Portable workbench

Materials: Bekvam kitchen cart, Antonius 25L drawer

Description: I wanted some sort of mobile storage solution for when I want to work inside (or outside) instead of in the garage where my tools live. And a flat surface that I wouldn't have to worry about scratching would be a bonus. So when my local Ikea was selling the Bekvam kitchen cart for $20, I did some searching and was inspired by Jan Propok's drilling machine table.

I couldn't justify $100 for the Alex drawer unit when I only spent $20 for the cart, so I did some measuring and found that the Antonius plastic bins fit perfectly!

Like Jan, I assembled the Bekvam but without the centre shelf. I had some spare trim in the garage, so I cut it to size with a mitre saw and screwed 3 pieces onto the insides of the cart to act as drawer slides. The drawers only fit one way, so make sure you dry fit everything to make sure it works.

The trim I used is 3" baseboard at 5/8" thick (although you could easily use 1/2" thick). Be careful when you screw it together because the baseboard is very soft and the cart is very hard and you might break your screws... I pre-drilled my holes and I still had trouble.

I added a cabinet handle (Lansa) I had left over from my kitchen reno to hang rags or paintbrushes or anything else I want to keep handy.

~ Jen D, Canada

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Building/repair tool on rooftops

Materials: BEKV�M step stool

Description: Renovating an old house, I should remove paint, sanding the wooden panels, put primer paint and paint, sanding in between.

I am not a hero on the roof, standing on the small wooden slats on which the rooftiles are laying.

So I measured the degree of the roof and sliced away part of a BEKV�M with same angle.

After that I fastened two slats under the feet of the BEKV�M stool with screws.
These two slats I use also when working on the roof: six screws from the slats on the roof.

So I move my building tool on the roof taking out these screws, put the tool higher or lower and then fasten it again with these screws again.

Result: a tool with which it is good working! you can sit on it, hang on it, put paint cans, other things.

It gives me great confidence standing on my roof, working on my house.

~ Bert Lijnema, Netherlands

How about a mini chest tool box?

I've seen many hacks on the Fira mini chest, most of them decorative, so this one from PK Shiu is a new take on it. It turns out to be a pretty neat looking tool box but methinks it needs a coat of red.

He says, "A 10-minute hack to turn a plain looking Fira mini chest into a high tech looking tool box for my electronic parts."

PK simply added Kosing handles to the top of the chest. Measure the centre line of the small drawers against the top piece of the chest (if not, the drawers will get stuck.) Screw in the handles (he added 4 washers as the screws were too long) before assembling the chest as usual.

See more of PK Shiu's high tech mini chest tool box.

Check out PK Shiu's previous hacks:
- Magiker shoe cabinet
- Self-watering plant pot

Hack the hex

This is brilliant. Nate found a way to 'powerize' the hex key. No more numb fingers and blisters.

He says, "When revamping my workspace a few weeks ago - and not in the mood to unscrew my Jerker desk by hand - I thought I might try sacrificing one of the countless hand wrenches I've picked up from Ikea. In a perfect world I would have had a drill bit exactly sized for the hex screws used in the desk's fixtures but, alas, such things escape my grasp.

So I took the freebie hex wrench, cut it at the straightest edge I could manage with the bolt cutters and slid the new 'bit' into the chuck of the power drill. It held in there just fine and I had my desk in pieces in minutes. I imagine that this technique isn't limited to just this driver but to any and all Ikea wrenches and hand drivers, from the S shapes to the L's."