HobbyZone Modular Workshop System OM08a Paper Towel Module Review

By Michael Benolkin

Review

Here is another quick and easy addition to your workbench. This is the HobbyZone OM08a Paper Towel module that can work on its own or part of the Modular Workshop. The kit consists of nine wood parts (top, bottom, back, left side, right side, two dowel hangar inserts, one dowel, and one hinged door) plus eight magnets. The wood parts are nicely machined and the whole unit dry-fits together so nicely, you could almost not use glue. Assembly took only a few minutes from assembly to set-aside for glue drying.

First, insert the magnets into the pre-drilled holes in the left and right sides (two each) and for the top and bottom (also two each). The magnets are not marked for polarity, so I inserted two from the top of the base and one each from the left side of each riser. I gently hammered each one into place. Using a module I had built previously, I identified which surfaces needed to be where and glued up the case.

I used Gorilla non-foaming Wood Glue (white glue) to assemble the box and I followed the instructions with no problems. When all was together, I used clamps to keep everything tight while the glue dried. While these parts fit tightly dry, they need a little help when glue is introduced into the joints. One reader pointed out that he preferred finishing nails to clamps to hold the assemblies together while the glue dries - whatever works best for you.

You can see in this image that my assembled module isn't quite wide enough to hold a roll of typical US paper towels. The dimensions were based upon the size of the typical paper towel roll in Europe. The US rolls almost fit the box and I had an idea. I had glued in the inserts as you can see in the above images which hold up the dowel which would suspend the paper towel roll.

Here I've removed the inserts and now the roll of paper towels fit nicely inside. The door holds the roll while you tear off a sheet. Problem solved.

There are some other good uses for this module. With all of the modules in the HobbyZone lineup, none of them give you taller storage room without a shelf in the way. You can easily remove this door for open storage or leave it hinged so the items inside are mostly covered. I'll be using two more of these for storage in my system, but in the meantime, my paper towel roll has its place out of the way.

You can see this and other modules at the HobbyZone website ( www.hobbyzone.biz) and on their eBay Store. Stay tuned as we build up other modules and see what we can do with them to organize the bench!

My thanks to HobbyZone.biz for this review sample.