Saturday, March 21, 2015

Custom holders for tools

As things are starting to take shape around my bench, I am finalizing (as if there was such a thing in my life :-) my holders arrangements for the tools I need at hands.


These then, are the layout tools, I want to see and use most of the times.
They would of course, lives mostly in my antique tool chest, but come out to play everyday.

Except for a few of those, none fit my current holders. Will have to make some.

Chisels holders:
I like to use open holders (as opposed to just a plain hole) it is much easier to remove and put back tools in them, without lifting them all the way up as you would have to do otherwise, waste too much valuable space. The first holder on top for my firmer chisels is a pain in the butt to remove/put back the chisels, so it is rarely used.


The only special consideration you have to give is with the socket chisels, these should ALWAYS be resting on the taper of the socket as opposed to being held solely by the handles. If not, you run the risk of the chisel falling off.  It will and does happen, not fun on a cement floor, don't ask!

Handle removed on one sash mortise chisel for illustration.

Saws and planes lives in their tills so only a few steps away from the bench.
My backsaw till does not fit on the side of my plane till, so I need to find another spot nearby.

Layout tools such as marking gauges and squares are rather easy to prop up, but can be a tad bulky depending on how you store them. They too will need another custom holder.

A small sample of my marking gauges. I tend to use a few because I usually leave them set for a specific job while working on a project. As much as I love my LV wheel gauge, it has a mind of its own and tend to roll off the bench...So I often plop it down in one of the bench dog holes.

Dividers and compass are trickier, since I also tends to leave them set to a particular setting throughout a project. Incidentally, you cannot have too many marking gauges and dividers using my way of thinking :-)


Marking knifes and such are also a no brainer.
Gauging blocks rest on a small shelf with a small lip around to prevent the small case from falling off. I use setting blocks a lot, so much easier than trying to read small numbers on a rule, especially with triple focal lenses :-)

Drilling tools, don't come up often, I use my drill press a lot. Years ago I made a large Drill Press table , it really makes life easier.
Nonetheless, I uses bradawl, gimlets, push drills and eggbeater drills so they need a place to rest in front of me from time to time.

A small selections of drilling tools. the braces, for the center bits, does not go on this board, but rather stays on the bench, sometimes in its own bench top holder.


As a rule, tall tool, like chisel, tend to have open hole holders for reasons of space requirements efficiency, and small tools simply drop in a small hole.

Files and rasps need protection, so must fit on the wall holders and not bang into any other tools. Screwdrivers comes and go and need a place too. Especially my special split nut screwdrivers for my saws, which all seems to uses a different sizes screwdriver...??

Typical Canadian screwdrivers: Robertson Yellow, Green and Red. There is also a Black one, rarely used (its big) The black one shown is a Torx.


This is where Pegboard and my customs holders really pays off, I can infinitely tweak that set up anytime I want.

Some of my tools simply stay on top of my bench while I work. Think plane, saw, scraper etc. I try to keep the bench mostly uncluttered because real estate is at a premium on a 4 footer bench.


So now that I know what I want, what fit and doesn't, time to make some custom holders.

Being an old MWO (CSM for my Army buddies, and CPO2 for my Navy friends) I feel the urge to analyse and organize everything in sight for efficiency, that's what I did in a former life :-)
You can take the man out of the military, but you cannot take the military out of the man!
Pte Demers, you called this shop clean! Drop down and give me 25! :-)


Bob, slowly bringing efficiency out of the chaos in my shop.




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