Building an A-Frame Tool Cart for Less Than $60

I was pretty disappointed with the expensive and underwhelming pegboard carts available online or at Walmart etc. so I made a wood one that doesn't require much cutting and just barely fits in the back of a small Subaru. This is for our school's MakerSpace but I would love to have this in my garage, if I had a garage :-)

As an added bonus, you can remove a few screws to collapse it down to a 3" thick sandwich, or fold it out to make a 4'x8' framed pegboard for mounting on a wall.

Step 1: Things You Will Need

Parts:

Caster wheels (qty 4)

1 & 1/2 " wood screws (qty 24)

2 & 1/2" deck screws (qty 20)

2" by 1&3/8" hinge (qty 2)

4mm flatwashers (optional)

4' x 8' pegboard (qty 1) Lowes sells them for $16.48 at the moment.

Lumber: I used the cheapest grade pine I could find and then cherry-picked a bit in the store to get straight ones. Home Depot sells pine studs for $2.89 at the moment.

2" x 2" x 8' (qty 4)

2" x 4" x 6' (qty 2)

Tools:

Drill with a driver to match your wood screws and 1/8" drill bit

Saw (I used a circular saw "skilsaw")

Step 2: Cut the Lumber

Cut the lumber to the dimensions shown. If the picture is confusing, please see the attached SketchUp file. SketchUp is free to use, and you can also just download a lightweight viewer here if you don't want to do any sketches of your own: https://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-viewer

If you just cut your 2x2's, the peg-board, and one of the 2x4's all in half, then take 3 inches off each 2 x 4 and 4 of the 2x2's you will have it mostly done. The only point of the SketchUp model was to get the angle right on the cross beams. If you want all the edges to meet nicely, when you make the cross-beams, cut two trapezoids with a base of 16.7" and a top edge that is 15.4" long. If you are not OCD like me, precision is not too important here, since you will be covering it up with a 1/4" face sheet anyway.

Step 3: Frame Out the Pegboard

Using the 2 & 1/2 deck screws, screw the 4' long 2x2's, which will form the top and bottom of the frame, to the 3'9" 2x2's which will form the sides of the frame. Secure the pegboard to the frame with the lattice screws, at least 4 on a side. You can use the washers here for a little more strength (this will keep the lattice screws from pulling through the holes in the flimsy pegboard). I didn't use the washers and it is working fine but ymmv.

Step 4: Attach the Hinges

Stack the two pegboard halves together, with the pegboard side facing out. Make sure the 4' long 2x2's are facing up. Lay the hinges on top like an open book, making sure you have the correct side down so that you can close the hinge all the way "like a book" without flipping it over. That means there might be a little gap at the top where the hinge joint sits but this is totally fine. We want it like this so that we can fold it out all the way and use it as a wall-mounted pegboard if we want to.

I used the hinge plate as a template to predrill the screws but this is probably not necessary. The placement is not critical. I used some scissors I had laying around to make sure the hinges were approximately the same distance from each edge.

Step 5: It's All About Da Base

Attach the 3'9" 2x4's to the trapezoidal cross-beams with the deck screws as shown. I used two deck screws on each end of the 2x4's to keep them from rotating. It helps to keep all the parts on the floor while making the joints to keep the frame flat.

Step 6: Attach the Base to the Peg-board Frame

Run your deck screws straight through the pegboard to attach the frame to the cross-beams. You might have to angle your screw a bit as I have here to keep from hitting the base-board screws. Using two decks screws on each end can help suck in the frame to match your angle on the cross-beam.

Step 7: Add the Casters

What's the point of having a peg-board cart if you can't roll it around? Put the casters near the end of each 3'9" 2x4 on the base.

Step 8: Victory Lap

Congrats you just saved yourself 300$ on a pegboard cart! You can stop here or add a 1/4" plywood sheet on each end cap as shown in the second picture. To make this I just laid the end of the cart down on the plywood, traced out the outline and cut the plywood out with the skilsaw. Secure the face sheet to the frame with the lattice screws.