What are the pro’s and cons of a workbench tool tray?
beaverbill
| Posted in Workshop on
I am getting ready to build a workbench and I wondered what the pro’s and cons of including a tool tray are. Would welcome any inputs.
Thanks
Replies
Tray or not to Tray
I work on garage floor and hence my shop is not level and chisels roll off of the bench. Good Pro is a store spot
Lots of folks think they are Hampster Shaving collectors, and just fill with shavings and junk. Not so Good
If you build a tray, make the bottom removeable to drop the shavings and clean up every day. If you don't clean up your shop much now, then it will a mess, so why bother. I like to have my mallet, chisels, backsaws, and such on the bench when I cut dovetails and such. I won't build a tray in my bench and just use a rolling side cart to hold my tools close by but out of the way.
AZMO
tray design
Years ago when I built my workbench I followed Tage Frid's advice (in his book, alas I never met him) and put an angled block at each end of the tray. All those shavings brush out nicely.
Forrest
Tool Tray
I built a tool tray into my bench and I love it (didn't have one before). It keeps things from rolling off but most importantly lets me sit and rotate large items (that span across) on the bench without having to remove everything first. Most items will lay flat in the tray and be beneath the height of the table top, keeping them in easy reach. Sure it does collect shavings and such, but they are easily blown out with an air hose or shop vac set to blow.
Tool tray .
Several months ago I faced the same problem. I always thought a tray would be handy but none of my benches had them. As I was finishing up a new bench I decided not to add one as it seemed it would get in the way of some kinds of clamping. Since this bench was within reach of a new wall, hung with my most used tools, I decided to build a stand alone tool tray, put it on a french cleat and hang it at waist height on the wall. I have come to like this arangement a lot. It doesn't get in the way with clamping, doesn't fill up with shavings, and gives me a place to put things that I used to spend time looking for... my eye protection, tape measures, glue bottle etc. I don't put a lot of tools in it however as there is a place on the wall above it for all my most used tools and if I want to get a tool off the bench I can just swing around and put it in its place on the wall. Hope this helps in some small way.
I added the tool tray to my bench but wish I had just made the bench top that much larger and left the tray off. The tray side of the bench is against the wall and I installed shelving above that. The tool tray just fills with clutter and chips. The shelves above and the drawers I built under my bench are much more useful.
If you're one of those types that struggles with clutter, like me, skip the tool tray.
Good luck, Bret
Restart
One more thing to add: I have found that with many projects the build up of tools on my bench is not always because I am still using them but because I keep working adding new tools and clamps to the pile until I can't find anything and the whole mess threatens to topple off onto the floor. It's at this point that I stop work and put everything back in its place and then restart the build up of the mess from scratch.
pile until I can't find anything ....
I would think, if we really were honest about our working habits, do the very same thing. We (many) would have the tray filled up AND the bench top! Even dangerous if tools are on top of the table saw.
The PhD of wood working eh? Piled Higher and Deeper, sounds like you have earned your Doctorate.....;>)
AZMO who is still working on his MS...on the bench
What about the.....
Yup, that about sums it up. What about all the other flat surfaces in the woodshop, outfeed table, floor???
LoL
Regards,
I start to put things away when I can't for the life of me find something that I just had in my hand. I circle the shop a couple of times visiting each place I had been in the last five minutes and then I just quit looking and start putting everything that I'm not using away. Usually I find the missing tool about halfway through this process but I keep going on the organizing till the pile of tools is down to the bench tops. I did the same thing when I was a film editor and my edit bench and trim bins got so bad that I was on the floor looking for lost shots or script pages.
I was with ye right up to.....
but I keep going on the organizing. I think that's where I go south, I go back to the project!
I like having a tray. I made racks for chisels, rifflers & files that hang on the wall in front of the bench. I take them down, prop them up in the tray and they're right at hand. Put the rack back on the wall, full of course (Yessiree :-( ). Simple.
Without a tray I used to keep knocking things onto the floor when moving pieces around on the bench. Really don't like dropping things, especially sharp thangs. One thing I did learn though, DON'T try to catch it!
Regards,
DON'T try to catch it!
And wear shoes. Half the time I am down there with my flip-flops on. Still have all my fingers and toes but one of these days if i'm not careful I may have trouble trying to count to twenty.
Found some pictures.
Now hold on here!!!
That woodshop is just waaayyyyyy too neat. Hey, it's not fair to clean things up for pics here on Knots ye know, LoL. Just kidding of course.
Here's what I did. I bit different but hey, that's what makes the world go 'round, eh? I also used the spacer for the cabinet to store the DT saw; the crosscut saw is on the other side.
Regards,
You'll get a kick out of this!
For comic relief I'll post some photos of my shop after a busy day. This is how I really work. If I had an apprentice things would be a little neater. I spend as much time as I can cleaning up but the work has to get done.
I always have multiple projects going. It was face frame day for a small cabinet job I have going.
I also finished a mock-up rocker. Don't laugh, it's just made out of scrap an is quite comfortable and will be even better once I carve the seat out. Now that I have an ergonomically acurate model to take measurements from, I can build the real thing. If I didn't do it this way then I couldn't call it an original design. You should have seen the mock-up I used to make this mock-up.
You'll notice that I like to keep my tools "in play". They aren't making you money hanging on the wall, ha, ha.
Enjoy the photos, am I mad?
Bret
If yur mad, I've lost it!
Alright, I guess we kinda commandeered this discussion, didn't mean for that to happen. Mebbe I should start a new one, Who's got the Sloppiest Woodshop? Nah, sloppiest just doesn't sound right, how 'bout Real! LoL
I must say that mock up is right nice, can't wait to see the real thang. I haven't mustered up the skills for chairs yet. Really like the way the curves work together. Thinking about the crest rail......
Ahhhh yes indeed I do like looking at other woodshops. Which reminds me, I haven't taken any for at least a month or three now. I'll get busy, thanks for the inspiration.
Regards,
waaayyyyyy too neat
There was a reason for this. I had just torn out a ski waxing bench my son used 20 years ago and walled in below the stair case to have a place for a Newfangledworkbench I had just built, that John White (FWW) designed. I put up a long french cleat on top and hung three poplar pannels for just the tools I wanted down this end of the shop. If I didn't use them often they stayed on the other wall. Aiming the camera north, south or east shows a better idea of my sloppy work habits.
EDIT... Nice looking shops everybody. I love to look at other folks shops.
Wax bench area after
Same stairs as before shot of wax bench.
That looks Huge!
Dang, I could put my woodshop and a small apt. in there. But I gotcha beat with headroom. LOL
Love that cradle! Nice!
Geeeez, I better get to work.
Regards,
Fear of the SPCA and PETA
And I didn't even show you the milling section on the east wall. The tangle of dust collection ducts and tubes going to the lathe, jointer, table saw, chop saw and planer makes it look like I'm being cruel to octopusses (octopie ? where is that damn spellcheck?)
Octopi!!
I see we have similar hardware, i.e. same planer and DC. The 50-760 really sucks eh? Like mine a lot, and thanks for the peek at the tentacles..... Mine is going downstairs real soon. Ducting will go down through the floor. More room!
I would add that the overhead air filter works very well as I have very little residual dust on the bench, tools, shelves, etc.
Regards,
overhead a f
I put in an overhead air filter twenty years ago and I don't think the company is in business anymore, Total Shop Clean Air System. It uses a two chamber filter of the type that were used in hospital operating rooms, as well as a furnace type filter pre and post main filter. I change the outside filters but the main one I'm not too sure if I can get anymore. They used to cost 40 bucks each, the filters that is.
The lathe is the worst when I am sanding on it. I found a duct at home depot used for AC thru the floor and attached it to the system with a six to four reducer and clamped it behind the center. Haven't done any big projects since I put it in but did sand all the new file handles I turned and it seemed to suck the sawdust ok and you know how sawdust rolls off a turning in clouds.
Try moving the duct to the front side
When I use the lathe I clamp the end of a four inch flex DC hose right below the tool rest as close as I can get to the tool. When sanding I get the hose almost touching the workpiece. It really cuts down the dust but I turn mostly bowls. Long spindles would present more of a DC problem.
Bret
good idea
I don't do much turning these days, just some finials and tool handles. Hollow forms, as David Ellsworth used to call them, was mostly what I did in the past. The pix of this hood were taken while it was still a work in progress. It's now screwed to a board that can be placed anywhere with 2 small clamps. At first I put it in the back because I was spindle sanding with the sandpaper held under not over the spindle and that way the dust seemed to be all billowing toward the back. The spindles were very short. I'll give your idea a try. Thanks for the input.
gas furnace and water heater
We don't have a lot of gas devices (or basements) here in Phoenix, but I noticed you have a water heater and furnace down stairs as well. Is that an issue with wood dust? Obviously seems to be working fine, and maybe I should not worry about things that go boom in the middle of the night, but I do....
Shop looks great and I like your reworked tool rack for bench tools! Very nice
Morgan
Safety issue.
When we built this house 23 years ago it was all electric with heat pump ac and heat. Then, many years after the workshop was well established, they were running gas into a new town being built nearby and the gas company offered everyone in our town a great deal if enough of us switched at least two major appliances over to gas. My wife always hated the heat pump so we made the switch to gas water heater and furnace. This is the first time I have thought about the safety of all of this, thanks to you, and I should know better. I'm going to call the plumbers who installed all of this and see. I do know that there are heavy pvc pipes that bring outside air in to the burners, and others that exhaust the fumes so it may be a sealed unit unaffected by dust, but good call. Thanks.
heaters etc
LOL looks like this thread is really hi-jacked, but regarding boilers etc down in the basement, a couple of years ago we had an oil burning furnace, yeah it's a New England thing, I was worried about sawdust etc catching fire, the furnace guy said it wasn't much of a problem, although saw dust could clog the air intake for the pilot and that I should take care about keeping that area clean. We recently switched to a high effenecy gas boiler, has PVC ducting for the intake and the exhaust, the thing hangs on the wall!! No worries about dust or what ever as it is all self contained, sounds like the one mentioned above. The best part is I gained about 10 square feet of shop space after the old boiler and oil tank were removed!!! I was more excited about that, than the money we saved by switching to gas!!
unlike many woodworkers i have a huge shop... 3800 ft sq. My main bench stands alone in the shop , not against a wall. When I built it i wondered about the adviseability of a tool tray too. If you have a vacuum, the cleaning of the tray is no big deal. I put a trap door in the middle of my tool tray to make it easy to clean out. One of my better ideas.. My bench is large ( 72 X40 including the tool tray). Benches, if you have the room can never be too big. I have 4 wood working benches... the biggest being 12 'X 40".
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