tool storage

[phoneman697]

I'm trying to decide what type of tool storage is going to work best for me. Right now all my hand tools are just loosely laying on an old set of shelves. What methods (shopmade, storebought) do you all use to store and protect your investments in not only handtools, but also hand power tools.

Thanks in advance.
Jeff

[monte]

I built storage cabinets under my benches for power tool storage and keep my hand tools either in a roll around tool chest or on peg boards.

[DaveS]

Here's a little tool storage thing I made from junk I had laying around. It works so well, I'm thinking about making another.

http://www.bt3central.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14650

For my power hand tools, I have some press board "ready to assemble" base cabinets with the extra deep drawers usually used for pots and pans. They work really well for me. I got the cabinets for nearly nothing when they changed the displays out at our local Menards.


(p.s. this is 100th post!)

[jethro]

Jeff, do yourself a favor and either borrow or buy "The Toolbox Book" by Jim Tolpin, published by Taunton Press. It has literally hundreds of ideas for everything from site boxes to wall cabinets to rolling tool carts. Something will probably strike your fancy.

[Nick Keenan]

I was wondering how long before someone started a thread on tool storage in the new Shop Setup forum.

I'm thinking about this a lot as I set up my shop. Right now, I'm long on principles and short on specific ideas. Some principles:

* Everything should have an actual place where it belongs. The easier it is to put things back in their place, the cleaner the shop will stay.

* The more things you can see at once the easier it is to find things.

* You shouldn't have to move one thing to get to another.

* The more something is used, the easier it should be to get at.

* Things that are hung shouldn't fall.

* Closed doors and drawers keep dust out.

Right now, I'm still working on making sure that everything has a place; the next step is to start applying the other principles. What's hard is that there are just so many darn items. I feel I have a pretty modest collection of tools, and I must have several thousand "things." Drill bits, router bits, screwdriver bits. Blades for knives, blades for a planer, blades for a half-dozen saws. Sandpaper, biscuits, glue. Rags, brushes. Stain, shellac, poly, and rubber gloves. Rulers, squares, levels, and a dozen tape measures. Hammers. Clamps. Oh, and dozens of boxes of assorted fasteners.

To top it off, I buy new stuff, and things break and get replaced. Just when you've got it all figured out some new tool comes along and screws it up.

I think my ideal would be to have upper and lower cabinets everywhere, like a kitchen, with mostly drawers in the lower cabinets. A lot of the drawers would be thin, for storing small items. The upper cabinets would have clear doors so you could see what was in them (and, magically, hooks on the insides of the doors as well.) In general I think the drawers and cabinets would be smaller than in a kitchen. In a kitchen you often have many of the same thing -- a dozen plates, a dozen cups -- so it's OK to stack them up. With tools, more often each one is different, and you don't want to have to move one to get to the next one.

Your thoughts?

Nick

[Thalermade]

Nick, I like your thinking. Jeff I hope I can you provide you with a little food for thought.

I had been frustrated because of how long it was taking me to put my shop together, but with time different ideas have emerged and the changes I have made will result in a better shop for me. I also accept the reality that change is inevitable, and the type of woodworking one does will probably help guide ones shop and equipment lay out.

Storage of items related to the tool is a good first step. I built a box under my BT3000 to keep table saw releated items. I have enough room in my shop for a dedicated router table and I have a benchtop drillpress. Both of these cabinets have (or will have, eventually) drawers and shelves for storing related items.

My big storage area is the Yankee Workshop Miter Bench I am working on. The sliders for the 11 drawers/trays were initially expensive, but the amount of storage is unbelievable, and the access is wonderful. I am sure upper cabinets of some type will be a necessity in the future. And glass/plexiglass to see into the cabinets is a great idea.

Another issue I have been wrestling with is the "cases from power tools". I am slowly removing the cases from some items which I feel may never need to be transported, or do not provide adequate storage for necessary accessories. The cases go into an attic area which is only good for small lightweight items.

As for many handtools, right now I have a small Craftsman toolchest I purchased about 15 years ago. Some day I will build a toolbox/toolchest. There are plenty of plans out there.

I have not built a woodworking workbench yet, but it will also need to have plenty of storage.

Russ

[LarryG]

quote:Originally posted by Nick Keenan

Just when you've got it all figured out some new tool comes along and screws it up.

Yep, yep, yep. Frustrating as all get-out for us "a place for everything ..." types.

Nick, we are clearly of like minds on this subject, so I'm not sure I can add much to your excellent list of points, but FWIW:

Having a dedicated storage place for each item that's easy to get to not only keeps the shop neater but also saves time. The few seconds it takes to return something to its place is paid back many times over by reducing the amount of time wasted on the old "Now where the **** did that get to ...???" routine.

Centralized vs. task- or machine-specific storage is another key issue to think about. Should you put all tools of the same type in one place, so that you only need one of each, and go to that same storage place no matter what you need the tool for? Or should you put a given tool right where it is most likely to be needed, even if this means buying additional copies of certain items? The former saves money and space; the latter saves time and footsteps.

I do think that the storage system ought to be departmentalized, regardless of whether it's centralized. All measuring tools together, all router accessories together, all sanding supplies together, etc.

Fasteners come in all manner of container sizes, shapes, and materials, many of which either do not play nice with the others or which are not securely reclosable, so for the most part I prefer to move them into my own containers as soon as I bring them into the shop. Lots of options here; I favor those plastic screw-top jars that powdered Gatorade comes in (being a cyclist, I accumulate LOTS of these). These are big enough to easily hold a box of drywall screws or a pound of nails, have a nice wide mouth for easy access, and are short and squatty so they're hard to knock off the workbench.

Being, as I said, one of those "a place for everything" kinda guys, I think the key to staying sane is recognizing that a workshop is, and always will be, a work in progress. The challenge is to come up with storage systems that are dedicated and logical without losing all of their flexibility. And a lot of times, you don't know what's going to work well for you as an individual and your specific collection of tools until you try something and live with it for a while. That is why I mostly use homebuilt vs. storebought solutions ... I can knock together a little storage rack out of scrap and if experience tells me I need something a little different, I can just make another one and try something else. If I had a lot of money tied up in a system that proved to be not what I needed, I'd be a lot less likely to change it and would end up even more frustrated that I sometimes am.