Wrench storage

[SouthernChap]

Hey, thanks for the thanks! (something happened to the last part of your post; I’m sure it wasn’t important)

Seriously though, cheers. It will be brilliant to move my spanners. The question of where to move those has been getting in the way of getting my files properly stored.

 

[ChazzC]

Oh...well, since you expressed such an interest in the missing text...I was retracting my appreciation to you for you inspiration, on the basis that the extra space would force me to tidy up and clean the extra spanners I'd be effectively having out on display!

Providing inspiration is all well and good, but putting me in a position where I'd have to do extra cleaning work...

OK, so you caught me out. But I was trying to do you a favor: a little cleaning & organization and you’ll be on your way to joining @GrifterGuru ‘s and my club!

 

[GrifterGuru]

OK, so you caught me out. But I was trying to do you a favor: a little cleaning & organization and you’ll be on your way to joining @GrifterGuru ‘s and my club!

@ChazzC Would that be the "OCD" club or the "Everything Clean, Tidy Organised and Labelled, spare time be damned" club?


Oh.........wait...........aren't they the same thing???

 

[brino]

I believe they are called that because when you are working on some piece of equipment designed by some engineer, that is what you want to hit them in the head with. Mike

As an Engineer (Electrical) ...... I approve this message!

Brian

 

[dabear3428]

The only "Silly / stupid" question is the one you never ask....

Negative Ghost rider, I can surly fill the pattern with stupid questions.

 

[dabear3428]

my cheap a$$ likes to buy the HF wrench sets and keep the plastic holders screwed to the wall with the flip up lid used to indicate when i have a wrench out of the set, I can look at the wall from across the shop and tell that i need to search for where i left it or go to the spare set that i keep and pull a replacement out keeping a full set at hand.
I have my good sets that i keep in the tool box but if i'm just going to hit it with a hammer or lose it, the cheap one within easy reach for my wife/kids/friends to get saves me from finding my proto 200 ft/lb torque wrench laying in the sand 3 weeks after my wife decided that the spark plug in the mower was the reason that it would not start (not the 50/50 gas water mix she was trying to feed it).

BTW it turns out that running over a 3/4" 50' water hose is just as bad for the zero turn mower as it is for the hose, go figure!
conversation with the wife goes like this "honey it is not good to run over the water hose" wife "why do you keep telling me things like i'm stupid? i know it is not a good thing to do" me, "well this is the 5th time this season".

 

[dabear3428]

I believe they are called that because when you are working on some piece of equipment designed by some engineer, that is what you want to hit them in the head with. Mike

you missed on that one the engineers hammer is the one you get when the part doesn't fit

 

[SouthernChap]

OK, so you caught me out. But I was trying to do you a favor: a little cleaning & organization and you’ll be on your way to joining @GrifterGuru ‘s and my club!

To be fair I have cleaned and de-rusted the spanners (mostly imperial) to a decent functional level, in my 'reserve' collection but they're not exactly pristine.

As for organisation, I'm getting there. The main issue is one of space and time.

I have acceptable storage for all of my 'first line' tools.

However, I currently have lathe tools and endmills in the same two drawers and mixed machine work and tool holding in another couple of drawers (in my roll tool cabinet). That sub-optimal situation is down to space constraints I have right now.

I do have plans for a set of drawers beneath...hang on, let me show, not tell:


So, I want to put drawers in the right two-thirds of the shelf (so that's about a metre). Six drawers I reckon; two columns of three. Top two rows being fairly shallow drawers and the bottom row being deeper. That should handle the milling/drilling tooling that I'll be using regularly.

The space on the shelf to the left of the drawers will have open shelves for containers of small/short pieces of stock.

The space between the left wall and the legs will be filled with poly pipe/square conduit arranged horizontally to hold longer stock (up to about 800 mm).

That will give me space in the roll cabinet to have just my lathe tooling in the top five drawers and the remaining two drawers for 'other stuff' (reconfiguration of storage is always a battle plan that never survives the first contact).

The wooden tool chests you can see to the left of the mill, are in a liminal state at the moment (with mostly metrology stuff in them) but awaiting the next reconfiguration triggered by the installation of the above-mentioned drawers under the mill.

I also have to print off labels for the drawers in the dirty 'cream' coloured metal card index in the left of this picture (in a different location in the workshop now):


The top two rows I generally remember what's in which drawer, but the rest it's a case of opening and closing until I find what I need.

Finally, I have this:

Which is currently empty, has a fair proportion of slightly sticky drawers (wood drawers with wood runners) and is too tall really to go anywhere good. I'm toying with the idea of cutting it in half (the 'chassis' would allow this) and seeing if that makes either one, or both of the halves more useful. I'll need to paint whatever I keep, because it gives ugly a bad name (you can just see on the left front corner, where the previous owner painted the left side 'Warco green' and then gave up).

Okay, so that's a fair bit of work and time (especially given that, if I want the drawers I'll build for under the mill to not be a disaster, let alone presentable, I'll have to go slowly; I'm no cabinet-maker! ).

But right now, I want to get my lathe up and running and finish off some parts that I started before I began my "Tranche 2.0 lathe improvements" that got delayed by the logjam that was the arrival of all that bloody plastic and my mill. .

Phew...just posting about it makes me out of breath!

So workshop organisation right now is very much a case of little victories.

 

[dabear3428]

To be fair I have cleaned and de-rusted the spanners (mostly imperial) to a decent functional level, in my 'reserve' collection but they're not exactly pristine.

As for organisation, I'm getting there. The main issue is one of space and time.

I have acceptable storage for all of my 'first line' tools.

However, I currently have lathe tools and endmills in the same two drawers and mixed machine work and tool holding in another couple of drawers (in my roll tool cabinet). That sub-optimal situation is down to space constraints I have right now.

I do have plans for a set of drawers beneath...hang on, let me show, not tell:

View attachment 505824
So, I want to put drawers in the right two-thirds of the shelf (so that's about a metre). Six drawers I reckon; two columns of three. Top two rows being fairly shallow drawers and the bottom row being deeper. That should handle the milling/drilling tooling that I'll be using regularly.

The space on the shelf to the left of the drawers will have open shelves for containers of small/short pieces of stock.

The space between the left wall and the legs will be filled with poly pipe/square conduit arranged horizontally to hold longer stock (up to about 800 mm).

That will give me space in the roll cabinet to have just my lathe tooling in the top five drawers and the remaining two drawers for 'other stuff' (reconfiguration of storage is always a battle plan that never survives the first contact).

The wooden tool chests you can see to the left of the mill, are in a liminal state at the moment (with mostly metrology stuff in them) but awaiting the next reconfiguration triggered by the installation of the above-mentioned drawers under the mill.

I also have to print off labels for the drawers in the dirty 'cream' coloured metal card index in the left of this picture (in a different location in the workshop now):

View attachment 505825
The top two rows I generally remember what's in which drawer, but the rest it's a case of opening and closing until I find what I need.

Finally, I have this:
View attachment 505829
Which is currently empty, has a fair proportion of slightly sticky drawers (wood drawers with wood runners) and is too tall really to go anywhere good. I'm toying with the idea of cutting it in half (the 'chassis' would allow this) and seeing if that makes either one, or both of the halves more useful. I'll need to paint whatever I keep, because it gives ugly a bad name (you can just see on the left front corner, where the previous owner painted the left side 'Warco green' and then gave up).

Okay, so that's a fair bit of work and time (especially given that, if I want the drawers I'll build for under the mill to not be a disaster, let alone presentable, I'll have to go slowly; I'm no cabinet-maker! ).

But right now, I want to get my lathe up and running and finish off some parts that I started before I began my "Tranche 2.0 lathe improvements" that got delayed by the logjam that was the arrival of all that bloody plastic and my mill. .

Phew...just posting about it makes me out of breath!

So workshop organisation right now is very much a case of little victories.

Finally, I have this:
the work fugly comes to mind lol

 

[SouthernChap]

Finally, I have this:
the work fugly comes to mind lol

Yeah. I mean I like wood as much as the next guy and I'm not averse to a bit of ageing but this poor bloody bit of functional furniture has been cosmetically abused far beyond what the word "cruelty" can describe.

Shame really, because the drawers are quite a handy size; they're quite long, front to back and not so shallow as to be a pain (and they came with a bonus free gift of a little box of four unused Dormer 4mm drills, that had dropped down the back ).

Just need some wax on these runners...and a saw!