Got a woodworking mag this week that showed another one of those perfectly organized wall of tools. It was impressive looking having all those tools at arms reach. Being a person that works full time in my shop I found out real quick that this approach to tool storage creates a real pain in the
when clean up time comes around. Even with dust collection and air scrubbers sanding dust will eventually accummulate on everything that is left out in the open. This means that when one goes to do that ,before I start the next project clean up, he/she will have to touch everything hanging on that wall in order to get things cleaned up properly. I installed a dust collection cyclone and air scrubbers in my shop not only to create a better working enviroment, but also to save the abundance of time I was spending cleaning up shavings. I now have everything but my stationary tools stored behind doors on pullouts or in drawers. This saves quite a bit of time come clean up time and extends the frequency between major cleanups which allows me to work instead of clean up my shop. Yes it does take just an instant to open a drawer or a door to access or return a tool, but when it comes to the between project cleanup I generally only have to reorganize the wood pile and clean the floor and exposed surfaces. I just wish that the people that write these articles would inform woodworkers of this pitfall. I quess a hobbiest woodworker could get by with this system of tool storage, however for a full timer it just doesn’t make sense. I’d like to hear from others about storage systems that save time spent cleaning up and I’d also like to see some magazine articles that show some good commons sense ways to reduce cleanup time and increase available work time in the shop.
Edited 11/16/2006 7:50 am ET by Ronaway
Edited 11/16/2006 7:51 am ET by Ronaway
Replies
I do have some tools on a wall behind my bench -- chisels, mallets, calipers, handsaws & some misc. stuff. You're right -- it does tend to accumulate the dust! At the end of a major project, or just when the dust gets too annoying, I plug in the lawn blower, open the door and have at it. The place is clean in about 5 minutes.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Mike,
I love the way you clean up, air compressors and leaf blowers do the best job and it is rather quick.
Greg
Are you sure your name is not Carl Spackler? :) Tom"Notice that at no time do my fingers leave my hand"
"Are you sure your name is not Carl Spackler?"
No, but he's my hero! Hey, whatever works. <G>
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
I have a lot of mine hanging on slatwall and with the dust collector and it's not too bad. If it gets to the point that there's actually a layer on everything, I use my blow gun hooked to my compressor and hang the collector hose up in the air to grab most of whatever goes airborn. The rest ends up on the benchtop, which I blow off and then it goes onto the floor, which I vacuum clean. Lower pressure keeps it from going airborn for too long.
I totally agree with you. That whole madular wall thing is superficially appealling, but not nearly as good int he long run as cabinets and drawers. Trouble is, it means a good deal of work to build all those cabinets. I'm just finishing up another right now - a a six drawer rolling cart sized to fit perfectly under one end of bench without interferring in any way with my tail vise or work going on on the top. It's fun to make custom work-shop-grade stuff like this. besides making it totally custome fit my space, tools, and methods of work, I can try new techniques (router jointing draw parts) - practice hand techniques like dovetailing - and use nice scraps to make it interesting and a little pretty.
So , do you clean up all your tools and your hands before you put your tools back in the drawers? I always find cleaning drawers a much bigger job.
Jack
Jim,
Amen. Everything in my shop gets dusty, whether covered, enclosed, or in the open.
Although I have one drawer under the bench that's a couple inches shorter than the others. It gets pulled out and dropped on the floor with some regularity. Keeps it clean.
Ray Pine
Ron, I have since the 60's been hanging it all on the walls and it's a looser. I now, as a much older and more accomplished wood butcher have every hand tool known to mankind(according to my daughters) and as I plan my retirement shop I realized that each tool group needs a home in a tightly closed well thought out wall hung case-ready for use and a place to be returned to- hung on french cleats .
I tried the drawer thing but it becomes a hidden black hole that fills with dust, odd parts that you can't find when needed and if a tool group is split into several drawers it's a disaster over time. The drawers will be at the base of each case ie. plane irons and chip breakers or in the case for combination planes drawers custom built for their cutters, the rods get clips in the case.
The bench/block plane case will take up to a 5 1/2 in straight in stalls, blocks stowed short but two high with the 6-7- and 8's hung high on a slant across the back. The plane cases will have clear plexi doors and a gun safe heater* in a false ventilated base behind the bottom drawers. The drilling and carving cases will have ply doors to hang tool sets and will also have heaters. The tough one's will be measuring tools and maybe the lathe tools due to the wierd shapes and they are really not sets but one off's of greatly odd sizes.
If you or others have done this already I would be delighted to hear about it thanks. Pat
* the gun safe heaters are @$17-22 each to protect a full rack -1 to 8 planes with multiples- of bedrocks, cliftons, LN, Lv or antique 45 and 55's(perhaps thousands of dollars). A good investment against getting the orange dust on your cast iron or irons.
Ron, the good thing about things hanging on walls is that they are visible and at a convenient height. They are not lost in bottomless countless drawers at bend -down heights, or lurking under benches covered in shavings.
I am in favour of tools hanging on walls, or sitting on shelves at eye level height.You walk into the shop and at a glance can check out the stock of priceless tools. To achieve this without the dust effect all one has to do is to have doors on them thar cabinets-in fact things can even find a place in the doors, especially if they are box doors. So when work is to be done the doors are opened, the necessary tools taken down and placed on ones mobile auxiliary bench rather than on the work bench itself...
With that system the dust keeps off because the doors are closed most of the time, and there is regular use . It means that a blast or two with 150lbs air duster is then limited to only two or three times yearly, to get rid of spiders ofcourse.
My old shop was blessed with abundant windows.
I found myself putting everything in drawers or behind doors to make my tools less tempting to anyone close enough to peer into my workshop.
The natural daylight was terrific, but I always felt more vulnerable when my tools were in plain sight.
-Jazzdogg-
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie
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