Tool caddy/rack, in the round.

[Eddyde]

Hi All,

The other day whilst trying to better organize my shop, I made a caddy to hold all, or at least some, of my pliers, wire cutters and the like, on my electronics workbench. I was inspired by a video I saw on YouTube by Adam Savage (Former host of the TV series Mythbusters), who espouses an anti-drawer philosophy and thus keeps all his most use tools at the ready on caddy/racks. While his rack design is very usable it didn't quite fit my needs.

I had been saving some short sections of PVC Pipe and figured I could use them to make a compact, circular rack that would fit on my bench. I also put a limitation that I could only use stuff I had on hand to make it, no purchased parts allowed.

First I mocked it up to get the basic clearances, etc. The 8" diameter outer ring is held to the inner piece of 4" pipe by fins made from a heat flattened, piece of pipe, glued in place. The inner bulkheads are ¾" PVC foam board, also glued and the bushings are turned from black Delrin.

The base is painted plywood with a piece of ⅝-11 threaded rod fastened to it with a flange I found in the scrap bin, all it needed was to be drilled and tapped for the rod. I covered the rod with a piece of rigid aluminum, electrical conduit and made a Delrin bushing to cover the jam-nut on top of the flange. The rod-conduit axil is capped with a circular handle made from an old hockey puck and a nut.

The rack turns nice and smooth with just the right amount of resistance so it doesn't spin too much, something I thought might be an issue if I used ball bearings.

Anyway, It was fun to build and now have ideas for more tool storage using this concept.

Thanks for looking.

 

[markba633csi]

Very nice Ed- A man with pliers is a man to be reckoned with.
Those Erem cutters are sure nice- I use a pair to trim my cat's claws
I like your Guinness poster BTW

 

[Eddyde]

You have a good eye for wire cutters and beer!

 

[keeena]

Very nice, thanks for posting! Creative solution.

 

[woodchucker]

My favorite beer.. At a wake for my father in law, I learned it's called mothers milk in many Irish circles.. well at least in the circles my wife's uncle consumed in...

 

[markba633csi]

Beer is a tool, isn't it?
I also have an eye for levels that are in danger of getting bent laying on stairs
Better declutter that corner Eddy

 

[C-Bag]

Very cool Eddy. I like the design and the portability. I probably have that many different pliers and a good many of specialty pliers I’ve made. I’ve had to limit them to certain drawers and racks where they are used. I’m jealous you can put them all in the same rack and still find them. I’m afraid my OO( optical occlusion) would drive me crazy with that compact of a rack. I love it though and aspire to that level compact organization.

 

[toprecyler]

Thanks for the inspiration. Looks good.

I’ve been meaning to make up a lazy Susan type rack to hold open/ close box end wrenches for about 10 years now. I have a flat board in middle of my main workbench that takes up too much space. I like having the wrenches hanging up close to hand, but want to make the real estate more organized. I can see several of these smaller footprint rotisserie in my future.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Eddyde]

Beer is a tool, isn't it?
I also have an eye for levels that are in danger of getting bent laying on stairs
Better declutter that corner Eddy

Indeed it is!
Ha! that's a cheap-o level, it is made out of plastic and that pile is stuff going out of the shop to either trash or the storage container, I haven't yet decided where the level is going, lol.
I'm in the middle of a major shop reorganization and clean out so progress on the clutter soon at hand...

 

[markba633csi]

I too have a plastic level I was planning to throw out but I just used it this past year to build my catio so there you go LOL
Knee deep in clutter here as well