I can’t quite tell from this picture - do you have casters on this? I really like this hack, but assumed that it wouldn’t work with casters. If I’m wrong about that, I may revisit this idea.
I’ve been concerned about this possibility as well. One work around might be to create a fabric skirt around the storage shelves, possibly with velcro for easy opening. We did that a lot in our classrooms when I worked in ECE, and it was quite effective in keeping storage materials clean and accessible.
Very nice setup. 
Yep! I ordered a pair of these casters on Amazon since I didn’t want the setup to get too tall. I had drill holes into all of the tables to attach the legs that weren’t mean for them, so I just did the same with the casters. I just lock the front ones so I can unlock them to move it easily. The only issue I’ve had so far is the glue holding the bottom of the legs of each layer to the next table top coming undone when I tried to pull from the top layer. Luckily I discovered that prior to getting the Glowforge. Now I just pull from the bottom and it’s not an issue. I wasn’t sure what glue to buy, so I chalk that issue up to user error. 
No issues with the materials getting dirty so far, but I’ve been moving everything around a decent bit so far, so that may impact it.
Ah. Well I love your setup, but I will want to use the pass-through when it’s enabled so I’ll have to put casters on. I like the ones that can be put down only when you need them so that the platform is totally stable. Maybe it’s not an issue, but with a moving head, I’d like to be sure that no extra vibration or shifting causes accuracy issues.
Do you have links for sourcing the IKEA components?
Mine was basically this: http://jonathanfongstyle.com/flat-file-storage-ikea-hack/ but with these tops: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50353730/, http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80278287/
Awesome! Thanks
Table tops:
Legs (I couldn’t find the taller legs I used on the IKEA site, but I bought two heights of Capita legs):
Casters:
Thanks!
Nah, that mdf is very thin and never offered structural support. Part of the reason these shelves make sucky 6 foot shelves is the lack of rigidity at that height and the fact that if you put anything too heavy on them, they start to bow. With the 5/8ths thickness bamboo running from front to back and the interlocking edge of the flooring, the bamboo is pretty strong. I sat on it just to check, and there was no flex. I’ve also used the same flooring for my long computer desk and a tub topper to get cat boxes off the floor. Those have stood the test of time, so I’m not too worried about this 
. I agree that engineered flooring would definitely not work, way too thin!
On that note, here is the completed top, just in time for delivery tomorrow!
That’s pretty sweet. I was on my way to buy it when I got cold feet because of the MDF (I don’t have the right replacement lying around and am too lazy to cut my own shelves anyway) and wondering if it would look too garage for my basement. Also, we live ridiculously close to an IKEA and were already having lunch at the mall… so I altered the plan to a rather less economical one.
I love that bamboo top that you chose though! I am too far from Ikea to make an unplanned trip, but if I were closer and had money burning a hole in my pocket, you better believe I would go with that design 
.
Besides, industrial is my style, to wit my front room desk, made from Unistrut and the aforementioned bamboo flooring:
Somebody tried it out. It won’t stop you from shoving a board in there if that’s all you want.
Looks really nice
There are actually ways you could do some decent precision work using similar techniques used to index boards when you do large stock on a CNC.
If there’s a bit of room on the edge where you can drop a target in your design software and you put some tape or masking over that area and lightly score the target. Then when it’s time to move more stock in, get your target close in the top part of the bed, run just the target score until you get it nailed (should only take a couple of tries to get it), then run it without the top target but enable the bottom target. Repeat.
That was my plan too! I built a version of this IKEA hack for my studio room and planned on modifying some of the heights and shelf counts. Seems like the right dimensions, and economical.
I hope this is in the Glowforge Tips and Tricks section, it should be!
The dimensions are so good it feels like it’s what the table was meant for. The whole project came out around $150, I think, which was far more affordable than I could find for anything else with so much flat storage.
I think I am about to pull the trigger on this one:
46 in. 9-Drawer Black Out Mobile Workbench with Solid Wood Top
I looked at these, as there was one “open box” locally for 249. I passed on it after I measured the drawers, and found they would not fit a 12x20 sheet of material. I can’t remember exactly, but I think the drawers measured out to 19" wide.
