[ Power saw whirring ] [ Mid-tempo music plays ] It's time for another episode of "The Woodsmith Shop."

On today's program, we're taking a strong focus on shop organization with two great projects, Shop Cleanup Center and a clamp cart.

Both can be customized to help you enjoy the time that you spent in your shop.

Let's start building.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

And by... Kreg --from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Additional funding provided by... Titebond Wood Glues -- the pro's advantage.

And by... ♪♪ ♪♪ And by... Inventables -- Tools for designing and building your products.

Inventables.com.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ You know, Chris, I think there's two things in a shop that you can never have enough of -- that storage and organization.

We have two projects today that are going help solve both those.

We do.

This is a cleanup center, and here we have a mobile clamp cart.

You know, the clamps, at least in my shop, I have a bunch of different ones.

They always end up piled in the corner, and then when you're in the middle of a glue-up, it's a pain to get out the clamp that you actually need.

So I like this, because you can kind of tailor to the clamps that you have.

Absolutely.

And who needs a panicked glue-up?

Organization is a great thing for clamps.

It's also a great thing for cleanup.

This is why I really love this cleanup center.

There's room for a big roll of craft paper to keep things clean, a shelf for lots of small items.

And then this topper, you could organize it any way you want.

I've got it set up for boxed rags, regular, rolled paper towels, and all sorts of canned goods.

And I think it's one of the things that I like about both these projects, is you can build the carcass and then really tailor them to what you have in your shop.

Now, of course, you need a set of plans to get started, and they're available on our website, WoodsmithShop.com.

The starting point in creating our shop cleanup center is to cut some pieces of plywood down to size.

And since I'm working on just the case, I'm focusing on the two ends and then the larger back panel.

There's several ways you can cut the plywood down, but one of my favorite ways is to let somebody else do it for me.

So when you buy your plywood at the home center or a lumber yard, oftentimes they'll cut it down into rough pieces.

Or if you can trust them and they're doing a good job, they'll cut down to the exact size that you need.

Now to take care of the joinery on this project, we're using dados, and I'm working with a dado blade on the table saw.

So we've set up dado blade and took some time to size it so that it matches exactly the thickness of the plywood that we're using.

That way, when these pieces go together, it's gonna be a nice, snug fit and a stronger glue joint.

There's a reason that I have all three of these pieces here.

Some of the dados that are gonna connect the shelves to the case are gonna be cut in both the sides and the back panel, so that's what I have set up here.

I'm gonna make a cut for the center shelf on the two side pieces and also the back piece.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ There's one other dado that needs to be cut in all three pieces, and that's for a shelf that happens a lot higher up on the case.

Now, there's something that I wanted to point out here about cutting these dados -- on the narrow sides like this, I still find that I have plenty of bearing surface against the rip fence, that I can control the piece to make those dados.

I like using a set of push pads, 'cause not only do I get the opportunity to apply enough downward pressure for a consistent depth of cut, but I can use it to help hold the workpiece against the fence.

However, if you're not as comfortable with that operation, you can grab a miter gauge.

And attach a long auxiliary fence on it to guide the workpiece.

I can still use the rip fence here as an end stop because I'm not making a through cut, and this is still a safe operation.

The final dado that I cut happened just in the two side pieces.

This one's a little bit wider at 1 inch, and it's also twice as deep at a 1/2 inch deep.

I cut it in two passes at the table saw.

I'm here at the drill press because this dado isn't actually gonna hold the shelf.

Instead, it's gonna allow a dowel and a roll of Kraft paper to hang inside the cleanup center.

Now, for that to happen, I'm gonna make an addition to the dado, and that's to drill a hole right here, about at the midpoint for that dowel to drop into and keep it in place.

I have the bit installed in the drill press, but what I want to make sure is that the drill bit is gonna drill exactly to the same depth as the dado, so here's how I'm gonna set that up.

I'm going to bring the bit into place.

Drop it into the dimple that I created for the layout line, then up here at the depth stop, I have -- it's called a set up block.

It's a piece of aluminum that's exactly 1/2 of an inch deep.

So I can set that on top of the stop bar here, bring the depth stop right down to it, and now I know that that depth stop is going to get the hole exactly where I want it.

When I'm all done, I'm gonna have to do a little bit of cleanup here, but that can happen a little bit later at the bench.

We're back here at the table saw one last time, and that's to cut a rabbit along the back edge of the two side pieces, and that's gonna accept the back panel.

That is gonna result in a much stronger assembly.

To make this cut, we still have the same dado blade installed, but this time, I've installed an auxiliary fence that's attached to my rip fence.

That's because I need the fence right up against the table saw blade to form the rabbit, and I don't want to scar up the face on my existing rip fence.

There are just a couple of details left on these case pieces before we can assemble them.

The first is to kind of connect the dots between that hole that I drilled and this dado for the dowel and the Kraft paper to drop into.

This is easy enough.

Just gonna use chisel and a mallet here to remove the waste.

[ Blows air ] The second thing that I want to do is to soften the sharp corners at the top and bottom of the case.

It's just one of those things where it just makes the project a little bit more friendly, and you're less likely to bump into something and hurt yourself.

I'm gonna clamp it across the end of my bench here.

Then I'm going to rough cut it with a jigsaw and then clean things up with files and sandpaper.

There isn't anything really cosmic about assembling this cleanup center.

There's one thing that I want to point out, though, and that it's a good idea to bring the pieces together without glue and then mark and drill the holes for your screws.

I like to do that with a combination pilot and counter sink bit.

And by doing that, you can get those holes drilled in the sides, line it up with the back and the shelf, and drill those holes as well.

Makes the assembly a lot easier, 'cause then you can do it without clamps.

Now, we're gonna be assembling this case with the sides, back, and just the top shelf.

We'll leave the middle shelf out for now so that Chris can attach some of the add-ons and accessories that he's gonna be building.

♪♪ ♪♪ At this point, I can hand it off to Chris to add the accessories.

Well, the basic shell of our cleanup center is done, and now it's time to figure out what to do with the interior.

Now, we know that down here is going to be a large role of Kraft paper.

We've also already made provisions for a shelf for holding smaller items above that.

The real question is, what do we do with up here?

Well, you can do whatever you like, but here's what I'm gonna plan on.

I really like these boxed paper towels, so I'm gonna make a pocket to hold those.

I also have all sorts of cans of cleaners and so forth.

I'd like to have a place to hold those.

And finally, I thought it would be good to have a little spot for standard roll of paper towels.

So with that in mind, you can see I've got some parts laid out here.

My boxed paper towels will fit in this area, and you can see that I have marked a cut out which will make it a little bit easier to pull the towels out.

This space is where the paper towel roll will be.

I'm going to need to make some cutouts to hold a simple dowel that the paper towels will go on.

This area is for all my cans and miscellaneous items.

To hold it all together will be a rabbit, a rabbit, and two dados.

So I'm gonna take care of all that, drill some holes, and then we'll be ready to screw everything together.

Well, that wraps things up for assembly work on the top of our cleanup cabinet.

One other item I've done is to make a dowel to fit in between these two pockets for paper towels, and I've lightly beveled the ends of the dowel so it'll slip in just a little bit easier.

Well, what's up next?

It's to make the arm which will tear the paper off down below.

Making the tear-off arm for our Kraft paper is pretty simple affair.

It begins by gluing up two blocks of 1 1/2 inch-thick plywood.

Now, as you can see here, I have the arm traced onto it.

Up here, you can see the pivot point.

Down here at the bottom, you'll notice it's flat and there's also a flat here.

That's where this angle iron is going to seat and be screwed on.

So let me get these cut.

We'll get the angle iron cut and screwed on, and I'll show you how this works.

♪♪ ♪♪ Well, the tear-off assembly is complete.

We've got our two arms that we cut at the band saw, and I've cut this piece of 1 1/2 inch by 8 angle iron to fit in between the opening here.

We want to make sure that the whole assembly moves freely up and down, because we're relying on the weight of this lower edge for a nice, clean tear on our Kraft paper.

I also cut this dowel that the Kraft paper will ride on.

And so with that, we're done with this area and the next step is to do the pegs below, insert the final shelf, and we got it.

Well, here's the completed cleanup center.

As you can see, I've added the pegs down below.

Now, those pigs were made at the drill press by angling my workpiece to about 20 degrees and using a good, sharp bit to get a clean hole.

With that applied, I then added the last shelf.

So, what next?

Well, I need to screw this securely to the wall, load it up with supplies, then I guess I better get busy cleaning up my workshop.

The main structure of the clamp cart is made up of large panels.

Now, you could use plywood, but in this case, we're using MDF.

What I like about it is that it's usually lower cost than plywood.

It's really smooth, has a consistent thickness.

The downside is, it's heavy.

So when it comes to the joinery, the dados and grooves that we're using here, I like to use a handheld router, rather than try and muscle these pieces across the table saw.

So what I have is a router equipped with an edge guide for dados that I'm gonna cut on the base.

So for close cuts, I can just use a straight bit that matches the thickness of the pieces and make these in two easy passes.

The tall uprights for our clamp cart require a different routing strategy.

That's because in this instance, there's a long groove that runs right down the middle of the panel.

That's pretty far away from the reference edge, and not easy to keep the router running smoothly with an edge guide.

So instead, I've attached a straight edge to the panel.

The key thing here is that you need to measure the distance from the edge of the bit to the edge of the base plate.

That's going to determine your offset for locating the straight edge guide.

Otherwise, the routing process is essentially the same.

Glue and screws are the order of the day when it comes to assembling a shop project like this.

When you're working with MDF, it's really important that you drill those pilot holes first.

Now, to get them in the right spot, I like to start by drilling the pilot holes down through the dados.

Then I can flip the panel over and then finish the pilot hole and the counter sink from the outside.

Now, when it comes to assembly, I'm gonna work from the bottom of the clamp cart up.

I'll put a healthy amount of glue in.

MDF is notoriously porous, so a good amount of glue is going to ensure you get a solid bond.

Once I get the two uprights and the center panel in place, then I can start driving the screws.

Once the two uprights are secured to the center panel, you can turn the whole cart on its side.

Now you can drill pilot holes through the base into the ends of the sides and then drive those screws.

And that's where we are here with everything all set up, and I didn't have to use any clamps.

All I'm gonna do now is apply a couple of coats of paint and turn this over to Logan.

So now that Phil has the clamp cart all assembled and he's got a coat of paint on it -- and it looks pretty good, in my opinion -- we can go ahead and add the storage for the clamps.

We're going to go ahead and use my clamps that I have at home.

I'm going to show you how you can customize this for the clamps that you have.

So I have a handful of F-style clamps, some parallel clamps, and some bar clamps.

The one thing I like about this cart is it is customizable.

You can really tailor it to hold the clamps that you have and the clamps that you use the most.

I'm gonna use some of the different clamp holders that are outlined in the plans, and I'll modify some of the other ones as well.

But if you'd like to see the holders that are available in the plans, they're on our website, WoodsmithShop.com.

So the first ones we're gonna start off with are these bar clamps.

And I have five of them here.

I'm probably gonna make six slots, because usually I use these either in pairs or threes, so I'll probably just buy and add another clamp to the set here soon.

For these shorter ones, it would work pretty well, I think, to have a cleat up top to hang them on.

However, I have these longer clamps that I use, and they're just a little too tall, but I think I have a solution for that.

So we're gonna go ahead and go over to the table saw.

We'll start making a holder to hold six of these guys and I'll show you my solution when we come back.

For the bar clamp holders, what I'm gonna do is use two pieces of Douglas fir.

And I've laid out a series of marks on here that's gonna form six notches, and that'll hold the six bar clamps that I want it to hold.

What I'm gonna do is clamp these two together, line them up with the blade, then I'll throw a squeeze clamp on here, just to hold everything nice and tight, because these are gonna be pretty deep cuts with this dado blade.

And then I'll go ahead and cut these six notches.

What that's gonna leave us with is two holders, one for the top and one for the bottom.

We're gonna flip the one on the bottom around, and that's gonna keep the end of the clamp from sliding off the bottom of the cart.

Once we have all those notches cut, I'll go ahead and set that bottom one aside, and then I'm gonna run a rabbit along the front edge of that top holder.

And that's going to be for a couple of toggles, but we'll talk about those in a little bit when we go ahead and install these.

So let me show you what I did with the front rabbit that I cut.

So to retain these clamps when they're inside the holder -- of course, we don't want them falling out as we roll the cart around our shop, especially if your shop has cracks or something you're gonna roll over, they could bounce out.

So I added these little retaining strips.

These guys are just little pieces of hardboard that are toggles, and they sit on that rabbit, and that rabbit keeps them in the horizontal position, which is locked.

So now that clamp's not gonna fall out as it rolls around.

So now let's go ahead and look at making holders for the F-style clamps.

So the holder for the F-style clamps is gonna be pretty much the same as the holder for the bar clamps, but in this case, the notches are just a little bit narrower, and that's sized to fit the shank on those F-clamps.

Now, as I mentioned before, I made this a little bit bigger than I need to so it can grow with my clamp collection, but I can also utilize this holder for these parallel-style clamps, too.

Now, these long ones won't fit upright, but instead, what I can do is I can rest the head on the base of the stand, and then there's a press fit to hold them in there.

And I like that because it keeps them close at hand and it keeps all of the weight off of this holder, because a lot of clamps in here, it gets really heavy and can put a lot of stress on it.

Now, of course, I could have made this holder go all the way across, but I don't have that many clamps right now.

So instead I like to implement another shop organization technique I use a lot, and that's just a pair of small wood screws.

And on those, I like to hang stuff like a center-finding rule or even a yardstick, and I even have a couple of precision ground rules at home that I'll hang up here.

So now that we have the outside of the cart taken care of, let's flip it around to the inside and we're gonna start by making some holders for our wooden hand screws.

The inside of the cart is gonna be where we put all those clamps that don't fit into holders, as well as the F-style or the bar clamps.

And the three that I'm really looking at in my collection is gonna be the hand screws, the spring clamps, and the squeeze clamps.

So I'm gonna try to fit all those guys in this side, so let's tackle the hand screws first.

To hold the hand screws, I simply have this piece of fir, and it's been screwed onto this piece of plywood.

What I can do is, once it's mounted, just slide a hand screw right over it and that'll hold three or four of them in place as we roll the cart around.

There we go.

That'll work really nicely for those hand screws.

So now to deal with the spring clamps, this is what we came up with.

This is just a piece of fir, has a couple dowels drilled in, and they're drilled in at a slight angle.

And I don't really know what that angle is, and it doesn't really matter, honestly.

It just needs to be at a slight angle to keep stuff from walking off as we roll it across the floor.

So to drill those holes, I just simply taped a piece of scrap to the bottom of one end of the fir and then drilled the holes for the dowels.

Then I just glue them into place, and I think that's gonna work really nicely.

There we go.

And again, spring clamps aren't really something I use all the time, so being at the bottom of the cart is perfect for them.

So now we'll go ahead and tackle the squeeze clamps, and I think we'll put those up top because I use those fairly often.

And to make that holder, we're gonna head back over to the table saw.

Now, the holder for the squeeze clamps is gonna be this guy.

This is basically two layers of Baltic birch, one that's wider than the other.

What that does is create a wide rabbit along this back side, and that is so that the jaw of the squeeze clamp will fit over top of that and sit in there nice and snug once we have our notches cut.

So just like before, we're gonna go ahead and lay out our mark, cut our notches, and I'll work all the way down both sides of this, and then we'll head back to the cart and install it.

There we go.

It even has room for my little, baby squeeze clamps.

What I like about this is, it has room for all of the squeeze clamps in my collection and I still have a little bit of real estate down here to add clamps, which might mean I need to buy some more.

But surprisingly, that takes care of all of the clamps that I had in my shop, and that leaves me with a whole other side back here.

So if I ever do pick up more clamps, I can use some of these same holders on the back side.

But I think for now what I'll do is I'll probably put a couple of shelves back there.

That will hold the glue-up supplies that I really need to have when I am doing an assembly.

But then, if I ever need to add more clamp storage, I can pull the shelves out and add more.

The old proverb, "a place for everything and everything in its place," certainly applies to the two projects we built today.

For our shop cleanup center and for the clamp cart, what it does is allow you to organize your shop so that you know exactly where everything is.

It's gonna help you enjoy the time that you spend in your shop.

Now, if you'd like to make one or both of these projects for yourself, the plans are at our website, WoodsmithShop.com.

You'll find also more great woodworking tips, videos, and project ideas to help you keep building.

And then you can join us right back here in The Woodsmith Shop.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ If you'd like to get more video tips and techniques, sign up for the free weekly Woodsmith eTip.

Every week, you'll receive an e-mail with a video tip to get more out of your table saw, router table, and more.

Sign up at WoodsmithShop.com.

Everything in today's show comes from the newly expanded Woodsmith Guild Edition with shop projects, plans, tips, and techniques.

To get a free preview issue of the Woodsmith Guild Edition and a free Woodsmith book, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

In addition, past seasons of "The Woodsmith Shop" are available on DVD, or you can watch them online from your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

For more information, go to WoodsmithShop.com.

Announcer: Major funding for "The Woodsmith Shop" has been provided by... Old Masters -- offering wood stains and finishes for the woodworking enthusiast and professional.

And by... Kreg -- from the first cut to the final assembly, providing woodworkers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

Additional funding provided by... Titebond Wood Glues -- the pro's advantage.

And by... ♪♪ ♪♪ And by... Inventables -- tools for designing and building your products.

Inventables.com.