Workshop organisation

[sierraman]

Had a good tidy in the garage the other day. I’ve got shit lying all over place, need to get some decent drawer type things. The roll cab things tend to be too shallow, I’m looking to to it cheap. Possibly old wooden drawers etc. What do other shiters use to organise their workspace?

[Mally]

Something like this

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/office-filing-cabinet/123508499137?hash=item1cc1ae22c1:g:tdcAAOSwEX5b-S~X:rk:4:pf:0

But mines a little smaller.

 

For small bits tools etc any drawers with Bisley on such as,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/15-Drawer-Metal-Filing-Cabinet-Bisley-Style-collection-Chorley-can-deliver/153277466206?hash=item23b00c865e:g:LS8AAOSw4m9b-xGW:rk:9:pf:0

 

Bisley are expensive, but eventually one turns up cheap.

[cort1977]

I hang stuff on the walls, not tools but all the things that I end up tripping over in the garage such as bikes, pressure washer, garden tools etc. I put up on the walls on big hooks and then i have a fighting chance to get tools organized. 

[mrbenn]

One of these helped me get my shit in order:

 

https://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/storage/tool-chests-cabinets/halfords-6-drawer-tool-centre

 

Allowed me to get rid of 6 toolboxes and a load of duplicated tools. Think I paid about £75 for it in one of the sales.

[cort1977]

Funnily enough I have that exact same model branded as something else from Lowes.  It's not a bad thing at all for the money.

[sierraman]

Went in Ikea tonight for some stuff for the kids, they had galvanised shelves in for a tenner a pop. Not the heavy duty type but more than capable of holding tins of paint, silicone tubes etc. They had some mini filing cabinet type things, upon inspection they were flimsy as fuck. So no good.

[loserone]

Lidl often have standard metal racking for a reasonable price, I have one wall decked out in that.

 

I also have a snap on roller cab knocking about still that I totally don't have room for and would pay for 6 months insurance on a hot hatch /and/ some clever whatsit to make Mercedes superchargers run faster.

[Alfamale]

A while back Homebase were doing kitchen drawer units (two normal drawers and one big one) for £20 each to clear. Bought 3 and a 3m worktop that they also wanted to clear for £20. For £80 I have a great workstation and loads of storage. Just need to get some drawer handles though...

[ruffgeezer]

I've a load of linbins and a rack to sell soon if that is any use?

[Dan_ZTT]

I just screwed a couple of big old timbers to the garage wall, them hammered a bunch of nails into them and hung anything that would hang off those. I'm pretty cheap though.

[Fat_Pirate]

I've got a large square of chipboard attached to the wall, makes it easy to screw tools, etc, to it without needing to break out the drill.

[stonedagain]

Most of my tools are hanging up on the garage floor.....

[PhilA]

 

I'm quite proud of how much crap I've moved up out of the way.

 

The rest of it is in the other room which has a door. Out of sight, out of mind!

 

 

Phil

[Eddie Honda]

Organisation?

 

 

Are you mad?

[Honey Badger]

I brought two 6 draw roll cabs from Aldi last time they had them, they seem quite good for the money.

 

The rest of my shit is divided up into boxes on timber framed racking I made myself, I used the really useful boxes in 9lt, 18lt and 32 of. Once you get them all sorted and labeled it's easy to find stuff.

[Tickman]

Once you get them all sorted and labeled it's easy to find stuff.

That is the bit I have trouble with

[sierraman]

No what I like to do is complete a job then leave all the shit out on the garage floor while I go in for a celebratory pint. It’s that mentality I need to snap out of.

 

I did however see a solid unfinished pine cupboard in Ikea for £40, wondering now whether this would suffice. It was certainly solid enough, the timber was 3/4 inch thick. Might go for that after Xmas.

[Richard]

I got one of the £80ish tool chests from SGS, a couple of years ago and I wouldn't really recommend it. The drawers are too shallow (both vertically and horizontally) and fill up far too quickly. The blue one from Halfords, which looks the same but isn't, is a bit more spacious, but you generally need to buy something posher to be any real use. 

 

The tool storage in Homebase looks quite useful, it would be worth holding off until they go bust if you can. Other than that I would suggest watching eBay etc for local bargains. If you do want to buy new go for one component of something decent, rather than a whole set of something cheap.

[RobT]

A giffer owned my flat before me, so the garage came with some useful high level shelves and one big one at the back. I still have shit piled up in the corner though.

 

My additions were a set of small shelves where I use the top one as a work surface (bought from the Reject Shop in 1995 for £10, and it's still in service), and an old Ikea TV stand with one of these plastic draw sets on top

 

 

Good for storing bits and bobs like bulbs, jubilees, cleaning cloths etc but not any heavy stuff. 10 quid from homebase or something, and it was another cast off from indoors so not actually bought for the purpose.

[Mally]

I've a load of linbins and a rack to sell soon if that is any use?

 

Linbins are good. I've got some, you can see what you've got.

You need to keep them tidy though, I chuck things in the wrong bin and mix them all up.

[anonymous user]

Organisation?

 

 

 

Are you mad?

Ah, you too favour the lucky dip system where you find what you were looking for last time and didn't find then, but not what you are looking for now; although you definitely saw it there last time.

[catsinthewelder]

I keep re-doing this and still can't work it out.  My main problem is that everything needs be portable as I work as a handyman but don't want to be driving a van full of tools.  My current plan is to have a basic toolbag containing battery drill with several of those 3.99 sets of drill bits that Aldi sell.  The bag also contains a hammer, pliers, 2x adjustable spanners, tape measure, ratchet screwdriver, stanley knife and a 1/4" drive socket set along with whatever seemed useful that morning/3 days ago that I forgot to remove.  This bag goes everywhere especially when I'm doing removal work.

 

I've got a general household toolbox which contains various other tools together with lots of screws and fixings which together with a big SDS drill and bag 1 is good for going to customers houses for the usual games of fitting/fixing locks and putting up shelves and curtain poles.

 

I've recently bought an old fashioned cantalever type toolbox from an antiques shop to house my sockets and spanners and the plastic box they used to live in together with another old toolbag are theoretically left empty and filled with whichever tools would be useful from drawers marked 'hammers and chisels','painting','wiring','plumbing' and 'servicing'.  Obviously these drawers rarely contain the right things and many things that should be in them don't fit so lead to a frantic search through 3 sheds, the house and the boots of 4 cars whenever I try to get ready.  The inevitable result of all this is that I sometimes have to buy duplicate tools which only adds to the chaos.

 

I really need to pull my finger out and build a proper workshop but as this is going on the ground that 2 of the sheds sit on its easier said than done especially when the remaining shed is the old privvy so about 3 feet square.

[sierraman]

Put the shelves up tonight, for some farting ten quid shelves they are alright, don’t get me wrong you wouldn’t be chucking a gearbox on one but for tins of paint and jars of nails etc it’s fine.

[drivewaymyway]

I tend to make my own shelves, nothing complicated just a long plank and some off cuts of 4x2 bolted to the wall to put the planks on.. I bought some cheap metal and wood shelving from ebay, looks like Dexion but it is very weak and feeble, ok for putting tools and light boxes of crap on but it collapsed into a pile of twisted scrap when I stood on a shelf to paint the wall... It took some careful hammering and time wasted .. shan't be doing that again.. the shelves are ok though..

[drivewaymyway]

.. A garage you will have.. Patients you must have..

[UltraWomble]

On 26/11/2018 at 14:17, sierraman said:

Had a good tidy in the garage the other day. I’ve got shit lying all over place, need to get some decent drawer type things. The roll cab things tend to be too shallow, I’m looking to to it cheap. Possibly old wooden drawers etc. What do other shiters use to organise their workspace?

Old chest of drawers & old MFI kitchen larder cupboard

[sierraman]

18 minutes ago, UltraWomble said:

Old chest of drawers & old MFI kitchen larder cupboard

In the end I just built some myself out of 18mm ply, they’ve took loads of abuse over the years, even the ones that are full of hammers. A domestic kitchen won’t put up with that long.