As you may have seen in previous workshop posts I’ve been busy learning to weld, making frames, creating a workspace and now I have some hefty industrial storage too!

Thanks to a kind donation I was gifted two large architect drawer units. They were located in a cellar and not being used and the owner thought I could put them to good use, they were right! With a little elbow grease and an extra pair of hands I now have a superb matching set of units creating both a fantastic work surface and ample storage that I can wheel anywhere around the workshop or place under my workbench!

Each unit holds 4 drawers the same as the above image. They measure a staggering 33″ by 47″, the width is literally half the width of my workshop so it’s complete fluke that both units now fit side on to one another with approx 20mm either side to the wall. Yes I like to mix up my measurements!

Speaking of the drawers, these were looking a little sorry for themselves. Thankfully rust was minimal, partially down to the fact they’d last been used as storage for gun spares and repairs so they had oil all over them! The cellar they came out of was actually a shelter during the war for a local village! I feel its important to keep note of these sorts of things, sometimes they may or may not be of interest to others but I find the heritage of things interesting myself. Anyway, with a good weather day I cleaned off the oil, gently sanded back any rust and then waxed each drawer followed by the units themselves.

The frame was something I drew up. These units were stacked on one another originally and one actually had a similar metal base but it was the most rusted part of the lot (luckily!) so I decided not to keep it as it was beyond saving. I say ‘not to keep it’ I of course still have it but haven’t decided what else to use it for yet! I took the height of my breakfast bar unit as that’s where I made most small projects to date and it was a good working height. I then took the height of these units, measured the extra distance needed and began cutting some steel box section, doing sanity checks with a friend who helped. I’ve really enjoyed working with box section and as it happens I have some of it spare too so watch out for more metalwork projects!

The below image doesn’t show the castors I put on these which added extra height of course, so I also took this into account when making the legs. The swivel castors were fairly heavy duty with the front facing ones having brakes and the back free wheeling.

Its a simple design but effective, allowing me to slide the units in and be held in place under gravity. There’s no welding them to the frame or drilling holes in the units to bolt to the framework. Although it could be a little difficult, if I ever wish to remove them, this way I can too. I cleaned the runners to a bare metal finish, waxed them and them to top it off greased them too so each drawers glides out nicely even when full of tools.

The worktop was an 18mm moisture resistant melamine. I was going to go with 22 but I figured this would sit better in the frame, giving a small lip on the front and back of each unit but allows me to brush off any debris either side. Forward thinking! Both units had enough top support so that the middle of the worktop would not bow under heavy load. Before dropping the worktop into place I again had used a wood glue to seal the surfaces and sides. This made it a little darker but gave it some extra protection. At some point I will likely add a thin steel plate to one as a proper tough work top area for the bigger tools to be used on.

The final touch was adding in some foam sheets to a) prevent tools from scratching the drawers and prolong their use and b) it looked good and b) I’d hoped it would hold the tools tidy and in place. It didn’t ….but it finishes the interior of them well. With that, there’s not much more to say except thank you to their donors and my friend Dave who helped with the lifting, some welding (even though he welded one bar back to front!) and all generally assisting with the build!