This Week in the Shop: Tool Rack

This Week in the Shop we build tool holders for my recently installed tool wall. An organized workspace is a functional workspace, especially in community shops. When everything has its place, every part of the shop seems to work quicker. So this week, I put together a few tool holders to put up some screwdrivers, chisels, pliers and nail sets.

Tool Racks

There are tons of storage solutions out there. I prefer tool walls, both in my personal shop and at community shops. The plywood provides a solid anchoring surface and custom tool holders can be rearranged as needed. Tool holders can be customized for each tool and can be made from small scraps for next to nothing. Lastly, they can be painted, stained, chalkboarded and more. A tool wall fits any work are, whether craft, machine, woodworking, leather or whatever else.

I have used pegboard, hanging tool-o-dexes, tool chests and more to help organize my workspace. Pegs fall out, hanging tool-o-dexes cost too much for their value, and tool chests attract clutter. Commercial systems never seem to be worth the bang for the buck (nor are they as much fun to install as designing your own tool holder).

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Home #Makerspace: The Fishing Rod Storage Rack

Last week, I built a small shelf using hand tools.  This week, I will use a mixture of bench and power tools to create a storage rack for my family’s fishing rods.  This rack has two assemblies, the upper rack and the lower rack.

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The lower assembly has three holes for accepting fishing rod handles.  The upper assembly has the same three holes with access channels.

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Using power tools, this project will take fifteen to twenty minutes to complete.  It can be completed with only hand tools, if so desired.  Young makers in the middle school range comfortable with hand-held power tools, especially the jig saw and power drill, could complete this project with minimal adult assistance.

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This Week in The Classroom: The Simple Coffee Table in Spalted Red Oak

Earlier in the year, the great folks at Canyon Mesquite donated a number of spalted red oak boards to make furniture out of.  It took a while, but we finally made some great use of them.  Finished with Howard’s Feed-N-Wax. … Continue reading This Week in The Classroom: The Simple Coffee Table in Spalted Red Oak

This Week In the Shop: Queen-Sized Bed

It has been a while since I’ve shared a completed project from my bench.  I haven’t been particularly inactive, just an inactive blogger.  Recently, I completed a queen-sized platform bed for my wife and I.  I completed the footboard over last winter break, and this summer I took on the headboard.

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The headboard and rails are put together with pocket hole joinery.  The headboard, made out of solid birch and poplar, is way too heavy for the light rails.  Instead of raising the height of the bed and creating thicker rails, I used a french cleat in my wall to hang the headboard.  The bed is rock solid now.  Finished with amber shellac and wax.  Check out the Sketch-Up drawing for more info. Continue reading “This Week In the Shop: Queen-Sized Bed”