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  • Author Author: genebren
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Continuing to organize - building a tool holder...

genebren

In my prior blog (Starting the New Year with a clean up and reorganization ..... ) I started work on organizing my office workspace.  Today I finished building a tool holder for my Soldering/Building workspace within my office.  I saw a nice looking, 3 tiered tool holder online, but thought "Hey I could build that" which then morphed into "Yeah, I could even make it better at the same time".  In stead of a free-standing block, I could build my tool stand to span the width of a shelve in the shelving unit over my soldering/building station. So I took some measurements and sketched up a super rough plan and then when out to the shop to see what I could come up with.

 

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I started with a couple of cut ends from some cedar 2"x4"s that I had in the shop.  I then ripped one of them down to 2"x2 1/2".  Next I ran them both through the planer a couple of times until they were both smooth and true, and the thickness of the boards were 1 1/4".  Next I drilled hole into the two pieces, 3/8" holes, 1" apart in the back piece and alternating 1/2" and 3/4" holes, 1 1/2" apart in the front piece.  The holes are flat bottomed and a drilled down to within 1/2" of the bottom edge of the boards.  I then drilled/cut and sanded notches into the ends of the boards that would eventually clamp to the shelving unit uprights (~3/4" tubing).  The final drill operation was to drill through the two pieces for the two quick change bolts that will be used to clamp the two pieces together.

 

After test fitting everything back in the office, I returned to the shop to finish the pieces.  I did a through sanding on the two pieces and then applied a weathered gray stain to the boards.  After the stain dried, I apply two coats of a satin water based varnish finish.

 

Today, after the finish was dried, I installed the tool holder.  Here are some pictures of the tool holder in place:

 

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I will be trying this out for a couple of day to see if I need any modifications or adjustments to the installation.  I have some other organizers and tools on order as I still feel I could add a few more improvements.

  • in reply to DAB

    Thanks DAB, but if you would have seen the mess that had accumulated prior to the latest re-organization you might not have the same opinion.  I had layers and layers of piles forming on every horizontal surface.  At the end of my latest project14 competition (Mr. Machine), I was unable to find a large percentage of my tools or parts and the piles obscured so many things.  But it does feel so much better to have everything cleaned up and most of my parts back where they belong.

     

    I really do need to focus on keeping things from getting to far out of control.  That and not to start a new project until I clean up after the last project.

  • You are much better organized than I am.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to Andrew J

    If only.  When I moved from California to Texas (in order to be closer to my grandchildren), I had to pack and store the contents of my shop.  Most of the boxes stayed packed for a few years before I was able to move into my new shop.  While everything was packed, I needed from time to time, to go through the boxes to look for a tool or a part that I needed.  Over the course of that time, a lot of the organization that I had put into packing was lost.  There are still to this day things that I knew that I had that are still lost/missing.  I hope to finish some of my shop builds (benches, drawers and cabinets) soon, so I can once and for all re-organized my shop.  Until then, I continue to look and wonder.....

  • in reply to genebren
    I though I had a bunch of these t-bolts and knobs somewhere in my collection of parts, but I was not able to find them.

     

    If only you could organise the parts in some way....  image