How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions

   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #11  
The Bench Top makes a good spot for the most used tools. In sight, easy to reach and no hassle putting them back in the proper space in the proper drawer.

LOL, but the problem is then to find the work bench!
 
   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #13  
After many years experience as a research scientist, I finally arrived at a fool-proof method. It is as follows:

1. Big stuff in the big drawers
2. Little stuff in the little drawers
3. Really big stuff on bottom shelf of the work bench
4. Antique & heirlooms on the wall
5. Files and rasps in a single small tool box
6. Drill bits and screwdriver tips in another small tool box
7. Small needle nose pliers, small screwdrivers, tape measures and other unnamed tools adapted and improvised for use by Sharn Jean, stored randomly in, on and around her sewing machines.
8. Screwdrivers: I keep them all in one drawer; screwdrivers are the only tool that multiplies over the years. I have screwdrivers dating back 100 years; purloined from my father, found in the street and on the roads and in the trunks of various cars I have owned over the last 60 years...not to mention all those I obtained via Dirty Santa. :D
 
   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #14  
I went from liking tool boxes to being against them. I still have a few, but they are for a single item and labeled what inside them. Like Paint Brushes or Sanders or PVC.

What I do now that I like a lot better is to hang everything out in the open. All my wrenches, pliers, screw drivers and such are all visible at a glance, which is make it easy to find them, and even easier to know if one is missing. For sockets, I use trays that are open and sitting on the end of my bench, out of the way, but easily seen. If there is an empty spot, I know right away that it didn't get put away and to go look for it.

My shelves are also open. No doors. I'm all about seeing what's there and making sure it's where it's supposed to be.
 
   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #15  
I was much like Eddie and still have many tool boxes but am trying to get away from them. I was at a very well equipped carpentry shop with an adjoining metal shop and there might have been one regular tool box. Almost every individual tool and hardware supplies were visible on the wall if possible. Adam Savage from Mythbusters says tool boxes are places were tools go to die as some are never seen again and I agree. Look here for some of his arrangements: mythbusters tool storage - Google Search

Al
 
   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #16  
I purchased a new tool box a few years ago. I moved most of my tools into it and labelled each drawer what was in it. My old tool boxes became a nut and bolt cabinet along with drawers for tape, rivets, paint brushes, O-rings, etc. also labeling each drawer. Wall cabinet doors have commonly used tools attached to the door front, inside is various sockets, shelf above tool box has various test equipment, meters, label maker, steering and pulley pullers. Behind workbench is various drawer cabinets. Back wall has larger tools like pipe wrenches.
Right now I can't find the workbench. I know its there but too much stuff on it.
 

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   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #17  
The workshop in my garage is short on wall area- there's a lot of windows and big cabinets taking up wall space. So very little is hung on the walls. Most tools are in a full height rollaround toobox or a big deep top box on the workbench next to it. Some specialized tools like bicycle wheel building stands and special tools, and chainsaw sharpening tools are in the cabinets with the small tools in labeled plastic boxes. In the toolboxes I try to separate the general purpose tools like screwdrivers and sockets from the specialized ones for bicycles, motorcycle or cars. Most measuring tools are next to the (small) mill and mini lathe along with tooling in a tool cart and toolbox. Some tractor tools are in their own tool cart in the barn with the tractor.

There always seems to be one toolbox drawer that becomes the junk drawer for stuff I can't categorize.
 
   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #18  
I have 4 tools boxes - plumbing tools, electrical tools, regular tools and specialty tools. Depending on the job, I grab the appropriate toolbox or boxes.

That's how I work too. Wrenches are separated into metric and SAE toolboxes, the 3/4 drive socket set and the large end wrenches get their own toolboxes, and every vehicle has a mobile toolbox with sockets and end wrenches, tie wire, vehicle fuses, ground cloth, fuses, hand cleaner, etc. The tractor tool box has tractor tools, pins, etc.
 
   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #19  
I was blessed with a LOT of blank concrete wall, so all the "specialty" little things go on the pegboard I put up there. Commonly used handtools go in the Craftsman roll-around chest. I built a lower shelf on the tool bench specifically for larger power tools in cases. Other larger stuff and collections like sanding/polishing, small power tools, etc. also go there in bus boxes that I bought at a local commercial restaurant supply. It's good to pay a little extra to get the covers to keep dust out and so you can stack them.

Bus Tubs and Bus Boxes

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   / How do you organize your tools in tool boxes? need suggestions #20  
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Like a lot of us here, I'm a tool junkie. What's worse, I'm a packrat too and never throw anything away without stripping it for usable hardware first. I've got stuff stashed everywhere, but I pretty much know what I have and where it is.

toolbox.jpg


Most of my hand tools are in the big box, top box and the shelves/drawers to the left. I do have a separate box for plumbing stuff and a toolbag with all my electrical tools that I can grab and take to a job.

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As far as organization within the box, I tried several approaches. Most were either inefficient from a space standpoint, didn't fit my drawers or cost a junior fortune. I wound up making my own out of wood and that has worked well for me.
 

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