work bench storage

[duckkisser]

i am planing on turning my work bench into a partial storage as well as a work surface. what i was thinking of doing was dividing it in half so there would be a cubard on one side to store air compressor and wood burner, air brush, finishing equipment ect.... but on the othere side i would store chisles, knives, gouges ect..... so what i was thinking was a series of thin drawers for carving equipment, burning handpieces, ect... this bench is used mainly for carving, and small work like wood burning, marqatry, inlay ect.... so i wont be storing large tools

one drawer would be thin and hold all my dremel stuff in small cubbie slots like a printers tray where the letters are all seperated by size and font.

another drawer would hold all my carving knives and gouges

one drawer for measureing tools

drawer for carving vises

and then a bottom drawers to hold my sandpaper and sanders

the measurements are 30 1/4 17 1/2 deep and 24 3/4 tall. i thought i would take off 5 inches of so since my table top has hole's in the top for bench dogs and hold downs. if my cabinet went tot the top be hard to clean any wood chips and i would need room for the hold downs to stick out the bottom of my bench top.

so what i need help with is knowing what tools would be most usefull right at the bench that way i can plan and set up the drawers for specific tools like demel drawer full of small squares and the hand carving tool full of slots like a silverwear drawer for each of my tools. so what tools will i run into most often? for example i wont ever use a circler saw on this surface but i would probably use coping saw.

as you can see i have a small surface for seting tools on so i will end up just puting them away as soon as im finished. but i have more room down below so drawers are perfect solution.

[duckkisser]

This is an idea of the type of storage im looking at.

[duckkisser]

been trying to figure out how i can glue up pannels in my little area and i think i figured it out im going to mount my pipe clams on the back of my bench then i can slide my pieces in tighten down and now its only taking up the space that the clamps need upright rather then filling up a surface.

[Huffster]

Since you have a fairly small area, I will assume you are not talking about storing your air compressor underneath. I saw something on youtube via AskWoodman that I think would maximize your storage with drawers. He has an assembly table with drawers underneath. His trick was basically a drawer cabinet with no back. This allows you to have larger drawers (depth) and push/pull them from either side! As far as what tools you need at the bench, I can think of nothing better than the next time you do a project or two, put the tools you used in a cardboard box or something. When you are done with your projects, take a look. If you only used and item once, maybe you don't need it at the bench. If you used it several times, add it to your list of must haves. One last note and I will shut up. If you haven't used rare earth magnets, you are missing out. You could hang more tools on the ends of your drawer cabinet for even more storage. Hope that helps.

[duckkisser]

good advise about the tools instead of a box ill make a list and check it off each time i use them so that i still am puting my tools away cant afford to put them in any place other then away or i will have no surface.  plus i like knowing where my tools are.  but this will be something that i will do to figure out drawer storage.

 

as for the air compressor im going to get a small pancake 3-6 gal unit.  its going to be more for sanding on my lathe, paint spraying, brad nailer ect.... so im thinking that once i get one i can set it on the shelf and measure how much room it takes up and then build a cubard to hold that and possible some smaller stuff like brad gun, spray paint tools ect...waiting till i get one before i plan this out.  depending on how much room it will take up  i plan on a half and half cubard drawers of carving tools, rasps, files, mallets dremel parts on one side and cubard on the other

 

i like the idea of the push me pull you drawers (dr doolittle quote) but im thinking of mounting my pipe clamps on the bottom backside of the bench then i can use that space to glue up panels to make a wider board.  or if i need some clamps i can unhook them and use them where i need them. does a job and takes up little space.  but i will give it thought just dont see a need to eliminate a side of the bench just so i can pull the draw backwards rather then forwards.

 

as for the magnets  i use this bench for wood carving so im doing alot of hammering and wacking on it more then usual for a wood worker since every use of the carving tool takes a wack with a mallet. so tools would end up vibraiting off. but i will end up using the sides for some kind of storage just got to figure out what. still open to ideas i had thought to put a small thin shelf on one end that is smashed up between my bench and the red 3m cabinet that i would store my sandpaper in.  might put drawer slide on it pull it towards me and then i get get to the entire stack of sandpaper discs and belts. without having to unload stuff and put it back.

 

keep em coming huffster i have goten a  couple of ideas from your comments like having the sandpaper storage push and pull from eather side.

[Huffster]

I'm glad you can use some of my suggestions. Since my shop is small, I really tried to put some thought into locations for specific items based on frequency of use and not interfering with space around my bench. You mentioned your pipe clamps, which is something I had to deal with myself. I previously worked in manufacturing and "Lean" organization was the rule. If you proritize items based on use, it helps a lot. If you have a primary location that you work, the tools you hardly use do not belong there. It's almost "Sacred" ground! Ha. I am including a link for a site I get my magnets from. They sell magnets that you couldn't vibrate off if your life depended on it. Some of my tools directly attach to them and some don't. Think of any jig you can make, then mount a magnet in it via epoxy or whatever. I have even seen items for sale where they sandwich magnets inside two pieces of wood. The sky is the limit! www.kjmagnetics.com