instructables

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station

by stevemoseley

maybe even cut new ones to match the tools. I

decided to make a tool charging station where the
width could be adjusted easily as needed.
ht t ps://www.yout ube.com/embed/zf__hP0TyJ8

I also wanted to make the tool hanger expandable in

case someone wanted to make more storage later. I'll
explain more about that later in the project.
I've been wanting to build a tool charging station for
a long time now, but there was always something that
This tool charging station was built to hang on a
bothered me. Once you build the hangers for the
french cleat wall, but can easily just be attached to a
tools if you end up replacing a tool and it has a
wall with screws or with individual cleats.
di erent width or you want to change the layout of
the tools, then you have to adjust the hangers and

1. Tool Charging Station fully installed.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 1

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1. An angled view of the tool charging station. 1. Wing nuts make the difference on adjustability.

1. The Kreg Mini Trak and wing nuts on the 1/4" bolts make the width
adjustment easy.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 2

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1. Single Tool Charging Station on the wall.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 3

Step 1: Materials and Tools

M AT ERIALS

WOOD

3/4" baltic birch plywood - 1 sheet of 3/4" x 60" x 60" or 2 pieces 3/4” x 30" x 60"

3/8" baltic birch plywood - 1 sheet of 3/8" x 30" x 60"

HARDWARE AND FASTENERS

Kreg pockethole screws - for soft wood or plywood - https://amzn.to/2DMSMxh

Kreg KMS7509 4-Feet 48-Inch Mini Trak - https://amzn.to/30XQx3o
#6 x 1-1/4" long at head wood screws - https://amzn.to/2NXBcYP

#6 x 3/4" long at head wood screws - https://amzn.to/2ZGeHgv

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 4

 9 - #8 x 1-5/8" Long general purpose wood screws

9 - #8 x 1-1/4" Long general purpose wood screws

Full Thread Hex Tap Bolts, 1/4-20 x 2-1/2, (100 Pack) - https://amzn.to/3fxpakG

1/4" Wing Nut 180249 Wing Nuts - https://amzn.to/3fB3PH8

1/4"-20 Stainless Hex Nut (100 Pack) If you don't want to use wing nuts then you can just use -
https://amzn.to/3dam1FP
Stainless 1/4-Inch Split Lock Washer, 100-Pack - https://amzn.to/2V0dKxY
1/4" Stainless Flat Washer, 5/8" Outside Diameter (100 Pack) - https://amzn.to/30RbwF4
24” Under Cabinet Lighting 4000K - https://amzn.to/3dcvgFt
Wyze Plug, Compact WiFi Smart Plug - https://amzn.to/2Yeb69V

Tripp Lite 7 Outlet (6 Individually Controlled) Surge Protector Power Strip - https://amzn.to/2BoA1yQ

T O O LS

The tools I used on the project were as follows:

Kreg K4 Pockethole Jig - https://amzn.to/3hLmF0i

Saw Stop table saw - https://amzn.to/3a8znCE
Ridgid oscillating spindle and belt sander - https://amzn.to/3kseUh5
Dewalt 20 Volt Cordless drill - https://amzn.to/3a H9a
Drill press
2-1/2" Hole Drill Bit (or similar size) - Hole needed if you want to run electrical cords into the charging
box
Random orbit sander
Sanding paper
Screwdrivers
Shop vac

NO T E: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

NO T E: If y o u pla n o n us ing a ny t o o l f o r a pro je ct ple a s e m a ke s ure y o u a re f a m ilia r w it h t he

t o o l a nd a ll o f t he da ng e rs a s s o cia t e d w it h it . If y o u a re no t f a m ilia r w it h a t o o l t he n y o u
s ho uld a s k s o m e o ne w ho is t o s ho w y o u t he pro pe r w a y t o us e it . A lo t o f co m m unit ie s ha v e
cla s s e s a t lo ca l co lle g e s o n t he pro pe r us e o f t o o ls a nd m a chine ry. T he re a re a ls o lo ca l

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 5

w o o dw o rking clubs t ha t o e r cla s s e s a t v e ry re a s o na ble ra t e s f o r be g inne rs . I hig hly
re co m m e nd us ing t he s e re s o urce s f o r y o ur s a f e t y a nd f o r t he m o s t e cie nt us e o f t he t o o l.

S AFE T Y FIRS T
Alw a y s w e a r e y e a nd he a ring pro t e ct io n.
Alw a y s w o rk s a f e w it h t he pro pe r s a f e t y e quipm e nt a nd g ua rds o n y o ur t o o ls .

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1. A finish option for the Tool Charging Station. This is the finish I put on 1. The finish I used on the Tool Hanger.
the Tool Charger after I I decided the wipe-on poly gave the wood a little
too much yellow color on the Tool Hangers.

1. !/4" bolts, washers, lock washers, and wing nuts used to hold the tool 1. Wing Nut driver to make adjusting the width of the tool holders even
holders in position. faster.

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1. Another view of the wing nut driver. 1. All purpose #8 screws used to hold the cleats on the back of the Tool
Hanger and Tool Charger.

Step 2: Fusion 360 Design

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I used Fusion 360 software to design the entire Tool
Charging Station before I cut out any pieces.
The tool charging station is made up of two main
components.
1. The Tool Hanger - adjustable width tool support.
2. The Tool Charger - The box above the tools with
chargers and batteries
To o l Ha ng e r
As I mentioned earlier, I wanted the charging station
to be easily adjustable. I also wanted to use easy to
nd parts for it's construction.
The design of the holders came mostly out of
I started the design of the Tool Hanger by sizing the
top plate that the tools actually rest on. I wanted to
make sure they were wide enough to have lateral
stability and narrow enough to not wast space.
Next I added the bottom support for the tool holder.
This was designed to have a 6" spacing between the
top and bottom bolts that slide in the Kreg Mini Trak.
Then I added the back support for the tool holders.
The main idea here was that the average size tools
would t without wasted space above the top of the
back support and I wanted it to hang on the wall with
a french cleat system.
Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 8
functionality. I wanted a shape that was easy to
reproduce, made with easy to nd parts, was strong
enough for most tools, and looked nice.
The holders needed to be small enough to not waste
space and strong enough to hold up some heavy
tools. The shape I came up with makes it easy to put
tools away or get them out. It also creates a very
sturdy holder for the tools.
The tool holders slide on parallel pieces of Kreg brand
Mini Trak. This is the blue aluminum track that you see
in the pictures.
To o l Cha rg e r
The charging station is little more than a box with
enough room to to hold chargers and batteries for
the tools. I also wanted to have room for a power
outlet strip so there would be a small number of
power cords running out of the box to a wall outlet.
After designing the tool holder I added storage above
the holder with a simple box that can hold chargers
and batteries for the tools hanging below. I also
added some 2-1/2" diameter holes in the bottom of
the box in the back corners. This allows the cord for an
outlet strip to feed out of the bottom of the box and
supply power to the di erent chargers.
One thing you will notice is that I made the Tool
Hanger and Tool Charger separate. This makes it easier
to build them and also gives you the exibility to use
one or the other or both at that same time.
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1. The top support for the tool hangers was the first thing designed. 1. The tool hanger bottom piece is what has bolts running through it that
slide in the Kreg Mini Trak.

2
1

1. 1/4" bolt hole. 1. A look at a drill model sitting by the tool support.
2. 1/4" bolt hole.
3. Screw holes for tying the two pieces together.

1
1

1. Looking at a model drill sitting on two tool supports. 1. Top down view of a drill model sitting on two tool supports.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 9

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1. Add as many of the supports as you need for the width of charging
station you want to build.

2
2

1. The back support piece was then added. 1. The tool charger was then added above the tool holder.
2. Blue Kreg Mini Trak is used to allow for spacing adjustment. 2. 2-1/2" diameter hole to allow for electrical cords.

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1. Side view of the assembly. 1. A 3/4" thick wood cleat was used to hang the charging station pieces
on the wall.

Step 3: Cleat Wall System

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This tool charging station was designed to be used
with the cleat wall I installed on my garage wall. You
can still build this project if you don't have a cleat
wall. You can install it directly on your wall or you can
hang it on your wall with individual cleats.
My cleat wall was designed using 5' x 5' x 3/4" thick
pieces of baltic birch plywood. The cleats are spaced
at 6" in the vertical direction. This way the tools can be
moved easily in the left and right direction and up or
down every 6 inches. The cleat wall was also designed
in panels that are 60" tall and 30" wide in order to
make installation easier. Because of that, I decided to
make the tool charging station 30" wide. You can
easily make it 48" wide or another width by adjusting
the width of the pieces accordingly.
The french cleat is 3/4" thick x 2-3/4" tall on the long
side of the cleat. The angle of the cut is 45 degrees. I
did cut the very tip of the cleat o as this last little bit
is prone to breaking o . The other reason to remove
this little tip o of the cleat is that if there is any
debris or obstruction (like sawdust) in the upward
facing cleat on the wall then when you place the
opposing cleat down into it there is a chance the cleat
you are placing into it will not rest all the way down
on the bottom cleat. That can also put a point load on
that little obstruction and not distribute the weight of
the item you are hanging on the cleat.

1
1

1. French cleat sitting on the supporting cleat on the wall. 1. The cleat screwed to the back of the Tool Hanger.
2. The very tips of the cleats have been cut off so there isn't a sharp point
on the cleat that will easily break off.

Step 4: TOOL HANGER: Cutting the Tool Holders - by Hand or CNC

I designed the tool holder pieces so you can cut them out with a regular tools, such as a band saw, or cut them out
with a CNC. Full size templates for the tool hangers that you can print are included in my plans.

Take your time to layout the shape of the two tool holder pieces. Once you cut one of each you can use them to
trace outlines for duplicates. If you do cut out templates then you can just use thinner material, like 1/2" or 1/4"
plywood, to trace the outlines on to other pieces.

I used an X-Carve CNC machine to make easy work of cutting out the two di erent shapes that make up the tool
holder. If you cut out the shapes and use tabs to hold the pieces in place then there is very little clean-up work.

There is a little clean up work to get the tool holders screwed together. I recommend marking each piece with
Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 11
matching numbers so you can keep the pair together in the process.

You want to make sure that the Tool Hanger Bottom piece is able to slide up and down in the Tool Hanger Top piece
as shown in the picture.

Once you have the pieces all cut out and sanded, you will need to add some nish. The Tool Hanger Top and Bottom
pieces are only screwed together so you don't need to worry about gluing them together later.

After the nish dried you can add the hardware. Each hanger gets two of the following:

1/4" diameter 20 tpi bolt at 2-1/2" long

1/4" lock washer
1/4" at washer
1/4" wing nut

1. Cutting out the top tool hanger pieces on the X-Carve CNC.

1
1

1. Cutting the tabs to cut the parts loose from the main sheet after cutting 1. Cutting 3 inch wide strips of 3/4" plywood to make tool holders by hand.
on the CNC

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 12

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1. Cutting 3" wide pieces of 3/4 inch thick plywood to length for the tool 1. Tracing the outline of one of the tool holder pieces on to the piece
holders. below it.

1. The outline tracing of the piece on the left.

1. A double batch of the top and bottom tool hanger pieces

ready for finishing.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 13

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1. Sanding all of the tool hanger pieces. 1. Drilling one of the 1/4 inch diameter bolt holes in the bottom piece of
the tool hangers.

1. Cutting out the small inside radius left behind from the router bit when 1. Another view of cutting out the radius left from the router bit on the
cutting some of the pieces on the CNC. CNC.

1. The top tool hanger pieces also had some inside radius that needed to be cut out.

1. All of the tool hanger pieces matched up with their partner.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 14
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1

1. A closer look at all of the tool hanger pieces matched up. 1. Make sure this piece can just slide freely in the slot.

1 1

1. Make sure this piece can just slide freely in the slot. 1. Adding some wipe on finish.

1. I numbered all of the parts so they match up. 1. Feed the screws through the holes so they just protrude on the other
side to help line up the holes.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 15

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1

1. Finish driving the screws in. 1. Lock washers.

1. Wing nuts for the win. 1. Adding the bolts to the holes.

1. Wing nut, washer, and lock washer in place.

Step 5: Cutting the Back Piece, Kreg Mini Trak, and Spacers

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The back piece, or support, for the tool holders is
made with one piece of 3/4" thick plywood with the
other pieces attached to the front face. The pieces
attached to the top are alternating pieces of 3/8" thick
plywood and Kreg Mini Trak, which is also 3/8" thick.
All of the plywood pieces are cut in rectangular
shapes to make for an easy assembly.
I cut the back piece to nal width and cut the height
at 1/2" long so I could cut it to the nal height once
the other pieces were glued to the face.
I used my miter saw to cut the Kreg Mini Trak to
length. The Mini Trak can be cut with a regular
woodworking saw since it is aluminum, but only do
this if you are comfortable with the process.
NO T E : Make sure you are not trying to cut the metal
with a esh sensing saw like a Saw Stop or it will
trigger the brake.
S AFE T Y NO T E : Make sure you were eye protection
when you are using power tools, but especially when
you are cutting metal. The metal akes can y all over
1
1. Cutting 3/4" plywood for the tool hanger back piece.
Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 17
the place and you don't want a piece ending up in you
eye. Since I needed two pieces of Mini Trak at 30" long,
I decided to center the piece I needed so the
remaining screw holes were centered. I realized if I
had cut a 30" piece o of one end of the trak I would
end up with one of the screw holes right at the end of
cut piece. The cut pieces on the end of the aluminum
track can be very sharp so it is a good idea to use a le
to clean up the edges. You may also need to le a little
bit o the inside edge of the trak where the bolt
heads slide through so they slide cleanly through the
opening.
The idea behind the spacing of the Kreg Mini Trak was
to make the dimension exactly 6" between the center
of one trak to the other. Since the Mini Trak is 3/4"
wide then you need a piece in between the two tracks
at 5-1/4".
The top piece I cut to the exact width needed.
The bottom piece I cut 1/2" taller than necessary since
I planned to cut the assembly o to the nal height
once it was fully assembled.
1
1. Cutting 3/8" plywood for the tool hanger back spacer pieces between
the Kreg Mini Trak.
 1
1. Ready to cut the Kreg Mini Trak with the miter saw.
Step 6: Assembling the Back Piece and Tool Holders
In assembling the back piece, I glued the top piece of
3/8" plywood the the 3/4" thick backer rst.
Next I screwed the top piece of Kreg Mini Trak to the
3/4" backer piece with #6 x 3/4" screws.
Holding the middle piece of 3/8" thick material in
place I screwed the second piece of Mini Trak in place.
Next I glued the middle piece and bottom piece of
3/8" material in place.
After the the glue had set I ran the whole piece
Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 18
1
1. Cutting Kreg Mini Trak with the miter saw.
through the table saw (with the trak facing up so it
wouldn't get scratched) to cut o the excess from the
bottom of the assembly.
Lastly, I glued and screwed the french cleat to the
back of the piece. You will notice that the top piece of
Mini Trak is located so the screws holding it in place
can be changed to 1-1/4" long screws for extra
holding power. This isn't necessary on the bottom Trak
as the screws for this track don't have to do as much
as compared to the top track which has the tool
holders pulling out on them.
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1. Laying out the rest of the pieces on the back.

1. Gluing the first strip onto the back.

1. Screwing the Kreg Mini Trak into the back. 1. Gluing the last piece onto the back.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 19

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1. I glued two of these up at the same time.

1. You can never have enough clamps.

1
1. Cutting the excess off the Tool Support after the glue has dried. 1. This gives you a nice clean edge.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 20

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1

1. Attaching the cleat to the back of the tool support with glue and screws. 1. I added longer screws to the Kreg Mini Trak that extend into the cleat
for extra holding power.

1. Adding some wipe on finish. 1. Adding the tool supports to the back piece.

1
1

1. Getting ready to add tools to the supports. Start at one end and work 1. All of the tool supports ready for tools.
towards the other.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 21

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1

1. Hold the tool in place to set the spacing on the tool supports. 1. Keep working across.

1. You can see how the spacing varies between this tool and the others to 1. Tightening the wing nut on the bottom of the support.
the right.

1 1

1. Just keep working across. 1. Adding the last tool on this side. Sometimes you need to hang them
upside down.

Step 7: TOOL CHARGER: Cutting the Box Pieces

I cut all of the charging box pieces at the same time so that widths and lengths matched for a better assembly. I did

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 22

leave the box sides a little long so they could be cut the nal necessary length later.

Make sure you cut the top (Piece A), back (Piece B), and sides (Piece D) of the box at the same time so they all have
the exact same 12" depth.

1 1

1. Cutting plywood for the Tool Charger box. 1. More cutting of plywood for the Tool Charger box. Cutting as many of
the pieces at the same time so the cut widths match.

Step 8: Drill Pocket Holes

Now that you have all of the piece cut to size you can to put one in each of the corners since I wanted
drill the pocket holes in the pieces for a quick exibility on where the power would be coming from.
assembly. I used the Kreg Tool pocket hole system. I
have been using it for years and t works great. I also wanted to be able to run power from one box to
another since I decided to make to of these to put side
Make sure to drill all of the pocket holes necessary by side. I can run power out of one box an up into the
before you start assembling. I forgot to drill the holes adjacent box easily. I could have also drilled the holes
in the ends of the top and bottom piece and that in the side of the charging box, but this way it is
slowed me down in the assembly process. hidden a little more and if I put something beside the
charging box then it doesn't interfere with the
I also added a 2-1/2" diameter hole in the bottom back charging cord.
corners of the charging box in order to get power
from lower outlets to the battery chargers. I decided

1
1

1. Drilling pocket holes for the back piece of the charging station. 1. Another view of the pocket holes being drilled.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 23

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1

1. Adding glue before attaching pieces with pocket screws. 1. The spacing on these pocket holes was a little overkill. You
can set the spacing with what you are comfortable with.

Step 9: Assembling the Parts

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 24

You can now use the pocket screws to assemble the
charging box.
I started by gluing and screwing the back to the top
and then the back to the bottom pieces rst. Make
sure if you added holes to the bottom piece that you
position the holes towards the back piece.
Next I measured the total height of the assembled
pieces to determine what my side pieces needed to be
and cut the side pieces to the appropriate length.
Mine were just a hair under 11" tall. I had left these a
little long when I originally cut them.
Next you can set the top, back, and bottom assembly
1
1. Getting ready to attach the back to the top of the Tool Charger.
1. Lot's of pocket screws to drive.
Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 25
on end and glue and screw one of the side pieces on
the assembly. Once you have it screwed on you can
remove any clamps you used, ip it, and add the other
side piece.
The next thing you need to add is the french cleat to
the back. I lined the top of the french cleat up to the
top of the full box assembly to make it easier to
assemble. I added some glue to the back of the cleat
and then clamped it into position on the back of the
box before I added 1-1/4" wood screws to give it some
extra strength and to hold the cleat in position while
the glue set up.
1
1. Driving those pocket screws home.
1. Cutting the end pieces for the Tool Charger.
 1
1

1. Positioning the end piece of the Tool Charger after cutting to size. 1. Adding the pocket hole screws to hold the end piece in place.

1
1

1. Adding glue to the french cleat before screwing it to the back of the 1. Adding glue to the pocket holes so I can add plugs to hide them.
Tool Charger.

1
1

1. I use a rubber mallet to drive the 3/8" plugs into the pocket holes. 1. Waiting for the glue to dry for the plugs in the pocket holes.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 26

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1. Using a flush trim saw to cut the pocket hole plugs off. 1. Another view of the flush trim saw.

1. The pocket holes after the plugs have been trimmed and sanded. 1. Doing a test fit on the first Tool Charger.

1. Adding the second Tool Charger for a test fit on the cleat wall.

Step 10: Adding Solid Wood Trim on the Front

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 27

I added some pieces of 3/4" wide by 1/4" thick maple
to the face of the charging box to cover up the
plywood edges. This is not necessary, but I wanted to
create a 3/4" lip on the bottom front to help keep
chargers and batteries in place. In order to do this the
bottom piece of maple trim was 1-1/2" tall by 1/4"
thick. That created the 3/4" lip I wanted.
I glued the bottom and top edges rst and then
glued the side pieces in place.
Since most plywood is not exactly 3/4" thick, I did have
a little bit of an overhang of the side and top piece of
trim. I cut o the excess using a ush trim router bit.

1. Add some thin strips of maple trim on the face of the charging station in order to
hide the plywood edging and also create a lip for the batteries and chargers to stay
on the shelf.

1. A closer look at the trim on the bottom edge of the Tool

Charger.

Step 11: Installation and Adding Tools, Power, and Lighting

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 28

After sanding and adding a couple coats of water
based topcoat, I hung the boxes on the cleat wall.
Next I started adding the chargers and batteries for
the tools I had already added to the tool hangers.
I added a couple of really great power strips in each of
the charging boxes to give me better control on
battery charging. These power strips have switches at
most of the outlets so you can turn the power on and
o to each of the chargers without having to plug
and unplug them.
The last outlet on the power strip is always powered
so this is perfect for adding some lighting. I also
added an internet controller for the LED strip lights I
added to the front of the bottom of the charging box.
I used a Wyze brand web enabled controller that can
1
1. The finish I used on the Tool Charger.
Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 29
be controlled by Alexa. I have it set up in my garage so
that I can walk into the work area and say "Alexa
garage on" and all of the overhead lights turn on.
Now I can have a little more lighting under the
charging box to light up the newly cleared work
surface and it will turn on with my overhead lights!
Yes, it's geeky, but I love it. Of course it's not
necessary, but if you have an Alexa or other type of
controller in your work area then it is really useful.
I initially hung the outlet strip and the LED light strip
using 3M adhesive strips since I wasn't sure if I had
things placed in their nal location. It appears this will
be strong enough to hold things in place
permanently and I may not need screws to hold
things in place.
1
1. The finish I used on the Tool Hangers.
 1

1. The Alexa controlled smart outlet that controls the strip lighting. 1. The strip light that lights up the tolls and work area below.

1. The charging strips I used with individual switches for the outlets so you
don't have to plug and unplug chargers.

Step 12: Ready for Many Years of Use

ht t ps://www.yout ube.com/embed/zf__hP0TyJ8

I am extremely happy with how the tool charging station turned out. I now have most of my hand tools where I can
access them quickly and keep their batteries charged.

I don't plan on changing the spacing of the tool holders very often, but when I do I can do it fast and not have to
cut new pieces. I also like having all of the chargers and batteries out of the way and where I can get to them easily.

You can get detailed plans for this project build here at my web site - MakingAtHome.com
Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 30
The next items I plan to add to the wall include the following:

Container storage for long term storage

Clamp rack
Sanding station
Pull down cabinet for higher items
General storage

Be sure to watch the video above for more info, and if you like it please subscribe to my YouTube channel!

1. A 30" wide section of the Tool Charging Station.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 31

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1. Two Tool Charging Stations positioned side by side. Currently I have slots for 14
tools.

Adjustable Width Tool Charging Station: Page 32

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