How to Make a Power Tool Battery Charging Station

It’s funny how one little project like hanging a DIY chalkboard above my workbench quickly turned into a reorganize the workshop project. Well, actually, it was more like an ACK! I can’t find the bench top and the mountain of STUFF is driving me crazy project but why quibble over details?

I made an easy sandpaper organizer and a quick woodworking clamp rack. My latest project – a power tool battery charging station and organizer is the last workshop organizer I need to keep my bench top clean and my power tool batteries charged and organized. Woo hoo!

I built the workbench from reclaimed materials too.

Read my Recycled Cabinet Workbench Tutorial here on Condo Blues

How to Build a Hanging Power Tool Battery Charger and Organizer

I made the power tool battery organizer shelf narrower than the tool charging station shelf but you can make them the same size and width if you like. I offset my shelves on the wall so I would be able to reach the items hanging on the wall over over my workbench without the use of a step stool.  I’m That. Short.

  Pin these woodworking plans for later!

 You'll notice I made the power tool battery organizer with pallet boards from a pocket hole jig project that didn't pan out.

I made this project from wood pallets in my stash. I'm using wood screws to build this project because I found the zillion screws I bought and lost in my formerly messy garage. Also, I didn't have the correct size nails. Feel free to use nails to build your power tool charger if you like. 

You will need:

2 - 28 inch long by 5 inch wide pallet wood boards – for the battery charger rack

2 - 9 1/2 inch long by 1 1/4 inch wide wood pieces – for the battery charger rack supports

2 - 28 inch long by 3 3/4 inch wide pallet wood boards – for the power tool battery organizer shelf

2 - 7 inch long by 1 1/4 inch wide wood pieces – for the power tool battery organizer shelf

4 metal shelf brackets – I used 2 different sizes based on what I already had on hand

Sandpaper 

Sander

Wood glue

Wood screws or nails

Pencil

Ruler

1 inch hole saw - Don't cheap out on this like I did for my first set of hole saws because they didn't cut well at all. Once I upgraded to a Lenox Tools hole saw it made cutting holes with a hole saw much easier and almost catch free. I can't recommend it enough.

Paint if desired

Heavy duty electrical power strip

Drill and drill bit

Screws

Screwdriver – I use my Craftsman right angle impact driver for jobs like this

Wall anchors

Disclosure: I included affiliate links  for your convenience.

How to Make it:

  1. Use the sandpaper and sander to sand all of the pallet boards and edges smooth. The grits you use and for how long is going to depend upon the condition of your pallet/scrap wood. Some of my boards were incredibly rough, others were fairly smooth. That’s the breaks when you use mismatched scrap pallet wood to build something and you want everything to have the same look and feel.

2. Build the Power Tool Battery Charger Rack:

• Place the two 2 28 inch by 5 inch wide pallet wood boards size by side. 
• Run a bead of wood glue the length of each 2 9 1/2 inch by 1 1/4 inch wide wood pieces and  glue them to the underside of the charger shelf. Screw (or nail) the board supports into place. 
• Allow the wood glue to dry overnight.

I decided to take the step by step tutorial photos and write up the plans after I had to project almost finished. If that bothers you, pretend the wood isn't painted in photos for Steps 2 - 5.

3. Build the Upper Power Tool Battery Organizer Shelf:

• Repeat the process in Step 2 using the 2 28 inch by 3 3/4 inch  pallet wood boards and 2 7 inch by 1 1/4 inch wood support pieces.

4. Determine and mark the area where you will place your tool battery chargers on the shelf with a pencil and framing square or straight edge.

5. Use the hole saw to drill a hole into the shelf wide enough for each charger plug to fit through in the marked areas.

 Fortunately, my tool battery chargers use regular size plugs. 

A two inch hole saw did the job nicely.

6. Sand both shelves smooth if desired. You can use hand sand the charger plug holes or leave them unsanded. I sanded the interior of the holes with the sanding drum on my Dremel.

7. Paint the battery organizer, charging station shelves, and shelf brackets if desired. I painted the shelves with a unopened pint of interior paint from my stash.  Looks like the garage and workshop are going to be monochromatic blues by happy accident  after hours and hours of making detailed interior design plans.

 Paint: The great unifier.

 I had several pallet and scrap wood projects in progress at the same time.

I used spray paint to unify the tool battery charging shelves, brackets and other hooks I put to use for the rest of this impromptu Operation: Keep Junk From Permanently Nesting on the Workbench project.

My fancy small item paint raisers are the caps from dead paint cans that gave their life for my DIY causes. May their sacrifice be noted and live on in the form of  stuff that will be further caked with paint.

8. Use the drill to drill holes into the wall and install the wall anchors, screw the shelf brackets into the wall above your workbench, and screw the wood shelves to the shelf brackets.

 I hung the wrapped power cord on two nails I drove into the wall to keep it up and out of the way.

9. Use the drill to drill holes into the wall and install the wall anchors and screw the heavy duty power strip to wall underneath the tool  battery charging shelf.

I usually keep one charger for each brand/type of power tools I have to save space on the charging shelf. I store all of the batteries out of their tools so they keep their charge longer on the power tool battery organizer shelf above the charging station.


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