I've always struggled with organization, but after 30 years a few hings are starting to come around. I have a large area of pegbboard that has been under utilized. Years ago I organized all my clamps in one area of pegboard, made sense. Last year, I realized another area of pegboard would make sense with grouping measuring tools. i.e. rules, squares, levels. This morning I think hand cutting, saws, chisels, shears, saw blades. I'm to old to wait another 30 years, what ideas are out there for shop organization?
I feel your pain. My (almost) 20 year old shop is still evolving. Currently, I am putting in some hanging cabinets (as I build them). There is always something to tear out & do over it seems. Total Utopian organization is elusive.
The one thing that really bugs me tho is pegboard. I have about (16 x3) feet of the stuff. I have tried using the little clips and all sorts of gadgets, but tools are always falling off. I am seriously thinking of putting a sheet or two of 3/4 ply in place of the pegboard (like Norm suggests).
Funny thing tho, SWMBO is always telling me how happy I seem to be when I am building for or reorganizing the workshop in some way.
LOL! I guess I don't! I'm on vacation this week and have spent the last two days re-organizing everything to make room for a DC and mortising machine. I have a 2 1/2 car shop and thus far have a preferred layout for some things, but can't decide on some others. For example, my table saw is almost centered in the shop with the jointer off to the left side. My TS has a 50" fence, so the right end of the table holds my planer. In front of the TS I have a 5' router table that also serves as an outfeed table for the TS. This arrangement seems to work best for me. I got 4 2'x4' steel rolling cabinets with laminate tops from a school auction several years ago that provide a good amount of storage and counter space. The lathe, band saw, and drill press are all along the back wall with cabinets in between each that house the accessories needed for each machine. The walls in the shop are 8', so I ran split sheets of drywall (2' x 8') on the top and bottom, with the 4' in between filled with pegboard. This worked well, lots of storage on the walls, and little material waste. After spending most of the day today just cleaning up the plethora of rags, sandpaper, drill bits, hand tools etc, off of all the flat surfaces in the shop, I'd say my biggest problem is KEEPING it organized! --dave
Try the "heavy duty" pegboard clips. They can be a real PITA to get into the pegboard, but they stay put. I ditched all the "light duty" ones for the same reason, they always fell off. --dave
LOL ... reminds me of the one about the newscaster that asked a Texan, a Californian, and a New Yorker the question: "Excuse me, but do you know anything about the beef shortage?".
The Texan said: "What's a 'shortage'?"; the Californian said: "What's 'beef'?"; and the New Yorker said: "Whets 'excuse me'?".
I think we all would be bored if we finally got it perfect and there wasn't anything to do. I know I would.
I have a couple of anemic pegboards that I have used for 30 years and have never been satisfied. When I started to read about your pegboard, I immediately thought, "I wonder if he has solved the problem of the hooks always coming off, etc". The answer was no. I don't think pegboard is a very good answer. I guess this begs the question: What is the overall best storage method?
Tool Chest Pros: Nice and organized, dust free. Cons: Have to dig for tool you want. Always seems like the tool is too big or too small and their is either too much or too little room.
Clear plastic storage boxes/drawers: Pros: Cheap. Good for holding screws. Cons: Always having to re-arrange them when I want to put a different size between two anothers. Not smooth in opening and closing (at least mine aren't). Not often easy to see item in drawer. Some not easy to label.
Baby food jars on ferris wheel or carousel type holder: Pros: Has Worked for screws, nails, miscellaneous hardware for 30 years. Takes very little room and in places that normally would not be useful anyway. Easy to see contents. Not necessary therefore to label
Cons: Takes a little time to build. Good luck in finding the good screw-on type baby food jars today
Ball jars on ferris wheel or carousel type holder: Pros: Takes a lot larger screws, nails and other hardware. Takes very little room and in places that normally would not be useful anyway. Easy to see contents. Not necessary therefore to label (I do, however, for screw sizes) Cons: Takes a little time to build. Cost of Ball Jars seems low until you have about 60 of them. This contraption is HEAVY and you need to balance the weight.
Low cost (polypropylene?) drawer set like sold at Target: Pros: Low cost. Keeps dust off of tools you might keep out otherwise. Can put anywhere you have floor space. Most have casters if you want to move them. Large variety of drawer sizes. Cons: Probably won't last for years (but they have been OK for me so far). Not the best presentation ever thought of (but who cares if they work?!). Sometimes overlook them and forget where I have put something (Oops, guess that is my fault, not the drawer's fault).
Norm Abram's router table with bit holding drawers: Pros: Best darned storage for router bits (why don't the commercial router cabinets use them mor often instead of just doors) Cons: Can't think of any except that there is some extra time needed to build them.
Workbench Shelf made of 3/4 inch dowels: Pros: Holds tools (such as planes) in plain site but allows dust to fall through dowels. Cons: Let some tools fall through also. Dust does not fall through planes, so they get dusty. However, you should be using them often enough that that does not happen (right?).
I have heard the term "organization," but I can't understand what "shop organization" is supposed to mean. Those two words side by side make no sense, like saying, oh, "kitchen jubilation" or something. Please explain.
I _think_ he's talking about what the shop looks like after you clean it up so you can walk to the tools again? Not sure. In my case, it means "don't store that monitor under the milling machine because the chips will become a problem".
Dave "Anyone want to buy a used monitor (as-is)?" Hinz
The one thing I would add, is those cheap Zip plastic food containers keep making more of a show, especially the sandwich size. One of these days I'm going to make a shelving unit to store a bunch of them so they are individually accessable.
Last (?) FWW had an article -- one of the key points was that it doesn't make so much of a difference as to the "how", just have someplace specific for everything. The other suggestion was to pick up at least
10 items and put them away before beginning work each time one enters the shop. And, to keep that from being too onerous initially, 10 items can be as simple as 3 sockets left out, etc., count as three items. The point being, obviously, if you do a little at a time, it's not such a chore, and if there is a place for things, then it's easier to keep organized once accomplished.
I've tried it, beginning to try to find the places to put stuff...
On Tue 28 Dec 2004 11:12:53a, Phil wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@msn.com:
I've found what works best for me is doing shop stuff until I can't find the tool I'm looking for or until I don't have room to put something down, whichever comes first. Then I spend a day putting everything back, during which I usually say several times "So THAT'S where that went!" Sometimes it's two days.
Then I either sharpen my edged tools because now I know where they all are, or start doing shop stuff again.
I agree with Pat, though. I need lots more drawers. Big ones and little ones. Having totes and buckets and soft-side tool carriers is nice because at least all the parts and accessories are all in the same place as the tool, but now I need someplace to put the totes.
Charlie Self "Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell
Dunno if this will help, but my high school shop (this is +/- 20 years ago) had a very large freestanding cabinet, about 4' wide, 8' high and 24" deep. The front was two doors that were hinged at the center of each side of the cabinet, so that when you opened it up, you basically had a center cabinet
4x8 x 12" deep and a pair of 2x8 x 12" deep cabinets hinged to each side. (hope this makes sense). All of the shop's hand tools were stored in this cabinet, and there must have been a few hundred different items. I would say that if you have the room for one giant cabinet for all your tools (and you can put pegboard etc. on the inside) and something like an old library card catalog or apothecary cabinet for hardware, that will leave a lot of room free in your shop and keep most of the dust off stuff.
Honestly I do NOT work for Festool, but look at this stuff. It is a great way to organize a shop.
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as always, the stuff costs money. I have a few Systainers because I get one every time I buy a tool from them. The bulk of my stuff is stored in Ziploc food containers. I also like the polyethelene peanut butter jars. I solved the 'falling pegboard hook' problem by squirting a little hotmelt in the hole. A heat gun releases it again.
r
"Phil" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@msn.com...
My pegboard experience is limited to my father's shop. Somehow I never liked it, so there's no pegboard in my own shop. My shop is in the basement, which is small and I must share with laundry, storage, and a huge freezer. But there are two general principles that I have applied with some success. One is to use the third dimension, i.e. shelves. Really opens up the space. The other is to locate the small tools (and jigs) closest to where they'll be used. For example:
- Lathe chisels are in a cabinet hung just to the right of the lathe; the door stays open when I'm turning. (I currently also store my planes, try squares, and other nice tools in there. It's the wrong place for them because it's a walk to the workbench. I just don't have any other good wall space to hang the cabinet. My basement was arranged in a really stupid way, by whoever built the house (which wasn't me).) - Table saw wrench is stuck to magnets on the table saw. The crosscut sled is either on the saw or sitting on the floor under one of the extension wings. The table saw is on retractable wheels. Other sleds and jigs are on the floor (elevated a bit in case of water) on the other side. I don't walk there because there's a joist pole in that spot anyway. - The drillpress is a big bench model but I built a stand for it with a drawer. It's a big drawer and holds all things drillpress. The drillpress stand is on retractable wheels. - The workbench extends from the wall under the window. I can access three sides of it. It is not on wheels but I've got a dolly I can put under one end, and lifting the other end of the bench allows me to move it. I've got three hammers hooked on one leg, and a brush and dustpan hooked on one end. There's also a toolbox full of screwdrivers, pliers, and small things sitting against the wall at the other end of the bench. Not perfect, but seems to work well enough, and when I have to work on something outdoors, I can usually just close the lid, grab it and go. I used to have all those things hanging from a long board with custom holes for everything (in my other house), but I think the box works better. - The bandsaw is a huge home made thing and I don't have any accessories for it. It's inbetween the bench and the table saw (backing against that annoying pole). A 6" grinder is mounted on the back, and it's a short walk from the lathe to it. The bandsaw is on fridge casters. - The house came with built-in shelves, really crappy ones, that extend both directions from the corner behind me when I'm standing in front of the bench. I've got clamps clamped at each end. I've got a neoprene diamond sharpening wheel motorized on one of these shelves, and it's handy for touching up chisels right behind the bench where I'm making them dull. I've also got a set of sturdy metal shelves and these hold most of my hardware (screws, hinges, junk like that), and hand held power tools. The nails are currently on another set of wooden shelves, but now that you've got me thinking about this, I think I'm going to swap out some miscellaneous stuff that's on those metal shelves and put the nails there. - I'm building a router table right now, and I'm just about to start making the retractable wheel mechanism. The bits, jigs, and other routers will be stored in the cabinet underneath once it's all done. - The @#$#@$* furnace is right in the middle of the room. What is wrong with the people who install these things?!!!! I'm only tolerating the situation; my wife and I plan to move somewhere else once the kids graduate from high school. The furnace is the number one impediment to me ever getting my workshop organized.
I have changed the way I've organized my workshop twice, so I'd have to say the most important things are those wheels. If you've got them you can think about reconfiguring for the job at hand. If you don't, you're less likely to want to change. I've all but given up looking for the "correct" way to organize, because just when I figure out what it should be, I start building different things that require a different organization. Just don't try to cram too many things into too small a space or you'll really limit your options for change.
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