Under-Bench Storage
When I built my first and only woodworking bench several years ago, I designed it for storage underneath. But, like a lot of things, I never got around to finishing it. So my bench has existed all these years with just a rough shell of a Baltic birch cabinet between the legs of the bench.
Part of the reason I hadn’t done anything until now was because I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I didn’t know what would be the best use of the space. Would simple shelves suffice? A combination of drawers and doors? This weekend, I really took some time to look at my tools and how they’re stored (or not stored, as the case may be). I have a lot of measuring tools, a fair number of chisels, old carving tools, and other hand tools. So for me, it seemed that a bunch of shallow drawers would serve me better than deeper ones. Things get tossed around and lost in deep drawers.
Now, I’m one that likes to use material I have on hand, so I found a piece of ½” Baltic birch plywood left over from another project. I ripped it into 2″-wide strips to form the sides of the drawer boxes. Now, what joinery to use? Nobody but me would be likely to see the drawers, and I’m a practical sort of guy, so I opted for pocket hole joinery. No glue. And it’s fast and strong. I drilled two pocket holes at each end of the back and front pieces on the outside face. That way, the front ones will be hidden by a false drawer front I’ll add later. And the back pocket holes will be hidden inside the cabinet. Let me add here that if you’re going to build drawers using pocket hole joinery, Kreg’s right angle clamp is worth every penny. It holds the joint nice and tight while driving screws.
But what to use for the drawer bottoms? I thought I had some ¼” hardboard lying around, but soon realized I must have used it all up. But I did have some ¼” pegboard…hmmm… So that’s what I used. I had to laugh at myself for being such a tightwad, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was a brilliant idea. You know why? Because I can make little dividers for my drawers with ¼”-dia. pegs in the bottom to fit in the pegboard holes. So that’s what I’m gonna’ do.
Anyhow…when I get all the drawers done, the hope is that I’ll clear up some much-needed bench space and actually have room to work on those furniture projects on my list.