Thread: Looking For Tooling Storage Ideas.

I am trying to organise and tidy up my over crowded little shed, I originally kept every thing in tool box on wheels that my 9 X 20 sits on, but after a mill and Hercus's turned up, the tool box is chockablock. I spend more time looking for things than actually doing a job. That what it fell like.

I am looking for ideas on how other people store their tooling.

Without knowing what I wanted I installed a shelf of 1" SS mesh behind my lathe and it has turned out to be one of the best things I have done.
The mesh allows arbors and drawbars to fit through - Centres tend to slide though so I use large wooden washers to prevent that.
Next time I would use a couple of different sizes of mesh to accomodate these.

This is what it was like when I first setup - now its a lot more crowded.

IMG_0511.jpg

Map drawers are really good at holding lots of small stuff like cutters, collets, etc.

Being sick of repurposing old kitchen wall cupboards, 4 years ago I splashed out and bought 3 of the the 1800x900x450mm deep metal cupboards from office city in Newcastle (1 for mill lathe tooling), now I see them at Bunnings for around the same price of $199 or cheaper. I added melamine shelves on top of the steel shelves with a timber edge to take the weight.
The 1mtr long supercheap tool chest does a good job for measuring tools etc. I grabbed it on a clearance sale.

I don't have my tooling on display, it rusts too quick. I only have out what I need within the days I'm using them.
I built timber NT30 arbour holders for in the cupboards to hold my most used ones. The timber is heavily oiled with motor oil which is cheap.

Lathe Chuck's and rotary table's etc all have there own boxes, (I posted them years ago) and still no rust. They where painted outside and again heavily motor oiled inside.

The local smash repair place with throwing out a couple of metal lockers similar to these but with more internal shelving :https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Heavy-Du...IAAOSwehZaTCrs

I got them because they were free but it's one of the best storage solutions I have done.

Bob & Dave, I like your ideas.

Simon

Originally Posted by simonl

The local smash repair place with throwing out a couple of metal lockers similar to these but with more internal shelving :https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Heavy-Du...IAAOSwehZaTCrs

I got them because they were free but it's one of the best storage solutions I have done.

Bob & Dave, I like your ideas.

Simon

Similar to my cupboards, free is better lol

Do you find leaving tools out grab surface rust Simon?
I've just bought a place 1 1/2 hours West of Newcastle so will see how things go.
My lathe grabbed a little surface rust but I moved out of Newcastle in the rain (and it was probably under oiled) to a dry Western place at the moment, so will see how it goes with my Machines and tooling.

Something the original poster has to consider, where he lives.

I see you have been building your tool collection, it's a disease you know, there's no clinic's available for us toolaholics, lol

I use, in order;

1. Steel 2 door cabinets with plenty of close-spaced shelving. The older they are, the thicker the metal in them.
2. 3-level tool trollies. Got 3, they're on wheels, that's the handiest thing to have, being able to wheel them around. You roll them under benches when not in use.
3. Big toolbox with multiple drawers on wheels. Got mine (a Trojan) from Bunnings a few years back for $299 on special. About 7 roller drawers, deeper at the bottom.
4. Heavy duty, deep (100mm) steel drawers mounted on slides welded under my main workbench (2.7M x 1M x 0.9M). Hold lots of stuff, but it doesn't pay to keep small items in them, they get buried.
4. Nuts and bolts are in a stainless steel, wheeled, ex-hospital trolley I picked up for $80. It's got three trays about 50mm deep. I partitioned the trays with 50mm flat strap into squares about 100mm square. Each square holds a sizeable number of the same shank-size bolts, but with different lengths. Nuts of the same thread and diameter fill other squares. It helped that I picked up about 1000 new hi-tensile bolts and nuts, at a business close-down auction, for $20!

A mate built a fastener/screws/odds/n/sods dispenser, utilising a centre heavy tubing upright, about 40mm diameter, with plough discs (dish facing upwards) attached via bearings, at about 150mm height spacings.
Each plough disc had about 7 or 8 upright dividers welded into them, made from 2-3mm plate, thereby forming 6 or 7 neat compartments in each disc, capable of holding many fasteners/screws/odds/n/sods.
The compartments are wider at front than rear, making for easy access to the contents. The discs rotate endlessly on the upright, so you spin the disc to make your selection from the compartments.
I have plans for an identical unit - I just probably have to slot it into the 2021 calendar year list of projects!

Originally Posted by wm460

I am trying to organise and tidy up my over crowded little shed, I originally kept every thing in tool box on wheels that my 9 X 20 sits on, but after a mill and Hercus's turned up, the tool box is chockablock. I spend more time looking for things than actually doing a job. That what it fell like.

I am looking for ideas on how other people store their tooling.

I posted a picture of mine some time ago !

02-03-2017-002.jpg

Cardboard trays salvaged from supermarkets but I understand you have some vermin down under that likes to eat the stuff.

For spanners and sockets I use a wood board with nails.
I don't see a need to have tools enclosed in cupboards.

Jordan

I haven't got a photo of the tool holder on the lathe but I do have one like this bolted to the lathe cabinet.
It holds the most used tools like chuck keys, swarf clearing brush, and some spanners.
The one on the anvil is galve strap but the one on the lathe is ally.
IMG_3847.jpg

I took the time to make a closable wall cabinet for my mill tooling. It is right behind me at arms reach when I'm using the mill and I really like not having to walk any distance to grab the common tools. Even without being meticulous about oiling things when I put them back the fact that the door closes protects the tools from rusting surprisingly well. It's thin (~ 150mm) so when closed does not use up too much precious shed floor space. When opened up it has a large surface area so there is room for many tools right at arms reach.

Directly under the timber cabinet is a multi drawer steel cabinet where taps, end mills, large drills, drill chucks and morse adaptors, dial gauges and stands, DTIs, the small rotary table etc go. This cabinet came from Hafco and cost $700 or thereabouts but is worth every cent as it's solid, the drawers open smoothly when weighted up, has nice solid dividers, and it also keeps the condensation at bay.

I also have a large plan drawer set where I keep less used gear cutters and other assorted mill cutters, clamps, and other thin items. These units are fantastic for tool storage but they are large and in my case I can't place it near the machines, so it's use is limited to less often needed tools.

The set-up on my lathe is much more mundane, being a couple of cheap plastic drawer sets. Apart from getting to be too small now that I'm gathering a collection of carbide insert tooling holders it does the job satisfactorily. It's 300mm behind the lathe tail stock so is right where I need it, again without any walk. Anything larger would not fit in that space.

Hope this helps.
Graham.

IMG_0787.jpgIMG_0782.jpgIMG_0786.jpg

I have the same problem: small workshop/lots of tools. I mounted wooden beams across the shed at the appropriate height, banged some nails in and hung my tools up. Keeps the workshop a bit tidier too, when I've finished with a tool, just reach up and put it away. I hang a couple of sets of spanners up, polishing mops, cut off disks, circular saw blades, hammers, clamps, rolls of paper and chux, spray guns, pliers, stanley knives, screwdrivers, squares and so on. I'll take a pick later on when I enter workshop mode.

I also have 8 or 9 plastic drawer sets than I store screwdriver bits, rotary tool bits, electric motors, resistors, caps, LEDs, SS allen head screws circuit boards, plastic end caps, Sikaflex nozzles, welding lenses, hole saws, bicycle tools, self tappers and so on in.

Still messy though!

Thanks for your ideas and photos.

I put the back and side on the little bench next to my mill, and put the most used things there.

( For some reason the pic wont post the right way up Sorry.)

DSC_2964.JPG



I tidied up the first drawer on the tool cabinet that my lathe sits on, only another 10 drawers to go.

DSC_2961.JPG

Originally Posted by BaronJ

I posted a picture of mine some time ago !

02-03-2017-002.jpg

Cardboard trays salvaged from supermarkets but I understand you have some vermin down under that likes to eat the stuff.

Yeah, the bloody white ants want to eat any thing made from wood, paper etc, the the aboriginal kids want to burn me out.
They burnt 1/2 my front yard a couple of weeks ago.

I used to have my tools on display, but someone decided they wanted them more than I did!!!!!
I keep them in drawers in the metal drawer cabinets that are shown on here. Unless you need to move the cabinets around, take the castors off, it makes it harder for someone to wheel the cabinets out the door. DAMHIKT.
Kryn