Where do you put all this stuff?

As a wood worker, I pride myself on inovative ways to make my own storage/organizers for my tools and accessories. But, in reality, all that I use really are a form of something someone else has already made and posted online or in a magazine or in one of the 300 books I seem to have.

Now that I have made the plunge into turning, I find I have a lot of much smaller items thast seem to opose all kinds of new problems. For example:

- Bushings, bushings, bushings and then some more bushings

- Special sized drill bits for pens, etc

- Pen mandrels

- Pen Parts

- 14 gouges and chisels (with more to come, I am sure)

- Chucks

- Centers

And whatever I don't yet have that will fall into these catagories.

Any pictures, ideas, drawings, vauge foggy images of how you old timers (in experience I mean) are doing this?

I have spent a LOT of time on Darrel Fetlmates site, great help to me, but even he doesn't have much in the way of storage. Maybe turners are not as obsessed with storage and organization, but I don't think that is the case.

I did find a nice set of plans for a tool rack that attached to the end of th4e lathe bed on a movable swing arm that looks interesting. I have a min so I would probably do it off of my bench but it would server the same purpose. I also though about someting similar to a Router Bit drawer for the bushings, but instead of holes for the shafts, I could go pegs for the bushing sets?

What do you think?

Thanks again, Neil Larson

Reply to
Neillarson
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I have a canvas tool roll that sits on the lathe when it's not being used. For turning, I unroll it on the tablesaw which is just behind the lathe.

And yes, I have to move it and cover the saw when turning green wood :-).

Reply to
Larry Blanchard

I have a couple drawers under the top of my lathe stand which have dividers to store my sanding disks, small parts like jaws and ends for the tailcenter, wrenches and such. The knockout bars, T handle and spanner for the chucks and similar are attached to the headstock by magnets, close at hand. Since the lathe is against the wall, I have my magnet bars to hold the tools on the rare occasions when I clean up or I don't just drop them into the clutter to ambush me when I'm fishing for the one I want.

The chucks and rests are on a pegboard which I cover with my splatterguard when roughing green. The more you work with the lathe, the more you'll develop a sense of what you want immediately at hand, what can live a bit farther away, and what you can ignore, save on rare occasions. For me, that's scrapers.

Reply to
George

Although I make a lot of my storage containers, I frequently keep stuff like you have listed in plastic fishing tackle boxes that I usually buy from Bass Pro Shop. They have several versions of the same basic box that's about 10 X

15 X 4 inches with fixed and variable sized compartments. I usually put all of the small pieces of a given task (like Turning) in one or two of these and then take the one that I need to the task when I'm doing it. Since I have many of these similar sized boxes I can easily store them together without wasted space. Magic Marker labels on the top and ends makes the one that I want easy to pick out. They run about $5 each so they are quite economical and their thin walls waste almost no space.
Reply to
Charley

Shelves along the wall.

Table next to drill press

Shelves along the wall.

Shelves along the wall.

Common ones in tray on lathe ways. Next most common ones on shelf below lathe. Others in giant plastic bucket.

Table next to lathe.

Table next to lathe.

Table next to lathe.

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Reply to
DJ Delorie

Gouges and chisels for turning

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Chucks, jaws, allen wrench, awl, drive centers, tail centers etc.
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charlie b

Reply to
charlieb

Ohhhh, you're not going to like this.

I just set them all on a table next to the lathe. :)

Reply to
Prometheus

...?

The gouges on the lathe, everything else, I hit a sale on this:

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Reply to
Ralph E Lindberg

Harbor Freight's magnetized steel dishes are handy for small items, chuck keys and jaws, etc. Might as well use em, everything eventually gets magnetized or siliconized in my shop anyway.The best thing that I usually neglect to do is to return "all this stuff" to the same resting place each time I use it. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

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Reply to
Arch

So the obvious solution if you do non-round woodwork is the Shaker apothecary cabinet, carefully labeled, so that you know what is not in the little drawer that should be there, and you can rail at that guy in the mirror who never puts things away ;-)

Reply to
Ecnerwal

Got those dishes all over, band-saw, drill-press, etc, etc, etc. They hold the screws for the face plates, the screws for the chuck jaws. I also use the mag-strip from Harbor Freight to hold things, heavier tools get rare-earth magnets. Holds the chuck keys and wrenches just fine

Reply to
Ralph E Lindberg

Well as a retiered Navy Chief, I pride myself on my organizational skills. OfF course that has nothing to do with putting sttuff away after their use. I have great cabinets and storage in my shop, hanging spots for all my jigs, every thing has a spot of it's very own. though for some reason, that seems to be on my table saw/router table extension.

I started 3 projetcs on Sunday afternoon, Darrell's sharpening jig (got the blocks cut and finished, lol), a storage system for bushings and dedicated drill bits (I think they will be the first thing i : a. lose, b. mix up, c. lose, or d. misplace) and a tool rack/storage system for the chucks, centers, gouges, chisels, etc. I came up with a good rack, but I am uncomfortable with them always in the open with the points out/up as I am a A#1 clutz. So I will probably make a plexiglass cover for them when I am not using them. As far as this goes, I did have another idea, store them along the wall using the PVC pipe storage rack idea that someone posted, and make a small rack at the lathe to hold 4 or 5 tools. That might be better than all of them stored at the lathe. What do you think?

Reply to
Neillarson

Having seen this system at a NH WW Guild Turning thing I went to a few years back, and having used some of the other methods (ie, point down under the lathe, pile of tools on the lathe bed, etc) I finally got around to building a Point-Up (Yet Safe) Rack for Gouges.

The basic structure is an angled panel that's longer than the longest gouge. That means that while the points are up and visible, they are not "sticking up" where you'd cut yourself on them, as the back-board sticks up further than they do. A cleat on the bottom holds the butt of the gouge handles, and battens keep them separated and on the panel. Think "silverware tray for gouges" and then tip up at an angle. 60-70 degrees seems to be plenty for the gouges to stay put - I built at 45 due to available scrap, and then altered the table mount supports for extra angle when that seemed to be way too much angle.

This could be either a 4-5 working tools of the moment design, or everything. I prefer everything. Mine is an un-pretty collection of construction scraps.

I'll see if I can get off my rear and post a picture in ABPW.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

I put the heavy stuff in a wheeled tool box I made, and the most often used wrenches for removing chucks from the lathe sit on a large log just under the lathe. Two or three wrenches sit inside the recess of the tailstock for adjusting the head and tailstock, some faceplates sit on shelves or peg board, long handled tools on a large conical lazy susan, and the steady rests and a couple other super big things sit on the floor under the lazy susan.

Reply to
Mark Fitzsimmons

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