Lump
Well-known member
My youngest son has been out of work, so I offered him a chance to come and work for me, sorting out the vintage tools I bought last year.
WHEW, what a big project this is turning out to be!
I mentioned my big sorting project to Bull, 'cause I have a few old tools I have been saving for him. I said I might want to put some pix on GJ. He encouraged me to do so, so here I go. (Remember, Bull TOLD me to do it. And you can't refuse a moderator with a name like "Bull!", can you?)
My entire garage is a total mess, for many reasons. But the large volume of used tools I bought last year is really contributing to the problem.
I have never liked storing stuff on the floor, but there is just too much, so I have tools everywhere on my shop floor right now.
MORE tools on the floor! Aaarrgggh!
Yep, you guessed it: Even MORE tools on my floor. Sigh.
I've been working on this for a while, but it is great to finally have a little help. I've got to help the kid make his house payment anyway, so I might as well get a little labor help out of the deal.
Buckets and boxes full. I should be ashamed, but I LOVE this stuff! Somebody call the "Hoarders" TV show! I wanna be a star.
The tool boxes are FULL.
Adjustable wrenches and such:
Pliers, etc, etc.
The parts cleaning tank is full too.
It has been hard to store them in an organized fashion, so I went out and bought some bins on sturdy wire shelves.
Now at least we are getting STARTED at sorting the tools. We keep having to re-arrange the bins, when we find that we had more of one brand than we expected, and less of another.
So we drag a box or two of miscellaneous tools into my little computer room where the bins and shelves are located, and then we sit with a beer and slowly clean and sort each tool by brand name...for now.
Later we'll have to divide them up with more "sorts"...especially Craftsman. We have literally thousands of Craftsman sockets. But I've been snatching them up whenever they were too cheap for years...and hardly ever selling any.
So now the floor of my little computer office is ALSO crammed up with tools waiting to be sorted by brand name. Sigh.
More tools on office floor:
Still more tools on computer room floor. And the tool boxes you see are piled on top of other tool boxes...full, of course:
The wire racks and bins weren't enough, so I added some shelves and more plastic bins along the side:
Maybe you would like to see inside a typical plastic bin or two? Here is a Mac bin photo:
This is a Proto bin. Every tool in this bin is a Proto, but I think it is about 25% of the Proto tools I have. Most are not yet sorted, I think.
Here is an example of a bin which must now be re-sorted, because there are too many tools of each brand. On the left is SK, in the middle is Snap On/Blue Point/Par-X, and the right side is Thorsen and Action. But they are already full, so each will need its own separate bin.
These two tool boxes are STUFFED to the point that the bottom one is too heavy to lift. One of them is all Craftsman tools (mostly wrenches) and the other is non-Craftsman USA-made wrenches.
I HATE a cluttered work bench! But look at all these tools waiting to be cleaned and sorted. I've got SK socket set boxes all over the place.
From yet another room inside the house:
Craftsman sockets, and a pair of Wiss aviations I couldn't resist.
On my computer room shelves, awaiting sorting:
Here is a gift from a friend, who is a retired life-time technician. When he heard I collected old USA and European-made automotive tools, he just started digging through his tool box, and handed me a very nice pile of Snap On, Mac, and Matco. Nice gift, eh?
One of the piles of Plomb tools, awaiting sorting into the proper bins.
Okay, that's enough for now. Remember, if you hate seeing this stuff, yell at Bull...not me!
Personally, I have grown sick of it being a mess like this. Before I got contaminated with the Garage Journal fever, I had a nice clean shop, with my small collection of tools nicely sorted, and plenty of clean space. But NOW look at me. You guys and gals have RUINED me.
Thank goodness my son is working on these nearly every day. Once that first batch is sorted, I can start cleaning and selling a few. (Anyone need any old tools?) Then, whenever I find more to drag home, I can clean them and put them away immediately by brand name.
Or at least, that is my theory!!!
WHEW, what a big project this is turning out to be!
I mentioned my big sorting project to Bull, 'cause I have a few old tools I have been saving for him. I said I might want to put some pix on GJ. He encouraged me to do so, so here I go. (Remember, Bull TOLD me to do it. And you can't refuse a moderator with a name like "Bull!", can you?)
My entire garage is a total mess, for many reasons. But the large volume of used tools I bought last year is really contributing to the problem.
I have never liked storing stuff on the floor, but there is just too much, so I have tools everywhere on my shop floor right now.
MORE tools on the floor! Aaarrgggh!
Yep, you guessed it: Even MORE tools on my floor. Sigh.
I've been working on this for a while, but it is great to finally have a little help. I've got to help the kid make his house payment anyway, so I might as well get a little labor help out of the deal.
Buckets and boxes full. I should be ashamed, but I LOVE this stuff! Somebody call the "Hoarders" TV show! I wanna be a star.
The tool boxes are FULL.
Adjustable wrenches and such:
Pliers, etc, etc.
The parts cleaning tank is full too.
It has been hard to store them in an organized fashion, so I went out and bought some bins on sturdy wire shelves.
Now at least we are getting STARTED at sorting the tools. We keep having to re-arrange the bins, when we find that we had more of one brand than we expected, and less of another.
So we drag a box or two of miscellaneous tools into my little computer room where the bins and shelves are located, and then we sit with a beer and slowly clean and sort each tool by brand name...for now.
Later we'll have to divide them up with more "sorts"...especially Craftsman. We have literally thousands of Craftsman sockets. But I've been snatching them up whenever they were too cheap for years...and hardly ever selling any.
So now the floor of my little computer office is ALSO crammed up with tools waiting to be sorted by brand name. Sigh.
More tools on office floor:
Still more tools on computer room floor. And the tool boxes you see are piled on top of other tool boxes...full, of course:
The wire racks and bins weren't enough, so I added some shelves and more plastic bins along the side:
Maybe you would like to see inside a typical plastic bin or two? Here is a Mac bin photo:
This is a Proto bin. Every tool in this bin is a Proto, but I think it is about 25% of the Proto tools I have. Most are not yet sorted, I think.
Here is an example of a bin which must now be re-sorted, because there are too many tools of each brand. On the left is SK, in the middle is Snap On/Blue Point/Par-X, and the right side is Thorsen and Action. But they are already full, so each will need its own separate bin.
These two tool boxes are STUFFED to the point that the bottom one is too heavy to lift. One of them is all Craftsman tools (mostly wrenches) and the other is non-Craftsman USA-made wrenches.
I HATE a cluttered work bench!
But look at all these tools waiting to be cleaned and sorted. I've got SK socket set boxes all over the place.
From yet another room inside the house:
Craftsman sockets, and a pair of Wiss aviations I couldn't resist.
On my computer room shelves, awaiting sorting:
Here is a gift from a friend, who is a retired life-time technician. When he heard I collected old USA and European-made automotive tools, he just started digging through his tool box, and handed me a very nice pile of Snap On, Mac, and Matco. Nice gift, eh?
One of the piles of Plomb tools, awaiting sorting into the proper bins.
Okay, that's enough for now. Remember, if you hate seeing this stuff, yell at Bull...not me!
Personally, I have grown sick of it being a mess like this. Before I got contaminated with the Garage Journal fever, I had a nice clean shop, with my small collection of tools nicely sorted, and plenty of clean space. But NOW look at me. You guys and gals have RUINED me.
Thank goodness my son is working on these nearly every day. Once that first batch is sorted, I can start cleaning and selling a few. (Anyone need any old tools?) Then, whenever I find more to drag home, I can clean them and put them away immediately by brand name.
Or at least, that is my theory!!!
My shop looks like hell again. 
Tool guy, sell me a ratchet!) 
