In this post I am going to show you how I made a drill storage and charging station for my shop. I have needed one of these for my shop for quite a while and just finally got around to making it. I made this for my French cleat tool wall. Click here to check out my video on my French cleat tool wall. I also have free plans for this with exact measurements by clicking here.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

MATERIALS

¾” MDF
¼ “ Plywood
2” Screws https://amzn.to/2Jvr5XB
Titebond ii wood glue https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
⅜” dowel (optional) https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Spackling https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Spray paint https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Polycrylic https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC

TOOLS I USED

Table saw https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Circular saw https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Drill and driver https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Flush cut Saw https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Finish Nailer https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Speedsquare https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC
Putty Knife https://amzn.to/2HgEGnC

Step 2: Cut All Your Pieces

The first thing I you will have to do is cut the boards you are using into the sizes you are wanting. This shelf consists of a top, bottom, 2 sides, and middle shelf for the main parts of the shelves. I used mdf for my shelf only because I already had a piece in my shop. You can use plywood or whatever else you want or have for this. The final dimensions of the main shelf part was 21” wide x 18” tall x 8” deep. To cut my pieces to size, I used a table saw but you can totally use a circular saw to do this. I cut them all to width, and then to length.

Step 3: Make Dato for the Shelf

I decided to try to install the shelf using a dato in the sides of the shelf. A dato is a basically a groove on the board for another board to sit into to make a stronger joint. I would typically just use a butt joint and screw the shelf in from the side, but I wanted to give the dato a shot. This was very simple to do. I set my table saw blade depth to ⅜”. Then I ran the board over the blade multiple times until it was the thickness of the adjoining board which is ¾” thick. I did this for each side piece if you do this properly, the shelf should fit pretty snug into place but you still may need to fasten it somehow. You can use screws, nails, or whatever you have. What I did was first glue in the shelf and then installed a ⅜” dowel. I drilled a ⅜” hole, added glue into the hole, put in the dowel, then used a flush cut saw to cut off the dowel. This was very excessive, but I wanted to try it and it worked perfectly.

Step 4: Assemble the Shelf

Assembling the shelf is pretty straight forward. I used wood glue and 2” screws to fasten the shelf together. MDF splits very easily so make sure you pre drill all the holes before adding the screws. One thing I so did was I used a countersink bit to countersink the screws I to the MDF that way the screws didn't stick out. I added a back to the shelf that way everything would remain in tact and things wouldn’t fall behind the shelf. I used a piece of ¼” plywood. I just cut it to size, glued it on the back of the shelf, and then used a brad nailer to attach them to the shelf.

Step 5: Add the Drill Hangers

Next I added the drill hanging slots to store my drills in. I only needed two slots but I can add more at any time I would need them which is cool. To do this, I used the table saw to make the cuts. I made them the depth of the shelf and 3” tall. I clamped them to the bottom of the shelf and screwed them on. Then I cut 1 ½” strips and screwed this to the bottom of the 3” sections. There were three of these in total to hold my two drills.

Step 6: Prep for Paint

The next thing I had to do was prep everything for paint. First I sanded everything down to with 120 grit sandpaper, then 220 grit paper. On the edges of the MDF, it was very rough and there were a lot of places where there were cracks and splits from not pre drilling well enough. So I decided to add some nail spackling that you use for drywall. I used a putty knife and filled all the cracks and rough spots of the MDF with it. I let it dry for a few hours and then I sanded it smooth with 220 grit paper. This worked very well and I will definitely keep this in mind for the future.

Step 7: Paint

After this I used spray paint to paint the shelf. If I were to do this again, I would use a brush and latex paint. For whatever reason, the spray paint didn’t want to stick to the shelf very good at all. It took several coats. I actually had to go back to the store to buy more because I ran out. After I painted the shelf, it left a pretty rough finish, so I put two coats of polycrylic from minwax on the shelf. This is my go to finish. It is a water based product and in my opinion leaves a very nice feel to whatever you are applying it to. I use it a lot. After doing this, the shelf was complete.

Step 8: Finished

I used the french cleat system to hang this shelf with. I really like using french cleats and have an entire video explaining what they are and how the work. I hope you enjoyed this project. It was fairly simple and made some great organizing space for my shop. I have free plans for this with exact measurements. You can find the plans by clicking here.

Find me around the web.

Website - http://madebymitch.net

Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/made_by_mitch

Twitter - http://www.instagram.com/made_by_mitch