The shop desk was the first new piece of shop furniture that I build to improve functionality, but it inspired me to look around the shop to find other places where I could condense the storage, increase functionality, and make things easier for my entry-level students to find. I had a small grey cabinet that hung on the wall. this cabinet held routers, bits, and some odds and ends. I didn’t care for the placement because it blocked the light switch from being easily accessed, and it blocked my ghost light from illuminating the shop entrance when the lights were out. I knew the cabinet had to go, but I didn’t know what would replace it. I got word that the teacher of the construction class on campus had just accepted a job at another school in the district and they were cancelling his program as a result. This meant that his entire tool collection and his donated materials needed a new home. I spent the next three weeks sorting through his shop and a shipping container full of donated tools and materials to see what I could add to the theatre shop. I ended up getting a couple of routers and a brand-new portable router table in the process. This inspired me to build a new cart that held all of our routers and functioned as a router table should we ever need one.

The table started as a sketch on my shop desk. I did most of the math in my head. I knew what I wanted, but I was improvising based on the materials I had on hand. I had a surplus of scrap plywood left over from shows, but not much money to use outside of that. I had a couple of plastic drawer sets that held drill bits and because the Drill press was located next to the location I was planning on putting the router table I thought that this would be a great chance to move my drill bits closer to the drill press. It also gave the students an easy way to locate the drill bits next to the drill press.

As I worked through the design I knew that I needed ample storage for my router bits, wrenches, and jigs. I also needed to have storage for the routers and the drill press bits and accessories. The top was going to incorporate the top from the router table that I brought over from the other shop, and the whole router would be powered by a switch on the face of the cabinet.

I wanted to leave space in the corner so that we could still store lumber in the simple rack on the floor, and I wanted to be able to walk into the shop at 7:00 am in the dark and not hit my head on a cabinet fumbling for the switch. Of course, the whole cabinet would also be the same height as the Saw Stop table saw (34 1/4”) so that we could use the catch table as an extension in the future if we needed to.

I had a ton of scrap 1/4” Masonite on hand so I used it as a skin to cover the top and sides of the cart. Masonite is very durable as a work surface, and I liked how it looked against the lighter pine that I was using as trim on all my cabinets. I attached a panel of masonite on the side of the cabinet with screws so that I could access the switch that I ran in the future if I wanted to make changes or repairs.

After I completed this cabinet I was really happy with how it looked. I also liked the functionality of the drill bits on the side next to the drill press. after using the cart for a couple of years there are certain changes I would make to the design. I would add doors to the cubby that hold the router under the router table. I would have also invested money in castors that match the castors on the work table. I think this is the issue that I have with most of my projects at NPHS. I wish I would have had the money to invest in the same locking castors for each shop table, then it would have added some uniformity to the shop. most of the tables that I built that first summer used non-locking castors that we had in stock. While there are solutions around not using a locking castor, I have found that it just makes the surface much easier to work on when you use a locking castor instead of a foot brake or some other locking apparatus.

During my time at NPHS we never actually used the router table. There was never a project that I felt I needed a router table to complete. Although having the table there made it much easier for students to identify and find the routers, router parts, and bits, and it added a lot of functionality to that side of the shop by including the pieces to the drill press.

However, this project solidified my re-organization philosophy for the North Port High Scene Shop that summer. Modular tables that simplify how students look for tools and equipment.