Help...The best laid plans of mice & men.....

[Bart Leetch]

I am in the process of planning a 7 ½’ long cabinet for my 12” CMS. I’ll also have my Shopfox Mortiser on the top on a piece of plywood with Formica on the bottom to make is slide easier & a guide bar that will fit in a groove in the top on the front edge will be a part of the fence when the Mortiser is pushed to the back of the table.

Inside the cabinet behind a door on a shallow drawer on heavy duty full extension glides on the left end will be my portable planer. In the right end will be my Jet Spindle sander mounted the same way covered with a door. In the middle will be 2 banks of drawers for mechanical tools.

I figured you’all would need a little idea what I was going to put in the cabinet so you could advise me on the below.

I plan on making a torsion box to mount this cabinet on. This is the part I want input on.

I plan on making the torsion box 23 ¾” wide & 88 1/2” long. I was thinking of using ½” plywood for the top & bottom & ¾” plywood for the webbing. Spacing the webbing on the 23 ¾” front to back at approximately 4” on center & for the length space the webbing would be approximately 8” on center. The webbing would be 2” – 2 ½” tall.

I have some heavy duty casters that I’ll mount 12” in from each end.

There will be ¾” plywood blocks glued inside the ½” plywood of the torsion box for the casters to be bolted to.

So what I need to know do you think that the torsion box webbing spacing & skin will do what I want ?

This cabinet will set next to my 12" RAS.

I am making this cabinet to help consolidate these tools & make them more accessible & gain some room in my small shop.

Thanks a lot everyone :)

[Steve Jenkins]

Bart, if you are going to go with that spacing on your webbing you could easily use 1/4 instead of 3/4 and just use 1/2 or 3/4 for the perimeter in case you want to fasten something to it. the easiest would be to half lap the intersections of the webbing. get a nice flat spot ready to glue it up and after you put the eggcrate webbing together run a bead of glue on all the edges. weight the main area and screw the perimeter. Steve

[Jim Becker]

I'll leave the torsion box stuff to the experts...what Steve says makes sense. But I sure hope you "pictorially document" this project...it sounds really interesting and will likely be useful for a lot of folks.

[Bart Leetch]

Thanks Steve & Jim


I wasn't sure if 2" would be tall enough for the webbing & its nice to know that I don't need to use 3/4" for the whole webbing system.

The cabinet that I'll be putting on this torsion box will set on top accept for the end panels & face frame which will lap down over & be glued clamped & either screwed or nailed to conceal the torsion box.

Would it will help the strength in these areas if I glue & nail a cleat to the back side of the end panels & face frame that would set on top of the torsion box?

The real neat thing about this is that you have confirmed is the strength of this system & that this will save space inside which I need for the contents. :D