Self-identification:
Here’s an easy way to label boxes of nails, screws, and other fasteners: just attach a sample of each item to the outside of its box with some glue. You’ll be able to see at a glance what you have in stock and where it is.

Recycled labels:
If you store screws or other fasteners in small glass jars, cut the label from the package the item was purchased in and push the label inside the jar before filling it. Hold the label face out against the inside of the jar as you pour in the fasteners. The label will remain visible through the g]ass.

Great cheap parts bins:
Use clean plastic oil containers to make bins for screws, bolts, nuts and many other small hardware items. Cut each container as shown with scissors or a utility knife; make a simple wooden frame to hold the bins.

Spill preventer:
Put a magnet in a container of small items such as screws or panel pins. This way, the metal pieces will bind together in a ball around the magnet and won’t spill out if you accidentally knock over the container. If a few items do scatter, use the magnet to pick them up. For inexpensive magnets, buy a roll oi magnetic edging at a hardware store and cut it into whatever lengths you need.

Nut rings:
Store nuts and washers on metal shower curtain rings hung from pegboard hooks. (The ring’s pear shape and latching action allow for secure storage.) Hang nuts and washers of similar size on their own ring, so that you can find the right size quickly.

Ready-made storage modules:
Plastic electrical boxes, either single or double size, are just right for storing small items like fasteners. The boxes are inexpensive and they stack or fit neatly side by side. Just make sure to remove any flanges or ‘wings’ meant for attaching the boxes to studs.

Neat nail organisers:
Large plastic bottles with a section of their tops cut out make great nail bins. When the bottles are stored on their sides, the weight of the nails keeps them from rolling. Off the shelves, the bottles can stand upright, and their handles make for easy carrying to a job site.

Workbench catchall:
Don’t let nuts and bolts and other leftovers clutter your workbench. Bolt a cake tin or baking tray under a shelf. Swing it out and drop your odds and ends into it as you work. Occasionally pick over the pan’s contents to separate the useful from the useless.

Under-shelf storage:
Make the most of your workshop shelf space by storing nails, nuts and other fasteners in jars attached to the underside of a shelf. To mount the jars, simply screw their lids to the bottom of the shelf (place a washer under each screw head for better security).

Storing timber and long items

Gutter shelving:
lnexpensive vinyl gutters provide convenient, surprisingly strong storage for mouldings, lightweight timber, pipes and other long thin items. To install them, just screw the mounting brackets to studs and snap in the gutters. Use the brackets alone as hooks for garden hoses, extension cords and wire coils.

Stand-up storage:
Fit a sturdy cardboard box with sawn-off mailing tubes (or scraps of large-diameter PVC pipe) and use it to organise all those short pieces of moulding, pipe and dowels.

Retreads:
Tie a series of old car tyres to overhead joists and use taem to hold long pieces of lumber and pipe. You can also lay old tyres flat on the floor or ground to provide a pallet that will keep timber and plywood sheets high and dry.

Timber overhead:
Keep lumber out of the way, yet handy with ‘inverted T’ racks. Bolt two to the bottom of your garage roof trusses: spaced about 5′ (1500 mm) apart to support 8′ (2400 mm) lengths of timber. To avoid straining the trusses, limit stored pieces to the equivalent of twenty 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) timbers and distribute the load evenly.

Easy-reach timber:
Store timber vertically between studs. Hold it in place with a 4″ x 1″ (100 x 25 mm) swing arm, fastened to one stud with a 2″ (50 mm) woodscrew. Make a catch with a piece of 2″ x 2″ (50 mm x 50 mm) timber, notched and attached with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews.

Easy-reach holder:
Make a tool holder out of scrap wire mesh. Form the mesh into a ‘channel shape’, leaving a section at the top and bottom for mounting on a wall or stud. A 1/2″ square mesh holds a variety of tools, especially screwdrivers.

Holding power:
For a convenient spot to store chuck keys, scissors, punches and other small hand tools, screw a magnetic knifeholder strip to the underside of a shelf over your workbench. Available in kitchenware stores, these powerful magnets can also hold larger hardware items, such as wrenches and screwdrivers. They work equally well when mounted on the sides of the stands for table saws and other large tools.

Small tool organiser:
Mount a small block of polystyrene foam above your workbench and press punches, bits, knives, screwdrivers and other such tools into it to keep them handy. Buy the foam plastic from a home centre or craft store, or recycle foam used as packing material.

Tool belt:
Tack in old leather or strong canvas belt along the edge of a shelf to hold tools. As you nail it, leave small loops in the belt for tools to slip into.

Handle holder:
Chest handles — available in a variety of sizes from any large hardware store — are great for hanging heavy tools, such as hammers and hand axes, up out of the way. Mount the handles directly on a convenient wall over a stud, or alternatively on a plywood backing,putting them upside-down so that the handles stick out from the wall.

Orderly power tools

Power tower:
To keep power tools handy, build a tall, narrow box out of 12″ x 1″ (300 x 25 mm) strips of plywood. Then staple carpet scraps between the sides to form soft cradles for your tools.

Concentrated power:
Put vour most frecruently used power tools on a shelf mounted over your workbench. Cut slots along the back for your circular and jig saws, and bore 1″ holes along the front for your drill, electric screwdriver and router.

In the wall:
Another way to keep tools close at hand yet out of the way is to store them on shelves built between exposed studs. Make the shelves out of 4″ x 1″ (100 mm x 25 mm) timber and cut notches into them so that the tools seat firmly. Nail 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) cleats to the studs, angling them downward toward the wall to keep the tools from falling. Then glue the shelves to the cleats with construction adhesive.

Ready supplies

String out:
Make a dispenser for string by cutting off the bottom half of a 2 liter plastic bottle. Then mount the top half upside-down on the wall with the string coming out of the bottle neck.

All-in-one tape dispenser:
A toilet paper holder mounted on the workshop wall or on a workbench makes a great dispenser for as many as five or six rolls of masking, friction, duct and other types of tape. For easy cutting, tie scissors to the dispenser with a length of string.

Quick wipes:
Facial tissues are great for quickly cleaning up water, oil and glue and for wiping your hands when the phone rings. To make a holder for a box of tissues, bend a vire coat hanger and hang it on a hook or a nail.

A word on First-Aid kits

An inexpensive and essential safety item for any workshop is a locked first-aid kit. Buy one and mount it where it is easy to see and reach. A standard kit will include anti-septic, bandages, gauze, elastic and adhesive tape, cotton swabs, eye drops, tweezers and scissors. Latex gloves and an instant cold pack are also useful. Make sure the container closes tightly to keep out dirt and dust.

When working with paint, solvents, strippers or any chemical with an eye hazard warning, keep a squeeze bottle of eyewash solution handy. If any chemical gets into your eyes, use the solution immediately. If i chemical irritates your skin, wash it off with water. A first-aid kit is for minor injuries only. Get prompt medical attention for a serious injury such as a deep cut or puncture or a head blow. Also see a doctor if eye irritation persists after washing.

Instant order:
Get your workshop shipshape quickly by storing everything you can in same-sized cardboard boxes. Cut off the tops, label the boxes by general categories, such as ‘brackets’ or’sandpaper’, and arrange them alphabetically on shelves. Identical boxes measuring 12″ (300 mm) or so in height, width and depth work well. Storage firms and office supply stores are good box sources.

Recycled dish rack:
Turn that old vinyl-coated wire dish rack into storage racks. Use bolt cutters and pliers to cut and bend the rack into the sizes and shapes you need. The long sides of a dish rack make convenient wall racks for hanging tools and supplies. Turn the bottom and ends into a portable table rack by bending the cut ends at the bottom and fitting them into holes in wooden dowels.

Serving up hardware:
Turn discarded baking trays (or other items with a projecting top lip; such as cake or cafeteria trays) into handy, ready-made pull-out shelves for tools or fasteners. Mount the trays in a box made from plywood or particleboard, with grooves routed in the sides so that the trays can slide in and out of the box.

Pegboard lore

Put it everywhere:
Don’t limit your use of perforated hardboard, otherwise known as pegboard, to workshop walls. Mount it on the inside of cupboard doors and on the sides of your workbench and cupboards. Pegboard is fine for hand tools: as well as for heavier items.

Hook security:
Keep a pegboard hook from coming loose by putting a dab of glue on the ends that hook into the board. If you need to move the hook, a light tug will usually free it. Otherwise, you should be able to soften the glue with a heat gun.

Outline reminder:
You’ll always return tools to their proper places on pegboard if you outline each tool with a wide permanent marker. Or put up tool silhouettes cut from the adhesive plastic used for shelf lining.

Drawer magic

Protect your toes:
To avoid pulling a heavy drawer out too far and spilling its contents, paint lines on the drawer edges to indicate how far it can be safely putled out. Also attach a wood block on the back that will catch on the frame. Pivot the block and make one end longer than the other. That way it will hang vertically but you can turn it aside to take out the drawer.

Stronger pull:
Does the handle on a tool-laden drawer keep pulling off? Replace it with a garage door handle, or similar, secured with bolts going through the drawer front. Put flat and lock washers onto each bolt before screwing on the nut.

Workshop shelves

Open stud wall?
Narrow 2″ x 1″ (50 x 25 mm) shelves installed between open studs in a garage or workshop are ideal for storing cans of paint, jars of fasteners and car needs. Secure the shelves with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews going through predrilled holes in the studs into the shelf ends; stagger the shelves in adjacent spaces.

Deeper shelves on studs:
To store larger items in the space between studs, install 3/3″ (19 mm) particleboird shelves supported by 4″ x 2″ (100 x 50 mm) brackets. When making a bracket, cut the diagonal support’s ends at a 45 degree angle; attach both pieces to the stud and to each other with 3″ (75 mm) woodscrews. Mount a bracket on every other stud for a moderate load, on every stud for heavier loads. Notch the shelves to fit around the studs and attach them to the brackets with 1-1/2″ (38 mm) woodscrews.

Utility shelving

Great for workshops with no exposed studs to hold shelves, this four-shelf, 11-1/2″ (285 mm) deep storage unit can be up to 8′ (2400 mm) high and 3′ (900 mm) wide. To make it you need five 8′ lengths of 2″ x 2″ (50 mm x 50 mm) DAR timber, two 6′ (1800 mm) lengths of 12″ x 1″ (300 x 25 mm) shelving, one 8′ (2400 mm) long 4″ x 1″ (100 x 25 mm) brace and two 2400 mm long 2″ x 1″ (50 mm x 25 mm) braces. Multiple units can be screwed together.

1: Clamp four of the 2″ x 2″ timbers together. With a square and pencil, mark across all four pieces the length you want the legs, and the position of each cleat. Cut the legs to size.

2: From the remaining 2″ x 2″ timbers, cut cleats that are the same length as the shelves’ depth. Then align each cleat on a marked line and attach it with 3″ woodscrews.

3: Cut the shelves to the length you want. With the end frames on edge, secure the shelves to the cleats with 1-1/2″ woodscrews. Stand the unit up and check that it’s level and square.

4: Mark and cut a 4″ x 1″ brace to run diagonally across the back from the top to bottom shelf. Attach with 1-1/2″ woodscrews. Add 2″ x 1″ braces to both sides in the same way.

Buckle up:
When it’s lime to store a ladder, don’t just lean it against the wall — it can easily fall over. A better way is to attach an old leather belt to the wall and wrap it around the ladder’s top step. Or mount a stetepladder vetically on a pair of pegs securely fastened to the wall. Hang an extension ladder horizontally on pegs spaced no more than 6′ (1800 mm) apart.

Keep it closed:
A simple hook-and-eye fastener will keep a wooden stepladder closed while you’re carrying or storing it. Screw the hook into one leg and the eye in the other leg, directly across from the hook. If you have a metal stepladder, hold the legs together with a belt or strap.

Car carrier:
How do you get a hired extension ladder home if you don’t have a roof rack? Place the ladder on dense foam pads laid on the car’s roof, and then tie the ladder through the windows, and the ends to the front and rear bumpers with stout rope. Tie on a couple of red caution flags and be sure the ladder is secure before you drive away.

Theft protection:
Never store a ladder outside or in an unlocked garage. A burglar may use it to reach a window that would otherwise be out of reach. If you have to leave a ladder out, chain it securely to a tree.

Compact ladder:
If you don’t have room to store an extension ladder, consider buying a multipupose articulated ladder, which unfolds to make a 10′ extension ladder. An articulated ladder is fairly expensive, but it can double as a stepladder and as a support for scaffolding planks.

Better boxes

Tool box organiser:
Use magnets to hold your favorite flat tools, such as wrenches and pliers, against the inside lid of your tool box. Purchase magnets of various sizes and of sufficient strength to hold the tools, and glue the magnets firmly onto the inside lid of the box.

Handy storage:
A bread box or old lunch box will comfortably hold all the tools you need for small jobs around the house. Such containers are also good for keeping a duplicate set of your favorite and most used hand tools in a place other than your workshop. Having the right tools close at hand may keep you from putting off needed repairs.

Multipurpose box:
A simple plywood tool box doubles as a step for reaching high places or as a portable mini workbench/sawhorse. Make the box 11″ (375 mm) high, 24″ to 30″ (600 to 750 mm) wide, and just deep enough to accommodate a sturdy plastic cutlery tray. (Use the tray for storing small tools, bits and assorted fasteners.) Using a jig saw, make cut outs for carrying the unit.

Keyless lockup:
To keep curious small children out of your tool box, secure its lock hasp with a spring-steel key ring rather than with a lock. This way, you can childproof the tool box (little hands are not strong enough to remove the key ring) without having to carry around another key.

Tool cushion:
Line the bottom of your tool box with felt or scrap carpeting. The padding will protect the tools and help reduce noise when you handle them.

Tool carrying tips

Pick some pockets:
A jacket or vest with lots of pockets, like those worn by professional photographers and sport fishermen, can help you organise and hold small tools, fasteners, and other items you regularly need on a job.

Pockets for tools:
Use empty tin cans of various sizes, or short lengths of 2″ (50 mm) plastic pipe to transform the deep, wide pockets of a nail pouch into a convenient carrier for wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers. If you use cans, remove their tops and bottoms. Glue or tape the cylinders together to keep them from shifting around, and slip them into the pouches to create dividers.

Tool roll-up:
A handy way to store drill bits, chisels and files is to roll them up in one of those segmented silverware pouches. If you don’t have one, make your own by sewing parallel seams in a nail pouch.

Bucket belts:
Turn an empty 20 litre plastic bucket into a handy too] carrier by fitting it with a sturdy tool ‘belt’. Make the belt from a couple of lengths of stout canvas or nylon and sew in as many pockets as you need. Work out which tools are to go where, and plan accordingly. Even when filled, the belt will still leave plenty of room in the bucket for storing larger tools, such as saws, levels, extension cords and small power tools.