Not so shop furniture

[Richard in Smithville]

Do you have any shop furniture that started life in another room in the house? For example, my bench is converted from a large desk being thrown out at work, I have a folding assembly table that was the base from a heavy coffee table, and two strengthened microwave cabinets that I added casters to and use for the planer and CMS.

What's in your shop?

[JoeyGee]

My band saw sits on top of an old Sauder desk part. It's a small,thin cabinet that is the perfect size.

[pelligrini]

My metal shelves sit on some drawer units that is a repurposed waterbed base.

[JSUPreston]

My current rolling work table is an old desk I picked up off the side of the road. The area where the chair goes is perfect for my smaller compressor after I added a shelf that used to be a door from an old kitchen cabinet. Obviously the drawers are storage. I used a Delta saw base kit to make the desk mobile.

[Cochese]

My detailing cabinet was bought for the bathroom, a tall cabinet from Ikea.

[Shep]

Drill press sits on old rolling "kitchen" cabinet. It's a cheap particle board walmart special. The self area currently hold re-purposed plastic drawers from a plastic filing cabinet. The drawers hold jigs and paterns I use.

[os1kne]

My BT3 sits on a small metal cabinet that used to hold office supplies for a previous employer. I put locking casters under it and mounted my BT3 to it. It sits a bit higher than ideal, but it's great overall.

[atgcpaul]

The top of my drill press cart/rolling tool cart started out as a scratch and
dent table top from IKEA.

The cabinet doors for my upper and lower shop cabinets were doors donated
to the Habitat Restore probably from an unbuilt kitchen. I built the cabinets
to fit the doors.

The drawer boxes and doors on my workbench were the drawers and doors
from the kitchen I remodeled in our first townhouse. That kitchen was refaced
and new drawers/doors were made. The sides of my bench are skinned with
solid wood shelves that were originally used by a clothing manufacturer in
San Diego that was cleaning house.

My clamp racks holding my F-style and bar clamps started out as oak flooring
which I bought as a bundle pack at the Restore.

[dbhost]

Not in my shop, but my Dad's old shop, he had an assembly table / workbench that was made up of heavy duty short filing cabinets on a shop built mobile base (Welded steel). The entire thing was topped off with a used solid core smooth door, which he patched the knob and deadbolt holes... It was rock solid. I was off out of state when he finally moved from that house, I have no clue how he got that monster out of the basement. I assume in pieces...

My tool stacker system, and lumber racks are nothing more than the Heavy Duty Rubbermaid steel shelving standards and brackets screwed directly into the studs. I got the stuff on clearance at Lowes for about 1/10 of retail. I just couldn't pass it up, and have been pleased as punch with it...

I have helped a friend set up a small turning shop in his garage. His lathe bench is an old 1950s school teachers desk with a replacement laminated SYP top. (The original top was warped, and split very badly due to very poor storage conditions, but the rest of the desk was nice). He houses the same lathe as I have, along with a sharpening station, and a little 9" delta band saw on that thing and just uses it as a central point... (My involvement was merely muscle helping move the thing, and helping him drink his beer...)

[thrytis]

I've got retired kitchen cabinets in use as a bench and storage and an old rolling cabinet as a stand for my drill press and miter saw.

How about the opposite, using stuff designed for the shop as house furniture? My workmate served as a baby changing table for a month, and last weekend my Skil x-bench was used as a children's table for a party.

[cabinetman]

When I renovate a kitchen, the tear out of the old is figured in the total job pricing. Those cabinets usually hang around the shop until I give them away, or sell them. On many occasions they have become shop cabinets, mostly used just for storage. Rarely do they ever get trashed.

My first shop grew to 3600 sq ft, and there were quite a few repurposed cabinets. My second location started at 5000 sq ft, and became 15,000 sq feet, and there were cabinets stuck where ever needed. One item that I made several of was screwing two base cabinets back to back and mounting it on casters, with a plywood top. They were used to roll parts in and out of the spray booth...very handy.


.

[gsmittle]

I'm using the bottom half of a dresser for storage and drill press cabinet.

g.

[radhak]

A couple of years ago I returned from work to see a couple of nice beige kitchen cabinets on the curb in front of my neighbor's, ready for transport to the dump.

I walk over, and find that they'd upgraded that very day, and this was the final lot to be 'trashed' - I'd missed out on some very nice granite surface and upper cabinets! But I did manage to get the remaining stuff in to my garage - enough lower cabinets to line most of my back walls and with lots of storage space. Seems almost custom-built!