Workshop Hardware/supply Cart From Reclaimed Items.
by tjdux in Workshop > Organizing
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Workshop Hardware/supply Cart From Reclaimed Items.
This a a metal shelf made into a cart for holding shop materials.
Its made entirely out of things that people threw away. For that reason it will be hard to duplicate this exact build. The purpose of this ible is more to inspire to search for alternative uses to things screen are garbage.
Any time I see a big garbage heap (especially furniture) I actually get excited. There's always something g of use and value. If you take nothing else from this read take that... Find ways to reuse, save, recycle, repurpose and rebuild.
Its made entirely out of things that people threw away. For that reason it will be hard to duplicate this exact build. The purpose of this ible is more to inspire to search for alternative uses to things screen are garbage.
Any time I see a big garbage heap (especially furniture) I actually get excited. There's always something g of use and value. If you take nothing else from this read take that... Find ways to reuse, save, recycle, repurpose and rebuild.
Locate Materials
Here in my hometown we have an annual city wide clean up where people can put anything, furniture scrap built materials, the best stuff recyclers can hope for.
I found this old metal shelf and a few old office style chairs during cleanup. I also used empty laundry soap jug to hold building hardware.
The reason I used the jugs is because I needed some kind of bucket that was cheap for sorting lad amounts of drywall screws and wasn't going to pay money for them. I searched the house and in the recycle box I picked up the empty jug and thought "if it only had a hole I could put my hand through". Then I sat it down continued my search. Double take lol... Why not cut a hole.
I found this old metal shelf and a few old office style chairs during cleanup. I also used empty laundry soap jug to hold building hardware.
The reason I used the jugs is because I needed some kind of bucket that was cheap for sorting lad amounts of drywall screws and wasn't going to pay money for them. I searched the house and in the recycle box I picked up the empty jug and thought "if it only had a hole I could put my hand through". Then I sat it down continued my search. Double take lol... Why not cut a hole.
Strip/Gather Useful Materials
This project used very few tools. A claw hammer, drill bits that fit the sizes of the caster wheel stubs and the diameter of the shelf tubing, a drill and some scrap 2x2 lumber.
Rolling office chairs are great sources of decent caster wheels. These chairs are designed to hold at least 200 pounds across several wheels. Most also have some scrap steel and either a pneumatic or large screw thread that can be used for several things but not this project.
Most office chairs use a friction fit to hold the wheels into the chair base. If they won't pull out by hand the claw end of a hammer will get them out easily.
The soap jugs are very simple. Take a razor blade and cut a nice size hole that you can comfortably fit your hand through. Make sure to rinse out any left over soap and dry well.
We buy the big liquid soaps that have handles on them, and even in afterlife the handles are "handy" for moving them around. I build mostly with cheap drywall screws and I buy large bulk packages cheaply off eBay.
The laundry jugs hold large amounts of the sharp screws without tearing and can easily be wrote on with a marker to sort sizes.
Rolling office chairs are great sources of decent caster wheels. These chairs are designed to hold at least 200 pounds across several wheels. Most also have some scrap steel and either a pneumatic or large screw thread that can be used for several things but not this project.
Most office chairs use a friction fit to hold the wheels into the chair base. If they won't pull out by hand the claw end of a hammer will get them out easily.
The soap jugs are very simple. Take a razor blade and cut a nice size hole that you can comfortably fit your hand through. Make sure to rinse out any left over soap and dry well.
We buy the big liquid soaps that have handles on them, and even in afterlife the handles are "handy" for moving them around. I build mostly with cheap drywall screws and I buy large bulk packages cheaply off eBay.
The laundry jugs hold large amounts of the sharp screws without tearing and can easily be wrote on with a marker to sort sizes.
Drill Holes in Wood
To line up the legs of the shelf on the 2x2 I placed the board on the legs over the tubing that extrudes from the bottom, tapped it solid with a hammer on both sides keeping it from moving, and the resulting indentation made aligning the holes very easy.
I drilled the holes a little small so everything would friction fit together. This seemed appropriate since gravity would also help hold everything.
The holes for the casters were just best guess on alignment as long as they didn't hit the shelf leg holes. I wasn't worried if I had to redo but first time worked well.
I drilled the holes a little small so everything would friction fit together. This seemed appropriate since gravity would also help hold everything.
The holes for the casters were just best guess on alignment as long as they didn't hit the shelf leg holes. I wasn't worried if I had to redo but first time worked well.
Finished!
After the wood is hammered into the shelf legs and the wheels are pressed in your finished. Fill it over and give it a test roll. Mine glided like a charm. Then I stacked up all my bulk fasteners and called it success. I can move it anywhere in the shop and leave the top shelf for putting tools on.
I will note my shop floor has nice smooth finish on the concrete floor. This cart may not be ad easy to move on a rough floor but I feel it would still work.
I will note my shop floor has nice smooth finish on the concrete floor. This cart may not be ad easy to move on a rough floor but I feel it would still work.