Another take on organizing wrenches

[erniebahr]

Hello this is my first post here so please go easy on me.

I have been struggling for a while now with limited space in my tool box and never being able to find the tool I want when I need it. So this weekend I decided to tackle my combination wrenches. I try to always keep some good surplus metal in the garage for whatever I might need it for. I buy drops for 25 cents a pound at the steel yard. I took some 2" x 3/16" bar stock and some 1/4" round bar and made these wrench hangers. I have not seen any like them online and I spent less than one dollar in materials for each one.

The round bar was bent on the Hossfeld and welded to the flat bar. They are pretty simple but they work for me. Since there are duplicates I have spread them around the garage a little too.





Many of the wrenches came out of these drawers that I inherited recently.


I am still working on the leftovers as well. There will likely be a few more racks before I am done.

 

[Leadfot]

lovley boxes. Nice idea.

 

[sberry]

I have a scheme for common combos too. I have 3 spots with wrench pegs and 3 deep, if they are full then they must go somewhere else. There really isn't sets. We had a couple old USA jobs in the same time and all of a sudden there is a run on 1/2. We live on common wrenches, no sense of even opening drawers for some of this stuff.

 

[countryroad82]

Probably the coolest garage I ever walked into was this guy that had a 24ishX20ish single car garage he had a 72 Chevelle in (reason I was there lol) but every wall was covered from about hip high to head high with tools. All the guys wrenches, sockets, specialty tools were hanging around the whole shop. It was cool, neat, and tidy. Seeing your racks reminded me of that as he had something sorta similar he had rigged up for hanging his heavier tools.

 

[fourjeepin]

Good job. And welcome to the garage journal

 

[erniebahr]

Thanks everyone for the kind words . sberry, I like your approach too! I was thinking about mounting one of these on my welding / work table. The christmas tree is cool too. Here is another one I knocked up last night (the one on top). These are some of my larger wrenches that aren't used as often but when I need them, I really need them. The largest is 1 1/4".



Once I have more rack completed for a variety of items I am planning on mounting them on a sliding panel in front of the work benches so I can use space in front of the lower cabinets and drawers but still access the items behind. Think a sliding door but covered in tools.

 

[Park]

I used some MDF, dowels and glued it to slat wall hangers:

 

[Jazz1]

Looks good. I just don't hang tools, don't like the sound of wind chimes in shop. You can easily see if they are not all put away at the end of the day. The drawers could likely be built into your work bench, those old metal drawers are hard to come by as so many have gone to the scrap yard.

 

[sberry]

Nice. Nothing is as simple as hanging it up where you can see it. We use several methods, most of the socket use is power drive but a great share of our work is common combo wrenches. We are fitting or refitting or modding and if its old and rusty is tossed and new stuff takes a turn or 2 to tighten. A few extra swings of a wrench is easier than getting other tools.
Same for use of adjustables. They are not ideal for everything but have their place. Not for every stuck seized deal. Most of the time getting ones hands on a wrench is better than getting the perfect wrench provided it works.

 

[erniebahr]

I like hanging them up where I can see them and find what I need quickly. I also like the idea of using some wall space that is otherwise not particularly useful.

Park your work bench looks very organized. Are those dowels glued in perpendicular to the backing or did you put them at an angle. I would worry about them falling off if I was doing any hammering or other activity that might shake / vibrate the bench.