Roast My Bench Design

[sansbury]

I want another workbench for the shop to use for finer mechanical sorts of work. I've looked at some rolling tool chests at the usual sources, and none of them are quite what I want. The one that comes closest is a Husky heavy duty model they sell at the big orange store, but it's wider than I want and for $1100 not a "try it and see if I like it" purchase.

Anyway, because I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm thinking about building instead of buying. I've gradually been working up the sophistication ladder of cabinet projects, and this could be a good opportunity to try leveling up on fit and finish before I take on some things I want to make for the kitchen and bedroom.

Since this is a fairly complex build, I'm designing *everything* for it in CAD before I cut any wood. I have also been commissioning a new 24x48" CNC router which I will probably use to help with production, particularly of drawer boxes. I'm still messing with the size, but around 4-5' wide and standing height.

The way I've laid this out is similar to some other pieces of "shop furniture" I've built over the past year that seem to have worked out well. The top and bottom are designed as torsion boxes in 18mm birch ply, and will be assembled with dominos/pocket screws/glue. It's designed to sit on industrial casters so I can move it around, pretty much everything in my shop is set up on wheels except the machine tools.

For the top, I'm thinking about building it so that the top surface could be changed, so I could have a solid block top, a top with MFT holes, and a "greasy" top for messy projects. The drawer layout is a work in progress, but the hole pattern uses 32mm spacing so that I have the ability to modify the drawer mix down the line. The CAD model only shows a few drawers for illustrative purposes but my expectation is to fill it with some mix of drawer sizes and maybe a large shelf or two. One of the big drivers for this is that the tool chests/benches for sale tend to have a lot of 3-6" drawers, and with the stuff I do, I would rather have a lot more shallow drawers for small tools and components.

The drawers here are designed around the Knape & Vogt soft close runners, for anybody curious, but I am not married to them, they just seemed like a good choice for this application.

By the time the dust settles I don't expect this to save money versus buying, but more to get something customized to how I work and is a good opportunity to advance my skills.

For those who've done something like this, I'd appreciate any feedback on what you learned and would recommend for or against.

 

[tjbnwi]

In some of the drawer spaces, if not all, do two tier drawers. This allows for shallow drawers needing only one finished face and one pull.

Use pulls that flow and have radius corners, no ends sticking out, no knobs.

The side mount K&V’s are fine, I’m not sure if undermounts would stay “cleaner”.

Tom

 

[sansbury]

The side mount K&V’s are fine, I’m not sure if undermounts would stay “cleaner”.

I am a Blum fan and have used them for other projects. In this case the driving factor is that I want shallow drawers, like 1.5-2”. That way every kind of thing gets its own dedicated drawer.

When I modeled it up with an undermount runners eat I ended up with the minimum size drawer taking up almost 4” of space. With side mounts I can fit a drawer into a 64mm spacing.

 

[tjbnwi]

I am a Blum fan and have used them for other projects. In this case the driving factor is that I want shallow drawers, like 1.5-2”. That way every kind of thing gets its own dedicated drawer.

When I modeled it up with an undermount runners eat I ended up with the minimum size drawer taking up almost 4” of space. With side mounts I can fit a drawer into a 64mm spacing.

The pencil drawers we make are 2” tall. This leaves an interior height of 1.25” using a 1/4” bottom. The slide vertical side is ~2”. We set the top of the slide side 1/4” blow the top edge of the cabinet.

Working up from the bottom;

1/2” slide recess + 1/4” bottom = 3/4” + 1.25” interior height = 2” side height.

The Blum slides can be used to make rolling shelves, usually 3/4” thick. Blum sells a rear “clip” for this application.

Tom

 

[sansbury]

The pencil drawers we make are 2” tall. This leaves an interior height of 1.25” using a 1/4” bottom. The slide vertical side is ~2”. We set the top of the slide side 1/4” blow the top edge of the cabinet.

Working up from the bottom;

1/2” slide recess + 1/4” bottom = 3/4” + 1.25” interior height = 2” side height.

I'm having a hard time visualizing this? Are you hanging the drawer box between the slides, rather than on top of them?

The issue I am having with the undermount slides is that they don't stack as easily on a 32mm hole pattern. I can comfortably fit a 40mm drawer into that with the side-mounts. The undermounts would work if I went to 45mm spacing, and since I'll be running these on my CNC I suppose it doesn't really matter. The drawers would be more like 50mm so I'd still fit plenty of them. I guess it's a question of whether the undermount slides are that superior. I haven't tried out the K&Vs so I don't have a gut feel. They would cost a little more but not enough to be decisive.

 

[tjbnwi]

I'm having a hard time visualizing this? Are you hanging the drawer box between the slides, rather than on top of them?

The issue I am having with the undermount slides is that they don't stack as easily on a 32mm hole pattern. I can comfortably fit a 40mm drawer into that with the side-mounts. The undermounts would work if I went to 45mm spacing, and since I'll be running these on my CNC I suppose it doesn't really matter. The drawers would be more like 50mm so I'd still fit plenty of them. I guess it's a question of whether the undermount slides are that superior. I haven't tried out the K&Vs so I don't have a gut feel. They would cost a little more but not enough to be decisive.

No, the drawer sits on the slide like any other drawer. The max drawer height is opening less 13/16 (we have run them tighter), minimum height is a piece of plywood. You can stack one slide tight to the slide below it.

If you set the first slide right on the deck, if you want a 2” tall drawer the bottom of the next slide up would be 2-13/16 from the top edge of the first slide.

I’ll see if I have a picture.

Tom

 

[sansbury]

I realized I forgot to post my CAD model showing the two drawer types. This is using 64mm spacing but like I said, but I'm not sure in this case if that matters.

I was probably going to try and generate a nice planset since I'll have done about 80% of the work getting it modeled, so I figured 32mm would be easier for others to work with.

 

[Crazyraceguy]

I have one question and two recommendations.
What is the idea behind the walls around the whole top? Are you trying to contain small parts? Seems like working over that would get old?

1) offset the base a few inches, giving you some toe-kick space. That's a quality of life thing.
2) re-orient the center partitions, so that the grain flows up/down, same as the ends. (purely aesthetic)

No roasting

 

[sansbury]

I have one question and two recommendations.
What is the idea behind the walls around the whole top? Are you trying to contain small parts? Seems like working over that would get old?

Sorry, I was lazy and posted an unfinished model. The idea is that the top surfaces will be swappable, so for instance I could have a nice clean one for woodworking and another one if I’m doing something messy that might stain An unfinished surface.

The grain direction is just whatever Fusion assigns, I’ll definitely be more deliberate. And the bench will be on casters that give 4-6” of clearance so it will be comfortable to stand at.

Thanks!