Rolling Drill Press Cabinet

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My drill press is a Shop Fox W1668 and it sits on top of a Craftsman tool chest. With the weight of the tools and drill press the cabinet does not roll very well and it is a little too tall to use comfortably. So I decided to build a new cabinet to mount my drill press on. It has to be mobile, so it will sit on casters.

The cabinet will be ~27 inches tall including casters, 23″ deep, and 19 1/2″ wide. There will be a false top over the drill press base because I don’t like the uneven surface the drill press leaves. I had purchased some casters on sale a while back and they are fantastic.

Cabinet Carcass

The cabinet construction is pretty straight forward. Cut the sides, back, top and bottom. The sides, top and bottom are made from 3/4″ plywood. The back is 1/2″ plywood. Add rabbets to the top and bottom to receive the sides and a rabbet all around the rear to receive the back. Glue it all together.

Additional Top and Bottom

Next step was to add the second layer of plywood to the top and bottom to withstand bowing from the weight of the drill press. I cut some 1/2 plywood about 1/8″ oversize. Then I laid out screw holes ~4 on center, glued and screwed it together.

After the glue was dry I flush trimmed the top and bottom to the existing carcass.

Face Frame

I wanted to add a face frame to the cabinet because I needed it to resist racking, so I milled up some left over birch lumber.

Since I was worried about racking I wanted to joint the face frame corners with something stronger than pocket screws. So, I decided to add two dowels in each corner. I countersink the holes a bit to make sure I get a nice tight joint. The two center frame pieces are just pocket screwed in place since I was worried about all the dowels coming together perfectly. The face frame dimensions were made for a ~8″ drawer and two 4″ drawers.

I used a small finishing nail with the head clipped off to help initially position the face frame. Thanks internet for that tip.

Drawer Slides and drawers

Before I actually glued the face frame onto the cabinet I added spacers and the drawer slides. The access was much easier without the face frame. The spacers are required to have the slide be even with the inside edge of the face frame. The spacers are made from some scrap 3/4 plywood.

After measuring for drawers, I started cutting up 1/2″ plywood to meet my needs. I used locking rabbets for the joinery, which I find simple to create and very effective. I can use a 1/4″ dado stack for joinery and to cut the groove for the drawer bottom which is 1/4″ MDF.

Dry Fit of Drawers to Measure for Bottoms

The false fronts were nothing more than 1/2 plywood with birch edging.

I flushed up the trim to the plywood and attached the fronts to each drawer. I use 2 to 3 pieces of carpet tape to hold it in place while I pull the drawer out to screw it into place. After the front was attached, I cut some small handles for the drawers from some birch and shaped them on the router table. Sanded the whole cabinet with 80 and 150 grit, followed with a coat of shellac and the cabinet is done.

False Top

I mounted the casters and placed the drill press on top, centered the drill press and screwed it into pace. I wanted a flat surface for storing junk, so I cut some solid birch as the support and edging for a couple leftover pieces of melamine. The birch received a rabbet in the top to accept the melamine on the router table and also the sides received a rabbet to accept the front. They all received pocket holes to attach to the cabinet base.

I cut some melamine to fit into the top rabbet and around the drill press post. The clamp in the following pictures is holding the front rabbets together while the glue dried. I didn’t wait to take pictures.