Scrap Wood Tool Cart

[z28snksknr]

Ok, I know this is probably amateur as far as projects go on this site, but since my carpentry skills are still in their adolescence, I was pretty proud of this little project.

Basically, I had a bunch of scrap plywood, pegboard, and old wood shelves from the PO's garage debacle laying around, and my dad had given me this little cart bottom from a display where he works (grocery store):

SO, I thought "gee, I bet I could cobble together a little tool cart from all this **** I have", and I gave it my best shot. Here goes:

3/4" Plywood base for stability and 1/2" plywood "walls" (no lie, I had two pieces that were the EXACT dimensions I needed to fit the cart base):

Not lucky enough to have 3 pieces though, so I took this scrap piece and cut it down to make the back wall:

Test fit my "way smaller than most of you guys" Craftsman 400 pc. tool set box:

Leftover 3/4" plank (previous life as a shelf) was cut down to make the top:

I glued nuts to some leftover pegboard pieces with a hot glue gun to space the pegboard from the sides (in lieu of using the "pegboard spacers"):

I had just enough leftover trim to make a lip around the top to keep things from rolling off of it. I plan on hanging all my air tools and specialty automotive tools on the sides once I get more pegboard accessories. Finished product:

Total Cost: $0.00
Time to build: 4 hours
Added benefit: got rid of a bunch of scrap wood and finally found a use for that cart thing.

 

[bushhawg73]

Nice job. I too have started to build things with wood and am so far happy with the results. I have several home projects to start soon and that will be the test of my skills.

 

[Joe69]

Great job using what you had available, looks really good!

Joe

 

[Bfoughty]

I have a feeling that that tool storage cart will be around when you are old and gray. Nice job.

 

[gorilla]

Nice work, Anyone can buy a toolbox it takes skill to build one and you can buy more tools with the money you saved.

 

[jmh21586]

Nice job.


Scrap wood is so underappreciated.

 

[JohnK007]

Pretty damn good job!! I might just "borrow" your idea.

 

[tonydanzah]

i like it, but it looks very low.

 

[crewchief888]

sometimes when i have a just a bunch of junk laying around, i find the damnest uses for it.
most of my truck is built with it people ask where mounts and tabs come from, it's mostly scrap i pick up and save, mainly from some brand of contruction equipment

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

I get more satisfaction out of making stuff with scrap wood/metal than I could ever get from buying the same thing new.

 

[Eddie 70]

Add some casters to the bottom of it so you can roll it around the shop instead of toting the box around. I bought the same set of tools for my son. Very nice set.

 

[z28snksknr]

Add some casters to the bottom of it so you can roll it around the shop instead of toting the box around. I bought the same set of tools for my son. Very nice set.

It has casters. I had a pic of the black tray so you could see them, but I left it off.

As for the height of it, I made it short enough to fit under my bench. It's probably 2-3 inches below standard counter height, but like I said, it's what I had laying around.

 

[porphyre]

I was cleaning out the garage yesterday and discovered a set of wheels in a box. I took one look at them and one look at the pile of scrap wood I was trying to figure out where to store and thought UTILITY CART!

The only problem was this was about 7:00 at night. After about an hour and a half of web searching for ideas, measuring the scrap, sketching, and putting the little one to bed, I got started. I finished the main cart at 2am. Today I bought a big drill bit to mount the castors and also found an old closet rod to use for a handle.

Presto! Only used the tape measure 4 times, everything else was "Sharpie Engineered". And it shows.... Nothing a few coats of black paint won't fix.

The shelves are 30x16 and the top shelf is approx 34" from the ground. The handle is about 37-38". That's just slightly taller than pre-fab carts - perfect height for me. I'm surprised at how study it turned out. Even though it's only 3/8" plywood I can (and did) stand on the top of it.

This is the first time I've built anything more complicated than a wheelchair ramp. I admit I kind of felt a little bit like Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. My wife came in at about 1:30am. "Are you coming to bed?" "No sweetie, not quite done..... yet....."

 

[z28snksknr]

Nice work!! I've used my tool cart at least 20+ times so far and I love it. I hope you enjoy yours just as much. My basic carpentry skill got some good excercise too!

The best part is that even if the final product is rough and not going to win awards, you can just blame it all on the fact that it was made from scrap!!

 

[kbs2244]

Looks like it will serve you well.

Something to think about.

Whenever I start a project like this I always paint all the raw material first.
I let it dry overnight with a fan blowing on it.
That saves a lot of trying to get paint into tight corners and underneath things.

It lets me review my plans while laying in bed too!

 

[porphyre]

Z28 - Thanks! Yup, used it for the first time tonight. It worked very well to hold my saw, sander, tape measure, etc, as I was working on a different project.

KBS - Sounds like a good idea. But how do you see the sharpie marks so you can cut?? I decided to put 10-12 coats of poly on the top, then I'll paint the vertical plywood "box" pieces + the handle red, and paint everything else black.

 

[bchee]

Looks great. When I first read the title I thought you made a cart to store scrap wood. I plan on using scrap material to make a cart to store scrap material

 

[PassnThru]

Great job using what you had available, looks really good!

Joe

+1.
Keep all scraps - you can always find a use for them. It's looking good and always remember - the skills are learned slowly from doing. You learn a little every time you do something so these kinds of projects are perfect. You gain something you can use and some experience at the same time.