Make a Portable Workstation
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instructables Make a Portable Workstation by Benne I recently started working on my own tutorial blog, makerguides.com. I currently have written several Arduino tutorials on using sensors and controlling stepper motors: How to control a stepper motor with A4988 driver and Arduino HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor tutorial 28BYJ-48 Stepper Motor with ULN2003 Driver and Arduino Tutorial Feel free to check them out and maybe leave a comment with some feedback, thanks! Need parts for your project? Check out my Amazon Affiliate link below: http://amzn.to/2mVlbnl After having finished my CNC router (see my other Instructable), my workshop (a small shed in my backyard 3 x 6 m), became pretty full. The only other tools that I can fit in there are a small table saw, a drill press and some small powertools and handtools. So most of my woodworking happens outside. Next to woodworking and CNC stuff, I also like to work on smaller projects with electronics, which requires soldering etc. Since my 'workshop' is pretty full, I didn't have a proper place to work on these smaller projects. So I just moved some of my smaller tools (screwdrivers, soldering iron, pliers etc.) into my bedroom and worked on my electonics projects there. My parents were ok with the fact that I did some soldering in my bedroom, (better than in the kitchen or the living room), but didn't like the fact that my tools were laying all over the place. The table I was doing my work on also became pretty dented and full of glue and solder blobs. That's why I came up with this portable workstation. It has plenty of storage for all the tools I need, it also has some drawers where I keep solder, heat shrink tubing, wires etc. The lid forms a worksurface, so my parents don't have to worry about the table. I made it in the form of a suitcase, so that it would be very portable. Ben Heck, from the Ben Heck show had a similar idea a couple of years ago for his portable workbench. I really liked his design, but it was quite complicated to build and it required the use of a CNC machine. For this build I decided to simplify the design quite a bit, so that it would be easier to replicate by people without fancy tools. It also has a bit more storage capabilities and you can customize it any way you want. Make a Portable Workstation: Page 1 Make a Portable Workstation: Page 2 Step 1: Tools + Materials Tools: Always wear safety glasses, hearing protection and a dust mask while working with powertools! - Table saw (a circular saw or handsaw works as well) Materials: - Router table or handheld router - Drill - 1 sheet of 9mm birch plywood (2440x1220x12mm, - Screwdriver you won't need the whole sheet, but it's nice to have - Hand sander some extra. Any 9mm plywood will work). - Tape measure - 10 hinges (I used 6 40x20mm and 4 15x25mm) - Chisel - handle (I made mine out of some scrap wood) - Clamps - wood glue - A band clamp makes your live a whole lot easier - screws (+/- 3x12mm for the hinges) when glueing. - For the tool holders, I used scrap pieces of wood - Elastic band Optional: - Self adhesive velcro - CNC router Optional: - powerstrip Safety: 4 1 3 2 1 1. A band clamp is really handy 1. Old swiss made Inca tablesaw 2. the chisel is used to clean up the grooves 3. Always wear eye and hearing protection! 4. You can use a handheld router, but a router table is prefered Make a Portable Workstation: Page 3 1 1 1. This is a large sheet of 9mm birch plywood, but you won't need all of it 1. Basic hardware: glue, screws and hinges Step 2: Design I used the free CAD program Sketchup, to make a a place to store tools. The worksuface consists of basic design of the portable workstation I wanted to three pieces of wood, which are hinged together. build. This went pretty fast, and by making a CAD Everything folds up nicely and you can carry the drawing first, the rest of the project went a lot faster. workstation around as a suitcase. Sketchup allows you to quickly and easily experiment with different designs and looks. The joinery isn't very complex, just a lot of rabbets (grooves). You can see that the two doors also have Make a Portable Workstation: Page 4 Download https://www.instructable…s.com/ORIG/FCD/UK0P/HS80FO2X/FCDUK0PHS80FO2X.skp Step 3: Cutlist Now that I had my design completed, I created a cutlist for all of the pieces (see image above). This was very convenient for the next step: cutting everything out. Make a Portable Workstation: Page 5 Step 4: Layout, Measure and Cut Using a piece of chalk and my cutlist, I laid out all the more manageable pieces. pieces on the sheet of plywood. Try to order them so that you have the least amount of waist. I only I used the table saw to cut the pieces to their final needed about 3/5 of the sheet, so I saved the rest for dimensions. Make sure you set up your tablesaw a future project. correctly: all pieces should be square and cut to size as good as possible. Next I used a handsaw to cut the sheet down into 1 1. Cut the sheet into more manageable pieces Make a Portable Workstation: Page 6 1 1. All pieces cut to size Step 5: Making Grooves To make the grooves in all of the pieces, I set up my I also cut a notch in the top and bottom of the main handheld router inside of a router table. You can also body (see pictures). use a dado blade in your tablesaw. All grooves/rabbets are 9mm wide and 3mm deep. Note: If you don't have a router or a router table, you Always try out your setup on a test piece first! can just butt join the pieces together. The grooves mainly help to align the pieces and also make the I also created the grooves in the back and bottom/top project a bit stronger. However if you can't cut the pieces of the main body. This is where the divider will grooves the dimensions of your pieces will be go. For this I used the handheld router and clamped different. down another piece of wood as a guide. I used a chisel to clean up the ends. Make a Portable Workstation: Page 7 1 1. I used a cheap router table to cut the grooves/rabbets 1 1 1. Try on a test piece first 1. Fit is correct Make a Portable Workstation: Page 8 1 1. Groove for the divider 1 1. Use a chisel to clean up the end Make a Portable Workstation: Page 9 1 1. Notch for the side panels Step 6: Sanding It is a good idea to sand the inside faces of all the pieces before you glue everything together. This will be a lot more difficult when everything is assembled. The last few images show all of the pieces. Make a Portable Workstation: Page 10 1 1. Sand the inside faces of your pieces 1 1 1. Doors 1. Worksurface 1 1 1. Bottom and top pieces main body 1. Side pieces and divider Make a Portable Workstation: Page 11 1 1. Back plate Step 7: Glue It All Up The glue up is pretty straight forward. I used a band clamp and some other clamps to hold everything together while the glue dried. Make sure that everything ends up nice and square! 1 1. A band clamp makes your live a whole lot easier! Make a Portable Workstation: Page 12 1 1. All pieces after glue up Step 8: More Sanding... Now that everything is glued together, it's time to do the final sanding on the main body the doors and the worksurface. Also round over all of the sharp edges. I also rounded the corners of the outside worksurfaces with my homemade disc sander. Make a Portable Workstation: Page 13 1 1. Rounding over the sharp edges 1 1. I used a washer to trace out the roundover Make a Portable Workstation: Page 14 1 1. I used my homemade disk sander, to send it to the line Step 9: Wooden Handle I went to the hardware store to look for a nice sturdy rough cut blank with double sided tape. I used a handle, but I couldn't find anything I liked. So I pattern bit in my router table (I just used my cnc :) ) decided to make my own wooden handle. It's made and a roundover bit to get it to its final shape and from an old table leg (beech wood). I first made a make it feel nice. I used glue and screws, to mount it pattern out of a piece of MDF. I used it to trace out to the main body. It's very strong and I think it looks the shape onto the piece of wood. Using the jig saw, I really nice. cut it to rough shape. Than I stuck the pattern on the 1 1 1. Homemade wooden handle 1. Pattern with pattern bit Make a Portable Workstation: Page 15 1 1 1. Trace out the shape 1. Rough cut using the jigsaw 1 1 1. Stick the template on with double sided tape 1. Use a pattern bit to bring it to its final size 1 1 1.