Tool Storage

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MarkD
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Tool Storage

Post by MarkD »

So a couple weeks ago I pulled the trigger on this tool chest:

https://www.harborfreight.com/tool-stor ... 64434.html

and

https://www.harborfreight.com/26-in-sin ... 64430.html

They were out of stock, but should be coming in soon.

I also got this work bench:
https://www.harborfreight.com/material- ... 63395.html

Which is in my garage right now. (Yeah, I know, I could've built one for cheaper, IF I had the wood working tools and experience to do so, I got it for $120 on sale and it's plenty sturdy).

Anyway, I want to put up some tool storage on the wall over the bench, for frequently used tools or stuff that's just inconvenient in the drawers. I'd been thinking of peg board, but I wondered if I'd be better off just attaching a piece of 3/8 or 1/2 plywood to the wall and hanging my tools from hooks/eyebolts/nails/etc. Attach a piece of 1x2 with holds drilled for screwdrivers and things like that. There was something similar left by the previous owner of my old house and it seemed OK. So how do you folks organize tool storage on the wall?

Even if I go with pegboard I'd probably still have a couple shelves for some things like tape measures. The one thing I do NOT want to end up doing is storing tools on the work bench. Got that t-shirt....
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Netpackrat
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by Netpackrat »

I despise peg board... I bought a bunch of steel cabinets off Amazon for the walls in my shop, and they actually honored the free shipping to Alaska. Ended up buying like 9 of them, and my brother bought a bunch too. Another thing I did was put up holders for Akrobins below some of the cabinets, and mesh steel shelving down the opposite wall from most of them.
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MarkD
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by MarkD »

Netpackrat wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2019 2:53 pm I despise peg board...
Mind if I ask why?

I've been thinking the plywood might be a more efficient way to hang tools because it's not limited to where the holes are, I can put a hook wherever it needs to be, but pegboard seems simpler and quicker to set up and easier to change things around if need be.
tfbncc
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by tfbncc »

Peg board is made of pressed fiber. If you live in any area with any amount of humidity, it doesn't take long to start swelling/warping/dissolving from the moisture. Once that starts happening, the strength of the board to hold the weight of tools is compromised pretty quickly. I like your idea of the plywood board with various hooks and holders for the different tools.
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Netpackrat
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by Netpackrat »

Pegs get bent, things fall off pegs, holes get torn out of pegboard, stuff hanging on pegboard gets dusty, easy to knock stuff off pegboard if you are a klutz. Oh and earthquakes. No real option for locking that stuff up; cabinets can be locked even if they are unlikely to withstand a serious attack.

Probably at least part of the reason I hate pegboard was my dad put up a section of it in our old shop in an area where you had to walk between the wall and a vehicle lift, and he hung grease guns and things that were greasy and realistically to heavy for pegboard anyway. So that area was always nasty, I'd get grease on my clothes getting past it, and tools would fall off.

And it always seems like an inefficient use of the wall space to me. The tools may be easy access, but I can fit a lot more stuff in cabinets or on shelves. Frequent use stuff and mechanic tools I mostly keep in rolling tool chests anyway. Pegboard makes more sense to me if you don't have all that many tools in the first place; otherwise there are better ways to use that space.
Cognosce teipsum et disce pati

"People come and go in our lives, especially the online ones. Some leave a fond memory, and some a bad taste." -Aesop
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Netpackrat
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by Netpackrat »

Another thing to consider, is if you have a gun safe in your house, and any kind of serious fabrication capability in your workshop, you've got everything a thief needs to break into your safe. So you need a similar level of secure storage for anything that can realistically be used to break into a gun safe. Acetylene torch bodies, handheld grinders, etc. I draw the line at enhanced storage for drills because anybody with the sort of knowledge needed to get into a safe using a drill, is getting into it no matter what.
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"People come and go in our lives, especially the online ones. Some leave a fond memory, and some a bad taste." -Aesop
MarkD
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by MarkD »

Netpackrat wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2019 4:21 pm Another thing to consider, is if you have a gun safe in your house, and any kind of serious fabrication capability in your workshop, you've got everything a thief needs to break into your safe. So you need a similar level of secure storage for anything that can realistically be used to break into a gun safe. Acetylene torch bodies, handheld grinders, etc. I draw the line at enhanced storage for drills because anybody with the sort of knowledge needed to get into a safe using a drill, is getting into it no matter what.
Don't have anything like that, mostly mechanics tools (sockets, wrenches, etc) and things like my Dad's old pipe wrenches (don't need them often, but when you do nothing, and I mean NOTHING else will do). And general stuff like pliers, screwdrivers, hammers.

Most of the stuff is going in the tool cabinet, I just want a place for the "I use this all the time" stuff like the aforementioned screwdrivers, pliers, and hammers which will keep them readily available and most important off the work bench when they're not being used. So if I'm mowing the grass and the handle comes loose on the lawnmower I can tighten it, put the tool back, and get back to what I was doing. I have a plywood cabinet my late brother made which will house the few power tools I own which will be too big for the drawers in the tool cabinet, like drills, circular saw, saber-saw. Some of the hardly-ever-use tools (like the pipe wrenches) will probably go in Dad's old tool box on the shelf under the bench, out of the way but there when needed.

Funny story about the pipe wrenches, my old girlfriend's mother told me to get rid of them, I'm not a plumber, I don't need pipe wrenches. I told her I'm keeping them because (a) they were my Dad's (b) if I DO need one I probably need one badly and (c) if I do need one and don't have one, they're expensive. A few weeks later I go over to pick up my GF and there's her father in the basement, the main sewer line was clogged and he was trying, and failing, to get the clean-out plug out with a set of channel locks. Be right back with the correct tool!
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HTRN
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by HTRN »

The HF tool boxes are the best bang for your buck in tool storage these days, m planning on replacing my Kennedy at work with one in the near future albeit the bigger model than the Mark linked to.
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MarkD
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by MarkD »

HTRN wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2019 7:15 pm The HF tool boxes are the best bang for your buck in tool storage these days, m planning on replacing my Kennedy at work with one in the near future albeit the bigger model than the Mark linked to.
You got that right. To get better quality you'd have to double the cost. I looked at a Craftsman in the same price range and I swear it was made of old beer cans.

This should be plenty big enough for what I have, if not I'll probably get one of the carts.
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HTRN
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Re: Tool Storage

Post by HTRN »

The HF are built like the Cratsman of 20+ years ago. And its more than "double" to do significantly better - you really would have to move up to Snapon, Mac, etc to really get a better box, and theyrr firmly in the "nice used car" level of pricing - i was initially planning to go this route, but gave up when i couldnt find any nice used snapon boxes under 5 grand.
HTRN, I would tell you that you are an evil fucker, but you probably get that a lot ~ Netpackrat

Describing what HTRN does as "antics" is like describing the wreck of the Titanic as "a minor boating incident" ~ First Shirt
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