So I’ve been following Rothaus’ build thread on his “Airboxer Garage” and stumbled upon his simple little trick to efficiently capture left over oil residue. Not only is it great for almost finished oil canisters, but it would also be nice for funnel storage.

Anyway, the whole thing made me think of simple tips & tricks for the garage that you don’t see every day. Everyone has one… What’s yours?

I’ve always used tool boxes for storage, but I’ve never really given any other means much thought. Lately, however, I’ve been thinking about tool boards and how handy they must be… for a couple of reasons really: First, everything is much more reachable. There is no fumbling around with different drawers – Just grab and go. Second, it’s really easy to see what you are missing and what you didn’t put away after the last job. My 7/16″ wrench space, for instance, would almost always be empty. Where the hell does my 7/16″ always run off to?

In any case, I was curious… Any of you guys that use tool boards care to weight in? Post pictures if you have them!

You know what gets me? When an antique store or some chic modern interior design type gets ahold of a really great old industrial workbench before one of us blue collar types can. I mean, I totally get it… Benches like this really are beautiful and maybe in some cases they deserve a life away from the industrial, but on some level I feel that they must sit around in their new posh settings and yearn for a greasy tool to be placed on them – don’t you?

There’s lots of reason to have a computer in the shop. I guess the biggest reason is research… There is nothing like have Google at a moment’s reach. However, placement is always an issue as these damned contraptions are fragile and tend to get temperamental when exposed to the elements. This made me think about how folks locate their computers in the shop.

The above is a pretty good thought – though I think typing would totally suck.

What do you guys do?

Me… I use an iPad. From that I have an internet connection, a great selection of music, plenty of storage for docs, and it’s pretty durable as well.

This is an odd one, but I just had to post it. Some students at some school had to come up with some concepts for stashing “secret” objects around everyday objects. In turn, some student came up with this super stealthy bench top.

Check it out: