Sunday, January 04, 2009

Toolbox organization


I purchased a new Craftsmen tool chest to hold my ever expanding tool collection, as well as to free my old toolbox to use for bike specific tools. I was unhappy with the lack of organization on my old toolbox. Whenever I opened a drawer tool would roll around and get all mixed up, especially my sockets as they are round and roll quite efficiently.
The first step that I took in preventing tools from rolling and sliding was to line the drawers with something that had a non-slip surface. My toolbox had foam drawer liners but they didn't really have the grip necessary to do anything more than simply protect the paint of the toolbox. I found some Con-tact brand shelf liner at Home depot that claimed to be quite grippy and when I touched it I felt that it seemed much more promising than the liners offered by Sears.
I cut the liner using a utility knife and some flooring that was leftover from my basement remodel as a cutting guide. The flooring had a cork backing that made a nice cutting surface that didn't dull the tip of my knife, and it had a nice straight edge to guide the knife with.
After the drawers were lined(Except for one as I did my math wrong and didn't get enough liner. Doh!) I wanted to make sure that I had somethign to really prevent the sockets from rolling around. I remembered that I had some Komplement drawer divider in the garage that we had forgotten to return with the Hopen wardrobe that we assembled, only to find that our ceilings were are too short to fit it. I had to modify the drawer dividers to fit and to separate the multitude of different types of sockets that I have. I used a utility knife to do this. I feel as though a small hand saw would be much better for this, but I lack such a saw, so the utility knife was what I used. The most difficult part was cutting the notches that interlock the dividers in place. The dividers are thin plywood with three plys and the middle ply was difficult to get though with the knife, but I managed. All things considered, it came out pretty well. I do want to cut the height of the dividers that run horizontally in the shelf, in order to make it easier to get to the tools in the back of the drawer and to add some labels to let me quickly see what the sockets are in each compartment. Aside from that I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

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