Popular Woodworking 2007-02 № 160, страница 34

Hanging tools on the wall over a bench is a time-honored approach to keeping things straight. Homemade racks, hooks and magnetic strips all work.

red or white. A strict arrangement like that probably encourages the owner to put tools back where they came from, and being able to move hooks quickly from one spot to another is an advantage. But driving nails or screws right into the wall works just as well. If your workshop has been clad in drywall, you might want to add a layer of plywood so you can put a nail or screw in wherever you want. T1-11 plywood ³/8" or V2" thick is inexpensive and attractive.

For tools that won't hang (chisels, files, carving tools, screwdrivers and the like), you can make simple racks and attach them to the wall. One easy way to make a rack for chisels or files is to cut a series of slots in a board with a dado blade and then glue another board to it. The width and depth of the slots can be made to suit tools of different sizes. A series of holes in graduated sizes bored through the face of a board will handle chisels or screwdrivers. Magnetic strips will accomplish the same thing. Racks don't have to be fancy to be useful.

For the variety of odds and ends that almost always end up on a bench, drill holes in scrap blocks of wood and put them on a low shelf over the back of your bench. Blocks can store drill bits, nail sets, awls and similarly slender tools with points or sharp edges. You won't lose track of them and their delicate edges will be well protected. It's also a great way to preserve and make use

of the especially beautiful offcuts of a prized piece of lumber you just can't seem to throw away.

Rolling Cabinets Keep Like Tools Together

There are two good approaches to making a tool cabinet mobile. One is, in effect, to take the cabinet off the wall and stick a pair of casters underneath it to create a rolling tool garage and workbench. The other is to make one or more rolling workstations dedicated to a single power tool.

Mobile workbenches and tool caddies can be as elaborate or as simple as you want to make them. For example, a design by David Thiel, Popular Woodworking Books executive editor, is actually a modular bench consisting of two 21³/4"-high rolling boxes and a 6'-long bench that spans them. Adjustable support assemblies attached to the sides of the boxes can be raised to support the benchtop at a variety of working heights or hold a tool, such as a drill press, router table or a hollow-chisel mortise machine, when it's needed.

It's a good design for a small shop (Thiel's is in a two-car garage) because the boxes can be used alone or together depending on the need, and parked out of the way when it's time to bring the cars in for the night. Another successful design from Thiel and Michael Rabkin incorporates fold-out lids, roomy storage

Storing tools where they will be needed is usually a good start to staying organized. In simple racks over the lathe in the workshop of Sam Maloof are both turning tools and extra tool rests.

compartments and a series of shallow drawer for fasteners and tools.

In this or a similar work cart, drawers can be built to suit your interests and internally divided in whatever manner makes the most sense for the user. Use a power sander a lot? Devote one of the drawers to your collection of random-orbit and block sanders with separate trays for different grades of sandpaper and other accessories. A heavy bottom

Versatile as well as mobile, this modular cabinet design not only houses a variety of tools but also can serve as workbench or portable workstation for a drill press or other bench-top power tool.

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