[drilling] [♪] It's time for another episode of Woodsmith Shop .

I'm gonna start things off with a simple question.

You know where your hardware is?

I'm talking about the screws that you need to assemble your next project.

What about the hinges, doorknobs and drawer pulls that you'll need?

What about the casters?

Any other things that you have scattered around your shop, if it's anything like mine.

So, on today's episode, we're building this hardware organizer cart.

It'll gather everything that you have, keep it in one place, organized and easy to find.

ANNOUNCER 1: Major funding for the Woodsmith Shop has been provided by: ANNOUNCER 2: Old Masters.

Craftsman-quality stains and finishes, since 1953.

ANNOUNCER 1: Additional funding provided by: ANNOUNCER 2: Titebond wood glues, the pro's advantage.

ANNOUNCER 1: And by... ANNOUNCER 2: Kreg.

From the first cut to the final assembly, providing wood workers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

ANNOUNCER 1: And by... [♪] [♪] [drilling] [♪] You know, Phil, I think one thing we beat a dead horse on in our shop is storage.

And we have lots of storage projects.

But I think, one of the things, at least in my shop, that my storage is lacking on, that's hardware storage.

So that's why I really like this cart.

Well, hardware storage ends up being a big deal because you end up with lot of like onesie-twosies of things, or in my case, I end up finding a bunch of curiosities.

Fun looking hardware that I can reclaim or repurpose, but it's still waiting for the right project.

LOGAN WITTMER: That's why I really like this.

It gives you a space to hold all your hardware items.

And the first thing I really like is this set of plastic trays.

You know, I've a bunch of these in my shop, but they don't have a home.

And these are cool, because they have, you know, three different sizes, so there's small, medium and a large.

And you can see what's in 'em.

And they also come with clear plastic covers so you can see what's in there, but they stay clean, and it's easy access for everything you use all the time.

Yeah.

Then, down below there, we have these really fun, bent sheet metal trays, that just slide into place.

They're in a variety of different sizes, and they were a great storage item.

That's right.

But like many freshers do, they've been discontinued.

But, I think we have a really cool solution to replace those, and you still customize the size.

Oh, yeah.

And then down below are two larger drawers.

They ride on full extension drawer slides for some of the bigger, bulkier items.

Things that stay in cases, stuff like that.

Yeah.

And you know, as much as I like the storage in this guy, one thing I do really like is that it's plywood construction, right.

It's simple, the joinery is all dados, and we screwed it all together.

And I know us as wood workers, we all like our projects to look great.

So, when we say screwing the joints together, people kind of roll their eyes.

But we added finished head washers under these screws.

So, it gives it a nice finished look even though it is simple.

Yeah.

There's one final storage area on this cart, and it's here at the back where there's a series of five cubbies to hold some of the long items that kind of just end up hanging around in the shop.

Pieces of dowel or aluminum angle or strips of molding that you want to use later on.

Yeah.

And one thing that I do like about these cubbies, what you mentioned in that, is you can change the depth of them.

The bottom raises and lowers so you can have cubbies for shorter items so they don't get buried in the bottom, which tends to happen.

Right.

So, think of this hardware storage cart as replacing a whole wall full of coffee cans.

You know what I'm talking about.

I think it's time to start building.

Yup.

So, the place I like to start on most projects is with the largest portion of it.

I like to get that out of the way first.

So, on this hardware cart, that's going to be the case.

Let's take a look at the couple of parts that we have to contend with to build the case.

Now obviously, we have a pair of sides.

Those sides are connected together with a bunch of dividers.

Now, not all these dividers are structural.

We're only going to concentrate on those, and we're going to fill out those other ones for organization later.

So we have the sides, we have a top, we have this middle divider.

Going down, we have a lower divider and a bottom.

And this all starts by breaking down a sheet of plywood.

To do that, I'm not going to use the table saw.

So, there is one big reason why I don't like to break sheet goods down with my table saw.

That's because they're just too big and awkward.

They're heavy and they're hard to cut accurately by yourself.

So, what are your options?

Well, in my shop at home, I like to get a full-size sheet into my garage, lay it on a piece of foam, and then use a circular saw with a guide, to cut it into more manageable pieces that I can bring into my shop.

Now, you could buy smaller sheets at the Home Center.

A lot of times, they call these "project size sheets", and they're either 4x4 or 2x4 sheets.

And that works just as well.

Or, if you buy a full-size sheet, a lot of the times, Home Center will break them down for you.

Or, you could use something like this guy.

And this is what is known as a cutting system.

And these guys became popular a couple of years ago.

And they basically marry a circular saw with a track to a cutting table that allows you to cut accurately and cleanly.

So, the plunge saw is held with a track, so it's guided back and forth across the table.

And the table's really what makes this cool.

There's a couple of features on here that help you cut accurately.

The first is this pair of fences.

You can slide these wherever you want, and you can lock them in place, and that controls your depth of cut.

So you make the peeler cuts the same size.

Those guys will use inking junctions, with these little bench dogs.

These bench dogs move anywhere across this table, and they act like a 90-degree reference.

So you can slide your sheet against the fence, butt it against the dogs, and you can lower the track down and make a cut.

So, I'm going to go and get this setup to cut one of our sides.

Let's start with setting these fences at 18 inches.

And then I'm gonna move these dogs into place, just to give me a good reference.

Now, we can grab our sheet and load it up.

[♪] So, one of the things I really like about these cutting stations is, they double as a work bench.

By removing the track, you have a pretty good work service, so that's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to finish up the cart, case right here.

The sides of the case are held together with those dividers and those dividers seat in dados.

Now you could cut the dados with a table saw, but with sides that are this long, they're about 44 inches long, it could twist a little bit as you're cutting them.

So this is an instance where it's much easier to bring the tool to the work surface.

So, to do this, I'm going to use a shop-made guide, and my router with a straight bit.

Now I've marked all the dado locations, and this is important that you keep the dado straight, because there are six of them in here and you wanna make sure you're cutting them on the right side of your line.

So I've marked my lines, and with this jig, I can clamp it in place and then I can also set the width for the dividers.

And now, when I go to cut those dados, that bit's gonna follow the two edges of the MDF and it's going to cut the dado exactly the width it needs to be for those dividers.

So now we just need to get these in place and we'll route these dados.

[♪] [loud whirring of drill] [♪] So, once the dados are all cut in sides, there's a few more things to take care of.

The first thing is to cut a rabbet in the back edge and the bottom of the sides.

That'll be for the bottom panel and for the back.

The next is on the dividers.

The lower divider has both a groove and a dado cut in it.

And the upper divider has a dado cut in it.

The final thing to do with the sides is going to be to cut that slant front.

That gives you access to those plastic storage bins.

Once that's all taken care of, we're gonna start assembling.

This is pretty simple to put together; just a little bit of glue and some screws.

Alright, once I have the glue on there, let's not forget the sub back, and I just cut that guy to size and I cut a handful of grooves in those.

And that's for some storage that Phil's gonna add.

[♪] [loud whirring] Alright, after a couple of screws driven through the sub back, into those dividers, this hardware cart is ready for a little bit of organization.

My role on this project is to add the innards.

That's all the storage stuff that's outside of the drawers.

For starters, what I was just doing was installing some strips on the back.

And I'm gonna turn this around to show you what I'm talking about.

Back here, I cut some plywood strips that fit in the grooves of that inner back panel that Logan made.

They're attached with screws and then they hold some adjustable shelves that you can use to store long items on.

Now, those adjustable shelves rest on shelf pins that fit into some holes that you'll drill.

It's important that all of these holes line up.

So the easiest way that I thought to do this was to just stack all four of these strips together, and then drill 'em at the same time over at the drill press.

It went quick and easy.

Then I could use those strips as a guide to drill the holes on each side of the case.

Now it's just a matter of finding these L-shaped supports and then making a set of shelves that you can just slide into place.

Like I said, you can position them anywhere you need to, depending on the length of material that you plan on storing in here.

Later on, we'll cover this all up with the removable back panel.

But for now, we'll take care of some stuff over on the front side.

Around front, I'm gonna add a series of graduated shelves to this upper angled section of the case.

And that's to hold three different size of plastic storage bins.

Now, the shelves themselves are pretty simple, but there are a few parts involved.

The first is the plywood shelf.

What's interesting about this piece is that the front edge is beveled to match the taper on the front edge of the case.

Cutting that bevel is pretty simple.

Just angled the blade of the track saw and buzzed off the front edge of the shelf.

Then I cut a series of dados, on the top.

And those dados are sized to hold some hardboard dividers that will guide the plastic bins and keep them in the right place.

To keep the bins from getting pushed in too far, I glued and nailed a piece of plywood at the back edge, just to work as a stop.

Now, one thing you wanna keep in mind here is that you don't have to be too precise on how you cut and size all of these parts.

The back stop is a good example.

Now I don't want it to bind against the sides of the case.

So I cut it short of where it's going to slide into place.

Makes it nice and easy.

Same thing with the dividers.

What I did is angle the front of the dividers, again to match that bevel.

But they're cut a little bit short back here.

That way, I can concentrate on getting those dividers flush at the front, and not worry about getting it real tight at the back.

Once it's installed, you're never gonna see it.

Now, speaking of installing the shelves, what you want to do here is size the shelf for a nice smooth sliding fit.

Like Logan said earlier, the top, these two middle dividers, and the bottom, share the lion's share of the structure of this piece.

Now I don't want them to slide around, so I am gonna glue them into place.

To do that, I'm gonna take some glue on a brush and put in a healthy little bead along the front edge of this dado on each side.

Now when I take the shelf, I can line it up in the dado and slide it into place.

As I slide it in, the shelf is gonna apply and squeeze out that glue all along the dado, and give you a nice solid connection.

What I want to concentrate on here is making sure that the front edge of the shelf is flush with the sides of the case.

Once I have this third shelf installed, then I can get started on the tray.

After installing the three shelves for the bins up top, I'm left with this little tiny space down here.

And what I'm gonna fill it with is what looks like a small drawer.

But in fact, what it is, is a tray that has some raised sides around it that you can use as a sorting tray for hardware.

But I'd like to think of it as a bonus work surface.

You pull it out and you can store tools and other accessories that you need, without cluttering up the rest of your bench.

Now making this tray is pretty simple.

It's a plywood bottom, half-inch thick plywood, and then the plans called for wrapping it with some 3/8th inch thick hardwood.

Well, I had so much of this half-inch plywood around anyway that I thought I'd just use that.

And then while the plans also called for mitering the corners of that edging, that just seemed like a little bit of overkill for a shop project.

So, instead what I did, is cut the side pieces to match the depth of the tray bottom.

Then just made some longer strips to cover the overall length.

Then I can glue the nails in place and call this one good.

So it's just a matter of applying a bead of glue, setting the front in place, and then I'll just nail it home.

And just a couple of other details that I want to finish up on this section of the cart.

The first is to talk about this back section.

Now, remember there are adjustable shelves that go in here.

And you wanna be able to get at them.

So I cut a back out of half-inch plywood.

Then to make the back easily removable, I added these brass turn buttons.

There's a set of them on all four corners and in the middle.

And you just slide 'em over to hold the back in place and flip 'em out of the way when you don't need 'em.

Then the final addition... is down here on the bottom of the cart.

I added casters because the cart needs to roll around.

The casters are attached to plates that are nothing more than two layers of three-quarter inch plywood that are glued together and then chamfered to ease the edge.

Ordinarily, I'm pretty thrifty when it comes to woodworking.

And I try and cut my cost as much as possible.

But for casters like this, I usually splurge and get the nice locking swivel ones.

I think that once you add those to your cart, take this cart for a spin around the shop, you're gonna find that these are real nice.

At the bottom of our hardware cart, there are a couple of types of drawers.

Now, I'm gonna start with the lower larger drawers, because they're built in the same way that you would expect many other shop drawers are made.

Now what I've done here is cut all of my parts for the sides and the fronts and backs.

So it's time to tackle the joinery.

I'm gonna use tongue and dado joinery here.

And it starts by taking the drawer sides and cutting a dado near the front edge.

To do that, I've set up a quarter-inch dado blade.

I'm using the rip fence as an end stop, and I'll guide the piece with a miter gauge to cut a dado on the front edge of all of these parts.

The second part of our joint is cut on the fronts and backs of the pieces.

For this, I'm gonna use the same dado blade, but I've set it up a little bit differently.

Here, I have an auxiliary fence attached to the rip fence on the table saw.

That way, I can get the dado blade right up tight against it and not worry about damaging the fence.

I'm still gonna guide the piece, but now I'm going to cut a rabbet which forms a tongue that will slide right in.

Take your time and make a few test cuts, and you'll be able to get a nice snug fit.

With the corner joinery taken care of, the last step before we can start assembling our two drawers, is to cut a groove to hold the drawer bottom.

Now for this, I'm going to use the same quarter-inch dado blade setup, and I've just repositioned the rip fence.

And it's just a matter of making a pass along the bottom edge of all four of the drawer box parts for each set of drawers.

While the glue dries on the two lower drawers, I'm gonna talk about the last storage area on our hardware cart for this episode.

And that's this middle section right here.

On the original project, we featured these really cool bent sheet metal trays that just slide into kerfs cut into tray supports on the sides of the case.

Like things can happen, these trays aren't made any longer.

But we're woodworkers, so we can just make our own.

Now if you can find those trays online, you can go ahead and use them.

But you can also build these drawers that I'm gonna demonstrate here.

Either way, the starting point is to make those tray supports.

There's four pieces that you'll need to make.

And you'll cut a series of evenly spaced saw kerfs across the panel to allow the drawers to slide on.

I did it here at the table saw with a regular blade that creates a kerf that's just the right size.

Then they can get glued into the cabinet.

Now the drawer itself is made just like the two lower drawers.

I'm still using the tongue and dado joinery.

So that's pretty familiar.

Now, I did make a couple of changes though.

The first is that I changed the orientation of the joint.

What I wanted was the drawer front to be nice and clean and smooth.

So, I cut the dados in the drawer front, and then the tongue is cut on the drawer sides.

So, when you cut the drawer bottom groove, you'll see that is visible on the sides, instead of being at the front.

It's just a small change but can make a big difference in the final appearance.

The other change is that I cut a rabbet on the inside edge of the drawer sides.

That rabbet accepts one of the flanges from a piece of small aluminum angle that gets screwed to the top of the drawer sides.

And it's this aluminum angle that slides in those saw kerfs in the supports.

The final thing to do before gluing up the drawer though, is to head over to the drill press and cut a hole in the front as a finger pull.

Now I made these drawers out of poplar because I really like that painted look of the original trays.

So, I plan on painting these, once I get 'em all done.

The result though is that you can just take the drawer, fit it into the kerfs, slide it home for a custom storage solution.

Now, once the construction is wrapped up on here, there are still a few details that you want to take care of.

Exactly.

And this starts by adding the handles on the front of the drawers and on the tray.

And on here, we added handles on the side.

But honestly, that's purely up to you.

If you're gonna move it around your shop while you work, go ahead and add them.

Now, when it comes to finish, on this particular cart, we went with a few coats of an oil-based wipe-on varnish.

It warms up the color of the plywood, and provides a little bit of protection.

But it's not your only option.

No.

You could, of course, paint this.

You know, and milk paint would be a great option.

It will add good protection, it will add a pop color to your shop, and dull finish isn't gonna show dirt a lot.

Right.

The other thing that I like about this project is despite its impressive size and all that's going on with it, you can put it together pretty quickly.

What do you think?

Maybe a long weekend?

Yeah.

Probably 3-day weekend, and you could get it together.

And one of the other things that I really liked is, you know, even though we've included a lot of storage down here, you could customize it to your needs.

You know, if you want to replace the trays with an extra set of drawers, you could do that.

It's a great way to consolidate a lot of the stuff that's kind of drifted around to the far corners of your shop, give it a home, and be able to find it whenever you want it.

Way back in Season 4, we built this slant front tool cart.

Great way to keep all your tools organized.

It was also the design inspiration for today's project, the hardware organizing cart.

And as you can see, they go great together.

And if you're anything like the woodworkers at Woodsmith magazine, you'll find that all the benches have at least one cart parked nearby to keep everything that you need organized and close at hand.

Plans are available at WoodsmithShop.com.

It's also the home for other woodworking videos, project plans and more.

It's enough to keep you busy until we're back here in the Woodsmith Shop .

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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 1: Major funding for the Woodsmith Shop has been provided by: ANNOUNCER 2: Old Masters.

Craftsman-quality stains and finishes, since 1953.

ANNOUNCER 1: Additional funding provided by: ANNOUNCER 2: Titebond wood glues, the pro's advantage.

ANNOUNCER 1: And by... ANNOUNCER 2: Kreg.

From the first cut to the final assembly, providing wood workers with products that help to simplify woodworking challenges.

Kreg.

ANNOUNCER 1: And by... [♪]