Unique storage solutions in your workshop

Very Very Impressive I’ve been meaning to do that overhead door storage thing for a while but I have little room above my door.

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When I moved in about 40 years ago - most of the basement already had a raised wood floor and finished ceiling. It had been dug out as part of the original house and then as part of an addition. The older part (front of the house was dug out deeper - so there was more headroom (about 8 feet) to install machinery - my band saw, table saw, larger jointer compressor etc. and to run a dust collection system. The rear section’s ceiling was lower (7 feet) - had been the prior owner’s shop and had pegboard installed along one long wall. I kept it for hand tools - and added 2 benches to compliment one that he left. If I had to do it again - the pegboard ( which became very congested ) would have been replaced with something else.

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Again - not so much a unique idea - but more a notion that if you have a lot of items - then you should keep an inventory of what you have and where it is located. In a commercial setting we had several tool rooms - hundreds of feet of shelves, cabinets, racks, bins - stored tools, patterns, samples, cutters, parts etc. For the stuff we used often - we could lay our hands on it by memory - but for infrequently used items we tried to organize them by task, kept them together as much as we could in boxes bins or shelf locations - and then had a computerized (I remember a time when it was on paper) inventory giving us the quantity on hand, location and other information (cost basis, barcode if any, etc.). I adopted something similar - but a bit less complex for my home shop - where I’ve accumulated many tools that had been used more frequently - but now are in toolboxes, on closet shelves etc.



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I don’t know how unique you can call this but I found a way to fit 4 of my 10,8V drills in a single L-box in stead of just 2 with the standard bosch inlays. This is just a layer cake of cardboard cut to fit the space between the drills. Very easy but somewhat time consuming.

Hmm, this doesn’t even seem to fit the workshop criteria either,…

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Very cool. If you haven’t already, you should check out Kaizen Foam from www.fastcap.com . It would also work perfecty for those spacers between.

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Cardboard like that cuts really nicely on a bandsaw…

I’ve thought about doing something similar inside my L-boxxes. One of these days, I’ll get a L-boxx2 for my 18v tools.

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Look into making a hot wire cutter to cut foam. Very easy way to make perfect foam inserts.

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There is also a foam cutter from Bosch - sort of works like an electric knife - with 2 serrated blades that move counter to each other. The blade come in different lengths to accommodate different foam thicknesses.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-Foam-Rubber-Cutter-Motor-Only-1575A/203358959?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-BASE-PLA-D25T-PowerTools|&gclid=CNPiqZKH1MsCFcNahgodiR8C9g&gclsrc=aw.ds

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the foam suggestions are actually better. Does anyone have a suggestion for Europe? I found this on the German Amazon site but its pricey. That’s why I went for the cardboard.

http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00Y3OUZMM?keywords=sortimo%20foam&qid=1458759332&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Did anyone try to cut multiple layers of cardboard with a jigsaw?

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Bosch Blade T113A does a pretty decent job of cutting cardboard:

http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-T113A3-4-Inch-Knife-Jigsaw/dp/B001AHU5P2

If you want inexpensive foam - here in the US - you go to Home Depot and look at the various builder’s foam insulation. It cuts OK with a knife (a cheap serrated edge steak knife is OK for curved cuts) or with any number of variants of hot knives designed for EIFS.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=eifs+cutter

Hot wire cutters used in crafts and floral work can also be used - but some of those are rather flimsy - so you have to take it slow.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hot+wire+cutter&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ahot+wire+cutter

For me the big problem with cutting Styrofoam is all the staic electricity generated along with all the little clingy pieces. When we ere cutting the stuff outdoors with a any sort of regular saw blade - the wind would take the stuff all over. We hit on using a Ridgid saw meant for fiber cement - hooked to a dust collector - and that was just OK for thin sheets:

http://www.amazon.com/Ridgid-R3400-Fuego-5-Inch-Cement/dp/B0026T0738/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Then we head about some circular knife-edge blades from a company called Bullet Tools - we found that they were OK when new - but they quickly dulled and were a bit scary to handle:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_13?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=centerfire+foam+blade&sprefix=centerfire+fo%2Caps%2C137

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I have a number of different type of tape measures that I store under benches clipped to some flat aluminum stock. I cobbled these from scraps of wood and flat-stock from some other jobs. The flat stock has just as easily been purchased at HD or Lowes:

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I probably should have included a list of some of the oddball tape measures that I have accumulated over nearly 50 years. Here are links to a few that are still available:

Modular Spacing Tapes:

http://www.bontool.com/product1.asp?P=ECONSPACINGTAPES

Center Finder Tape:

http://www.amazon.com/50035-1-Inch-25-Foot-CenterPoint-ProTape/dp/B0000CEZ8X

Metric System Tape:

http://www.amazon.com/Fastcap-PMMR-TRUE32-True32-Reverse-measuring/dp/B0130E8JQY

Fastcap Burn-1

http://www.amazon.com/FastCap-PS-Burn1-ProCarpenter-Measure-Pencil/dp/B00TU5834Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1459166978&sr=8-1&keywords=FASTCAP PS-BURN1

Fastcap Story Pole

http://www.amazon.com/FastCap-PSSP16-Standard-Story-Measuring/dp/B0001GUE1S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167027&sr=8-1&keywords=FASTCAP PSSP16

and

http://www.amazon.com/FastCap-Flatback-Story-Pole-Foot/dp/B00066YARM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167080&sr=8-1&keywords=FASTCAP PSSP-FLAT16

Fastcap Timberframe

http://www.fastcap.com/estore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=46120

Hultafors Talmeter

http://www.amazon.com/Hultafors-Talmeter-Marking-Measure-Tape/dp/B0041YQFY6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167342&sr=8-1&keywords=HULTAFORS TALM3

Johnson Stud Squared

http://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Level-1812-0025-StudSquared-Yellow/dp/B0057K1KQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167268&sr=8-1&keywords=JOHNSON+LEVEL+%26+TOOL 1812-0025

Komelon Engineer

http://www.amazon.com/Komelon-433IE-Professional-Engineer-Measuring/dp/B0013L2YV8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167324&sr=8-1&keywords=KOMELON 433IE

http://www.amazon.com/Komelon-SL2825-25-Foot-Engineer-Scale/dp/B0016A72F4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167405&sr=8-1&keywords=KOMELON SL2825IE

http://www.amazon.com/Komelon-SL2912-Self-Speed-12-FootPower/dp/B0016A2U9M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167453&sr=8-1&keywords=KOMELON SL2912

Komelon Stainless Steel

http://www.amazon.com/Komelon-SLSS125-Stainless-Self-Locking-Measure/dp/B002FCLEJC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167514&sr=8-1&keywords=KOMELON SLSS125

Komelon Roller

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=KOMELON RB25

Tajima Metric

http://www.amazon.com/Tajima-G-33-10MBW-33-Feet-10-Meter/dp/B002DML0O8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459167892&sr=8-1&keywords=G-33%2F10MBW

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Again - nothing terribly inventive - but a scrap of 2x4 can be turned into a holder/stand fro drill bits:

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I salvaged some old cabinets from a kitchen. I cut out the middle stile so I could fit larger things inside. I reattached the stile to the left door to make it look better.

I put my router and lathe on a rolling cabinet. They don’t interfere with each other in this orientation.

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Here is that picture of the clamp storage. Notice the drop down cabinet folded into the ceiling in the background.

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Here are a few of my storage solutions. They are similar to many seen here already so I am claiming nothing new.

First is my cordless tool storage area. This is a repurposed dresser filled with rebuilt shallower drawers on full extension slides for storing brads, drill bits, sanders, sandpaper etc for the tools above. Above is shelving with holders for my cordless tools. I’ve mounted my changers to an angled board with the cords hidden behind. I’ve found large band clamps passing through small slots in the board work great for holding the chargers with the clamp tightener hidden behind. On the side of the storage unit is my air nailer “holster” This holds 2 brad nailers for use with 2 length of nails plus a narrow crown stapler. On the wall beside that is a mini hose reel. This holds 25 feet of small diameter poly air hose and works MUCH better then the old coil hose it replaced.

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Whoa. Glad I remembered about this thread. We just bought a place with 2 garages, which means I get a dedicated workshop for the first time. I’ve been moving all my tools out there, whenever I get some spare time I know what I’m doing

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I have recently got more into hand tools with several nice examples received for Father’s Day so I have had to redesign my tool wall. In particular I have now added depth to many of my holders to provide more tool density.

The main modules were the saw and plane tills, this was the reason I moved away from the slat wall design, some more substantial fixing was required.

I also made some deeper storage for chisels, pencils and other measuring and marking kit.

I love tool walls for storing frequently used tools, it also encourages toolsbeing put away, but in a small shop wall space is at a real premium so adding depth seems to be a good solution.

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Graham, I see some lovely Veritas tools there. I like the way you laid out everything. Good stuff!

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This is good, with stainless steel worktop, I wish it was fully made of stainless steel.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-combgsm01-25-piece-modular-storage-syst/