Workshop storage is important. A tidy shop makes us much more productive. There is nothing worse than spending hours hunting for some item that you know you have in the workshop somewhere. And if tools don’t have a proper home, they get left on the work surfaces where they are in the way.
Drawer units are best
In my experience, drawers are the best workshop storage option for small items. They don’t trap dust and shavings, they hold more than cupboards, and stuff is easier to see and get out than it is in cupboards. I currently have 84 assorted drawers in my workshop, mostly homemade, but it’s not enough. Today I started on another 4-drawer unit that will fit into a rack of steel shelves that I have. The drawers will hold more than the shelf did and be more useful. I already have a similar unit on the shelf below. They are quick to make, and very rough and ready – I don’t make furniture, just somewhere to keep things.
I make them out of whatever board I have spare, MDF or ply. This unit has sides and a vertical divider of 25 mm MDF and drawers made of 12 mm ply. It’s just a question of sawing the panels to size and cutting rebates and grooves, then assembling with glue and pins.
Make the joints with a router
I made the grooves with the table saw. I used my router table to make the corner joints in the drawers. There is a simple interlocking joint that you can make with one setting of the router. It cuts both parts of the joint without having to change anything.
Dust collection for the router is not good at present. I don’t use it often, but want to improve the enclosure of the table so I can connect it to my dust extraction system. Because it has a sliding insert in the top, I am not sure how to seal it. I want the air flow to pull dust and chips down into the cabinet and away to the extractor. If there are openings in addition to the one where the router cutter is positioned, the suction will not be effective.