Organizing a tool board

[Thomas Wilson]

The next project in the Cave of the Modern Neanderthal should be to organize the tools. A tool board should help. Let’s just lay out our favorite tools on the board and see what we come up with.

D60B85EF-AFC7-4DAB-A953-D375F2770F56.jpg

I started with measuring and marking tools on the left. Things went downhill. H. O. Studley I am not.

[Phil Mueller]

Just make it like you have it. I’ve found that it will grow and change over time and changing it up now and then makes for a great project between other things. Enjoy the process. I should add that I made mine with sort of modular pieces versus one board. Meaning a holder for chisels, a separate one for measuring tools, another one for planes, etc. That way I can move them around a bit on the wall when I want to add or subtract something.

[Bob Jones 5443]

Consider a French cleat wall. I've gotten all my tools out of boxes (from when I moved 3 years ago) and up onto the wall. Everything: measuring and marking tools, router bits, 24-piece Forstner bit set, set of 7 Narex chisels, every possible screwdriver, the miter gauge to my Unisaw, my Biesemeier fence, several table saw blades, featherboards and push sticks, cordless drill and impact driver, three sets of drill bits, plunge router, jigsaw and blades, circular saw, mortising jig, a jig I made to make wooden burr puzzles, my Kreg board, several saws and hammers, levels, shooting board, winding sticks, a crude miter box, heavy stapler with several sets of staples, now-unused (but retained) factory boxes for my Lie-Nielsen 4-1/2 and Boggs curved spokeshave (pampered now in their own honored racks above the bench with their elder brethren, out of the photo frame), my beloved supercool full-disk dado set and extra-awesome self-designed and shop-made router fence (for years my two favorite tools until I caught the antique Stanley bug), a pair of hold downs, a bit brace, a bag of shop rags, and even wood storage up top, and I'm sure I've missed something –– all hanging at arm's length. And there's still lots of room, maybe a third of the wall. Did anyone spot the toilet snake?

cleat wall.jpg

My one regret is that I screwed the holding cleats directly into the sheetrock, which was not perfectly flat. Small matter, but if I had it to do over, I'd start with a plywood surface sheet over the sheetrock to make everything a little flatter, and maybe give it a snazzier look as well.

All this takes time and care, because you end up creating a custom holder for each tool or set of tools. But you get to watch those tools come up off the bench and into tidy accessible cubbies, always at the ready, and easy to rearrange in a few seconds. You love it every day.

[Bill McDermott]

Hanging a 4' x 8' sheet of 3/4" plywood is step one. Everything after that is evolutionary. The panel you have on your bench can screw on and off the 4x8 as you need to get to the back of it, etc.. It's nice that you have the below bench storage and that large shelf unit so handy. It's going to be like an operating room soon.
PS - I like painting the ply white to keep that brightness you currently enjoy.

[Thomas Wilson]

Just make it like you have it. I’ve found that it will grow and change over time and changing it up now and then makes for a great project between other things. Enjoy the process. I should add that I made mine with sort of modular pieces versus one board. Meaning a holder for chisels, a separate one for measuring tools, another one for planes, etc. That way I can move them around a bit on the wall when I want to add or subtract something.

Really this post is self mockery that indicates that I have a hard time making decisions and getting organized. The situation is not so bad. I had a wall tool cabinet about the same size is the last shop. Folded out it was about 36i" x 72". For the expected evolution, I used pegboard for the back. The design never evolved. It held some tools that I regularly used at the bench but not gracefully. I am hoping to do better by planning and really thinking about it first. And trying to get it in a solid first design. In my internet searching on this topic, the most common YouTube approach is to put the most expensive chisels, saws, and planes in the main real estate, omitting the things you actually use most, like a pencil, a tape measure, a set of screwdrivers and allen wrenches. I had a few quick and easy things fixtures for holding things on the walls. I want to plan this out and make it prettier, not YouTube pretty, just worthy of the tools that hang there. Enjoyment is the goal. I even enjoyed taking this picture for you guys here. Thanks for commenting.

[Thomas Wilson]

Consider a French cleat wall. I've gotten all my tools out of boxes (from when I moved 3 years ago) and up onto the wall. Everything: measuring and marking tools, router bits, 24-piece Forstner bit set, set of 7 Narex chisels, every possible screwdriver, the miter gauge to my Unisaw, my Biesemeier fence, several table saw blades, featherboards and push sticks, cordless drill and impact driver, three sets of drill bits, plunge router, jigsaw and blades, circular saw, mortising jig, a jig I made to make wooden burr puzzles, my Kreg board, several saws and hammers, levels, shooting board, winding sticks, a crude miter box, heavy stapler with several sets of staples, now-unused (but retained) factory boxes for my Lie-Nielsen 4-1/2 and Boggs curved spokeshave (pampered now in their own honored racks above the bench with their elder brethren, out of the photo frame), my beloved supercool full-disk dado set and extra-awesome self-designed and shop-made router fence (for years my two favorite tools until I caught the antique Stanley bug), a pair of hold downs, a bit brace, a bag of shop rags, and even wood storage up top, and I'm sure I've missed something –– all hanging at arm's length. And there's still lots of room, maybe a third of the wall. Did anyone spot the toilet snake?

cleat wall.jpg

My one regret is that I screwed the holding cleats directly into the sheetrock, which was not perfectly flat. Small matter, but if I had it to do over, I'd start with a plywood surface sheet over the sheetrock to make everything a little flatter, and maybe give it a snazzier look as well.

All this takes time and care, because you end up creating a custom holder for each tool or set of tools. But you get to watch those tools come up off the bench and into tidy accessible cubbies, always at the ready, and easy to rearrange in a few seconds. You love it every day.

That is an impressive wall of tools with all your custom holders. On mine, the plywood is really two 2'x4' pieces of birch ply. The whole sheets will be hung on French cleats. I want small sheets so that I can easily take them down to revise holders or add new ones or even take the whole sheet to my other shop in the Mountain Kingdom. My shop space is narrow so I need to keep the board fairly two dimensional and close to the wall. I will take your advice about checking the flatness of the wall. The sheetrock is hung on steel studs so it should be flatter than standard 2by4's but I will check flatness and shim as necessary. Thanks for the tip.

[Phil Mueller]

There’s always this...makes me smile every time I look at this pic:

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[Thomas Wilson]

Hanging a 4' x 8' sheet of 3/4" plywood is step one. Everything after that is evolutionary. The panel you have on your bench can screw on and off the 4x8 as you need to get to the back of it, etc.. It's nice that you have the below bench storage and that large shelf unit so handy. It's going to be like an operating room soon.
PS - I like painting the ply white to keep that brightness you currently enjoy.

Thanks Bill. Your operating room vision of how this shop might turn out is putting the pressure on me to up my game.

I don't have 4x8 space on this wall so I need to get by with about half that area. I will pick and choose the tools that go on the board. I really want to apply some engineering skill and time on custom holders that are more efficient in packing the tools close together on the board. Yet to be seen how Studley I am able to be on the packing factor. I am sure that there will be some scale drawings before I actually cut any wood. I will also have to have some pigeon hole galleries on the warehouse shelves for tools that don't fit on the board. A lot of the marking and measuring tools have been in the drawers of the bench. That has worked well so far.

On most of the furniture and cabinets I have made in my life, the only hand tool used was some sandpaper. The Cave is all about fun.

[Thomas Wilson]

There’s always this...makes me smile every time I look at this pic:

37B34496-6451-4245-BF80-E4DEF43B56F3.jpg

Wow, I haven't seen that one before. I shall show it to Janicewhokeepsmehumble and tell her that is the look I am trying for. JWKMH has already looked at my picture and notified me she is suspending my membership in the Tool of the Month Club.