Tooling organization

[Scottwi]

I've been learning the value of "kits" for working on the house and barn. Much easier when you can just grab 1-2 boxes than 10 different things. You do end up needing a few more tools but its usually stuff you have in the spares bin

Don't have systainer money so I've been trying the Ridgid Pro toolboxes from Home Depot. http://www.homedepot.com/s/ridgid%20pro%20tool%20box?NCNI-5

So far I like them for the most part
Pros -
Very sturdy, can use them as a step-stool without worry
Handles are large and easy to grab
lock together well
cart option without much cost
2 fit side by side in the back of my jeep

Cons
Smell like china when you buy them
no drawer options
only sold by HD, may go away one day

I went with the Dewalt tough system instead of the rigid because I want drawers. They are also sold by Home Depot but only on line around here.

They are more money but having drawers was worth it for me.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/DEWALT-T...er-Capacity-2-Drawer-Unit-DWST08225/204359104

 

[lilscorpion]

I've always been extremely pleased by the form and function of WoodPeckers tools and the two I might just use the most are the 3 and 6-inch squares.

Last week I got a little something something in the mail. For reference, the small square in the middle is the 3-inch from above.

Now if i can just figure out how to not drop them when using them and how to store them when I'm not.

 

[Genuine GM]

Where did you get that? I thought the Framing Square was a One-Time Tool?

 

[Genuine GM]

Never mind, I see they did a run in October. Dangit!

 

[lilscorpion]

Never mind, I see they did a run in October. Dangit!

It's fairly difficult to keep up with the WoodPecker OTT's while they're being offered unless you subscribe to their newsletter. I've wanted these since they first offered them a few years ago and fortunately caught them when they came back around but only because I subscribed this time.


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[bixxjs]

Got to give you a BIG thumbs up,great looking storage solutions.

 

[lilscorpion]

Today I worked on moving the ladders to make room for more cabinets over the garage doors. As Jo Diesel and I were discussing, I decided to take advantage of the unused space above the garage doors which has previously gone unused. I chose to consolidate all of my larger ladder and us as little space as possible. Warning...picture heavy.

One of my goals in reorganizing the garage is I wanted to use as much of the materials I had laying around all possible in the organization effort so i didn't have to store them anymore. All of the cabinets thus far were left-over sheets of plywood from previous cabinet builds. I have 3 pieces of uni-strut so I decided to build off of the longest which was a 12 or 14-footer. The hanger assembly was going to be made out of some holy 1-inch square tubing I've had since forever. I started by welding some uni-strut braces to the bottom of the 24-inch pieces.

Now it's been probably 3 years since I've welded anything that you'd call fabrication. I know it's been about this long because I realized I no longer have a welding table which is a far departure from what I used to have at the shop - 2 tables that were 5x5, 1/2-inch tops, and clamp and fixture friendly. Since those days are long since behind me, I made a make-shift fab table out of OSB and one of my Dewalt saw-horses. Worked fine but having to attach the ground directly to the item SUCKED. Anyway...after welding them both up and attaching the uni-strut to the ceiling, I was well on my way.

Almost immediately I really got into the metal fab. It was my first true fab skills I developed when I was in my early 20's and every time I get to do even a little, the ideas flood my mind. Now I needed to make some ladder racks. I sorted through my material pile and found some u-channel that I think I originally purchased at HomeDepot.

I made an angle cut and then cut the walls away from the channel so I'd have a tongue.

This allows one piece to "french" into the other channel.

Then I gut a V into the walls of the channel about 15 1/2 inches up from the tongue.

I found a piece of 3/4-inch round tubing (about 1/16-wall) which I'll use for the hanger surface (which the ladders will sit on). Having the hanger surface be round will prevent the ladders from getting torn up while sliding on them.

Now I bend the u-channel where I gut the V-groove to match the angle needed.

 

[lilscorpion]

Then weld it up. Now that I know the measurements, I cut up another.

The reason I got into the business long ago in the first place was I really enjoyed being able to make exact duplicate copies of parts (over and over and over again). Somehow I get a deep sense of accomplishment doing so. In this case, I only needed two (bummer).

Once cooled to the touch I wire-wheeled the heat affected zones to remove the dis-coloration (to return them back to the raw metal look) and bolted them in place.

And hung the ladders which had plenty of clearance above the garage door.

 

[lilscorpion]

I have one more tall ladder that I intended hanging on the other side of the rack. this one is a fiberglass ladder but has a much more wedge shape to it. I made some smaller hangers with a slightly different offset to make clearance for the taper shape.

Mounted it fits up there really nice and fills all usable space.

As luck would have it, I managed to get the ladder exactly where it needed to be. High enough to make it onto the hanger which just BARELY clears the door. Hard to see in this picture but that's about 1/2 to 3/4-inch of clearance. Fortunately the door tracks are where the door tracks are and will never move. Good enough.

This non-sense took way too long but now I'm ready to continue with the cabinets. Getting close now.

 

[dblattack]

Wow the machined tool box organizers on page 1 is perfect! Definitely doing this to all my boxes. Thanks for the great idea.

 

[lilscorpion]

I have one more tall ladder that I intended hanging on the other side of the rack. this one is a fiberglass ladder but has a much more wedge shape to it. I made some smaller hangers with a slightly different offset to make clearance for the taper shape.

Mounted it fits up there really nice and fills all usable space.

As luck would have it, I managed to get the ladder exactly where it needed to be. High enough to make it onto the hanger which just BARELY clears the door. Hard to see in this picture but that's about 1/2-inch of clearance. Fortunately the door tracks are where the door tracks are and will never move. Good enough.

Difficult to tell in the above picture but I added a brace to the middle of the uni-strut which prevents the uni-strut from pivoting on the lag screws that are mounted up into the stud in the ceiling. Without it, the strut would easily sway back and forth as I loaded the racks. Now it can't move around at all.

 

[neilc]

Really nice use of available space. And a great step-by-step series of photos.

I was surprised the first two ladders hung as straight as they did. I though they might cause the uprights to lean to one side with the weight. But the other side definitely would counter-balance.

Looks like you have to have a ladder to get those down?!

How do you like the Millermatic welder?

 

[lilscorpion]

Really nice use of available space. And a great step-by-step series of photos.

How do you like the Millermatic welder?

I'm on the fence. My last Miller was a MM250X which was more old-school and had wire speed and voltage settings. The more I welded with it, the more dialing it in became second nature. This is a MM212 Autoset version which is supposed to take the guessing work out of it for you (though you can use it in both modes if you like). You select the wire size and then the thickness of material you wish to weld and it's supposed to do handle it all for you.

What I dislike is that the autoset doesn't always seem to find the sweet spot. In many cases I set the material thickness to be one size thicker than what it really is. Otherwise the weld just looks too cold to me. In general I like the machine. It's nice not having to be at one with the thing especially since I don't weld with it all that often anymore.

 

[lilscorpion]

I was surprised the first two ladders hung as straight as they did. I though they might cause the uprights to lean to one side with the weight. But the other side definitely would counter-balance.

Looks like you have to have a ladder to get those down?!

It hangs almost level. I'm going to add uni-strut braces to the main length that run perpendicular to it and prevent it from racking as much. I just couldn't spend any more time on it today. Will have to wait until next weekend.

Yes, I'll have to use a ladder to get them down. For the blue one, I can get it down with my 4-foot ladder easily. The other two I'll have to use my 5-foot ladder. I use the 4-footer daily and the 5-footer once a month. These ladders on the rack I use maybe twice a year which is why there up and out of the way. If i need a ladder to get them down, no biggie.

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

Have you considered switching to a shaft drive garage door opener to eliminate the garage door opener track?

 

[lilscorpion]

Have you considered switching to a shaft drive garage door opener to eliminate the garage door opener track?

I didn't even know something like that existed. Not very expensive either. Looks like I'd have to switch to a torsion spring to get one which might require me to shorten all those cabinets I just built...maybe not though. Man, would be nice to ditch the trolley and opener.


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[Dick in Wisconsin]

I didn't even know something like that existed. Not very expensive either. Looks like I'd have to switch to a torsion spring to get one which might require me to shorten all those cabinets I just built...maybe not though. Man, would be nice to ditch the trolley and opener.

OOOOPS. I didn't realize you didn't have a torsion spring bar until you mentioned it and I looked. Standing inside the garage my Lift Master 8500 was installed on the right hand side of the garage door. I don't have the install instructions close at hand, but I suspect the device can be installed on either side of the door if that helps you out. My first one is on the large door to the new 1000sf race shop. Love it. Very quiet. Works slick.

 

[lilscorpion]

OOOOPS. I didn't realize you didn't have a torsion spring bar until you mentioned it and I looked. Standing inside the garage my Lift Master 8500 was installed on the right hand side of the garage door. I don't have the install instructions close at hand, but I suspect the device can be installed on either side of the door if that helps you out. My first one is on the large door to the new 1000sf race shop. Love it. Very quiet. Works slick.

I'm going to look into a lift master. After looking and some measuring, I think getting rid of the trolley setup would be a great improvement in the shop. Right now I don't have lighting above the doors and if I removed the trolleys that's exactly where I'd put it.

We've talked about getting new insulated garage doors. Maybe I'll upgrade the opening awtuo when we do.


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[Strouty]

So have you made a nice rack for those woodpeckers yet?

Looking good, as always you are a master at the space game.

 

[lilscorpion]

So have you made a nice rack for those woodpeckers yet?



Looking good, as always you are a master at the space game.

Not yet. I'm thinking of reworking the cabinets along the base of my workbench so that I can have two extremely wide drawers where I would organize all of my layout and measurement tools. Right now I'm waffling between using MDF (like the woodpeckers tools come with), Phone, or HDPE like my other doors. I probably won't get to it until summer though.

My wife and I talked about the space game just a few days ago actually. My thought is this - if I had a much bigger space, I would likely be less efficient with it. All of what I've done I've done out of necessity. This lesson has been good for both of us though. I've learned how to be more efficient how I organize my tools and she's learned that when my garage isn't big enough, her parking spot is outside. Hopefully what we've learned will help us select our next house to better suit our needs.


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[HWgeek]

Re: Tool Organization

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[wkearney99]

It's fairly difficult to keep up with the WoodPecker OTT's while they're being offered unless you subscribe to their newsletter.

THIS.

Though, recent OTTs haven't been interesting enough to pay the Woodpeckers premium. Yeah, it's well-made stuff but not all of it is worth having.

 

[lilscorpion]

THIS.



Though, recent OTTs haven't been interesting enough to pay the Woodpeckers premium. Yeah, it's well-made stuff but not all of it is worth having.

Agreed. After paying attention to their OTT's for a while now I'd classify some as novelty and some as nice to have. The ones I've purchased are for layout especially in situations where I think square is important.

 

[lonestarky]

Re: Tool Organization

8500's can be installed on either side of the door. I think there is a plastic cap that is just switched from one side to the other.

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[jnyost]

I'm going to look into a lift master. After looking and some measuring, I think getting rid of the trolley setup would be a great improvement in the shop. Right now I don't have lighting above the doors and if I removed the trolleys that's exactly where I'd put it.

We've talked about getting new insulated garage doors. Maybe I'll upgrade the opening awtuo when we do.


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I love my liftmaster. 2 of my 3 doors are hi-lift doors so I had to have a jackshaft opener. Not wanting to spend the money on a commercial unit, I went with the consumer liftmaster and am glad I did. It's super quiet. I plan on swapping out my regular opener in the attached garage and purchasing two more for the other shop doors.

 

[lilscorpion]

I love my liftmaster. 2 of my 3 doors are hi-lift doors so I had to have a jackshaft opener. Not wanting to spend the money on a commercial unit, I went with the consumer liftmaster and am glad I did. It's super quiet. I plan on swapping out my regular opener in the attached garage and purchasing two more for the other shop doors.

How much does a setup cost?

My next door neighbor just did the hi-lift conversion using jack shaft opener in both of his doors. Have him so much overhead room he was able to build a lift for his 500lb raft and lift it high enough he can park his 2017 Ford Diesel under it. He did both doors for about $600. I️ fairly certain that didn’t include the openers.

I️ personally decided not to. I️ utilized the space above the doors for my ladders. Now I️ don’t want to lose that storage space.


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[1966chev]

I installed a 8500 also in my garage with a 8 ft high 16 ft wide door. It works beautifully. So much quieter than the old chain drive. It also automatically locks when the door comes down. I will install one when I get the add on to my shop done with the 2 post lift. This way the garage door opener is not in the way when the car is raised on the lift.

Eric

 

[RonRock]

I've always been extremely pleased by the form and function of WoodPeckers tools and the two I might just use the most are the 3 and 6-inch squares.

Last week I got a little something something in the mail. For reference, the small square in the middle is the 3-inch from above.

Now if i can just figure out how to not drop them when using them and how to store them when I'm not.

Just an FYI for anyone interested, I see that the most recent OTT is the 1281 SE.

https://www.woodpeck.com/1281se.htm...09532699&_bta_c=2tmzpgo1rg1xdim99m17x6f82ctnb


I'm considering it. But it is a pretty pricey piece for my budget. I do like a tool that I can trust though.

 

[lilscorpion]

Just an FYI for anyone interested, I see that the most recent OTT is the 1281 SE.

https://www.woodpeck.com/1281se.htm...09532699&_bta_c=2tmzpgo1rg1xdim99m17x6f82ctnb


I'm considering it. But it is a pretty pricey piece for my budget. I do like a tool that I can trust though.

Man that's a sweet ruler. If I didn't already have a 1281 I'd order it. I know they're pricey but I really like using them for a variety of tasks.

 

[lilscorpion]

For those of you who have subscribed and fancy an adventure, I've created a new thread Tooling (Re)Organization where I'm doing a walk through and then overhall of my shop.

 

[Dusty.House]

Thank you, this is such a hugely inspirational thread.

I'm in the process of re-organizing my workshop. I'm glad I found this thread whilst I was in the design phase!

Any recommendations on where to research CNC? I'm not in a hurry to get into metal working, but being able to mill plastic like you do would be awesome.

 

[lilscorpion]

Thank you, this is such a hugely inspirational thread.

I'm in the process of re-organizing my workshop. I'm glad I found this thread whilst I was in the design phase!

Any recommendations on where to research CNC? I'm not in a hurry to get into metal working, but being able to mill plastic like you do would be awesome.

You can buy a nice bench top CNC router from a place like CNCRouterParts.com. I’ve had a few large CNC plasma style over the years which are fundamentally the same. Technology is much more advanced now. These CNC’s do very well on plastics, shine on foam, excellent with wood, and can even do aluminum. I’d love to have one. Let’s just say it’s on the 5-year plan. As for research - YouTube has some good system walkthroughs that will give you an idea of what you’re getting into. CNCZone.com has a forum specific to DIY http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cnc-router-table-machines/and other forums for just about every other kind of CNC you can think of.

Good luck!


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[Dusty.House]

You can buy a nice bench top CNC router from a place like CNCRouterParts.com. I’ve had a few large CNC plasma style over the years which are fundamentally the same. Technology is much more advanced now. These CNC’s do very well on plastics, shine on foam, excellent with wood, and can even do aluminum. I’d love to have one. Let’s just say it’s on the 5-year plan. As for research - YouTube has some good system walkthroughs that will give you an idea of what you’re getting into. CNCZone.com has a forum specific to DIY http://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-cnc-router-table-machines/and other forums for just about every other kind of CNC you can think of.

Good luck!


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Thank you!

 

[mr_magicfingers]

For those of you who have subscribed and fancy an adventure, I've created a new thread Tooling (Re)Organization where I'm doing a walk through and then overhall of my shop.

Good timing, I've just put a new floor in my shop so doing the whole re-organsation thing. Will enjoy looking through your thread, thanks.

 

[bigpapaporsche]

Come on! That the fun of it, looking through your Tool Box to find a Tools and seeing all the other Tools you haven't played with in a while. You definitely have the TTD, (Tool Time Disease). Be aware it can be cured, just visit your Harbor Freight Location for a "Fix" and get your free Flashlight.