HD now has Slatwall !

[Gus]

I was in Home Depot the other day and noticed that they are now carrying slatwall.

Looked to be MDF core with a white laminate finish.

About $32 per sheet.

This was in Langhorne, PA

[else24]

Um. I guess I should have posted that we found slatwall in the local bigboxes this spring when we redid the back porch wall. Or maybe they were only in some stores.

Really lousy selection of hooks and hangers, though. We had to order the stuff we really wanted online. Fortunately it's standardized enough that everything we've tried, works.

Very handy stuff. Weighs a ton, really awkward to work with but looks good once it's up. We didn't get the slot strengthers, and as near as I could tell you have to put those in before you put it up, so if you're thinking you'll want to hang a cabinet or bike on it someday, keep that in mind.

[Clint]

Where did you find the hooks and stuff? I've got a couple pieces of the slatwall, and I've just been using the peg-board hooks in it. Kinda defeats the purpose, but most places round here don't carry the accessories, and the ones I saw on-line want to sell hundreds of hooks at a time.

[else24]

The ones that we liked best were from Rockler:

because they just LOOK better. We're going to get some baskets as soon as we quit arguing about how big they should be :-) but those we found with some googling on slatwall.

We didn't get the tool rack or that parts bin (which actually doesn't seem to be in the list) but we got the little message clip thingy and actually use it once in a while. They're all sturdy and a far cry from that grey iron crap. Several hooks and a few shelves, and now we can find all the dogwalking gear every time. Even the little winter booties.

[jhogy]

[jhogy]

I am president of Wind Mill Slatwall Products located in Sheboygan Falls, WI. Slatwall panels and some limited accessories are stocked by every Menards store in midwest. Specialty accessories can be purchased at

[LRod]

Maybe it's just me, but the first time I saw that stuff being installed in a shop (a Hometime episode back in the '90s, I think) my first thought was that it was a perfect trap for sawdust. I don't need any more places for sawdust to collect.

Small drill bits, #11 X-Acto knives, and scribing tools would probably wind up there, too. There's no explaining the places they wind up in now, so why not?

[Dave Hinz]

As opposed to the space behind my perfboard walls? At least with slatwall, I can take a compressed air tip to it and "sweep" the crud out.

At least they'll stay where they're put...

[bridger]

Tooling does not belong hanging on hooks on the wall.

Tooling belongs in flat drawers or in fitted cases.

[Dave Hinz]

Not everything I want to put on the walls is tooling.

Then what are the walls for?

[Lobby Dosser]

Beating your head against when you can't remember which flat drawer or fitted case holds the tool you have currently lost.

[Dave Hinz]

That's how I look at it. Some of my stuff (all the measurement tools) is in drawers and yes, that's appropriate. Taps & dies, drills, all in their places. But, crecent wrenches? Hang those suckers up so I can see 'em, so I can find 'em (or notice when one has gone missing again...)

Someone here suggested file cabinets. I've bought 3 of 'em now at rummage sales and auctions. All 3 are different colors, but I just don't care. One drawer per "subject", so I've got a drawer with tiling supplies and equipment, another for abrasives, another for "plumbing - drain", one for "plumbing - source", and so on. Label the drawers, close 'em up, and I don't have to look at all that same crap on shelves. I now have 12 drawers where previously I had 5 shelves, so the drawers are more full than the shelves, and better organized. Seems to be working, and I'll be watching for more filing cabinets.

Dave Hinz

[Pat Barber]

[musials]

"Then what are the walls for? "

Holding up the roof?

[bridger]

I use a crescent wrench maybe 5 times a year. it's an ugly tool that belongs in a box full of similar.

I don't have enough wall space for that kind of stuff, and I sure don't want to be having to clean my crescent wrench of sawdust.

[Dave Hinz]

Well, I prefer to use real tools, but once in a while they are appropriate. And the shop in the basement is the metal shop; "my" woodshop is in my father-in-law's outbuilding.

But, if the walls are just sitting there, might as well put something on 'em... my shop is long and narrow, with the machines down the middle and on one end (think of a long "T"). Storage to the left/bottom of that T, workbench to the right/bottom of the T. Works for me, anyway, and the lathe and mills, at least, pretty much are going to have to stay where they are.