Cart for Special Purpose Tools

tom_k/mo · Post by **tom_k/mo** » Wed May 12, 2010 12:53 pm

joedw00 wrote:Great job Tom. Thanks
The only thing I might change is to put the drawer's on the end, so when it was put away you would still have access to them.

I guess that depends upon which way you turn the unit when you put it away...

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed May 12, 2010 5:40 pm

tom_k/mo wrote:I guess that depends upon which way you turn the unit when you put it away...

Ah but that change would give you wider/shallower drawers and allow rolling it into a narrow(but deeper) 'hole' and have access to the drawers.

joedw00 · Post by **joedw00** » Wed May 12, 2010 6:54 pm

I would have to put it awaylike Paul showed his. Then the drawers would be accessible.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Wed May 12, 2010 7:58 pm

Outstanding work, Tom!!!!:D Thank you very much!

damagi · Post by **damagi** » Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:43 pm

Here is my rendition of the SPT cart so far. I have the belt sander, jointer, bandsaw, and strip sander mounted. I also have my extension tubes and telescoping legs on the back. Next is figuring out the planer mount, the jig saw mount (not sure if that will make the cut), and maybe some shelves or drawers. I am going to add hooks on the back for the extension table brackets.

[ATTACH]12128[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]12129[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]12130[/ATTACH]

shipwright · Post by **shipwright** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 3:52 am

I feel like a grandfather seeing my grandchildren's school pictures.

Paul M

damagi · Post by **damagi** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 10:25 am

Thoughts on the overall design, based Tom & Art's plans:

1) there wasn't any indication of what type of fasteners to use. Naturally, use whatever works - right? However, being that this is going to support a fair ammount of weight it would have been great to know what type of fastener/adhesive strategy was used (if nothing else than for the novices like me)

2) The use of 1/4" ply on the back saves money/materials, but I am thinking that if I were to build it again I would have used 3/4" on the back as well. The main reason is that the 1/4" is way too flimsy to screw into, whereas the 3/4" would be strong enough to hang all kinds of stuff.

3) Based on Art's photos, it seems like he used biscuits/glue for construction. I am guessing butt joints are probably fine. I ended up doing grooves since it seemed like it would be more secure. I'm not a cabinet maker, so maybe our resident cabinet maker can chime in here. Without a face frame I was a little concerned about rigidity. Also, the buscuits are easy with a handheld plate joiner, but difficult with the shopsmith one. Seeing as this is somewhat of a bootstrapping project, seems like dados/grooves would be a good choice since it can be all done on a shopsmith.

4) Assuming I had a fully thought out plan, I would have tried to make it so all the accessories for the SPT were handy and alongside it. ie: the plattens for the strip sander would be by the strip sander, maybe a place for bandsaw blades under the bandsaw, etc. Since one of the most frustrating things about shopsmiths is all the little accessories going missing, it would make sense to keep them all together as well as associated with the appropriate SPT (ie: help avoid later "what the heck is this?" posts).

Great design overall. I really appreciate the information from all involved (Shipwright, Tom, Art). Maybe I will think about it a bit and come up with a version 2...we shall see. Still need to finish this one first.

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Mon Mar 07, 2011 11:36 am

damagi, sorry for any shortcomings in the descriptions of building the cart.

The case was in fact assembled using slots cut with a hand-held biscuit joiner, as shown in one of the photos, and held together with glue. The back is 1/4" birch plywood and set into dados cut in the top, bottom and sides. Since everything is plywood, movement is extremely minimal to non-existent. Therefore, the back panel, like the drawer bottoms, is glued into the dados, making for an extremely strong carcase provided all of the parts fit together tightly. I think this was documented in the assembly notes. I agree that if you want to hang things on the back of the cart, using 3/4" plywood would be a better option.

I use the drawers to house many Shopsmith accessories; other drawer sizes could be used for different items, or one simply could make shelves of the adjustable type or fitted into dados and glued. The latter also would increase the rigidity of the box. Or, the whole size of the case could be modified for different Special Purpose Tools or whatever. I tried to size the components to meet my storage needs and minimize waste of material.

I did make a couple of subsequent modifications. One was using an "H" patter for the strips of wood on top of the case for locating/keeping the belt sander in place. Also I added a third piece of 2x4 for mounting the jointer, which allows space under the jointer infeed table for two floating tables. That third piece still needs some sculpting/modification so that the jointer can be dropped in place with the plastic dust collection fixture still attached to the bottom of the jointer. I also added a block with holes to hold the lathe tailstock and toolrest on the lower level below the belt sander.

damagi · Post by **damagi** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:32 am

Here is the cart as it sits today. I plan on adding a shelf and probably calling it good for version 1.

[ATTACH]12210[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]12211[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]12212[/ATTACH]

Design considerations for my v2 (if I ever get to that):
1) don't use the broom clips on the track. They move around and can take some coordination to get open. either a "bucket" approach as shown in the PDF plans, or perhaps a small shelf/cubby.
2) Use 3/4" ply on the back panel. Having the ability to add stuff back there would be a big plus.
3) consider a mix of drawers and shelves. Having the open space on the bottom for the akward items like OPR, speed increaser, speed reducer, etc is nice. Having some drawers above wouldbe great for the smaller parts.

I haven't fully decided on how to store the extension tables and such yet. On the cart is certainly one option, but the way they are stored now is not optimal. There is also the question of storage of a few of the odd sized things like the OPR table, sliding crosscut table, incra stuff.

wdelliott · Post by **wdelliott** » Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:33 am

Great design. Thanks. I'm starting to build one for me.

The belt sander storage raised a question or two:
1. I see that the belt sander is held onto the cart by means of the belt sander table. What is holding the table to the cart? I saw the discussion about adding cleats around the edge of the belt sander table to hold it in place, but what keeps the table from slipping off in the direction of the sander? Is there a cleat to fit into the mitre track?
2. Did you attempt to add the floating tables to the cart?
3. What was your thinking in having the strip sander on the lower platform and the bandsaw on the upper platform? I tend to think this is the correct method since lifting the bandsaw is facilitated by having it higher up.
4. Now that you have used your cart for awhile, do you have any design changes you would implement, if you were to build it again?
5. The drawers are superior to an open space.

Thanks.

Shopsmith Forums

Cart for Special Purpose Tools

My version (in progress)

Question about Belt Sander Storage