill + Driver
• Multitool
• Router
• Paint Brush
• Paint Roller
• Thickness Planer (I have owned this for over 3+ years. It's the best!)

Materials

• Locking Caster Wheels
• Soft Close Drawer Slides
• Black Formica Laminate Sheet
• Piano Hinge
• Template Bit for Router
• Toggle Clamp (useful for making router jigs)
• Polycrylic Water Based Polyurethane
• Flat Black Paint

I started out the project by breaking down my plywood into the correct dimensions needed to build the frames of these cabinets. Because I don't have a truck, I had Home Depot cut my plywood into quarters, so that they would fit into my car.

Since I don't have a miter saw, I used my crosscut sled to cut the parts down to length. I highly recommend a crosscut sled if you don't have one already. Extremely useful!

With all my parts cut, I used my custom DIY pocket hole jig to drill about 4 million pocket holes. (fine, maybe not that many....)

Pocket holes are an excellent way to join plywood panels together, plus, depending on the design, you can easily hide the pocket holes by having them inside the cabinet, or with 3/8" dowel rods. I designed the cabinet system to have all of the pocket holes on the inside, so really, no one (except me and you) will ever know I used them in the first place. :-)

Assembling the carcass or frame was pretty easy, I used some diy angle clamps to hold the panels together, and then glued and screwed each part into place. If you don't want to use pocket holes for the project, you could face screw the panels together, or even cut a rabbet and use glue/nails. Lots of options here.

I started with the BACK panel and the FLOOR/BASE panel. Then added the SIDE panels. Last, I added a stretcher to attach the side panels in order to give me a little extra strength, but also a place to install a few screws to attach the top later on.

I have this really handy Kreg brand clamp that I use on almost every pocket hole project that I do. If it is in your budget, I recommend picking one up (or 2 if you are feeling feisty). But to be honest, 1 gets you pretty far.

Using spacers, I aligned the drawer slides inside of the cabinet/carcass/frame, and then screwed them into place. I offset the front of the drawer slide 1/4" from from the front, I am not entirely sure why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

If you are following along with the plans, it is a good idea to measure your drawer slides, just in case they are a different height than the ones I used.

I found these really cool 3" casters on Amazon that I have been using on all my builds lately. They roll really nice, and when you lock them, it locks the swivel portion as well. This keeps everything super secure, even if your floors are a little uneven. (like mine)

It's drawer time!

I think drawers are one of the most challenging aspects of a big project. Not because they are difficult, or complicated, but because you typically have to make more than one. In this case, I needed to build 8 drawers in total. INSANITY!

I really like use self closing (or soft close) drawer slides on my projects. Why you ask? Well...It's not that I have anger issues, its just that sometimes, I slam doors and drawers. :-)

This project was designed so that the drawer slides were located exactly 2" from the bottom of each drawer. Often times people use spacers, but I find this method much easier and consistent. Simply mark a line 2" from the bottom edge and attach the drawer slide.

Then, when all the drawer slides are installed, you can easily slide each drawer in the carcass. DONE!

I took this project to the next level by cutting out the drawer fronts from a single continuous piece of plywood. This will give me a cool continuous grain pattern on the front of the unit when I am done. Obviously, this step is not necessary, but it sure makes for a cool look!

Also, I really do not like buying expensive drawer pulls and hardware for shop projects. So I decided to use the router to cut out drawer pulls in each drawer front. I really like the modern look of these pulls.

I made a detailed video all about this drawer pull jig, you can check it out here

A full instrucables for this process can be found here.

At this point, it was time to build the top of the carts. The construction is very straightforward, being one solid piece of plywood, and then to save some money, a few strips around the edge to provide a bit more strength and increase the thickness to about 1.5" thick. I then edged the top with some maple hardwood so that the plywood edges would be hidden as well as to provide a bit more durability.

Speaking of durability, I have been putting black Formica on all of my shop projects recently. I 100% endorse this product. It is way cheaper than the black melamine material from the wood store, and just makes every project look that much more professional. It is really easy to install too, so don't be intimidated!

After priming the carcass cabinets, I used flat black paint from Rustoleum on both of the boxes. Black may not be the best choice, because it will probably collect sawdust, but I think it makes a really cool contrasting look with the natural wood grain of the drawer fronts. The drawer fronts were finished with Polycrylic clear water based polyurethane.

When it comes to shop projects, there are 2 main finishes (besides paint) that I always use:

• Polycrylic Water Based Poly
• Shellac

I use the polyurethane on light wood materials like birch or maple. It doesn't add a yellow hue to the wood and really makes for a nice clean look.

On other woods, such as cherry, oak, etc, I use Shellac. Shellac dries really fast and and is super durable, but it does have a slight yellow tint. So, I don't advise using it one really light or "white" woods.

With all of the finish dry, I installed a hinge onto the tops of the cabinets so that I can fold up the extra portion when I need a little extra space. All that was left to do at this point was to put the drawers back into the cabinets and then.....

Beauty shots!!

I am super happy with how these rolling tool storage carts came out! The black and natural wood fronts look really good, and the continuous grain (across both carts!) is just...incredible!

From now on, this is definitely the way I will be making my shop furniture. There is something about making shop furniture look extra nice that makes it that much more enjoyable to go out into the shop. I think a big part of being inspired to create and design is being in an environment that helps you do those things faster and more efficiently, while providing those positive vibes so you can stay focused on the project at hand and not feel stuck or inhibited in any way.

Thank you so much for reading this far into my Instructables! I hope you got something out of it and are inspired to go build something awesome in your shop!

I made some really cool, full color, step by step plans for this project. If you want to check them out, head on over to the downloads.

Or, if you want to see my other plans and projects, I have all my plans available in my shop (including some free ones!)

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