Pegboard Tool Storage
I like pegboard. There, I said it! Many people hate it, but it works well for me. One of my mantras is “a place for everything and everything in its place”, and pegboard suits this philosophy perfectly. Here’s the pegboard in my current shop:
I have all the frequently used tools right at arms length. Screwdrivers, chisels, squares, wrenches, planes and other small tools are perfect candidates to hang. I even hang prints or plans for my current project so they’re off the bench but within close view. I use white pegboard to keep the shop bright – it does a good job of reflecting the lighting.
Pegboard has a coulple drawbacks that I’ve learned to work around. First, with all your tools exposed you tend to get a bit of dust settling on the tools. I’ve addressed this in a couple ways. Foremost is controlling airborne dust in the entire shop with a good dust collection system and and an ambient air filter. To address the remaining dust I occasionally (every month or so) blow off all the tools with compressed air to get the dust airborne. When I do this I run my ambient air system at full blast and leave the shop for a couple hours. When you come back you’ll find that the dust is off the tools and the air filter has collected all (er, well the vast majority) of it.
The other big drawback to pegboard is having the hanging hooks fall off the wall when you remove tools. To solve this I use pegboard “hook holder thingies” on all my hooks. You can buy a box of 25 of these thingies for a couple bucks at a hardware store, and they work great. I have NO problem with hooks falling off the wall.
Go buy some white pegboard, hand it on the wall, and load it up. You’ll love it!
© Copyright 2006 Chris Billman