UncleJoe
Well-known member
Well I looked around the shop one day and realized I needed some better tool storage. I have 3 older Craftsman bottom boxes on wheels and the red and the black Harbor freight tool carts but I wanted something more.
I spent a lot of time searching all the threads here for ideas. When I found a photo of an idea I liked I copied it to a word document so I had a collection of all the best ideas in one place.
I laid out my main goals.
1. I wanted storage for all the nuts and bolts and small parts and I like the yellow bins but I do not want them filled with sawdust or welding/grinding dust so I need to have a way to enclose them.
2. I have a little roll around cart that I put the tools I am using on the current project and I want to be able to store it in a covered place if I am making a lot of dust and dirt.
3. I want a lot of storage real estate and that means drawers.
4. I like a wall to hang often used tools.
5. I want a large work area that can be quickly covered up to keep dirt and dust away.
Basically I do not like having to clean dust and dirt off of tools just so I can use them and I tend to create a lot of dust and dirt when I work.
Now I am pretty handy with wood but the time it would take to make all the drawers and the cost of the ball bearing slides for each drawer adds up fast. Then I saw a tool storage idea from Nkachur and I headed in a new design direction. In the great Garage Journal tradition I stole his ideas and the many other great ideas I find here and went to work.
Base drawer units. I found these at Craftsman. When I got to really examining my needs for drawers and looking at the craftsman rollers I have which are older easy glide I knew I wanted ball bearing drawers but I could easily use one set of drawers that were easy glide and that would save a few dollars. I found a nice 5 drawer that had the size drawers I needed and were priced right. The other two sets were four drawer with roller bearings. I finished off with 2 small drawer side cabinets to handle the smaller things. I will build a drawer below them for manuals and documents.
I had one more thing I wanted to do with this unit. I sort of challenged myself to build the entire thing with just a few tools. This worked out nice since my table saw and drill press were at my fathers garage and I did not want to bring them over. So I build the entire thing with a hammer, screw driver, circular saw, with a new finish blade (makes all the difference), a kreg jig, and since I had my miter saw setup I used it to make quick cuts of the 1x4 material, a palm sander and my cordless drill and impact driver. Those are the only tools I used.
I paid $507 for the craftsman cabinets, shipped to store, I bought 5 pieces of Plywood, a few 1x4's, some paint and some hinges.
I spent a lot of time searching all the threads here for ideas. When I found a photo of an idea I liked I copied it to a word document so I had a collection of all the best ideas in one place.
I laid out my main goals.
1. I wanted storage for all the nuts and bolts and small parts and I like the yellow bins but I do not want them filled with sawdust or welding/grinding dust so I need to have a way to enclose them.
2. I have a little roll around cart that I put the tools I am using on the current project and I want to be able to store it in a covered place if I am making a lot of dust and dirt.
3. I want a lot of storage real estate and that means drawers.
4. I like a wall to hang often used tools.
5. I want a large work area that can be quickly covered up to keep dirt and dust away.
Basically I do not like having to clean dust and dirt off of tools just so I can use them and I tend to create a lot of dust and dirt when I work.
Now I am pretty handy with wood but the time it would take to make all the drawers and the cost of the ball bearing slides for each drawer adds up fast. Then I saw a tool storage idea from Nkachur and I headed in a new design direction. In the great Garage Journal tradition I stole his ideas and the many other great ideas I find here and went to work.
Base drawer units. I found these at Craftsman. When I got to really examining my needs for drawers and looking at the craftsman rollers I have which are older easy glide I knew I wanted ball bearing drawers but I could easily use one set of drawers that were easy glide and that would save a few dollars. I found a nice 5 drawer that had the size drawers I needed and were priced right. The other two sets were four drawer with roller bearings. I finished off with 2 small drawer side cabinets to handle the smaller things. I will build a drawer below them for manuals and documents.
I had one more thing I wanted to do with this unit. I sort of challenged myself to build the entire thing with just a few tools. This worked out nice since my table saw and drill press were at my fathers garage and I did not want to bring them over. So I build the entire thing with a hammer, screw driver, circular saw, with a new finish blade (makes all the difference), a kreg jig, and since I had my miter saw setup I used it to make quick cuts of the 1x4 material, a palm sander and my cordless drill and impact driver. Those are the only tools I used.
I paid $507 for the craftsman cabinets, shipped to store, I bought 5 pieces of Plywood, a few 1x4's, some paint and some hinges.
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