First Order Retrieve-ability

[Batmanacw]

Awesome, there aint no way no how I could keep my shop that tidy.

The tools and materials go back to their proper place as soon as they are no longer needed. It's smooth and near effortless.

 

[SouthernChap]

The tools and materials go back to their proper place as soon as they are no longer needed. It's smooth and near effortless.

Effortless for you and the way your neurons fire.

I mostly work that way too these days (thanks to my ADHD meds and some more or less effective unlearning of suboptimal habits) and I can't imagine a more efficient way, but not everyone works that way and some struggle to do so.

Eh, we're hobby machinists and if efficency doesn't contribute to the fun we're having (whilst always maintaining safety, of course), I guess it's an irrelevance.

 

[Winegrower]

SInce I don't have room to access every tool without some shuffling, good retrieve-ability means making the time to get to and use a tool inversely proportional to the frequency of use...high use means quick accessiblilty. So the lathe and mill, vertical metal bandsaw and wood tablesaw are always available. Likewise, the hand sheet metal tools like shear, corner notcher, die filer, etc. are all pretty directly available though I might swing one corner of a bench out for better access. The horizontal bandsaw, wood miter saw, wood vertical bandsaw, belt sander, all need a little movement for good access...still only a few seconds because the frequency is not too high, but the task time is generally very short. Other woodworking equipment, jointer, planer, well, the car has to go out, but then everything is on wheels and a production line can be set up. What takes most time, setting up for welding, is the worst, car out, woodworking stuff moved, welding equipment gas or MIG moved to the open bay, plug in, move the (little) welding table over, etc. Maybe why I hate welding and avoid it so much.

 

[Batmanacw]

SInce I don't have room to access every tool without some shuffling, good retrieve-ability means making the time to get to and use a tool inversely proportional to the frequency of use...high use means quick accessiblilty. So the lathe and mill, vertical metal bandsaw and wood tablesaw are always available. Likewise, the hand sheet metal tools like shear, corner notcher, die filer, etc. are all pretty directly available though I might swing one corner of a bench out for better access. The horizontal bandsaw, wood miter saw, wood vertical bandsaw, belt sander, all need a little movement for good access...still only a few seconds because the frequency is not too high, but the task time is generally very short. Other woodworking equipment, jointer, planer, well, the car has to go out, but then everything is on wheels and a production line can be set up. What takes most time, setting up for welding, is the worst, car out, woodworking stuff moved, welding equipment gas or MIG moved to the open bay, plug in, move the (little) welding table over, etc. Maybe why I hate welding and avoid it so much.

That is completely reasonable. I have few enough tools and enough space that I have most tools readily available. I have a sort of cell set up for my bench grinders and belt sanders. Not much room but good enough for most of my projects.

 

[yota]

I def believe in having your tools out where you will use them. for most of my adult life, my workshop was our garage, which changed somewhat over a span of different homes, but always had other uses besides my hobbies. had to have portable power tools that could be folded up and shoved under a shelf. about the only thing I could just walk out in the garage and use was my bench grinder. even if I was willing to dig out the tools I needed, an area to put them usually had to be cleared. move the wife's car, a pile of laundry, boat, whatever. was not conducive to regular hobby work.

finally, children grown up, divorce , retirement! I have a shop! a dedicated space with pretty much everything where Ican just walk up to it and turn it on.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

I've never heard it said that way until I saw it on an Adam Savage video today. First Order Retrieve-ability. I started along that basic path a couple years ago when I first did this shelf. View attachment 437861
This shelf is more open and less cluttered now.


Today I was watching along and he started to talk about reamers. My reamers were stored in plastic bags in bins. Over, under, fractional, and odd sizes. Most bought surplus or on Ebay. Those were in bins.....bins are bs.

I made this before I got to the part of the video on how he made his reamer holder......I went out and spent an hour on this.

View attachment 437860

You might notice mine is a bit weird compared to his. For instance, the 1/8" section is 5 holes wide. That is because I have several half thou over/under reamers and .001 over/under. All the 1/16" step sizes I made 5 holes even if i don't currently have the half and .001" over/under sizes.

I keep an inventory of every size reamer I have in my phone. If I find a reamer surplus for $5 per lb or at the flea market I can tell if I need it. I will continue to watch for quality reamers in good condition and I might fill those empty spots at pennies on the dollar. I have enough room for a couple more sets on this block.

I have lots more reamers that don't need to "first order retrieveable". Odds and duplicates. Now i have dozens more reamers in easy reach with no searching through bins and baggies.

This is Adam's video.

Thats not a t-nut, it is a blind nut... Yeah, drill bits