The Tool Bag: Incorporating First Order Retrievability

[Bessy]

I'm sure many of you have seen posts before mentioning Adam Savage's "First Order Retrievability" mindset. For those of you that have not, here is the just of it: "No tool [has] to be moved out of the way to get to another." (http://www.wired.com/2012/08/inside-adam-savages-toolbox/)

Now a little background on myself:

"My name is Corey, and I am a tool addict."

In all seriousness, I love tools. I love working with tools, I love finding tools, buying tools. It just so happens that with such an addiction, I have many projects on the go where tools are used, and indeed look for places to use tools. I'm the type of guy who won't carry around a pocket knife, but instead have a pocket knife, a mini screw driver, a flashlight, a leatherman, and a paper clip (You wouldn't believe the times a paper clip has got me out of a jamb!) in my many pockets.

It's only natural that given my condition, and the right atmosphere (notably a summer job wherein I am tasked with anything from trimming trees to repairing water lines, all the while having what is best described as an exiguous tool stock. Honestly, it's abysmal, without a doubt!) I took to carrying a go bag of tools with me to work on a more or less daily basis. Now what I am working out of is a soft sided, 17x10ish inch, zippered tool bag, and a soft sided drill/driver bag that holds my porter cable 12v tools and any related items.

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The first bag, I won on a fishing trip a few years back and only in the last 4 or so years put to use. It's got lots of compartments of varying size lining the interior walls, but it's not ideal for standing tools up in, as the material doesn't hold things up well. Additionally, with "big" tools (not large in comparison to say a 3/4" impact gun, or a BFH, but large in scale compared to their relative space in the bag), The bag becomes cumbersome and a relative pain in the **** when it comes to finding what you want and digging it out of the bottom of the bag. Enter the Adam Savage FOR mindset.

This project really started out for a few reasons:
- I was bored,
- I had been digging through my tool bag looking for a tool I knew I had but couldn't find,
- I was bored...

So here is more or less what I have crammed into the bag currently (including, not pictured, a small 3/8" drive socket set and a full set of combo wrenches).

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Now I know what you are thinking: Seems like a mess, it's disorganized, it's clumsy, it's lacking truck brands.

- It is a mess, that's why I am doing this,
- It is disorganized, that's why I am doing this,
- It is full of cheap ****, that a) I don't really mind if I lose/break/drop into the water while working on a dock, and b) I'm a broke, Ramen eating, university student.

So rather than really planning this out (did I mention I was bored?), I just found some scrap plywood and went to town. I did however consider a few things during my build:

- Only use what I have on hand, or can source for free
- make things semi permanent such that I can change it if I find I don't like it

I did not however get as far as determining what to chuck back into my shop box, and what to keep, what to add, etc. That will come in further posts, as I hone and develop the system to fit my needs, both current and future.

So here goes:

I found a couple scraps of 1/2" plywood measuring about 7 3/4" wide. These will serve to be my base to build off of, because they are a) available, free, and b) not important enough that I feel the need to keep them whole (wood is renewable!)

I cut the base for the bag to 15 1/2", to allow for some wiggle room fitting it in. I radiused the corners and sanded down both faces as well as the edges, such that I wasn't going to get poked, or slivered reaching in.

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and fit...

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After fitting it in, I decided to look at laying out the tools. The "plan" is an area off one end to hold the torch bottle, any lubricant bottles, etc, a more or less full length compartment where long/bulky tools will lay, out of the way, and then a series of pieces of pipe for pockets to stand stuff like pliers, screw drivers, etc, much the same as seen at:http://www.instructables.com/id/First-Order-Retrievability-Toolbag/

I cut two pieces of plywood down to 4 1/2" square, and 4 1/2"x 11 1/2". This will allow for a full length side to hold large tools that is approximately 4" wide, and another 4" wide side that will be further partitioned for stand up tools.

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Voila! through the magic of the internet, I have installed the framework into the bag! (in reality I just didn't have enough hands to safely operate a saw and a camera at the same time).

Now that is about where things stand as of right now. I have a wedding to attend tomorrow, so I won't likely get back at this project until about Monday, but such is life.

In terms of how my brain works (psychologically speaking, my Id got the best of me this time), I begun this project by cutting up a socket rail because I was sick of digging through the side pockets looking for a 13mm socket. Here is how that went down:
This:

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Met with my little friend, the craftsman rotary tool (a $5 garage sale find, complete with a surprising number of bits/discs/sanding drums/etc.)

And became these:

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To hold these:

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My cheapy sockets that won't break my heart or my wallet if they fall off a dock while installing cleats while hanging almost upside down... No that's not happened before at all...

That's all for now folks! Stay tuned for our next episode where I look at holding tools upright! Feel free to fire off any ideas/pics/etc. that may pertain to or assist in my development of a First Order Retrievability system. I can feel it folks! The number of times I will revamp this will only increase here on out! These tools, as well as others, do make the trip from Toronto to the Lake (homeland in the sticks) and back on a frequent basis so I will likely find ways to tweak things as I go.

And though I haven't added it to my signature line yet, I'll leave everyone with a quote that I have yet to source: "Don't make suggestions, make improvements!"

 

[zoomzoomjeff]

Good methodical approach to organizing your toolbag--something you use everyday.

 

[gooseadrian]

I can dig it. Where I work on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays I have to load tools into a tool bag and go help one of our guys in the field. Then at night when back at the shop I store everything back in my Mac box. So close to just buying a "field" set to keep in the bag and if I do I will use this idea. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bruce57]

Great idea, nice job. I had the same problem but decided to go to a cantilever tool box. Disorganization cost me too much time.

 

[platform389]

I just found some scrap plywood

The first time your fingernail finds one of these edges and shoves a splinter in, you shall know pain.

 

[Sine Swept]

Just a tip, buy a full set of locking extensions and you won't have to lose any more sockets or you will end up like this guy:

http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=288990

 

[captain14]

I tried to use 4 Inch square PVC tubing once to hold tools upright, not very successful at it. I will stayed tuned for ideas.


There has been more than one thread here on tool bags and their contents. A few were job specific .

Maybe someone here remembers some of them and can post a link.

 

[Bessy]

The first time your fingernail finds one of these edges and shoves a splinter in, you shall know pain.

I had considered this and came at it from a few fronts. For starters, the plywood I used was finished on one side already and of a nicer grade than say chip board or related material. I took the belt sander to the edges, radiused the corners and sanded smooth the flats with I think about 80 grit paper. the exposed surfaces took a little more care and are quite nice on the hands now. I may go back over the actual top edges of the vertical partitions again with a dremel equipped with a sanding wheel to bevel the edges if I determine that they are either getting rough or beginning to splinter.

Whether this is reiteration or not, this is the first attempt on my part to make this work. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was my tool bag lol! Part of the reason for using what I have on hand, is that I won't necessarily feel bad if I decide to scrap it and try something else. As I write this actually, I began considering the possibility of using some of that cutting board material made popular by Lilscorpion's thread, but again I'm trying to do this with "free" in mind.

So not a whole lot to report, no pictures until this evening (If I'm not exhausted by the time I get off work), but I did take a look at the bag for a few minutes over my lunch break. I had sketched (very roughly) out the layout of 2" pvc, that was originally in the running for possible use for standing tools, after looking at that idea for a few minutes (without actually cutting any pipe). If you were to lay out the pipe segments in a more or less square (vs rombus style) fashion, you are left with potentially convenient openings between pipes, wherein one might be able to slot such things as screwdrivers or maybe needle nose style pliers.

I still am seeking other options (ideas welcomed), however, as it may not be the most efficient use of space. Over lunch I started just playing with setting the pliers and cutters and v.grips, etc. on the edge of the 11.5" divider that runs approximately 2/3 the length of the bag right now, as presented in Adam's tool rack he made for pliers and what not. Rather than dowel, I just used the same idea over the edge of the plywood. In terms of First Order Retrievability, it seemed like a fairly simple concept when it came to removal of the tool, but less functional upon returning the tool as some sets of pliers tended to lean against one another, effectively negating the "move one tool to reach another" concept. Like I said, ideas here are welcome.

Sine Swept:

I have yet to actually lose a socket (knock on wood), and actually never off the end of the ratchet. For our own docks where I dock my boat, the riffraff that work together to get the docks in and out each season have been known to put too much weight on the end of a raft, or bump around enough to jar tools into the water. Me being the young guy on the job, get to strip down to my shorts and climb into the water in April and or October to fish out dropped tools, I wouldn't recommend it!

In the mean time, I was looking at the sockets that I do have in the bag, and wondering just how to go about incorporating those rails into the bag, as I wouldn't mind having them made to be removable such that I wasn't sticking my hands into the bag fumbling to remove or install a socket on a rail. The best solution I have come up with so far is to find some of those circular neo magnets and counter sinking them into the plywood (depending on thickness, perhaps I just glue around the edges, making both sides of the ply magnetic to hold each rail). The rationale being that I could take the whole rail out when I needed metric sockets.The trick there would be (if I'm drilling all the way through to use both sides,) finding a sturdy enough glue to keep the magnets intact.

Well that's about all I gots to say about that,

Cheers folks, and remember, don't make suggestions, make improvements!

 

[iScream]

Looks good to me if it serves your needs. Do you have any screws in those plywood joints? If not you might want to drill a couple pilot holes and use screws to reinforce. Even better would be borrowing a pocket hole jig so you can put screws in where they will have the most strength.

Don't take that as criticism though. It isn't intended that way.

-Chris

 

[Bessy]

Chris,

I have glued all the joins and shot them with brad nails, i believe they are 1.25" if I recall correctly.