Thanks everyone! Much appreciated. The Lead Instructor has made it clear he wants them in the closed cases.
At the other school I teach at we have the mics and calipers in wood cutouts in tool chest drawers. They are cheap ones because the students WILL drop them, so we aren't worried about keeping them perfect. Some of the older students bring their own and they treat them like fine china.
After spending several hours organizing the shop, I have determined we have enough drawers for everything, so having room is not an issue.
I'm going to suggest that we have some sort of check-out procedure for each machine so we an account for all the equipment and make sure the machine is clean and ready for the next class.
