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“My Version” of the Flip-Top Cabinet Project
I have found that having a “bench top” tool is sort of a mixed blessing.  It’s portable.  It doesn’t take up too much space when you’re using it.  But storing it in between uses is a pain… unless you want to dedicate a permanent spot on your bench top for the tool.  Then it’s not really portable any more.  Well, hopefully you get the point.  I had been lifting those bench top tools up into place each time I needed to put them to use. However, I’m finally starting to get the idea that I need to take care of the ol’ back, so I figured it was worth the effort to give those tools a permanent home that I could live with.

This cabinet is inspired by some other flip-top cabinet designs I’ve seen on the web. I wanted something like Slambubba’s cabinet (which comes from one of the Wood Magazine “Idea Shop” plans).

The main thing I don’t like about that design is that you’re limited to only two big tools. Because the cabinet has a back panel, you can’t have a tool on the other side of the flip top, or you wouldn’t be able to “flip it”. I wanted a cabinet to hold three tools, so that design really wouldn’t have worked for me. If one of the rotating panels has a tool on the other side, you’d have to either leave the back panel off (less stable), or make the depth of the panel much wider to provide clearance (thus greatly increasing the depth of the cabinet).

An alternative approach is to design the cabinet so there is no back panel. That way you can have a tool on both sides of the top. I got that idea from pconroy’s cabinet.

I thought that if you made a double-wide cabinet like that, it would be too unstable… maybe not, but I thought so. Regardless I was afraid to try it.

So anyway, I got the idea to combine the two concepts… sort of. I just turned the axis of rotation 90 degrees. That way I could make the panel that holds two tools WIDER to give clearance for rotation, without making the whole cabinet a lot deeper. Hopefully that makes sense… well, here are the pics:

I made an elevated platform on the left (smaller) top to provide an infeed support for the planer:

The biggest problem with this cabinet is the same for all flip-top cabinets – you get the convenience of a versatile work surface without breaking your back changing out tools, but the storage space inside the cabinet is sacrificed.  There actually is a little usable space in the bottom – I keep sanding supplies and accessories for the BOSS down there, as well as some other small jigs that I don’t have space to store elsewhere.  Also, one unique consideration with this design: flipping the tools requires about 8-10″ of clearance on each SIDE of the cabinet – so you couldn’t store this cabinet right in the corner.  This is not a problem for me, as I intend to just leave the two sanders in place most of the time, and I will roll the whole cabinet out into the floor when I want to use the planer.

Of course, only time will tell if this design holds up, but so far it seems good.  When the tops are locked in place, the whole cabinet rolls around with almost no racking.  When the tops are unlocked they flip easily, without binding or rubbing.  In fact, it’s actually kind of fun flipping those tops over!
Choosing the dimensions for the flip top

The wider panel (on the planer/BOSS side) can only be rotated in one direction – in the direction of the shorter tool (the BOSS). I specifically designed the dimensions to allow clearance for that tool, since it was the shortest of the three I needed to mount in the cabinet. Again, the reason for this was to keep the overall size of the cabinet as small as possible.

The dimension is based on the height of the tool + 1/2 the width of the flip top + a little “fudge factor”… all that x2. Looking at the picture below, hopefully it makes sense where those numbers come from…

In my case that added up to:

16-1/2″ + 3/4″ + “fudge” x2 = 35-1/2″

Again, this illustrates the whole reason I wanted to turn the axis of rotation 90 degrees … the cabinets would have had to be AT LEAST 36″ deep otherwise (or not have a back panel, as I mentioned in the first post). Incidentally, if you have an oscillating spindle sander like mine that you want to measure for, make sure you measure the height of the tool with the spindle in its highest point of vertical travel!

Construction details of the flip-top

The tops are just two pieces of MDF laminated together with glue/screws.  There is a strip of hardwood inlaid into the sides of the swivel tops to provide more rigidity and strength to the tops. The way I did mine differs from the Wood Magazine plans, but that article does describe in pretty good detail how to construct flip-tops for a shop cabinet, and I recommend reading it.The tops both rotate on a piece of 1/2″ steel rod that I got from Home Depot – I got a piece that was 36″ long, and cut it to length with my jigsaw. The rod goes all the way through the tops, and engages in the side rails like this:

I cut a 1/2″ wide, 1/4″ deep dado in each layer of MDF before putting them together. That resulted in a 1/2″ x 1/2″ fit for the steel rod, with no wiggle room. The rod slips right in with a light coating of parafin wax, and rotates easily.

I wanted the top to rotate around the steel rod, and the rod needs to stay put. So I filed a flat spot in the rod and drove a screw down into the plywood, like this:

The tops are held in position by a pair of 1/4″ lynch pins in each end.