How to make a battery charging & dispenser station | FREE PLANS

If your batteries and battery chargers are, just like mine, scattered around your workshop or in your home, then you absolutely need to make this battery charging station.

With this battery charging station in your workshop, or at home, all your batteries are in one place and well organized.
Having this battery charging station will save you time because you no longer have to search for the right battery or charger.

Of course, you can also collect all your batteries and chargers on a shelf. But by building this battery charging station, you still get a few extra advantages. 
This battery charging station is easy to use and can extend the life of batteries and chargers.

Because this battery charging station consists out of 2 layers, you can make the cables invisible.
It doesn’t only look clean, but you also don’t have to worry about that in that bundle of cables, that look like spaghetti, things keep getting stuck in it.

The front door has plexiglass, which keeps all dust away from the batteries and chargers.

If this is the battery charging station you are looking for, just follow the step-by-step instructions and download the free DIY charging station plans in this article.

In this article, I’ll show you how to make a DIY battery charging station with an accompanying battery dispenser!

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Watch the video & learn how to make a battery charging station

Before we dive into this step-by-step guide on how to make a charging station, you can check out this video. In this video, I’ll show you how I have built my charging station.

After watching this video, you can go on to read this article and discover all the details you need on how to make a charging station.

How to build a battery charging station?

Step 1 | Preparation

To build my battery charging station, I first started by breaking the plywood to size.
For this battery charging station, I used 18 mm birch plywood to build the cabinet and 6 mm MDF for the back.

All sizes to make this DIY battery charging station can be found on the free DIY charging station plans.
Be sure to download them on this page.

Once I had cut all parts to size, I used my table saw crosscut sled miter jig to make 45-degree miters for the corners.

There’s no need to make these 45-degree miters for this battery charging station, but I just love the look of the corners when joined this way.

The back, of both the front and rear parts of the battery charging station, has been recessed into the sidewalls of the cabinet.

To do this, I made a rabbet in all parts of the cabinet of 10 by 10 mm.

I made the rabbet by sliding the parts along the guide of the table saw.
By setting the saw blade at 10 mm height and the guide at a distance of 10 mm, I was able to make the rebate quickly and safely.

Step 2 | Assembling the cabinet

After preparing all pieces that I needed to make the base of this charging station cabinet, I could start assembling.
To be able to attach the parts easily and perpendicular to each other, I used my homemade corner clamps.
These came in handy and are like a third hand that keeps all the parts in place.

Once all pieces were in the right position, I could attach these parts together.
To do this, I have used wood glue and brad nails.

I like to use a combination of wood glue and brad nails.
By using the brad nails, the wood glue has time to dry, while I can keep working on this project.
This saves me a lot of time.

For the front door of this battery charging station, I used 3 mm plexiglass.

I choose to work with plexiglass.
By using that plexiglass, I can monitor the charging process of the batteries at any time, just by looking at this battery charging cabinet.

The 3 mm plexiglass matches perfectly with the thickness of my saw blade, so by making a notch in the pieces for the frame of the door, the plexiglass fits in nicely and tight.

For assembling the wooden parts of this door, here too, I have glued these parts together with wood glue.
Because the wood for the frame is rather small, and to avoid that the brad nails would damage the plexiglass, I have not used them here.

As an alternative to pressing the corners together firmly, I used painter’s tape.

Now it was time to make the back of the cabinet.

Actually, this cabinet has two backs, one in the front part, and one in the back part.   
For the back of both parts of the battery charging station, I cut a 6 mm MDF to size on my table saw.
This MDF fits nicely in the rabbet I made earlier and was fixed into it with wood glue and brad nails.

Step 3 | Placing the hardware

Between the rear part and the front part, and between the front part and the door, I have used simple hinges to open the different parts easily.

I already had these hinges in my workshop, but you can use piano hinges as well.
In fact, I think piano hinges would even do a better job here.
Because of their length, they will support these big doors even better than a simple door hinge.

Where the hinge had to be, I made a notch in the wood.
The depth of the notch was the same as the thickness of the hinge.
This way, when the doors are in a closed position, the different parts of this battery charging station fit together perfectly and dust can be kept out.

To be able to close the doors tightly, I have used a spring-loaded toggle latch.
That way, all parts of this battery charging station could be locked and pressed to each other in order to keep out dust.

Step 4 | Battery dispenser

I think, just like anyone, I have a ton of smaller batteries lying around.
To keep them organized, I made a simple and easy-to-use battery dispenser.

In the free DIY charging station plans, you will also find measurements to make the parts for this battery dispenser.

The measurement between the partitions will depend on the size of the batteries you want to store.
So, you will need to adjust the dimensions on the free battery charging station plans to the size of the batteries you want to store.

I made the partitions of this battery dispenser with a small recess at the bottom. 
Now there is enough space for my fingers so that the battery can easily be gripped.

To make that recess I drilled a 20 mm hole with a Forstner bit.
I drilled that hole in the corner, just along the sides.
I cleaned up the hole by cutting the sides straight with my table saw and crosscut sled.

After some sanding, I assembled this battery dispenser with wood glue and brad nails.

At the front, I installed a piece of plexiglass so that I can always see how many charged batteries are in stock.

Step 5 | Installing the chargers

Now it was time to put all the chargers in the battery charging station.
Because I want to be able to remove these at any time and take them with me to another place, I attached them to the charging station cabinet with Velcro.

Once the chargers were in place, I punched holes through the 6 mm MDF for the cables to pass through.

Because I want this cabinet as clean as possible, I made these holes as close to the chargers as possible.
That way only a small part of the cables is visible. 

In the rear part of the battery charging station, I have placed a splitter, to which I could connect all chargers.

This splitter has 5 sockets and 4 USB ports to which I can connect chargers.

To be able to charge batteries that have a charger that goes directly in a plug, I made a hole in the back of the front part.
Now the splitter can go through this hole and one plug is available in the front part of the cabinet.
This way, I don’t need to open the charging station cabinet completely. Another advantage is that now I can also see this kind of chargers through the plexiglass.

The charging station has turned out a little bigger than I thought, but I’m actually happy with that.
That way I can add more chargers in case new batteries come into the workshop.

Step 6 | A small addition

Finally, I made a small container in which all empty batteries can be deposited while waiting for them to be charged.

To be able to hang this charging station cabinet on the wall, I added a French cleat system at the back.
That French cleat system is nothing more than a thin strip of wood that is sawn in half at a 45-degree angle.
By adding one piece to this cabinet and the other piece to the wall, this cabinet can be hung by hooking these two parts together.

Now, my charging station was ready to be plugged in and charge all of my batteries.