16 workshop storage solutions you’ve never thought of

Here are a couple of clever ways to use leftover gutter parts. Build small bins with the scrap gutter lengths, end caps and corner pieces. Mount the bins to a wall or workbench edge to hold parts and tools or serve as a dustbin. Or, screw downspout sections to a board and mount it on the wall to store wood dowels, bar stock and other long, thin items.

In this drawer, movable partitions are held in place by strips of foam weather stripping at the front and back. The 44-plus boxes rest on edge, labels up, for easy grabbing and stowing. The labels are typed on a computer and printed on sticky label sheets. Think of never having to wonder where to find a 2.5cm drywall screw or a 1cm washer! Shop for boxes at craft, tackle, office or dollar stores or online.

Here’s a double-duty holder for storing and cleaning table saw and circular saw blades. It features a slotted dowel to keep stored blades spaced apart so the teeth stay sharp. Using a handsaw, cut notches spaced at 1cm intervals halfway through a 1.5cm dowel. Glue the dowel in a hole drilled in a 40cm x 30cm piece of 2cm plywood. Frame the sides and lower edge of the plywood with 5cm strips of plywood and add a lower facing piece to create a basin at the bottom.

When a blade needs cleaning, remove the other blades and line the rack with tinfoil. Then mount the gunked-up blade on the dowel, spray one side with oven cleaner, and flip it over and spray the other side. Any drips go in the basin, and the sides minimise overspray. Let the cleaner work for an hour or so, then use a moistened kitchen scrub pad to scour the dissolved gunk and burned sawdust off the blade. Then throw away the foil and store your blades.

Saw off short pieces of 4cm, 5cm or 7.5cm PVC plumbing pipe with 45-degree angles on one end. Screw them to a board to hold paint brushes, pencils, stir sticks and just about any other narrow paraphernalia in your shop. Mount them by drilling a 0.6cm hole in the angled end, and then drive a 2.5cm-1.5cm drywall screw through the hole into the board.

A 0.3cm thick strip of steel or aluminium fastened to a wall with 1.9cm thick spacers makes a great holder for tape measures, safety glasses and other stuff that doesn’t hang easily on hooks.

Unless you live in an art gallery, wall space is always at a premium. Build this book-like storage rack, and expand your wall space exponentially. Grabbing a tool is as easy as flipping through a magazine. Mount two parallel 2x4s on the wall spaced 60cm apart. Cut the leaves from 1.9cm plywood and hang them from the 2x4s with 7.6. door hinges. Fur out the hinges with 1.9cm plywood blocks so the pages can pivot without binding.

Mount the leaves at least 10cm apart to allow room for them to fold back. Let your imagination run wild creating holders for your various tools. For you pegboard fans, sandwich a 1×3 frame between two pieces of pegboard. Now your collection of hooks and holders will work with this tool storage system.

Are your pipe clamps missing in action right when you need them? Never again, thanks to this slick snap-in, snap-out storage rack, made from PVC pipe. For 1.2cm-diameter iron pipe, use 2cm PVC, and for 2cm-diameter pipe use 2.5cm PVC. To make the rack, cut 5cm lengths of PVC, and with a hacksaw or band saw, slice them lengthwise about 0.5cm past the diameter’s centre line. This creates the gripping action to firmly hold the heavy iron pipe.

Drill and countersink two holes in each PVC piece, then space and screw them along a pair of 5cm-wide boards. Attach the upper board to your shop wall and snap a pipe clamp in either end to position the lower board for screwing to the wall.

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Source: The Family Handyman