Projects for organizing the shop

[shoottx]

In organizing your shop, what are the best additions to help with that organization, either completed or planned.

I actually have been working on organizing my shop. By some of the pictures you may not thinks so. But here are three of the just completed projects. And a tip of the hat goes to Rod Kirby for some of the inspiration. (not the cleanliness) First is a small roll around shop cabinet, fits under the drill press and holds DP bits and accessories. Second is a shelf for battery charges, frequently & used items. And last but not least is a DP base for leveling the DP ( copy of Rod's design).

[Knottscott]

Nice....I need to do something like that!

[dbhost]

Most successful shop organization project?

So far, my stuff has been REAL simple. But simplicity works wonders sometimes.

My most successful project so far other than the peg board, has been swapping the stubby legs on the work bench for taller ones. I not only got the working height I desperately wanted, but also the storage space I needed underneath.

obviously it's a work in progress...

Planned projects to improve the situation?


I have mounted the benchtop sander, and planer on HF tool stands, I am planning on installing a plywood "deck" on the spreaders and through drilling / carriage bolting it down to provide additional ridgidity to the assembly, as well as an additional storage shelf. I plan on moving my sanders, and an hard sided file box of sanding medium such as belts, spindle sleeves, pads, and quarter sheets under the sander. The planer stand will get other small power tools like the drill, biscuit joiner, etc... The table top for the planer is a bit on the long side, and takes up quite a bit of room. I am seriously considering a redesign of the infeed / outfeed idea, in order to allow for folding "wings". This combined with a mobile base, would allow me to roll it out, deploy the wings, and get right to work, then when I am done, fold it up and put it away neatly.


The Clamp racks are extremely functional. I am however planning a redo of them. I want to redesign the mount blocks and the joinery. These are simply screwed together. At the very least I want to dowel them together. I also want to route a detail around the edges, sand it all down, smoothe, and stain the whole thing. The holes for the wall attachment screws also need to be covered with those wooden mushroom shaped buttons so that they are concealed.

The plywood sheets I bought for the Ultimate workbench ended up as hurricane window protectors. I need to get a couple more sheets of ply, and actually start on this project. But that is taking a REALLY low priority right now...

As time and budget will allow, I am planning on picking up the plywood, and Woodcraft mobile base wheel kits to put my HF tool stand mounted tools on mobile bases, as well as the band saw.

The router cart, and workbench are planned to be replaced by an "Ultimate workbench" from plans at www.bobsplans.com which keeps taking a back seat to other projects. I am collecting the bits and pieces for it. I had the plywood, but repurposed it in an emergency. I have some of the T-track, knobs, etc... I need the casters. I am NOT planning on using his design for the drawer slides though. My plan was to use full extension, stainless steel ball bearing slides. I know it costs more, but I really want to build this thing right. I am hoping that maybe this can be something that, if my wife and I are lucky enough to have a son, or daughter that is into woodworking I can hand it down to him, or her when the time comes.

I have some large not WW related tools in my shop as well, that I am intending on building a mounting board out of 2x4 and 1/2" dowel screwed directly to the studs to hang things like the edger, weed wacker, blower, chain saw, etc...

[Mr__Bill]

Nice, that stack of rolling drawers will get at least another generations worth of use. Probably end up in a granddaughter's kitchen as an antique.

Bill. who is really good at making messes.

[LarryG]

In organizing your shop, what are the best additions to help with that organization, either completed or planned.

Completed? I guess that would have to be the tool rack above my workbench. Actually, I can't really say it is completed, because I am constantly adding still more little shelves and brackets and hooks and racks to it as the need arises. Here are two views, taken at different times. In the first, the rack was hung entirely from the ceiling; in the second, I had become concerned about the weight and stability of the rack and its contents, and had added some legs down to the floor:





Planned? Definitely would be the 15'-2" long miter-saw-and-more bench I intend to build down the longest continuous wall in my shop. Roughly similar to the one in the New Yankee Workshop, mine will have the CMS at the approximate center, room for my dovetail jig and mortising machine at one end, a sharpening station at the other, and lots and lots of big storage drawers in the base. At the moment I am making do with an unholy mess of a cobbled-together prototype of this planned addition (no picture of that available, at the moment). I had hoped to get the new bench built this summer but it's now looking like a project for the coming spring.

[shoottx]

Very cool tool rack.

I have a bench mounted chisel rack in progress, no where as extensive as yours. Great Idea!

[John Hunter]

Looking good.

[bigstick509]

[Pappy]

Larry, saved the rack photos for future reference. Thanks for the idea.

[LarryG]

Tool racks like mine are sometimes mounted in front of a big shop window (often, in books an magazines, with an idyllic meadow and babbling brook in the background. We should all be so lucky, right?). I had never built one because I don't have a window, or even a suitable wall, on which to mount it. Then one day I realized I could simply hang it from the ceiling.

Mine is adapted from a design featured in an article in Woodworking Magazine. The key design feature is that the rail holding the hand saws, files and rasps, mortise chisels, and combo squares is two 3/4" thick boards with 1/2" plywood spacers between them. It's amazing how perfect this 1/2" dimension is for sliding in an amazing variety of hand tools.

As mentioned, the rack is a work in progress. It started as just the main rails, of cheap pine/whiteboard, supported by two verticals (same). Over time it has grown from there, using scraps of various kinds of wood that were laying around the shop.

[rnelson0]

In organizing your shop, what are the best additions to help with that organization, either completed or planned.

I have some photos at https://ronelson.dynip.com/wiki/inde...tos:House#Shop (yes, my cert is improper, I have heard it before!) but need to update it some more. You can see the deep storage shelves I added. They are 30" deep which means getting to the stuff in the back is a pain, but after nearly a year I think I have all the commonly used items up at the front finally.

Next I have the workbench - obvious, but none of us start with one, right? I then built a practice cabinet which was my first use of my dado kit. I made some mistakes (no rabbet for the back so it is just glued/tacked on) and I never finished the door, but it holds a lot of my tools, sandpaper, etc. I also added pegboard above the workbench and some floating 12" shelves for glue, caulk, screws, etc off to the right.

My next plans are, in no particular order: dry goods pantry (to replace an existing one that doubles as a tabletop surface for storing tools), clamp rack, mitre stand attached to the workbench so the bench can support the wood flush, and a router table. Of course, having a router table would make everything else easier, but I do not think that will come first. The pantry is up first so that I make my wife happy, then I can spend money on the rest.