Not every shop has the square footage for a dedicated cabinet for the drill press and a dedicated corner for the belt sander and a permanent position for the oscillating spindle sander. In a small shop, benchtop power tools are the primary machinery – and storing them so they’re accessible without consuming the bench surface they’re supposed to support work on is its own organizational puzzle.
The solution that works in the most shop sizes: a dedicated power tool closet or alcove with sliding shelves. The tools live on the shelves, pull out when in use, and slide back when done. The closet needs to be deep enough for the largest tool (typically the drill press – about 18 inches), wide enough for multiple tools side by side, and equipped with a dedicated outlet strip inside so the tools can be plugged in and charged when stored.
Reader Ben converted a standard 24-inch coat closet adjacent to his basement workshop into a benchtop tool closet. Four heavy-duty sliding shelves, rated for 100 pounds each, pull out to the full depth of the closet. His drill press lives on the top shelf – pull out, lock in place, work, push back in. The belt sander, oscillating sander, and router table each have their own shelf. When everything is deployed, they all sit on their shelves at the workshop door, connected by extension cords to the outlet strip inside the closet. When the session is done, tools go back on their shelves and the closet door closes.
The tool closet took one Saturday to set up and cost about $150 in sliding shelf hardware. Ben estimates it returned about 40 square feet of floor space to active use in his already-tight basement shop. For a small shop, 40 square feet is a significant fraction of the total. Where do your benchtop power tools live when they’re not in use?