Glenn Bradley made me do it. (Shop storage)

Art Mulder

Member
Messages
3,383
Location
London, Ontario
I was quite impressed with Glenn Bradley's thread about improved wood storage in his shop from last August. I made a note of it then, as I thought I would benefit from some of his ideas. Finally got around to it this week.

Of course I neglected to take before photos, so you'll have to bear with me there...

I was about to start building, when I realize that the smart thing to do was to take OUT all the wood scraps and sort it a bit on the bench, so I got at least some sort of idea as to what I needed in terms of scrap size. I quickly realized that I had way too much of the long-and-skinnies.

So first I got rid of a rarely-used bench (for painting) hanging up on the wall, and replaced it with some narrow shelves, which I loaded up with the long-and-skinnies...
The next was the stuff in the 12-20" category. I kept looking overhead, and came up with this space above the door into my (basement) shop.
I'm tall, but not that tall, so I banged this together out of scrap plywood. I resisted the urge to immediately hang it up, and first primed and painted it white. Hopefully it looks a bit better, but more importantly, hopefully it helps reflect light. Both of those are in this first photo.

IMG_2984.jpg

That actually took care of a lot of the junk--- I mean valuable lumber.

Next was a bit of dead wall space behind/above the Dust Collector. I couldn't really do much there, anyway, so I slapped up a couple of shelf brackets and moved some narrow stock over there:

IMG_2985.jpg

The result was pretty stunning. I had been thinking that I'd be building some sort of better floor-standing unit, like in Glenn's thread. But instead, my existing mess was pretty much gone. (and yes, I did pitch some of the stuff) Oh yeah, And I did pop up a few other things into the rafters overhead also, which I did not take a photo of.

IMG_2983.jpg

So now instead of re-building this, my plan is to eventually dismantle it, which frees up some floor space. Hmm, maybe that is where I can put the panto-router when I get around to building it!

Oh, and the before shot, was probably something like this, only worse:
before.jpg

I have had this vertical wood organizer for probably close to 10 years, and I've disliked it most of that time. I find it gets way too messy. It's okay if you only store fairly wide stuff, but if you start trying to put stuff in there that is much narrower than 4", it quickly turns into a rats nest.
 
well done, art. i need to do something with my left overs as well.. but i actually do check the bins when making something. so i can make use of the short stuff:) glenn is always an inspiration for many things.. he should go on tour and help others organize there shops:)
 
Top