RimWorld Tool Cabinet: Which Benches Link and Where to Put It
WORKSHOP · RIMWORLD 1.6
PC 1.6.4871 · Vanilla Core, with Anomaly benches marked separately · Updated September 22, 2026
A RimWorld tool cabinet adds +0.06 to a compatible bench’s work speed factor. Each bench can use two, so a normal 100% bench reaches 112% in good conditions. One cabinet costs 200 steel and can serve several benches. Stoves, smelters and research benches do not connect.
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Where to build a tool cabinet
Open Architect → Misc after researching Complex furniture. A builder needs Construction 4. Each cabinet occupies 2 × 1 cells and costs 200 steel; a pair costs 400. You do not need components, fuel or an electrical connection.
Complex furniture has a base research cost of 300 and no prerequisite research project. The displayed research cost can be higher for a colony researching above its tech level. Some starting scenarios already know it. Construction requires 1,800 work, equivalent to 30 seconds at construction speed 1, before travel or material delivery.
The vanilla cabinet has no quality grades or wood/stone material choices. You can uninstall and reinstall it when the workshop changes. If you see a wooden cabinet or a larger stacking bonus, check the mod that added it.
Why your tool cabinet is not connecting
- Check the bench type. A cabinet beside a stove, research bench or smelter will never supply this bonus. Use the list below before moving furniture.
- Move it within range. The maximum distance is 8.0 between the buildings’ true centers. Count from the building footprints, not the visible sprite edges or the worker’s interaction cell. Diagonal distance counts too.
- Clear the sightline. A wall blocking every possible line between the two footprints stops the link. At least one occupied cell of each building must have a clear line of sight to the other.
- Check for two existing active cabinets. A third cabinet does not raise that bench above the two-cabinet bonus. It can still help another bench that has fewer active cabinets.
- Select the completed building. Check the connection lines and the bench’s Work speed factor in its information panel. If it already has the bonus, investigate power, bills, ingredients and pawn restrictions separately.
Do walls and doors block the connection?
Solid walls block sight. An open door allows sight through its cell; a closed door blocks it. There is no separate same-room requirement, but that does not make a link pass through walls. Put the cabinets and their benches on the same open workshop floor when you can, instead of relying on a doorway.
A line between the two centers is only a convenient visual: the sight check can succeed through another pair of cells in the footprints. A small obstruction on the center line does not always prevent a connection. For awkward corners, inspect the completed bench rather than assuming the graphic tells the whole story.
Which benches can use a tool cabinet?
The cap below is two cabinets per bench. A cabinet does not have a one-bench limit. “Base speed” means the bench factor before cabinets, power and environmental penalties; it is not the pawn’s personal work speed.
| Compatible Core bench | Base speed | Preferred room |
|---|---|---|
 Crafting spot | 50% | No required role |
 Butcher spot | 100% | No required role |
 Art bench | 100% | Workshop |
 Butcher table | 100% | No required role |
 Hand tailor bench | 50% | Workshop |
 Electric tailor bench | 100% | Workshop |
 Fueled smithy | 100% | Workshop |
 Electric smithy | 100% | Workshop |
 Machining table | 100% | Workshop |
 Stonecutter's table | 100% | Workshop |
 Drug lab | 100% | Laboratory |
 Fabrication bench | 100% | Workshop |
No cabinet link: electric stove, fueled stove, brewery, electric smelter, biofuel refinery, crematorium, simple research bench and hi-tech research bench. The hi-tech research bench uses a multi-analyzer for its research facility bonus.
Anomaly benches
With Anomaly, the bioferrite shaper and serum lab also accept tool cabinets. The shaper wants a Workshop; the serum lab wants a Laboratory. They use the same two-cabinet cap. These buildings are not available in Core alone.
Butcher spot: full-speed base, yield penalty
The butcher spot’s base work speed factor is 100% in this PC build. Its drawback is 70% butchery efficiency. Cabinets increase speed; they do not repair that lost meat and leather. Build a proper butcher table to remove the spot’s efficiency penalty. The crafting spot and hand tailor bench, by contrast, really do start at a 50% work speed factor.
Why 112% can still feel slow
The cabinet bonus is added to the bench’s base factor before the environmental multipliers. A pair raises a full-speed bench from 1.00 to 1.12. It does not cancel cold, heat or a room penalty.
| Full-speed bench conditions | No cabinets | Two cabinets |
|---|---|---|
| Good indoor conditions | 100% | 112% |
| Wrong indoor room | 80% | 89.6% |
| Below 9°C or above 35°C | 70% | 78.4% |
| Wrong indoor room + bad temperature | 56% | 62.72% |
| Outdoors + bad temperature | 56% | 62.72% |
Keep the room appropriate for the bench
Most compatible production benches want a Workshop. The drug lab wants a Laboratory. In the wrong indoor room, these benches receive a ×0.8 factor. The butcher table, butcher spot and crafting spot have no required room role.
Room type depends on what is in the room, not on the name you give it. In a simple room containing one stove and one smithy, the kitchen score of 28 beats the workshop score of 27. The smithy can then suffer the wrong-room penalty. One drug lab scores 60 for Laboratory: it beats two ordinary workshop benches at 54 but loses to three at 81, assuming no other room contents change the result. Check the displayed room role before combining a kitchen, lab and workshop.
Temperature: 9°C through 35°C is the safe band
Below 9°C or above 35°C, the bench factor is multiplied by 0.7. Exactly 9°C and exactly 35°C are inside the safe band. A butcher table in a freezer still gets the cabinet bonus, but two cabinets only bring its factor to 78.4% before any other effects. A nearby temperate butchering room can be a better arrangement than doing every bill inside the freezer.
Outdoors means the room classification
The outdoors penalty is ×0.8 and uses the game’s room-level outdoor classification. Removing one roof tile from a small enclosed workshop does not automatically apply it. Read the bench’s stat breakdown to see whether Outdoors is listed.
The wrong-room and outdoors penalties do not stack. When the room counts as outdoors, the wrong-room test is skipped. Cold or heat can still combine with either penalty. Poor lighting affects the worker separately and does not explain a missing cabinet link.
Hand tailoring and power failures
A hand tailor bench or crafting spot starts at 50%. One cabinet raises that to 56%, and two to 62%, before environmental penalties. Cabinets add six points on top of the base factor. Multiplying 50% by 1.06 would misread the mechanic.
An electric tailor bench is different: when unpowered, it can still run at a ×0.5 factor. With two cabinets it reaches 56% in otherwise good conditions: (1 + 0.12) × 0.5. Do not apply this fallback to other powered benches; a cabinet does not supply electricity.
Calculate your bench’s work speed
Choose the bench and its current conditions. The result compares active work time with the same bench, under the same conditions, without cabinets. It excludes walking, hauling, recipe differences and the worker’s own stats.
Full-speed workshop bench. Use the stat panel to confirm the room and temperature penalties.
Factor = (base + 0.06 × active cabinets) × power × environment × temperature
Environment is 0.8 for Outdoors, or 0.8 for a wrong indoor room when that bench requires a role; otherwise 1. Power is 0.5 only for an unpowered electric tailor bench in this calculator.
Is a tool cabinet worth 200 steel?
Usually yes, once several busy benches can share a pair and essential construction is funded. Cabinets are a modest, permanent upgrade. Skip them for now if the only connected bench runs an occasional bill, your crafter spends most of the day hauling, or that steel is still needed for power and core production.
At a normal 100% bench, one cabinet cuts active work time to 1 ÷ 1.06 = 94.3% of the original. Two cut it to 1 ÷ 1.12 = 89.3%, a 10.7% time saving. The second adds another six speed points. Jobs do not become 12% shorter just because the factor shows 1.12.
For a job that would otherwise take ten minutes of continuous work, a pair reduces that part to about eight minutes and 56 seconds. That estimate holds the pawn, recipe and conditions constant. Material collection and delivery are outside it. At a 50% base bench, two cabinets raise the factor to 62%, reducing active work time by about 19.4% relative to that same slow bench.
A practical shared layout
- Group the stonecutter, tailoring, machining and smithing benches around an open central aisle.
- Place one cabinet where it links to the busy benches, then add a second in range of the same group.
- Keep the worker interaction cells clear and leave space for chairs, ingredients and output.
- Keep the drug lab in a room that actually counts as a Laboratory, and the stove in a Kitchen.
- Recheck links when moving benches or adding dividing walls.
Colonists can pass through a cabinet, but it adds movement cost. Do not use that as a reason to fill the only walking route with furniture. A compact room with short ingredient trips is more useful than an impressive count of connected but hard-to-reach benches.
Common questions
Can one cabinet help several benches?
Yes. The stacking limit is two active cabinets per bench, not two benches per cabinet. Every compatible bench must still satisfy distance and sight requirements.
Do three cabinets make a bench faster?
No. That bench can benefit from only two. A third may help other benches that are not already receiving two bonuses.
Do tool cabinets improve research or cooking?
No. Neither stove nor research bench types accept this facility. The hi-tech research bench can use a multi-analyzer.
Does a cabinet increase butcher yield?
No. It affects speed, not butchery efficiency. A butcher spot keeps its 70% efficiency penalty.
Do these numbers apply to mods and console?
These values describe unmodded PC 1.6. Mods can change the cost, link rules or bonus. Console is a separate build; check its in-game information instead of assuming every PC room rule applies.
Related colony upgrades
Stonecutting bills and chunk storage · Butchering speed and yield · Build a working laboratory · Find more steel
PC Core reference build: 1.6.4871 rev595. Anomaly bench definitions: 1.6.4871 rev590. Further reading: Tool cabinet, Bioferrite shaper and Serum lab. Game artwork © Ludeon Studios.