Shop Reorganization, round 3
That is three times in near 30 years, so not bad. But what I work and the tools I use most often have changed with the times. My shop organization has lagged a decade behind. And, as usual, one reorganizational thing lead to another.
Before I got to revising the peg boards hangers using magnetic tool bars I realized that the wall hung tool rearrangement, while much needed, was not going to help much with the little everyday oddities that still constantly clutter the bench for lack of a better but still convenient place.
I have a handy 5 inch deep shelf only above the bench along one wall. I had even installed the braces for another sidewall L section when I first installed that shelf, but meh, never got around to cutting and installing the board.
P2090516 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
The main work bench needs a full mini shelf surround on all three sides to help elevate the little bits and pieces off the bench. Scrap five quarter deck board will do.
P2210551 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Before I start from the top down with the peg board I might as well commence from the bottom up, with a clean and clutter free bench as foundation to build upon and above.
P2210553 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Dayum. I have not seen that much exposed benchtop in a long while. With the main bench surrounded by short shelving I could begin to reorganize the peg board hangers, with several criteria in mind.
The most frequently used tools easiest at hand. Most of them going on magnetic tool hangers.
Less often used tools higher up, but with the magnetic bars even those are still easy, and less aim exacting, to retrieve and put back.
Long linear tools like bar clamps and levels and T squares could be hung highest and still dangle reachable.
Some complicating factors. I have more tools than when I set this peg board up 10 years ago, and over time had resorted to hanging multiple saws on one long peg or nail. The saw I needed was always the third one back. Saws take up a lot of room, and even with space condensing relocation everything barely fit on the woodworking side of the bench.
I had already discovered that muscle memory location is critical. A year ago I built a little shelf under one end of the bench for the shop trashcan. It took me 6 month of wandering around with trash or dustpan in hand to remember where the trashcan was. Which was at knee level within reach of where I started my trashy wanderings.
There was some thought put into in the reorganization 10 years ago, and it was largely efficient. I wanted the tools in the same locations, where I have come to naturally reach for them. It all kinda needed to go back essentially where it was, just better.
One obvious bench top fail, even before starting on the wall hung stuff, was how little work space actually remained open and available for use. The main workbench is 13 feet long, and it was hard to keep 6 feet of that in the middle open and clear.
NOTE. The auxiliary work bench is 19 feet long, but is on the tool less wall side of the shop, so not very walk back and forth tool convenient. As such it usually has a boat resting on it.
That aux bench does have its uses. I clear it off and exile my sloppiest shop partners away from the main bench. They call it
Working on the Little Boys Bench. Yeah, keep it up and your new bench space will be called
Sawhorses outside in the driveway.
So much stuff bin boxed and sometimes stacked at either end of the bench.
P2220555 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Stuffed stuff. Time to see what can come up off the bench and onto the 5 inch deep shelves, and what needs put away proper on more remote shop shelves.
Some of it will have to stay. The 8 slot soda bottle holders full of my most commonly used screws and bolts weight 30lbs each, and sometimes travel with me for distant work. 18 inches of bench lost to convenience, and muscle memory when I reach for a drywall screw.
P2230558 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
With a clean bench and mini shelf surround I could finally reorganize the pegboard L on bench left. Look ma, no magnets. Not yet.
P2240567 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
In center bench, below the glorious natural light window and exhaust fan location for things like stinky contact cement benchtop work, I wanted a couple magnetic tool bars. Built out beyond window sill depth and drilled on top for the burr bits, punches and cutters I use most often, with a long magnetic bar on the front face for my most favored boat working tools.
P2240568 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
The unoccupied magnetic bar is an experiment. I am hoping to condition myself to place the small hand tools currently in use on that empty magnet bar while working, rather than looking around on the mess of shop bench wondering where they wandered. We will see if an old dog can learn new tricks.
On to reorganizing the longer L section of peg board. Gawd that lesser used tool area is a cluttered mess. For starters, why the heck did I ever hang tools in those crappy vinyl tool pouches? Am I that lazy?
P2230562 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
P2230564 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Guess I am, or was, that lazy. Those stupid plastic pouches take up too much peg board area and are a PITA to get tools in and out of. There is a space saving magnet bar use for starters.
P2240569 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
P2240570 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Its a start. Time to organize those box wrenches by metric and imperial size, and cleanfilegrind some Philllips heads, dunk a magnet in the various stainless steel bins, and finally get back to some boatwork and see how my organizational suppositions work in real life.
