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.
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:
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.
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