Tooling (Re)Organization

[lilscorpion]

Over time, not all of the links in this Journal Post or the original post have survived and are now missing. Here are some links to albums where you should be able to find most of them in picture album format. Please enjoy.

Wrench Organizers - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5Uzl7VG51byG

Powder Coating Booth - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGrq0zwG3XBzh

HDPE Shelving Organizers - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5n8hH4q7W2u

Container Shelves - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGI9HKKGekeT5

Gas Bottle Stand - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5yeZFhG5UVPp

Folding Bench - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i59UlCq0QqDL

French Cleat Clamp Rack - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iJ0DiRHGBh6sH

Domino Offset Base - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5ON9t3lBbWp

HPLV Drawer Organizer - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGqkRUiGDg4E1

Lathe Tooling Organizer - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGfnH8tZHwlh

MFT Horses - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i53qWtHg1SGV

MFT Table - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGgZLKuJFiK5s

MFTC - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGtnIORjVVDT

Kurt Vise Stops - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5VaUrzGJBbaM

Nail Gun Rack - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iJEsNWnGMwac7

Knee Mill Accessory Arm - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGf693ZMPqjZ

Portable Drying Rack - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i55Z2WMK8ptC

R8 Tooling Organization - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGDdyTvGRlBAD

Powered Sys-Port - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5fk75v9Szrg

Ratchet Trays - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5idkMwfXxoo

Router Plate - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5GH8MqrUlSw

Bandsaw Router Plate - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGFssfGGTXrSi

Jigsaw Router Plate - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGRMtznGWnpb7

Router Stations - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGdIshaGUxwv8

Sys-Shelves - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0i5aVbMKGsnpKS

Sys-Toolbox - https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0iGQOeMmJIkpvk

Begin Original Post ———-

Some of you may have seen my previous thread that showed some things I've done in the past. For those of you who haven't, it's located here - Tooling Organization. To give some idea of timing, that thread was started November 11, 2012 which was (as of now) just more than 5 years go. Tooling Organization documented my organizational evolution from around November of 2010 until December of 2017. Roughly 7 years of evolving my organizational strategy, the last 7 years. This thread, this go-round, is the documentation of me taking my organization to the next level incorporating my learnings in recent years in cabinet fabrication and years of tucking away ideas I've found here and there and the documentation of my Tooling Organization from January 2018 - Now.

It has been somewhere between 2 and 3 years since I've made any effort on optimizations or organization in the shop. In those two years I've continued to acquire tools and use the shop for a variety of projects including remodeling nearly every room in the house, parting out a 1972 Chevy Pickup, building a Jeep, and a variety of other projects. The shop has served me well but during this time I've learned that my organization is less than ideal -

1. Buying new tools without getting rid of any of the old ones
2. The cabinetry I built to organize was designed to be universal (all drawers are nearly the same depth and width and i"m finding that, as a result, many of them are either too packed and/or the contents are shaped in such a way that a lot of the space ends up wasted.
3. Many of the drawers contain extremely occasional use items and/or items that I'll likely never use. eg - I found half dozen parts that fit a '72 Blazer I had in the 90's.
4. Small piles that never get dealt with become big piles. Being I only typically get a portion of the weekend to spend time in the garage, I rarely want to spend this limited time cleaning.

I have been contemplating/half planning a complete work space overall for a couple years now tucking ideas away for that moment where I just couldn't take it anymore. To be completely transparent, I have absolutely no idea how long this is going to take. I'm speculating it's going to take me 3 - 6 months but my wife his hopeful that it'll only take 2. Either way, it has to be done otherwise I’m gonna lose my mind.

I never did put together a shop tour so, to start is a 3 part recap of my space makes sense otherwise there's no way you'll understand the transformation. In the interest of time, I’m going to skip what I think is normal organization and/or normal stuff - like a drawer that I keep sandpaper in or a drawer full of hammers. I'll stick to the interesting ones or the ones that are a factor within the transformation. It’s likely going to take me more than a few days and few posts to get the current state documented so I apologize in advance of some of it is old hat.

Shop Tour Part 1

I have a 3 car garage. It’s double wide and one side is a tandem. It was, as both my wife and I agree, about the only compromise we made when buying this house. I previously had a 4 car and I really wanted a 5+ when we were looking but...it ended up the way it ended up. As a result, I've been chasing optimization ever since I moved in about 8 years ago.

As far as garages go, it’s not a small garage but you could never park (reasonably) a real car in the back of the tandem. Even if you did, you’d lose your damn mind trying to shuffle cards out of the way to get it out. I’ve watched a few of my neighbors do it for years and it looks stupid. Anyway, a 3 car…not a lot of space for how much stuff I have. I’ll start with what’s primarily shop space - the back half of the tandem. Here’s what the back half of the tandem looks like if you’re standing in front of it.



To the right is a a lathe I purchased shortly after I moved into this house about 8 years ago.

It’s a big-boy Mori Seiki MS-850 gap bed manual lathe that can swing an impressive 25+ inches if you remove the bed insert, more than 17” with it still in place. It took me about 10 years to find such a machine in its condition in the local market.



The cabinets above the lathe are the result of a wild hair I had back when I did the first attempt on shop organization. They’re telescoping cabinets which allow me to pull them towards me before opening the doors. Idea was to be able to get stuff out of the cabinets without getting grease or oil off of the lathe on my clothes. These are no shabby cabinets. They’re glued, stapled, and screwed running on dual 100lb slides.

The one doing the most work is my lathe tooling cabinet. Within that cabinet alone is 19 Aloris CA tool holders, some really big chucks, and a few big boy routers.



They were designed to make it all the way out over the lathe. This may give a better perspective. At full extension these hinges are straining just a little (but hanging in there).



There’s three of these telescoping cabinets that I’ve struggled to fill with stuff. Not because I don’t ave stuff to put in them, but because the size I arbitrarily made them isn’t conducive to much stuff. Their either too deep or not deep enough or too narrow. Neat idea, kinda fail.

In front of the lathe is a project I’ve been putzing around with for probably 3 years (maybe longer). It’s a reverse engineered MFTC that were the rage on FOG (festoolownersgroup.com) some years back. If you’re really paying attention you’d notice there’s another one not quite as far along up on the side-box just up and right in the below picture. Yeah, when I build stuff, I tend to build two. Ironically I’m nearly done but can’t seem to get up the motivation to spend the few hours to assemble the work surface. I’ll do a specific post about it in a bit.



Beyond the lathe is a pair of drawer bases that were the first two built back on my first build out when I believed that organization was, more or less, nothing less than having a **** ton of drawers. Being my first attempt, the cabinet assemblies were made out of white melamine (laminated particle board), the drawers were 1/2-inch baltic birch drawer sides, 1/2-inch baltic birch bottoms, and 100lb full extension drawer slides. Now here’s the neat thing - the drawer sides were assembled using only glue and narrow crown staples and they’ve held up extremely well to a considerable amount of weight i’ve asked them to hold.



This drawer base houses some of the more novel ideas I had around drawer organization. For those who’ve read my older Tooling Organization thread, this may be a recap and I apologize. Concepts were ‘Drawers within Drawers” kinda like the old tackle box my dad had for fishing. This one has all my hole saws and bits. Not a light drawer.





This one is plumbing supplies.





Top two drawers are much shallower and designed to hold measuring tools, calculators, files, some router table parts, sawzall and jig saw blades, etc.





Above that drawer base is a few more telescoping cabinets that were designed specifically for my nail guns, knee mill tooling, and saw/saw parts.

 

[bj383ss]

Scorpion,

Really looking forward to this thread. I have been having the same thought process as you. I want to rearrange my 3rd bay woodshop but I haven't quite figured out how I want to go yet. I am thinking of putting all my woodworking tools and my main bench on heavy duty mobile bases and casters. That way when I am not in woodshop mode and working on vehicles I can move all the woodworking machines out of the way and have more floor space for the auto shenanigans.

I too believe in having many drawers and still do but for me the shallower the better. Keeps me from just putting so much stuff in until the drawer won't close.

I absolutely loved your other thread and look forward to what ideas you come up with for storage. I built a cabinet last year with vertical drawers for my Auto detailing supplies and I have really come to like it well and want to build some more.

Bret

 

[Strouty]

Yessss!

 

[Duker]

Hopping on board for the journey!


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[ezover]

noooooo you cant just leave, must have more tool ****.

and freaking awesome setup so far. really like the cabinet set up.

if I spent as much time building stuff as I do surfing the GJ I could have a nice shop like that lol.

 

[TMcCay]

Always exciting to see what you are doing. Love the cabinets. May have to borrow some of your designs for my cabinets, hopefully this year!

 

[turbowoodworker]

Wonderful shop. I always loved your last thread, so this one will likely be another favorite.

 

[machsnell]

Nice work and you **** for being able to make such nice things out of wood. Jealous.

Share as much info as you can please.

Would like to idea steal.


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[Bob Heine]

I have been contemplating/half planning a complete work space overall for a couple years now tucking ideas away for that moment where I just couldn't take it anymore. To be completely transparent, I have absolutely no idea how long this is going to take. I'm speculating it's going to take me 3 - 6 months but my wife his hopeful that it'll only take 2. Either way, it has to be done otherwise I’m gonna lose my mind.

I'm in! Your space is already organized better than my dreams. I'm hoping some of your ideas will help me but my time frame for an insignificant overhaul is measured in years (in reality, decades!).

 

[EOC_Jason]

Where did you get that little organizer for all your files????

 

[Shiftless]

lilscorpion:.
Your mastery of the craft of cabinet design and fabrication is awe inspiring!

(Subscribed)

 

[mike93lx]

Subscribing!

 

[lilscorpion]

noooooo you cant just leave, must have more tool ****.

Unfortunately for me (and apparently for you guys too), limited time in the shop + the added time it takes to document everything + initial cleanup = slow to get things rolling. Bare with me though, once the tour is done I’ll pick up speed quickly.

Scorpion,

Really looking forward to this thread. I have been having the same thought process as you. I want to rearrange my 3rd bay woodshop but I haven't quite figured out how I want to go yet. I am thinking of putting all my woodworking tools and my main bench on heavy duty mobile bases and casters. That way when I am not in woodshop mode and working on vehicles I can move all the woodworking machines out of the way and have more floor space for the auto shenanigans.

I too believe in having many drawers and still do but for me the shallower the better. Keeps me from just putting so much stuff in until the drawer won't close.

Bret

I've drawn up the cabinet plans for my new benches and, as long as they turn out like I'm planning, I think you'll really like them. Only difference than what you're talking about is that they'll be fixed to the wall. I tried the mobile solution in my early 30's and found out that I most frequently kept them in the exact same place and disliked the wheels enough that I still bolted them to the wall so they'd not move.

Nice work and you **** for being able to make such nice things out of wood. Jealous.

Share as much info as you can please.

Would like to idea steal.

My wood fab skills have certainly evolved. I can build a cabinet much faster than a few years ago with more intentional outcomes. It has taken a lot of practice though and I've had quite a few fires fueled by my failures. To get enough practice as a DIY, you either have to be patient or cold. [emoji3]

"idea steal” got me thinking about what I'm going to do with my old cabinets. I'm tempted to sell them to someone local for the cost of the slides and pulls but I'm wondering if it's a silly notion. The cabinets would be complete (fully assembled, drawers with slides and liners. Only thing not included would be tops and bases. Rough math says that this main bench would be ~$500.

I'd try craigslist but hate selling things on craigslist (or maybe it's the people I attract on CL?). I'd be better off to remove all the pulls and slides and burn them.

 

[Shiftless]

I would gladly pay $500

 

[250]

Good to see you back in action. I enjoyed the last time around.

 

[mike93lx]

I would gladly pay $500

Same here

 

[PelicanPines]

I would have so much fun with a label maker and a few quarts of iced coffee. Oh... and one of my cats.

 

[neilc]

Appreciate your willingness to document your re-thinking of your space. Looking forward to learning from your first round and upcoming re-work.

neil

 

[QNH]

I'm subscribing to this thread while I'm still reading your Tool Organization thread. I think it will help me to improve my organization skills and get new ideas for the future projects I've in mind.

 

[mr_magicfingers]

Looking forward to this, very much. Your last thread was hugely entertaining and, having just put a new floor in my old shop, I'm currently moving everthing back in and doing some reorganisation. Building a few very basic cabinets along the way, though nothing of the level of yours. Maybe that will be for the next re-org

 

[rsanter]

You have put an amazing amount of time, energy’s and thought in your storage and organization.
I am fairly organized but not like you, I done have the time or energy to make all those cabinets and stuff. But I guess that explains why I have 17 toolboxes full of tools, tooling, etc

 

[mcbassin]

Very envious of your organization! I need to take a lesson or two from you... Subscribed

 

[lilscorpion]

Where did you get that little organizer for all your files????

Jason,

The file organizer is something I made out of 1-inch thick HDPE. IIRC, the slots are slightly wider than 3/16-inch and as deep as the end mill could cut. I’ve never seen anything like it commercially however I do have thoughts as to other ways it could be made if you don’t have a mill. I’ll throw this on the todo list. I’ll need another small file rack in my new file drawer.

Matt


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[lilscorpion]

...I guess that explains why I have 17 toolboxes full of tools, tooling, etc

There’s pro’s and con’s of any organization strategy. I like tool boxes but, as I’ll get to a few posts from now, I’ve not been able to find ones that meet my needs from a layout perspective. After doing the math I’m not sure the route I’ve chosen (build vs buy) is actually cheaper though I would expect everyone would assume building is.




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[sakurama]

Certainly don't want to miss this. I'm also needing to do an overhaul but I can't imagine how, short of getting rid of all my motorcycles, it could possibly work. Hopefully I'll be enlightened again!

Gregor

 

[carnutdallas]

Please hurry and do another 100 page+ thread so I can be mesmerized and binge read it in one epic reading. [emoji41]


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[Genuine GM]

I’ve read the first thread at least twice. Subscribing to this was a no-brainer.

 

[EOC_Jason]

I just started reading the first thread... OMG... Wow... Very detailed and I like all the pictures... Going to take a while to go through... lol.

 

[zmotorsports]

Subscribed.

Excellent organization.

 

[Bessy]

Yep I'm in for this! Your original thread was - I believe - what brought me to the GJ in the first place, so thanks for that! Looking forward to what you do in V2!

 

[RossOlsen]

Yep I'm in for this! Your original thread was - I believe - what brought me to the GJ in the first place, so thanks for that! Looking forward to what you do in V2!

Great job! I will be following!

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[lilscorpion]

Garage Tour, Part 2:

This cabinet is/was the perfect segway to the next section.

This tooling cabinets will be going away. The original goal of this and the cordless drill cabinets was to keep my tools stored out of sight. After a few years of use, I found that the tools I use most frequently were often stored outside of the cabinet to make them more accessible. An example of this is my R8 tooling. When I’m machining something, it’s kinda a pain to have to go into the cabinet multiple times and, as my collection of tools increased, it’s also limited in how many it can hold. I also didn't like that the bench top below them was so close that I couldn't really leverage it as work surface. It was perfect as a catch-all storage space...thus the reason it needs to go.

This tool bench was documented in the previous thread. It's in the back corner and a perfect swivel from the mill which makes it a perfect and well lit area to set up my tooling and store all of it in an easily accessible way. Unfortunately I build it to fit the tooling I have and left no room for expansion. My new setup should allow for a little more tooling capacity.

What you see isn’t fully finished but it’s finished enough to be fully functional so progress has stalled (more appropriately is “I’ve focused efforts elsewhere”). I’ve yet to build the frame for the cabinet or the shelf which will conceal the visible LED light strips. These are the tools that I most frequently use when machining and the red material is 1/2-inch thick cutting board.

To the left is my make-shift woodpeckers measuring wall shrine. What’s great about having such large measuring tools is that larger layouts becomes much easier and more exact/consistent. Sure a tape measure works but remember, I’m a machinist that woodworks. The accuracy of “the same” is very different between metal and woodworking. Given their size, about the only place I have to store them is the wall. No drawer or cabinet I have will fit the bigger ones...which totally ***** (I'll be solving this).

Below the tool bench is a craftsman 41” base that’s mounted into a uni-strut frame (like many GJ members are doing with the HF cabinets). This cabinet is where I keep most of my wrenches, sockets, ratchets, etc. Here are a few of the more organized drawers that I also documented in my old thread. First one is thicker HDPE (cutting board material) that I machined into tooling holders. The drawer is organized semi-ok. The socket trays aren't organized in such a way that it's easy to find tools. Usually people organize by drive size or type of socket...this drawer is organized by organizer size. The HDPE organizers I cut fit really only one way if you want everything to fit in the drawer and, even when you do get it right, there's absolutely no room for expansion. Both of these situations are gonna get fixed.

Second is the drawer that I have all my ratchets stored in HDPE trays. this is one of few drawers that I feel is really done. The only thing I don't like about it is I'd really also like to put my impacts and other drive tools in this drawer so all of the same tools are in the same place. Add that to the list of changes to come.

The other drawers look like everyone else’s. Mechanic time saver rails and wrench rails. I'll leave those out of this tour but note that I also want each of those drawers to have more room for expansion.

Next is to the back wall. This was the only place that made sense to store both of my home built MFT-like tables. One is a router table, the other is a general fabrication table. Below the router table is a 8020 frame that both of the MFT’s attach two. Only down-side to these is I have 2 tables and only one base. When I want to use both at the same time, I have to set one on my Dewalt Saw Horses.

Now to the opposing wall. Kinda difficult to see the entire thing but there’s a bench, actual tooling cabinets, and my CNC Knee Mill.

I’ll work from the furthest back out…so the Knee Mill. It’s a 9 x 24 Kent USA Knee that I retro fitted with a Centroid CNC system. I've built more things with this tool than with any other. If I lost everything today, I'd get another CNC almost immediately. Back when I had the machine shop I added a second vise so I could machine multiples and/or machine second ops. Having multiple vises is so handy that id promise this - if the table on the mill was a little bigger I'd probably have a third vise.

Next to it is a pair of Lista tool cabinets stacked. Only 6 of the drawers have tools in them and the rest are stuffed with nuts, bolts, consumables, materials, etc. Great cabinets, drawer slides are super strong but not very smooth, and the drawers are the size they are. If it were up to me, the deeper ones would be less deep. Here’s some of the more recognizable drawers from my earlier thread. First is my end-mill drawer with HDPE trays.

Using HDPE to keep the drawer of taps organized. Note the orientation of the trays. If the tap grooves are parallel to the drawer slides (like they are in the end mill trays above), the open and closing motion will actually make the tools work their way out of the grooves. If you run them perpendicular, they stay put exactly where you leave them. I'm sure some of you have noticed that in the picture above I don’t take my own advice on the end-mills…that’s because the size I cut the trays isn’t conducive to rotating them and getting everything back in the drawer.

Large taps, dimple dies, and some parts for my mill. I can't tell you how long it's been since I've not had the tap I've needed while doing something. I can't say I have every size but...I might be able to say I have most every size I could ever need.

The Lista cabinets I got only came with the main divider rails but didn't include any of the divider cards. I made them out of 16ga steel on my plasma table about 14 years ago so I could divide all my drills by size. Sizes range from dental floss sized to 1 1/2-inch big-ins.

For some of the drawers I made inserts out of scrap left over from the drawer bases to help better organize the contents. Worked but isn't flashy at all but gets the job done. The reason I resorted to this franked-box is that I didn't have any main drawer dividers left after completing the drill drawers. Someday I might look for more on eBay but, to be honest, what i have works fine so i might not.

If I had it my way I'd have much more of the shallow depth drawers in the lista cabinet so I could store more tools in them. At some point I might just sell them off and build my own tooling cabinet so I can have exactly what I want. Since it's not on the up coming list, it's gonna have to wait 'till later.

 

[big e]

I'm subscribing based on Sakurama's recommend. I have been stalking his thread quietly and it has beed a learning experience. From the first page of your I feel the same here

 

[stioc]

I loved your first thread so subscribing to this one too. It's obvious you have a major OCD with tool organization like many of us. However, my OCD tends to mostly hang around in my head and when it really bothers me I just go out and buy another tool cabinet than take the time and effort to build something nicer with a custom fit. I guess I also have to come clean that so many tools I buy I tend not to have as much opportunity to use them as I initially think. For e.g. I've used my mill/lathe only a few times to actually build/fix other things, the rest of the time it was self-induced projects like these but I guess they're still valid uses for them so I shouldn't feel too guilty about continuing to buy more tools and then shoe horn them into my 2 car garage

 

[Djui5]

Subscribing

 

[lilscorpion]

...I've used my mill/lathe only a few times to actually build/fix other things, the rest of the time it was self-induced projects like these but I guess they're still valid uses for them so I shouldn't feel too guilty about continuing to buy more tools and then shoe horn them into my 2 car garage

So you’re saying that if I didn’t buy tools I wouldn’t need them to build things to organize them?! Hell...never looked at it from that angle.

Hmm

I never woulda had to organize in the first place which would have prevented me from needing to re-organize.

Which would mean...

I could technically have a smaller garage AND my wife would easily be able to park in it which would make her happier.

Did my wife put you up to this?!?




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[locul]

Wera Cyclop wrench...i´m in.

 

[lilscorpion]

Wera Cyclop wrench...i´m in.

I like ‘em a lot. One of my favorite organization moments too






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[d.mcfarland]

 

[locul]

I like ‘em a lot. One of my favorite organization moments too

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Just using Wera could be a hobby. Nice "shed". I envy all you suckers who really use availeble space.

From Denmark with regards