How To Make A French Cleat Pocket Hole Drill Charging Station

This will be the last French cleat video for a little while. I’ve had a lot of fun organizing my shop but I think I need to focus my attention away from the walls for a little bit. It is however my favorite of my French cleat projects. A drill charging station is something I have been wanting for a long time. Traditionally, I’ve always stored my chargers on the countertop in the “kitchen” of my shop. This was not ideal for many reasons. The cords would always get tangled. I could only charge one at a time because the other plug is dedicated for my dust collector. And I would always bury the chargers in junk. Now I have a nice and organized place for all of my drills and chargers.

As with all of my French cleat projects I have a free downloadable PDF plan at the bottom of this article. To make this project you will need the following materials:

  • 48” x 48” of 3/4” plywood
  • 48” x 24” of 1/4” plywood
  • 31 1-1/4” pocket hole screws
  • 4 1-1/4” screws for the French cleat
  • Brad nails for the back panel and 1/2” stop strip
  • Multi-plug power strip

Cut

Cut all of your pieces according to the layout diagrams. (larger images in the downloadable plan at the end of this article)

drill charging station layout drill charging station side-detail drill charging station drill-holder-shelf drill charging station cord-hider-panel

Pocket Holes

Drill pocket holes in all of your interior pieces as indicated by arrows in the diagrams. If you don’t have a pocket hole jig I recommend getting a Kreg Jig. I’ve had mine since 2009-ish and love it.

Layout

I find it to be a big help to mark the side pieces where everything will connect to it. This will help in assembly as you do not have to measure out the location while trying to hold it together. Just line everything up with your layout lines.

drill charging station side-layout

Assembly

Start with the two side pieces laying on their back and attach the top shelf.

drill charging station (6)

Flip the assembly on its top and attach the cord hiding divider.

drill charging station (5)

With it still in the same position attach the charger shelf.

drill charging station (4)

Lay the assembly on it’s front and attach the drill shelf and the lower angled shelf. I just eyeballed the lower angled shelf to whatever looked appropriate. If I were to guess I would say I have mine around 25-30 degrees.

drill charging station (3)

Tack on the 1/2” strip to the angled shelf.

drill charging station (2)

Attach the back with brad nails and screw on the cleat. I mounted a power strip below the cord access hole. You can mount yours wherever you want.

drill charging station (1)

Download

Although this plan is free to you remember that it isn’t free to produce. If you would like to show your thanks please consider using the donate button at the bottom of this page. If you liked this project and found it useful please share it so others can do so as well. Thanks for stopping by folks and have a great day!

drill charging station featured size

26 COMMENTS

  1. i had my drills in a drawer & chargers on a shelf , yours is a much better setup , now your making me build one , hahahaha . nice job , what is the ripping capacity of your new saw ? nice little saw

      • What brand do you think you will buy now? I have noticed several You Tube woodworkers have a Porter Cable. I saw them at Lowes not too long ago but went in today and they don’t even show them available anymore. Do you know anything about that potential?

        Great vids. Thanks and keep up the good work.

        Bob

  2. Jay, Great videos! You know I am setting up my shop at our new house and I had drawn everything out and laid everything out where I though it should best fit. Then you brought up the fact that with the French cleat system you could move things around and easily change things. You are dead on exactly right, things change constantly, what might be perfect today won’t necessarily be perfect tomorrow. So I have scrapped my plans and started over, all the walls are getting the French cleats, all cabinets, tool racks, plane tills, everything is going French cleat. I hope you are happy with yourself! ;-p At least I haven’t started the physical part of the project yet, would have sucked getting started and then having to start over, so I guess you saved me. :-) Way to go.

    Great job on your videos and the website in general. Also love you Sketchup tutorials, really got me going with it, way better than my Sketchup for dummies book.

    Thank you,
    Karl Druschke

  3. I’ve been designing some clothes closet cabinets and this video was right on the mark for me (French cleats and pocket screws). I recognize the value of the Kreg pocket screws and am pricing the different options. What are your thoughts on the Kreg K5 Pocket-Hole Jig?

  4. Hey jay, i am 12 years old en i made this awesome drill charging station!
    P.s. I live in the netherlands in europe

  5. Jay, awesome charging station. Have you considered modding the plans to allow the power strip mounted under the top shelf inside the dead space and leave open the back for access to the reset and only have the power strip cord come out. Then all the wires would be hidden in the void. If for some reason the strip trips you can take the station off the wall.

  6. I like this charging station. Adding it to my list of things to make. Would a jig-saw work well if I don’t have a band-saw? I suppose I could make everything square instead of round.

    Thanks

  7. I’m in the process of completing my charging station using Jay’s as a model with some minor mods. Using cleats for a hanging system as well. Have also made a small enclosed shelf adjacent to the charging station to hold all of my not so expensive bits in small stacked plastic storage boxes. Nice to have everything all together and within reach. Thank you Jay!!

  8. Great article and YouTube video. I’ve watched the video a few times. I’m getting ready to install a french cleat system in my basement workshop. It is really in need of organization. I plan to incorporate your charging station into a design I found in issue 132 of Shop Notes magazine. I’m just trying to figure out how to attach everything to the concrete and cinder block walls. I’m thinking of Tapcon concrete screws.

  9. I really like the design. I’m pondering how to incorporate storage for my 6.5 in circular saw and my recip saw in the same station.

  10. Hi Jay, great project. Spent Australia Day down under building one. The best kind of workshop thing, simple, effective and functional.

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