DIY Portable Workshop Table

Our next door neighbor is getting his workshop set up, and he has enlisted Stephen for some help with it. The first thing he asked Stephen to build for him was a portable (rolling) workshop table. He wanted it to be about 3′ x 6′, two levels, with wheels and laminate on top.

I got some pictures along the way, but this table is really cool. If only our workshop was a little bigger, it would be so nice to have one of these!

To start, Stephen cut 2x4s to size and built the frame of the table. He connected all of the pieces using pocket screws.

Next, he cut 3/4″ plywood to size using the table saw and attached it to the bottom and the top levels. He used screws to drill these pieces down into the frame.

The top piece overhangs the frame by about an inch on each side. The bottom shelf is cut exactly to size.

This next part was a little complicated to do and definitely took some patience. First, he cut the laminate to size using a circular saw. (He got the laminate from Home Depot) Next, he sprayed the top of the plywood with 3M industrial strength spray adhesive. He placed a few dowels (he used spare 2x2s) along the top of the plywood, and he took the laminate and set it on top of the dowels. Since the dowels didn’t have the spray adhesive on them, the laminate wouldn’t stick to them. He started in the middle and slid out the dowels one by one, continuing while moving out to the sides. As each dowel was removed, the laminate would sink down onto the sticky plywood and would stick to the adhesive. He put some scrap wood on top for a few hours to put pressure on the laminate.

Once the laminate was securely on the plywood, he used the flush router bit and routed the edges to be perfectly smooth, so any overhang of laminate was removed.

Lastly, he filled the table over and drilled in small pieces of 2×4 so that they were wider than the legs. He did this so he could screw in the locking wheels into the bottom of the pieces, since the wheel plates were wider than the original legs.