building shop carts with particle boards

[joe webb]

Hello all,

I am remodeling all my closets and I now have a pile of particle boards. I was wondering how well they hold w/ screws and glue.
I was thinking of using them to build a workbench and some carts to store my tools. They would be on caster wheels so I can push them to my driveway when working.
I don't see a problem if used for making stationary items but I am not sure they are good use for mobile items. They seems more brittle.
For example, can we use pocket holes with PT? Can I put a compressor in the cart (would it handle the vibration)?
Except for shelving, I have no experience w/ PT and not a big a fan of this material. But I have a big pile of it and don't want to pay for trashing them and need more organization for my small garage.

Thanks much

[Andy D Jones]

Particle board does not hold screws well. To join them together, you'd need solid wood corner blocks to which you can screw and glue both panels.

PB is very weak vs its weight, compared to plywood or solid wood, so by the time your bench is strong enough to hold up, especially if rolled around on casters, they will be very heavy.

PB also swells and/or disintegrates when exposed to moisture, so I would be concerned about rolling them outside on the driveway if a rain storm popped up, or if you live in a humid environment (assuming your garage, where they spend the majority of their life, is not climate controlled).

Water based glues can also swell the PB. And if it does bond, it will only be to the surface, which will break away under stress.

In a dry location, PB might make a decent sacrificial top layer for a workbench.

If it were me, the PB would be headed to the dump.

-- Andy - Arlington TX

[glenn bradley]

I had a steel frame 'workbench' with a drop in 1/2" particle board top. I got it used, for free and it had been beat pretty good. I beat it for several more years. HOWEVER, the particle board was not part of the structural part of the bench. It dropped into a frame and had several steel ribs supporting it from below.

Using particle board for structural strength is outside the design of the product somewhat. I say go for it. The material is essentially scrap so you are not buying material for this effort. They may serve you well beyond your requirement and if they slowly breakdown, they will have served you for some period of time.

I would not set $600 worth of cherry that you have spent 120 hours turning into a china hutch on a particle board rolling work table and move it about the shop. That's just asking for it. Make your fixtures and use them well. Just remember they may have some limitations. If you are after long term fixtures that you plan to use for years, dump the PB and go get appropriate material.

[Jim Becker]

Particle board does not hold screws well.

True for regular wood screws, etc. But Confirmat screws, which are designed for this application do hold well when installed properly.

[Ron Selzer]

Is this regular particle board unfinished faces, melamine with a denser core or MDF?
Thanks
Ron

[Rick Potter]

For what it's worth, I have two shop cabinets about 24" square and 36" tall, with five drawers in each. They are made entirely with plain ol' 3/4" particle board, butt joints, drywall screws, and glue. The drawer bottoms are 1/2" plywood scraps.

They are painted white, with house paint, and have casters, and the cheap epoxy slides on the drawers. They are about 25 years old, and the one that had a good sized bench top drill press on it for at least 10 years is finally starting to fail.

All the drawers are full of really heavy stuff, and the one failing is bulging a bit in the middle making the drawers slide poorly. These were all made of scrap I had at the time, and I would say they have served me pretty well. They get wheeled around and survived our moving 15 years ago (fully loaded in a moving van).

I will probably screw a simple brace from one side to the other below a drawer, to square it up again. After all this time, I am kinda fond of them.


Edit: I took a closer look at the unit that has bulging sides (about 1/8" on each side of frameless cabinet), and it turns out that I had forgotten that one was made from 5/8", not 3/4". I also forgot it had shallow dados for the top and bottom pieces to strengthen it a bit. Absolutely no swelling or cracks in either unit.

[Zachary Hoyt]

If you decide not to use the particle board I would put it on Craigslist in the free section, someone will take it away and you could save the dump fee. I have 3 rolling shop tables that I got from a furniture factory auction that have particle board tops, they seem to be fine but the frame is all 2x4s. I use some scraps for shelves in the shop years ago, they sagged pretty badly but never broke under weight. Now I use scraps for sacrificial faceplates that can hot glue to banjo rims for turning on the lathe without leaving screw holes in the finished product. I need about a 1 foot square piece per year for this, so I don't get through a lot.

[lowell holmes]

I would buy 1X12 fir or pine, plane to thickness desired, glue up panels and make my cabinets. If you don't have a thickness planer, it is a good excuse to get one.
Go to a big box store and pick one out.

I did that and never regretted it.

[Jack Llewyllson]

Hello all,

I am remodeling all my closets and I now have a pile of particle boards. I was wondering how well they hold w/ screws and glue.
I was thinking of using them to build a workbench and some carts to store my tools. They would be on caster wheels so I can push them to my driveway when working.
I don't see a problem if used for making stationary items but I am not sure they are good use for mobile items. They seems more brittle.
For example, can we use pocket holes with PT? Can I put a compressor in the cart (would it handle the vibration)?
Except for shelving, I have no experience w/ PT and not a big a fan of this material. But I have a big pile of it and don't want to pay for trashing them and need more organization for my small garage.

Thanks much

I wouldn't worry too much about vibration. Particle board is a preferred material for speaker cabinets (due to its density, presumably).

I would not use pocket hole joinery with particle board. It will likely tear out/through. A better solution would be to design for through bolts, then buy some cheapie bright-finish hardware. Don't forget the washers!

If your shop is damp or humid, the particle board won't live long no matter what you do with it. It will swell, distort, and lose strength in the presence of moisture.

Good uses for particle board: simple shelving that doesn't have to live long or support weight across distance, like a small, low bookshelf/tool shelf.

Jig building, especially if it's got melamine faces. That stuff is GOLD for table saw sleds, drill press tables, router table tops and such.

Particle board is also pretty dang neat for sacrificial bench tops. I threw half a sheet of it onto my "utility" bench around 20 years ago, and it's ugly and stained but still functional. That bench mostly exists to host a couple of grinders and a big iron vise that was supposed to host a rotating array of tools, but in practice just clamps my old chopsaw in place. I think the density/weight of the particle board helps dampen the grinder vibes, though I may be kidding myself.

The best use might be to design a Festool MFT-type cutting table to use with circular saws (with or without tracks) and routers. Similarly, if you need a surface to carve on so you don't nick your best bench all to heck, you can use particle board for a "carving mat." Also, it makes perfect tops for Workmates, so if you keep one of those around you might just cut a few particle scraps to size and drill them out, then stash 'em for future replacements.

[Jim Dwight]

The rank of materials in terms of bending strength is hardwood, softwood, plywood, particle board and then MDF. Your particle board is thus weaker than everything but MDF. But that does not mean it is too weak to work. (there is also major differences within each of these categories)

I do my best to avoid particle board and MDF. I find neither to be pleasant to work with but when properly applied, it has always worked for me. I built a mini-kitchen in the basement of my last house, for instance, out of melamine covered particle board. I used conformant screws. They worked fine. My son lived in the basement apartment for a few months and used this kitchenette a lot. It was easy to clean. I used iron on tape on the edges, they were frameless cabinets. Solid softwood raised panel doors with a whitewash finish.

If I had a bunch of it, cabinets I needed for my shop, and didn't want to spend the money for plywood, I would use it. I would double it up if I was at all worried about strength for the application, however. Something like a flip cart would definitely need doubled verticals IMHO.

[joe webb]

Thanks all for sharing your ideas and experience. It sounds like PB is not the ideal material but it might work.

My garage isn't humid. I installed PB shelves resting on top of a 1x4 pine frame, and after 15 years, they still look like new. They are 3ft from the ceiling though.

Worst case is I would be wasting a weekend of building this stuff and trash it in few months.

[Markie Hughes]

I like to use PB for making prototypes - making a custom cabinet that you have doubts about? make it out of PB first, then your expensive wood. Keeps the cost down, and then I have a "shop" cabinet. Also good for one time use jigs and fixtures.

[Ben Rivel]

IMO particle board ain't good for nothin' but filling trash cans.