Summary:
I am starting graduate school in the fall, and find myself in need of some additional counter space to compliment my (somewhat cozy) studio kitchen. Rather than make something from scratch, I took the opportunity to spruce up my fathers old tool chest. This way, I am fully equipped to bake in the lab, or to solder in the kitchen…
Update (12/22/2022): The cart has been in use for a bit over 2 years! I added 3/8in spacers to the wheels (so they could lock without hitting the rim) but other than that it has been perfect.
Improvements:
New Casters:
Since the cart will be used on hardwood, I replaced the original phenolic casters with four locking swivel casters with 5” rubber wheels. These should hopefully be non-marking and the extra two swivel casters will make it much easier to maneuver. On a more basic level switching to ball bearing casters (from plane bearing casters) has made the tool chest positively glide.
The casters were purchased from Service Caster and have product code SCC-TTL20S514-TPRB. I highly recommend calling them if you need casters, their sales rep was very helpful. One quirk of note is that they are a bit short on vertical clearance between the locking mechanism and bolts. I had to switch the lock-washer to the inside of the tool chest to allow free rotation.
Update: These actually do not work if you want to be able to lock the casters in place. To handle that I plan to add 3D printed standoffs.
Fold Out Table:
A 24x18 foldout cutting board provides enough space to seat two people on stools, or to store materials and containers while cooking. The cutting board itself is a standard Winco cutting board, that’s been mounted on a pair of fold-down shelf brackets from amazon. The shelf brackets were then attached to the tool chest with plus-nuts and the entire assembly was tapped/filed into place. The sheet metal has not been re-enforced, but seems to be fine with loads up to about 15lb (on the board edge) at which point it starts to noticeably deform.
Granite Top:
One of my favorite parts of this project is the granite top. It’s marvelous as a baking surface, and really highlights the dual-use nature of the chest. The granite itself was found on Craigslist (along with enough extra to make a desk) and was cut to rough dimension by some very competent folks doing flagstone work at my parent’s house.
The edge were ground to final dimension, and the corners were rounded, on my belt grinder using a 120 grit ceramic belt. The granite plate slots into the toolchest’s top and is held in place by the lips without any adhesives, allowing it to be removed (in theory) If needed.
