Project: Wilmots "MFSC" - Multi-Function Shop Cart (Build Thread)

[John Jenkins4]

Jim,
I've been eyeballing Timothy's MFSC and have added it to my projects list. Your write up is probably going to help me out quite a bit.
Thanks!
John

[Jim Becker]

I hope it's helpful, John. I'm communicating with Timothy about anything that doesn't make sense to me in case that helps a broader audience, too.

[Jim Becker]

Today, I completed the last part for the ratchet mechanism after one small operation with the lift arms to square up two corners on each unit. These lift arm pieces were pattern routed and that meant these two corners were slightly rounded from the cutter diameter. A few strokes with a hand-saw did the deed. If this had been solid stock, I would have cleaned them with a sharp chisel, but for BB plywood...the saw was a better choice for me.

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The last piece of the ratchet mechanism is the "tooth" piece which engages the "rack" that I detailed in yesterday's post. Its fabrication will look familiar as it was done using similar technique to the "rack" with the addition of pattern routing for the profile.

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From that last photo, I attached the pattern and routed the non-straight profile. While the bit was slightly too large to get into the full depth of the "teeth", a few swipes with a file cleaned it up. In retrospect, I might have been able to pattern route the "rack", but I would have needed to construct a jig to safely hold it for that operation.

At this point, all of this "intricate part" nonsense is completed. This is essentially how all the parts will be positionally related when the assembly is, well...assembled...minus two springs and a couple of dowels. Hmm...it's almost like this thang has a pelvis. LOL

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Tomorrow I'm going to get started cutting out all the sheet goods. I've decided that I'm going to partially do that on the floor with my track saw for two reasons. The first one is that the large commission piece I have mentioned previously is still on my bench and a few moments ago, I learned that it's going to have to stay there until the weekend. My friend/client got called out of town for work. With that piece on the bench, I can't do rips of 8' sheet stock without hitting it and I cannot lift it myself to transport it elsewhere, not that I have a place to put it elsewhere. More importantly, I realized that I frankly cannot easily nor safely lift a full sheet of 3/4"/19mm multi-layer birch plywood onto my slider by myself due to the reconstruction of my left wrist earlier this year and other factors. So there's really no point in risking that when I can partially part out the sheets on the floor and then easily manipulate the smaller chunks on the table saw. Sometimes we have to think things through when working alone!

[Bruce Page]

Looking good Jim. Most of what I've seen so far would be a snap on a CNC...

[Jim Becker]

Looking good Jim. Most of what I've seen so far would be a snap on a CNC...

Timothy uses an X-Carve for machining parts like these, but in the construction videos, he acknowledges alternate methods. He posted part 2 today and shows making the rack on the table saw. While I used the band saw for the 45º angle cuts, were I to do it again, I'd use his method...unless I came into having a coveted CNC for my shop.

[Travis Porter]

I am curious. Timothy completed his in about 25 minutes on YouTube.

How many hours do you have in this so far?

it is a very ingenious design, and I would love to have one, it just seems it would take me forever.

[Jim Becker]

I am curious. Timothy completed his in about 25 minutes on YouTube.

How many hours do you have in this so far?

it is a very ingenious design, and I would love to have one, it just seems it would take me forever.

LOL....all projects like this are "very fast" on YouTube, between edits and "fast speed" video. Timothy's videos are just a vignette into the project steps. I think that making the lift mechanism parts is the most time consuming for most of us because they are not "straight lines" and require multiple steps to do if a CNC isn't available. But honestly, I do believe this project is approachable by most folks and the effort can be well-worth it because of the utility it brings when it's done. At this point, I feel that the "hardest part", outside of setting the lift mechanism in place, is done. The rest is very straight-forward work. I expect that I'll blow through the cut list relatively quickly today for the sheet goods, even splitting it between the track saw and my slider for easier material handling as I noted earlier. Seeing the second video reinforced that.

BTW, I really appreciated the history of the lift setup he put in the second build video....those initial methods he tried out make the final version even more impressive.

[Travis Porter]

I watched the 2nd video myself yesterday and was thinking of you cutting those teeth when he was doing his sample set on the slider. I have to finish building my kitchen, but I may break down and do one myself shortly thereafter. The utility of it and especially being able to have that drying rack looks to have a lot of benefit.

[Robert Cherry]

Looking great Jim! I'll be watching your progress on this project. Let me know if you need an extra set of hands to manage the sheet goods.

[Jim Becker]

Thanks, Bob...it's good to have friends nearby, although I fortunately got this task covered using multiple tools! Which brings me to today's installment.

As I mentioned previously two factors stood in the way of my slapping full sheets on the slider...stuff blocking the way and my ability to imitate a power lifter. Track saw to the rescue! After laying some 2x on the floor that I keep around for such nonsense, I broke down the logical sections in the cut list/cut diagram such that the material would be easy to manipulate as well as not have any interference with "that lingering thing" on my bench. I also took the 8 foot rail down off it's resting place. I don't use it much, but it was the right tool for the job at hand for the long rips.

I didn't take a lot of photos today...I think most folks know what cutting up plywood looks like, but there are a few for good measure. Also, I found two inconsistencies between the cut list and the cut diagrams and have messaged Timothy for clarification. One is for the length of two components where there is an exact 100mm difference between the two sheets and the other is a width measurement for four smaller pieces that go into the table frame representing a 25mm difference. (which is coincidentally the depth of the clamp slots)

At any rate, here you see one page of the cutting diagram where I "chunked" things logically, the setup for the first long rip cut and the pile 'o "chunks" ready for processing on the slider to actual components. One nice thing about using the track saw for this partial breakdown is that there is already a "true enough" and clean edge on the plywood to work from in the subsequent steps. And yes, I did figure in for kerf, etc., when I set my cut lines.

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A few hours later, the pile 'o "chunks" became a pile 'o components ready for further machining and assembly. I very much took my time on this because working from someone else's cut list is what it is and honestly, hurrying just makes for mistakes. Case in point...I'll admit that the very first part I cut was done incorrectly because I accidentally swapped orientation of the "chunk" and ended up with something in the wrong orientation. "D'oh!" Fortunately...there was more plywood left from the second sheet to recover from.

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After a little cleanup of the saws, etc., I reorganize that pile into related groups for the individual assemblies that go into this project...base, frame, arms, table frame, etc.

The next step that I began to tackle before being drawn away for the evening meal was to begin marking up the table frame components for dados and the clamp rest slots. Timothy uses a Felder dado component in his slider to do this work. I do not currently have a dado set for my slider (maybe Santa will bring one...it's on my list) so I'm going to use an alternative method for creating the clamp rest slots. The spacing from the outside edges will be the same 100mm that the plans call for, but I'll create the bottoms of the slots using a 3/8" drill at the drill press and then remove the rest of the slot on the table saw using a sacrificial fence in on the miter fence which will still allow me to use the rip fence as a measuring stop for at least the outside cuts. I'll also gang the components so that their opposite members have exactly the same placing of the cuts so everything stays symmetrical. here are a couple reference photos of the initial layout work for these cuts:

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I'll continue with this layout work in the morning after the shop warms up and will hopefully complete at least the table frame assembly and start on some other steps after that.

[Robert Cherry]

You are moving right along on this project, Jim. Being retired hasn't slowed you down a bit! At this rate you should be finished by, what, the end of the week?

[William Fretwell]

I watched the video. The functions seem rather superfluous. Why use it as a bench when you have a bench. The clamp station may be of some use but rarely will those slots be in the right place for a project. It is like all multi tools, not really good at any of the functions.
It's notable the bench top is the same as the cart top.
They do have a huge workshop so a cart to move stuff is appealing and they have space to store it.

I have a large (8'x3') assembly table about 20 inches high on wheels. It's braced up the ying yang so it's really flat and covered with melamine that's waxed so glue 'pings' off. I can move things on it to the door for pick up and it saves my back for large assembly. It's very simple and really useful as I can assemble even large cabinets on it.

Your project is very complicated so I hope you get the value out of it.

[Jim Becker]

I watched the video. The functions seem rather superfluous. Why use it as a bench when you have a bench. The clamp station may be of some use but rarely will those slots be in the right place for a project. It is like all multi tools, not really good at any of the functions.
It's notable the bench top is the same as the cart top.
They do have a huge workshop so a cart to move stuff is appealing and they have space to store it.

I have a large (8'x3') assembly table about 20 inches high on wheels. It's braced up the ying yang so it's really flat and covered with melamine that's waxed so glue 'pings' off. I can move things on it to the door for pick up and it saves my back for large assembly. It's very simple and really useful as I can assemble even large cabinets on it.

Your project is very complicated so I hope you get the value out of it.

Everyone is different and everyone works differently. I personally find the utility of this design to be of high value to me which is why I've chosen to build it for my shop. It satisfies my desire for an additional MFT-type work top and adds some other functions that I don't currently have available. I also do not have the space for a large, dedicated work surface beyond my Adjust-a-Bench, so the portability is convenient. Most importantly, I'm enjoying the work, too...and really don't care that it has some complicated things to deal with. Those are skill building opportunities.

[Jim Becker]

With that said...

I continued work today on the worktop frame components. Since this all meshes together as a clamping station designed for parallel type clamps, layout was undertaken carefully, but it also went relatively quickly because outside of the starting point on each individual component, the measuring and marking was repetitive and could be done "assembly line" style across each piece after the first of each type was done.

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Since I don't currently have a dado blade for my slider (it's capable of using one, however), I chose to use the same method for creating the clamp support slots that I've used in the past for any number of shop fixtures, including clamp racks and chisel racks. I also like a rounded bottom on the slots better, so the layout included a centering mark for using a 3/8" brad point drill to define the bottom of the slots. (3/8" is very close to the 10mm of the original design specification for slot width) This work was done at the drill press to take advantage of repeatability. While that was setup, I also drilled the required holes for the swivel point and the wooden bolts that secure the top in various positions, depending on the chosen function. The size for those holes was modified from the plan's 20mm and 15mm designations to 3/4" and 5'8" to match the dowel stock I'm using and the requirement of the wood threading tap. As much as I'd like to do everything metric here, tooling and practicality do come into play. Once all the "Swiss cheese" creation was done, the components were ready for the next step.

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That next step was to create the 4mm deep dados that help with the joinery for the worktop frame. Again, since I don't have a dado blade for the saw, a routing solution was indicated and I took advantage of my MFT's fence and rail system along with the OF1400 router and rail guide to do this work. It was easy to setup using a longer piece of the same plywood as a sacrificial fence. Cutting a dado across that piece, which was fixed in place, created a guide that made it easy to quickly position each part and cut the required dado as well as the rebates on the ends of the long rails. Additional pieces of scrap were used to provide more support for the heavy router on the guide rail. Here's the initial setup after cutting the "guide dado" in the sacrificial fence and the test sample of the 4mm depth.

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Two of the interior pieces required the dados on both sides and this method kept them exactly in the correct spot based on the careful layout work that started this off. The rebates on the ends of the longer side pieces also cut very nicely.

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[Jim Becker]

The last piece of the router based milling was to create the slots for the t-track that would be embedded in the faces of the longer side rails. These t-tracks provide the ability to clamp material to the side of the work-surface, etc., in the same manner that similarly positioned t-track slots are on the MFT. The centerline for the tracks is 19mm from the edge which sets them up at the same position as they would be on the MFT, too. The tracks I'm using required a 3/4" wide by 1/2" deep slot and that was cut on the router table using the fence as a guide. To get the setup right, I did a layout on a piece of scrap which was in-turn used to adjust the initial bit height and fence position.

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And just for fun, here's some complimentary tool p..., err...you know...

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Height adjustment from the layout...it was nearly spot-on, but a proverbial hair too deep which was adjusted after a test cut

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And the fit was "really snug" which I'm happy with.

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And at that point, I milled the slots in the two long side rails to complete the "routering" work for the day.

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