For years, I stored my planes on their sides in a drawer, but I couldn’t fit my 22-in.-long Stanley jointer plane in there. So I came up with this idea to hang all of them on a rack. The rack is basically a 24-in.-square piece of 3/4-in.-thick birch plywood with a cleat at the bottom and a 24-in. magnetic tool holder located above the cleat.

The maple cleat supports the longer, heavier planes at their toes. I positioned the magnet 9 in. from the bottom so that no plane blade would hit it, including the big jointer plane. I place block planes and spokeshaves, tail up, directly on the magnet.

When constructing the rack, make sure the magnet stands about 1/16 in. proud of the plywood. This gap will help ensure that the plane blades will miss or barely touch the wood. It also means that the magnet will be squeezed between the stiles and the backer board to hold it firmly in place.

I hang the rack on a couple of 1×2 cleats screwed to the wall. The magnetic tool holder, which was my only out-of-pocket expense for the rack, can be purchased through woodworker.com and other suppliers for about $18.

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