Carrying on from my last post, I didn’t want to lose momentum with the organisation. The last big cabinet of drawers made such a difference to the whole workshop that I wanted to do more! I’ve had a pile growing on one of my benches for a good while now and it needed sorting. Not just so I knew where everything was, but also so I could easily use the mitre saw.
Various things had started piling up here as I was tidying other areas and couldn’t find a home for them. Plus I’d been using the blue bins on the wall for a few years now and all they really did was gather sawdust. Not ideal.
Also, my nice new mitre saw was pretty much unusable in this state, so my idea was to make a set of shallow drawers to replace the blue bins, with a platform at the same height as the bed of the mitre saw that I can rest wood on whilst I’m cutting it. Maybe even put some t-track in it, with an extended fence for stop blocks and clamps.
So, following a similar process to the last drawers I did, I started cutting up plywood. I managed to use a lot of the left overs from the last project but still had to order a couple more sheets in to finish the job. I started off making the platform and getting it solid on the desk and at the right height, after that came the drawer unit.
I sized the drawers to fit a gridfinity grid inside nicely, even tho I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to be putting in them. I figured it gave me a good size to start from. I also didn’t want it too tall, and a larger drawer for over sized items would be very handy. In the end I ended up with four drawers the same height as the other unit, and a double height drawer at the bottom.
Now that I had enough room to get the table saw out, the construction went a lot quicker and a lot more accurately. It really didn’t take me long to have all the drawers made, the shell put together, and everything installed. Took a lot less time that the larger unit. Amazing what you can do with an organised workshop, and each of these projects takes me closer to my end goal of a place where I can actually make things!
So here it is:
Very pleased with how it turned out, and its organised a bunch of things that have been needing a home for a very long time. I’ve still to add a fence along the bottom edge at the same location as the one on the mitre saw, and I’ve designed some label plates that I’ve been printing for all my drawers.
Am I finished with the workshop? Not by a long way. I’m constantly coming up with new ideas to improve the usage of the space. I still have to sort out the router table part of the table saw/router table pull out unit. Currently the front of it is shelves to hold some boxes I made with a precursor to gridfinity. I think I can squeeze another 20-30% in by making the front with drawers and gridfinity to match these units.
I’m also eyeing up the area to the left of my mitre station which is where we currently have the resin equipment. I think I can vastly improve the usage of space around that with drawers and better shelving, but thats still churning in my head for ideas.
Further improvements can wait tho, I want to use the workshop for what it is intended for… making things. I’ve a table to make for my parent’s garden, a cold frame/storage unit for Joy in the garden, and I’m also in the process of improving my office so want to make a small desktop to practice milling and jointing wood into slabs.
So many projects, so little time!