Originally Posted by
Matthew Brawley
I had been planning on building a traditional wall cabinet for my hand tools, but have thought since space is at a premium in my shop, would it be bad to build a cabinet under my workbench. Thinking of building it with drawers and storing planes on their sides along with other tools (chisels, layout tools, etc.) in other drawers.
Am I crazy to do this or missing something I should consider?
Often times a variation in design elements is necessary due to limitations on one's available space. Many good comments have been made in the previous responses.
Originally Posted by
Mike Manning
Always love reading the discussions on tool and shop organization. What's the story with storing hand planes on their sides? Am I missing something?
Hopefully "discussions on tool and shop organization" will one day inspire me to take on the concept and better organize my shop.
The idea of "storing planes on their side" is underlined and in bold in the quote above.
Keeping a plane on its side was often recommended by high school shop teachers in the 1950s and '60s. Whether it protected the blade or not is debatable. If you have ever set a plane down on a bench and then put a nick in the bench when retrieving it, you know a good reason to be careful in how a plane is set on a bench.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)