hey I'm Bob but I like to make stuff
today we're gonna make a giant lumber
cart ever since I moved into this larger
shop I've not really had or needed a
place to store a bunch of sheets of
plywood but now it's at a point where I
need to have a few on hand so we're
gonna build a lumber cart that goes
right here to hold some sheets and some
long pieces this is kind of an awkward
space that always gets cluttered up so
we're gonna clear it out and build a
custom cart that goes right in this spot
now a lot of people have made lumber
carts before there's a ton of different
designs but none of them really fit what
I want for this space so we're gonna
build one custom let's do it
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the internal structure of this cart is a
bunch of two by fours pocket hold
together we need to cut 16 pieces
exactly the same length so you
definitely need to use a stop block now
in this case the stop block actually
won't work where I need it to be so
instead I'm gonna put down a piece of
material and screw it into the table so
that I have a stop block at the right
place
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we're gonna start by assembling the two
long sides of this thing and it's
basically like making two fences we've
got our upright pieces and then these
long ones that are gonna get screwed in
the long pieces are ten inches apart so
I just made a spacer so we can put one
in put in a spacer and then line up the
next one
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I've got the two frames put together and
now it's time to connect them to each
other
we're going to use these pieces and do
four across on each row down
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I've got the frame all done now I'm
ready to make the base to put it on I'm
going to use a three-quarter inch sheet
of MDF couple notes about that I'm going
to trim it down just to fit in this
particular space but you could just use
the full sheet and have less cutting to
do another thing a 4x8 sheet of MDF is
actually 97 by 49 instead of 96 by 48 I
don't know why I just remember that
I laid out the casters on the piece of
MDF and I put three along the outside
with locking ones in the corner than two
in the middle in the end I should
probably just put three rows of three or
even more than that also these were
three inch casters and when you pick out
the casters to use make sure you get the
ones rated for the correct load the more
weight they can handle the better
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I laid out the three pieces for the
outer edge and screwed them together
we're going to make sure that they were
all attached before clamping with this
u-shaped piece to the MDF I get it
clamped on the outside edge then lifted
it up and drove in some long screws from
the bottom to hold it down I lifted the
frame up into place and then drove in
the pocket screws to connect it all
together now some of this space is kind
of tight and I ended up using a ratchet
to drive in a few of the screws it's not
ideal but it does work for the plywood
side I did the same thing as before I
laid on the outer cleat and clamped it
to the bottom assembly and then lifted
the whole thing up and drove in screws
from underneath to keep the weight down
I cover the outside of the stream with
luan it's a really thin plywood probably
3/16 of an inch it's not high quality
and is used for sheathing but it works
great for stuff like this
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the plywood storage is going to be on
the other side of this and so that's
good to go I put one of these pieces
over there just kind of for looks but
over here this piece is actually
functional I'm gonna put some shorter
pieces stored vertically on this side
and so this backing piece will stop them
from falling in now we're gonna put some
separators to hold those pieces up but I
also don't want the bottom of those
pieces to slide around so down here
we're going to use some EBA foam some
floor mats along the bottom to add some
friction so the pieces don't slide
around
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instead of gluing this down I'm actually
going to drive some short screws through
just to hold it in place that way if it
doesn't work out I can swap it out later
a lot of people will use bins for this
type of storage and I thought about that
but I also want this to be expandable
and be able to change with my needs so
we're going to do it differently than
everybody else does
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using a square I started drawing out a
grid across this entire panel each one
of these marks is going to eventually be
a hole that holds a post and those posts
can be moved around to adjust for
different types of storage for the posts
I decided to use half-inch electrical
conduit and the outside diameter of that
is kind of a weird size but I ended up
with an eleven sixteenths drill bit to
get a hole at just about work
theoretically you could use a hacksaw to
cut the conduit and it'll work just fine
but I don't have time for that
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I've got all these pieces cut and the
reason I have these is so that I can
stick them in the hole and then I can
put pieces of lumber down here they can
lean against the foot along the bottom
and then lean back and against these now
if have shorter pieces I can move these
down a row or even all the way down to
the bottom and if I don't have any short
pieces I could put a row of these and
make a shelf on top of it these things
are gonna be really expandable and I can
move them around whenever need to change
things
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I had a partial sheet of half-inch
plywood so I cut down a strip from that
to use for the top but you could use any
material here it just gives you another
shelf to put things on I drop some
screws in to hold this piece in place
and then also added a handle to the
frame on each end after that it was just
time to load it up
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so here's the finished cart it holds a
ton of stuff it worked out really well
if you want to make one of these for
yourself we're gonna have some really
inexpensive plans for it on the website
and in those plans there's actually
going to be some changes while I was
building it I found out a few things
that could be improved and so those
changes are reflected in the plans let
me tell you about what those things are
I added a few more casters at the bottom
to carry the load a little bit better
I made the plywood section a little bit
deeper so the pieces leaned back more
and we made the whole thing just a few
inches shorter so that you get a full
sheet of plywood on each side and the
only downside of that is that the top
shelf is just a little bit shorter so if
you're interested in making one of these
go check out the plans I also have a
bunch of other plans and other stuff for
sale on the website you can go see that
at I like to make stuff calm I've also
got a bunch of other videos that you may
want to check out so they're right there
and don't forget to subscribe that's it
for this one guys thanks for watching
see you next time and then put a piece
of lumber alone lumber now we are gonna
have some inexpensive and inexpensive
kind of awkward stuff just collects here
so instead of you