A couple months ago my office was getting rid of a bunch of furniture and I was able to snag an old flat file.  I was thinking to make a coffee table out of it, but as it sat in my garage for a couple months I decided I was in need of some additional office storage. I have been improving my DnD crafting & Miniatures painting setups. This meant that I had things like a hotwire foam cutting table and an air brush compressor that sat out on my desk at all times because of no place to store them, I hate having stuff on my desks when I start projects so I decide the flat file could be put to better use as storage and a cutting table in office.

1. I knew I needed storage for some bulky items (hotwire foam table $ airbrush compressor).
2. I wanted it to be mobile (would need to be on casters)
3. I knew I wanted some extra outlets as there are only two in my whole office and I am constantly unplugging one thing to plug something else in.
4. I have wanted a huge cutting table for a long time so add that to the list too.
5. I didn’t want to spend a ton of money or take forever building it ..

I drew up some quick plans in Sketchup with stuff from the 3D warehouse the model took less than 15 minutes

This flat file is just under 3’x4’ by 17 inches tall . With the 14” base cabinet and the large casters I figured the whole thing would end up 36” tall so kitchen counter height so it would be a standing work space, which would be perfect as a cutting table.

I got all the materials at Home Depot with the exception of the cutting mat and some magnets (I will touch on those later) which I got on amazon.

The cutting mat did not dissapoint  it feels pretty huge.

I did all the cutting with my track saw on my back porch, but it was way to cold for glue to cure here in Montana this time of year and as my garage isn’t heated or insulated I hauled the pieces downstairs for final assembly and glue up.

 

I haven’t gotten the Biscuit Joiner out in a long time but this seemed like a good project for it.

I found some hinges at Home Depot that let me do a full overlay door with out cutting a pocket in the door. They seem pretty sturdy.  I had an extra set of cabinet pulls leftover from my basement remodel.

 

I glued and screwed the top as it wouldn’t be visible in the final assembly .

I used sanded fir plywood and ended up finishing everything with a satin wipe on poly, I opened all the windows. If I was to do it again I would use a brush on poly the fumes from the wipe on stuff were pretty intense even with the windows open and a fan on.

The Flat file has just a 2” rim and is open on the bottom so I just sat it on the base cabinet and then screwed some strips of plywood to the top of the base cabinet so it couldn’t slide off.   It feels very secure and I think I would have to unscrew them if I ever wanted to get the flat file back off. (No Pictures)

 

The flat file is just under 3’x4’ and the cutting mat is pretty much exactly 3’x4’ so I cut a piece of ply wood to match the cutting mat exactly. I didn’t want to screw into the metal of the flat file so I ended up ordering some screw down rare earth magnets off Amazon. They help the top piece down very securely, much like trying to drag a hard drive magnet off a metal surface.  I was please because I was really unsure how well they would work .