Hi there fraternity,
Now as you know if you checked out my poor plumber’s router table I had a small drawer under the table for my bits, but it’s far too small for purpose.
So why is that. Well I decided when I bought my routers I would buy cheap, no surprise there, but soon realised that was false economy, not right away as I initially thought the acrid burning smoke and the tears flooding down my face was part and parcel of good quality routing, not to mention everything I routed turned out like black ebony.
So, decided to split my purchases. Cheap ones for cutting through nails etc and the Trend ones for show. Solved.
So, did a google to see what’s out there, and I couldn’t find anywhere a poor retired plumbers take on a router storage facility. Couldn’t believe it, you would think there would be thousands of examples based purely on how poor retired plumbers are.
However most of them were open fronted and dust attracters, furthermore you need somewhere to hang said cabinet. Now I have one wall cabinet I could have converted but it was on the other side of the workshop. So, I spent some time just looking around the shop and my eyes alighted on the back of my workbench. The little 20-watt bulb lit up in my plumbers’ brain and a storage cabinet was born.
Now if you have read any of my previous builds, you will realise I don’t think like a normally adjusted human being, apart from being fit for purpose it has to be the first of its kind in the North East of Scotland.
So where to go from there. I only had one remit in this build from my good wife, it must cost nowt. That made the build somewhat problematic, and my 20-watt bulb wasn’t helping.
Eventually went out to my store and came back with a load of worktop and ply cut off’s. ideally a sheet of 18mm ply would have been the answer. Two problems there. My new car didn’t have a tow bar fitted, so couldn’t hitch up my trailer. So, you might ask why not fit a tow bar. Yes, my sentiment exactly. Up to date I have always fitted my own tow bars, but this car is different. Why, well the lighting harness is 1.5volts not 12volts, because the lights are all led and the wires are the thickness of a human hair, you can’t splice them. I went to the Merc main dealer and they quoted me £3600. So, no ply. And no tow bar.
I did have some 18mm sterling board and half a sheet of 6mm ply so glued them together to make the rear panel.
Now I’m not doing a blow by blow account of the build process. But I will mention some of the details. I wanted the door to be thick enough to accept the bits so after cutting out the front access panel I glued it to a cutting of white worktop and trimmed it with Formica banding.
Next problem was how to keep it horizontal when I opened it. I didn’t want hangers so I went for 3 hinges. Now as you know most butt hinges can rotate 360 degrees, but some only three quarters turn. I reversed them, re countersunk the holes and reverse flush fitted them. Seems to work. I used 3 due to the weight of the shelf. There is also an adjustable stop in the form of a pan head bolt to stop the shelf falling inside.
Next, I knew I would end up with bits and pieces that wouldn’t fit into predrilled holes. So, kept the bottom well of the opening down about 3 inches for spanner storage etc.
Last problem was the holes themselves. The fostner bits I had gave a neat hole but were loose and I knew when the door closed they would spill out into the well. So, I ground them down until I had an interference fit.
I drilled as many holes as I could squeeze in just in case I need more in the future.
After I finished I gave myself a dilemma, should I picture frame it to jazz it up and give it cleaner lines, but in the end I decided this is not fine furniture, and its in the workshop, don’t over engineer it, and I didn’t.
So that’s its lads. Didn’t need any wall space. It doesn’t intrude into the floor space. Importantly it cost £4.53 which is the price of the door catch, which is important as any money saved is going towards the tow bar fund.
As you guys know pottering about in your man cave can be a lonely affair and there is a lot of self-satisfaction involved, however I dragged my wife out to witness the results of my labour. She was over the moon when she found out there was only £4.53 involved and as for the completed project. Yes, you have guessed it. That’s nice dear, and left.
Hope you enjoyed my experience in alternative router storage
Colin
Scotland.
Now as you know if you checked out my poor plumber’s router table I had a small drawer under the table for my bits, but it’s far too small for purpose.
So why is that. Well I decided when I bought my routers I would buy cheap, no surprise there, but soon realised that was false economy, not right away as I initially thought the acrid burning smoke and the tears flooding down my face was part and parcel of good quality routing, not to mention everything I routed turned out like black ebony.
So, decided to split my purchases. Cheap ones for cutting through nails etc and the Trend ones for show. Solved.
So, did a google to see what’s out there, and I couldn’t find anywhere a poor retired plumbers take on a router storage facility. Couldn’t believe it, you would think there would be thousands of examples based purely on how poor retired plumbers are.
However most of them were open fronted and dust attracters, furthermore you need somewhere to hang said cabinet. Now I have one wall cabinet I could have converted but it was on the other side of the workshop. So, I spent some time just looking around the shop and my eyes alighted on the back of my workbench. The little 20-watt bulb lit up in my plumbers’ brain and a storage cabinet was born.
Now if you have read any of my previous builds, you will realise I don’t think like a normally adjusted human being, apart from being fit for purpose it has to be the first of its kind in the North East of Scotland.
So where to go from there. I only had one remit in this build from my good wife, it must cost nowt. That made the build somewhat problematic, and my 20-watt bulb wasn’t helping.
Eventually went out to my store and came back with a load of worktop and ply cut off’s. ideally a sheet of 18mm ply would have been the answer. Two problems there. My new car didn’t have a tow bar fitted, so couldn’t hitch up my trailer. So, you might ask why not fit a tow bar. Yes, my sentiment exactly. Up to date I have always fitted my own tow bars, but this car is different. Why, well the lighting harness is 1.5volts not 12volts, because the lights are all led and the wires are the thickness of a human hair, you can’t splice them. I went to the Merc main dealer and they quoted me £3600. So, no ply. And no tow bar.
I did have some 18mm sterling board and half a sheet of 6mm ply so glued them together to make the rear panel.
Now I’m not doing a blow by blow account of the build process. But I will mention some of the details. I wanted the door to be thick enough to accept the bits so after cutting out the front access panel I glued it to a cutting of white worktop and trimmed it with Formica banding.
Next problem was how to keep it horizontal when I opened it. I didn’t want hangers so I went for 3 hinges. Now as you know most butt hinges can rotate 360 degrees, but some only three quarters turn. I reversed them, re countersunk the holes and reverse flush fitted them. Seems to work. I used 3 due to the weight of the shelf. There is also an adjustable stop in the form of a pan head bolt to stop the shelf falling inside.
Next, I knew I would end up with bits and pieces that wouldn’t fit into predrilled holes. So, kept the bottom well of the opening down about 3 inches for spanner storage etc.
Last problem was the holes themselves. The fostner bits I had gave a neat hole but were loose and I knew when the door closed they would spill out into the well. So, I ground them down until I had an interference fit.
I drilled as many holes as I could squeeze in just in case I need more in the future.
After I finished I gave myself a dilemma, should I picture frame it to jazz it up and give it cleaner lines, but in the end I decided this is not fine furniture, and its in the workshop, don’t over engineer it, and I didn’t.
So that’s its lads. Didn’t need any wall space. It doesn’t intrude into the floor space. Importantly it cost £4.53 which is the price of the door catch, which is important as any money saved is going towards the tow bar fund.
As you guys know pottering about in your man cave can be a lonely affair and there is a lot of self-satisfaction involved, however I dragged my wife out to witness the results of my labour. She was over the moon when she found out there was only £4.53 involved and as for the completed project. Yes, you have guessed it. That’s nice dear, and left.
Hope you enjoyed my experience in alternative router storage
Colin
Scotland.
