Tool storage

Work Benches

Wheels with room to spare.

1. We have a master bench, that has the less common and expensive tools.
2. We tried to figure out what the most common tools used in our shop were and created 7 identical benches. From Left to Right.
   • Professional Wheel Truing Stand with the three common Spoke Wrenches (Park Tool TS-2, SW-0, SW-1, SW-2)
   • Pedal Wrench (Park Tool PW-3)
   • Combination Wrenches (Cornwell Metric Sizes 17-10)
   • Ball-Peen Hammer (Cornwell 16oz)
   • Cone Wrenches: Two 13mm, two 14mm, two 15mm, two 17mm (Park Tool SCW-13, SCW-14, SCW-15, SCW-17)
   • Crank Puller (Park Tool CCP-2)
   • Crank Wrench (Park Tool CCW-5)
   • Professional Cable and Housing Cutter (Park Tool CN-10)
   • 8 & 10 mm AND 9 & 11 mm Metric Wrenchs (Park Tool CBW-1, CBW-4)
   • Screw Type Chain Tool (Park Tool CT-3)
   • Spanner for one piece cranks (Park Tool SPA-4)
   • Chainring Nut Wrench (Park Tool CNW-2)
   • 32 & 36 mm AND 30 & 32 mm Headset Wrenches and Lockring Hook Spanner (Park Tool HCW-15, HCW-7, HCW-5)
   • Spoke Ruler also determines bearings and cotter pin sizes. (Park Tool SBC-1)
   • Magnetic strip to hold freewheel removers, bottom bracket removers and a magnet for pulling bearings out of hubs. (Park Tool BBT-22, FR-1, FR-2, FR-3)
   • Vice & Heavy Duty Axle and Pedal Vise Axle Vice (Wilton Armetale 4 1/2 In. Workshop Vise, Park Tool AV-4)
3. We kept them low so people would talk and see each other. This worked out well for drilling holes on the top for more tools, but it is also a theft deterrent.
   • P-Handled Star-Shaped Wrench for Disc Brake Rotors (Park Tool PH-T25)
   • P-Handled 10-2 mm Allen Wrenches (Cornwell)
   • Flathead screwdriver (Cornwell)
   • #2 Phillips screwdriver (Cornwell)
   • #0 Phillips screwdriver (Park Tool SD-0)
4. Each bench has the most common shop supplies (see Shelves with Holes):
   • Grease
   • Chain Lube (big, refillable, non-pocketable container)
   • 3/16 bearings (most front wheels)
   • 1/4 bearings (most rear wheels)
5. We got bigger tools and containers as a theft deterrent. Notice no tri-tools.
6. Ugly bright colors sometimes covering the entire tool. We put the "girly" pink colors in the back of the shop so the younger boys would stay closer to supervision -- it works.
7. Outlined the tools
8. Hooks are zip-tied in place.
9. Truing Stands were moved to face the side of the bench, creating more room and allowing someone two people to use the bench at once (one truing to the side, one wrenching).
10. Benches were made using 2 ft. increments to make maximum use of 8' boards and 4' x 8' sheets of plywood.
11. Bench tops are plywood with a thin (and replaceable) layer of ......
12. Molding was put in the corner connecting the peg board from the bench top to prevent little parts from gettings stuck.
13. We usually have a couple random tin-cans for people to put parts in. We also keep sand paper and tire levers in there -- Pink Pedros tire levers don't get stolen as often.
14. Each bench has a small dust pan and broom hanging under the truing stand, makes for easy small parts cleanup.
15. Bike specialty tools are Park Tool, however anything that was a generic hard line tool we got elsewhere.

Wall tool cabinet

For all those special tools - you don't want to lose. cost was about $20 for lumber. 1 inch plywood for back- frames in by 1x6. doors 1x2 framed around 1/2 inch ply. lay out your tools while cabinet is flat then fix on wall. Keeps them from banging around and safe.

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  Cabinet for Expensive Tools: Closed

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  Cabinet for Expensive Tools: Open

Tool Peg Board

One of the most common ways to keep tools is hung on boards with an outline traced around each tool so it's easy to spot which one is missing. If your shop has multiple workbenches, tools may be taped with different colors to identify which work bench they belong to.

Advantages

• Tools are easy to see. A shadow board easily tells guests name of tool and instructor can see if tool is missing.
• Cheap: the only cost is nails if lumber is donated or salvaged.
• The fastest tool storage method to use when you have to find a tool.
• Familiar and easy to learn the way around it.

Disadvantage

• Theft easy since all tools always on display.
• Not that versatile once all area has been used up.
• Not portable. In fact, they should be very sturdily built.

Canvas Tool Rolls

Advantages

• Portable
  • These roll up nicely and out of the way.
  • Flexible shape can be installed on fences, tables, anyplace for off-site events.
• Displays tools like a tool board and stores them like a tool box.
• Can be easily color coded. Portable.
• Can be custom made for the needs of particular workshops or tool sets.

Disadvantages

• Fabric construction is often hard to clean and rapidly becomes disgusting looking.
• Fairly expensive—more so than tool boxes.
• Finite durability.
• Portability: ease of theft as tool box…

Tool Boxes

Advantages

• Containers can be coded to match tools so it is easy to make sure that the tools are there.
• Toolbox can be equipped with a sign in sheet on laminated paper so that tools can be checked before and after class.
• Easiest form of tool storage to put tools away in.
• Highly portable.
• Can contain compartments for parts too.

Disadvantages

• Tools not visible once put away.
• Tools hard to find if the box is crowded.
• More expensive than tool board.
• Portability=ease of theft as an entire unit!

Free Ride checks out tool boxes containing a set of combination wrenches (8-15mm), 2 screw drivers, 3 allen keys, a 3-way hex socket, and a 3 way allen key. They also keep IDs as collateral and make sure everything is there when its returned. This has significantly reduced the number of wrenches that wander away from the shop. It's also a good way to limit the number of people in the shop at any given time.