So while we are talking files, who has some new ideas for storing or racking them?
At work we had a wall rack made of 2" aluminum angle-iron with slots milled to hold files by the handle in the manner you mentioned. We gave the front edge a slight "kick" upward in a sheet metal brake to keep the files from sliding off the rack accidentally. It worked great and looked good. Alternative to bending the front edge, you could either tilt the rack slightly with a spacer behind it, or add a small curb to the front edge between the slots.
Another way might be the way I store wood lathe turning tools and the way we stored taper shank drill bits, which is on angled wooden wall racks with grooves or dividers to separate the individual pieces and a front rail a few inches up from the bottom to keep stuff from tipping out accidentally. Works great for wood lathe turning tools with long handles, and for taper shank drill bits, but I think it might be a little awkward for files and not really the best way to store them.
Drawers are not an option, I have one drawer in the Kennedy top that is bursting at the seams with smaller files, and some more tucked in another drawer, and these are too dang long for a std tool box drawer anyway.
I think drawers are the best option for small files. I've got a drawer in my Gerstner dedicated to Swiss pattern files and ignition files and so on, and two drawers in my work bench for medium and large sized files.
Now that I put a handle on that 16" square file for the "contest" I'm going to have to make at least a short rack like the one at work, because with the handle on it, it only fits in the drawer at an angle and gets in the way of other files.
Before yesterday, I just had it stuck in the back of the drawer without a handle, because it's not one I've ever really needed to use except for a largest file contest.
what file ? all I see is muffduster's AVATAR !!!!
