I have been looking extensively on the internet for ideas on storage for my small workshop and didnt find much of anything! I need a place to store tools and woodworking supplies etc. to make the shop neater. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?
thanks,
Dimitri
Replies
I think what you may end up getting here is a succession of ideas that can be sifted and integrated into your shop. There's not really a Silver Bullet for storage. I'll give you a couple of my approaches:
Hmmmm, there are other ideas out there (and in my head). I'm sure they'll hit here soon.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
There are certainly different ways to go. In contrast to forestgirl, I've gone drawer-happy
The SCM table and extensions takes up a major part of the shop (yea, and in hindsight, I'd do it differently but that's a whole other thread - LOL!). Anyway,SCM's are deep, so the space under the table is almost 3'deep. Solution: 34" deep drawers on heavy-duty full-extension glides. Behind doors to keep out the dust. Amazing how much stuff you can put in those pull-outs! And - good practice if you ever build kitchen cabinets :-). I mean, you gotta justify all those shop improvement projects.
On the table, behind the straight edge, I have 3 columns of drawers for hand tools, painting supplies, fasteners, etc. For example, the middle 3 drawers are for screws, nails and bolts.
Under the TS extension are two drawers for all the router bits and table saw stuff (dado blades, extra inserts, wrenches, ...
Hopefully they show up OK in the pic - it's pretty reduced for dial-up users
au contraire (sp?) -- I'd be drawer happy if I could afford it. Next life, I guess! Too funny. Actually, I did make some small slide-outs that are like, I dunno, shallow bins I guess, that hold my Watco cans, varnishes, etc. Have to take some pics I guess. Nothing fancy though.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Storage is both a function of your space limitations and personal working style.
In my case I prefer to keep my most used tools hanging on the walls where they are easily visible and readily accessible. Since I hate peg board, I invested in birch ply -- cut to 2 X 4 panels, varnished them, and screwed them to the wall. I use 2" finish nails to hold many items, but over the years I have installed a lot of magnetic tool holders, and have made any number of devices to hold tools more compactly (hammers, drills, nail guns for instance).
If I want to reconfigure, I don't hesitate to pull the old nails or move stuff around.
So the hand tools I need for maybe 90% of my work are hanging near the bench, and everything else is in a drawer, on a shelf, or hanging on a panel in some other part of the shop.
I also make extensive use of those 60 drawer parts cabinets. More than anything, I hate to spend time looking for hardware or fasteners; with this system, if I need a 6 X 1/2" pan head screw, I know exactly where to go.
Dimitri,
It's a never ending battle when your in a small shop...and all those small pieces of wood start to accrue.
What you have in your shop, equipment wise, and the work you like to do makes a big difference. For instance, when I included a workbench in my space that changed things and I need to reconfigure the space and the storage. Likewise, I don't have the space for a central dust collection system so I like to put all my stuff in cabinets and drawers to keep them clean.
Perhaps the best addition to my shop, that has remained a major contributor to organization throughout the reconfigurations, has been an 8'x2'x1' cabinet with doors that holds all my finishing supplies.
If you could share with us some of your space/equipment issues that might help.
Build some freestanding, simple cupboards say in the Shaker style and use them for shop storage. Three or four chimney cupboards will hold an enormous amount of stuff. They're easy to build and you can knock one out between other projects. Before you know it, you'll have all the storage you need.
Edited 1/13/2005 10:35 am ET by BossCrunk
Storage is a wonderful thing to have, if you have the space for it. These past 3 years I've been working in a tiny shop, 11.5x7.5ft, and to date I've used just about every nuik and cranny I have to get the most out of it. I don't have pics, but I'll try to describe it.
The one good feature of the shop is that both long walls are there for the using, neither having a doorway or window set into them. I keep the bulk of my stock in 3 shelves stacked above where the table saw / bench parks when not in use.
I built Norm's original router table, and use that huge drawer in the bottom to store most of my hand held power tools. The router table parks against the wall next to the door filling the space neatly. Above it, I've a rack that holds all my long clamps and roller stands. I don't have the budget nor space for Jorgie's, making do with alli sash clamps instead. 18 off 3ft clamps + 3 off roller stands fill the area directly above the router table; 8 off 5ft clamps hang down the side of the table. I hang some large layout tools on some panel pins driven into the outer face of the clamp rack; a pair of lay-out squares, a metre long straight edge and 6ft builders level make the most of the small nuik.
Above the clamp rack and door, extending the full width of the room, there's another stock storage shelf. It's mirrored by a similarly high shelf on the opposite wall, above the window.
I store sheet material on edge against the 2nd long wall, directly in front of the shop door. The position's determined by the need to withdraw stock back out the door to remove it from the stack. I can get between 10-12 sheets in there before things start to feel a little crowded.
Above the sheet storage, there's a real crude shelf unit I built to store practically everything else I thought I'd need when I built it. Tins and bottles of finish, spare sanding disks / belts in various grits, biscuits, and a host more besides. I copied an idea from Norm's storage hutch, making moveable patricians for the lowest shelf.
The window wall has recently seen a new additional small shelf to one side of the window. I keep some boxed power tools on the shelf, and made a rig to hang some shop jigs from a long heavy dowel underneath the shelf. The shop vac lives in the corner under the new addition, while the thicknesser parks in front of the window when not in use.
The biggest "space saver" / pain in the proverbial is the table saw built into the bench, a marriage born of necessity rather than improvement. In addition, the bench is on castors to move it around to wherever I can best use it at the time; you'll appreciate with all that "stuff" in there, things get crowded in a hurry.
Storage is something that evolves with you; there's no hard and fast "right" way to do it... the only rule I know of is that if it doesn't work... change it... case in point, that wall mounted unit for the consumables... these days I hardly use it's contents, so it's outathere, replaced with a tool cupboard that's long overdue... Only prob is I've bought more planes than even this has space for; guess I need more storage ;)
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
I contacted several Business Agents of local schol districts and asked if they were going to remove any school lockers. I eventually got for free enough lockers to line the walls of the shop. I put shelves in them and all contents stay dust free. The tops of the lockers are angled down and easy to brush off.
Give your nearby schools a call.
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