Finished

 

Above is my reconfigured wall with my bandsaw and drill press swapping places with my hand tool cabinet. This allows me to move my drill press out of the way and have easy access to the attic should I need to do so with no contortion necessary. At some point in the future, I would like to replace that folding workbench with perhaps a flip down wooden one and clean up the mess of tools underneath it so I can store my rolling chair there but that won't be this year.

With my rolling tools out of the way, you can see my replacement for the peg board which was a simple sheet of plywood. All the tools could be organized in a much denser pattern and all the tool holders which I fastened from scraps of wood are screwed to the plywood so they will no longer fall out. I hung up tools mostly related to home construction or repairs that I rarely use and don't care if they get dirty or exposed to the elements. By moving all my batteries to hanging up near the charger, I freed up a drawer underneath my drill press which will be used to store more fasteners that I like to keep on hand for various projects. 

As requested, here is my tool cabinet with the outermost doors opened.  From left to right the sections hold my general hand tools, chisels, dovetail tools, and measuring tools. There is room to expand or add more especially on the two left sections.

With the inner doors opened, you can see my safety gear and a collection of hand planes with lots more room for additional tools. Rather than fill it up, I'm going to grow into things first. There are more tools I could put in there that currently reside somewhere else but for most of them, they are closer to point of use than this cabinet will be. But as I use and shuffle things around, I may end up putting more in this cabinet at some point and I have the room to do so.

After completing this project, above is the some total of all my larger scraps from the last three projects, i.e. alter, coffee table, and tool cabinet, so there is a mix of walnut, oak and hard maple to reflect that. 


All the smaller scraps are stuck in a couple buckets and slated for fireplace kindling this winter. I'm sure I could keep them and possibly find a use for them but at some point I have to draw the line of having room to work versus storing every single scrap.


In showing you a picture of the larger scraps, I see an opportunity to use them up even more by solving the problem you see below, my router bit collection. The two display/cases on the right are for 1/4" and 1/2" router bits and were cheap sets I bought back in the day. The router bits work and still get used, especially on projects where I'm not so concerned with the finish of the end product. The bits were cheap and are as durable as one might expect for cheap bits. The drawer on the left are all more expensive bits that I have bought over the years where I need a bit more longevity and less damage done to my finished project. So I'm thinking about making some small wall mount cabinet where I can store all my bits and free up some shelf and drawer space for other things. I'll probably weed out some of the cheap bits that I will never use or are have been replaced by the more expensive bits in the drawer. I think I have enough material to accomplish this goal and perhaps time to do it before the snow flies.


Comments

  1. Good job! Now you're set for some winter projects in the garage! I suggest turning the bits in the buckets into chess pieces and a chess board!

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  2. Great job! What are you using to hold all those batteries on the plywood? Looks like handy orange somethings.

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    1. With 3D printers around, people make and sell wall mount for any brand of battery. I bought a 12 pack of them and screwed them to the wall.

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  3. I like your tool cabinet! Looks like you're getting a handle on your shop.

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  4. I can tell that there is another project coming up soon.

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  5. Great job! With all these tools at your fingertips and easy to locate, you must have a long list of projects!

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  6. Thanks everyone for your kind comments!

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  7. All looks great and I am especially impressed with the tool cabinet. Nice work, as usual. Thanks for sharing.

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