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this is minor but pleasing
Apr. 8th, 2022 11:25 pmSo I've been improving my medium workbench in the basement and one thing I've been wanting is a way to store my electric hand tools that isn't a big pile, right?
And I came up with basically vertical storage, so I can just reach over and grab them, using vertical dividers like in letter / paper sorting racks to keep them up. Also maybe a couple of cubbyholes.
But I didn't want to do quite all that myself via, idk, woodworking? And it's certainly not something I wanted to print in plastic. So I poked around until I found a metal one that's built in a way that...
okay, so, the vertical dividers - the walls - are paired, made from a single flat metal object bent into a U with flat bottoms, then attached, right? That gives you one vertical storage slot. And there are several of those. But they're not placed directly against each other, because that would mean doubled walls for no good reason. Every other vertical storage slot is created by being between two of these U-slots.
So this meant - I imagined - that I could bend one or another U-slot so I'd have up to a double-width slot! Which would be wide enough for all my storage needs. I'd have to drill them out to get them off their platform/base to do it, or maybe find some way to bend them in place? And that'd be tricky but it was worth trying.
What I didn't imagine is that these things shipped unassembled. And that you can therefore assemble them however the hell you wanted - including making those storage bits even wider than I'd thought. By bending the U-shaped dividers in various ways and placing them intelligently and using gaps between them appropriately, you can make slots of any width you want and even use the original attachment system!
Which I did and it's brilliant. All my powered hand-tools are vertical and separate and trivial to grab, rather than being in a semi-ordered pile for like basically the first time ever.
It's a small thing, really? But I am so pleased with it omg.
I also fixed the crappy little two-drawer unit that you can see under the left side of the workbench so the drawers work right now, and divided up the top one for LIGHTWEIGHT STUFF, like the small/light clamps, spare/alternate saw blades, drill brushes and wheels, and stuff like that. So that's all sorted now too.
I can't get a picture right now because housemates are in bed and it would wake people up, so I won't. But I'll try to remember to get a picture tomorrow. This is probably the best organised little workbench of its type I've ever had now and it feels much bigger than it actually is because of that.
Next I'm going to try to get the little dremel press - like a drill press, but for a dremel tool - fixed. It's never worked, as far as I can tell it's just a shitty, shitty design.
But maybe I can fix it. ^_^
And I came up with basically vertical storage, so I can just reach over and grab them, using vertical dividers like in letter / paper sorting racks to keep them up. Also maybe a couple of cubbyholes.
But I didn't want to do quite all that myself via, idk, woodworking? And it's certainly not something I wanted to print in plastic. So I poked around until I found a metal one that's built in a way that...
okay, so, the vertical dividers - the walls - are paired, made from a single flat metal object bent into a U with flat bottoms, then attached, right? That gives you one vertical storage slot. And there are several of those. But they're not placed directly against each other, because that would mean doubled walls for no good reason. Every other vertical storage slot is created by being between two of these U-slots.
So this meant - I imagined - that I could bend one or another U-slot so I'd have up to a double-width slot! Which would be wide enough for all my storage needs. I'd have to drill them out to get them off their platform/base to do it, or maybe find some way to bend them in place? And that'd be tricky but it was worth trying.
What I didn't imagine is that these things shipped unassembled. And that you can therefore assemble them however the hell you wanted - including making those storage bits even wider than I'd thought. By bending the U-shaped dividers in various ways and placing them intelligently and using gaps between them appropriately, you can make slots of any width you want and even use the original attachment system!
Which I did and it's brilliant. All my powered hand-tools are vertical and separate and trivial to grab, rather than being in a semi-ordered pile for like basically the first time ever.
It's a small thing, really? But I am so pleased with it omg.
I also fixed the crappy little two-drawer unit that you can see under the left side of the workbench so the drawers work right now, and divided up the top one for LIGHTWEIGHT STUFF, like the small/light clamps, spare/alternate saw blades, drill brushes and wheels, and stuff like that. So that's all sorted now too.
I can't get a picture right now because housemates are in bed and it would wake people up, so I won't. But I'll try to remember to get a picture tomorrow. This is probably the best organised little workbench of its type I've ever had now and it feels much bigger than it actually is because of that.
Next I'm going to try to get the little dremel press - like a drill press, but for a dremel tool - fixed. It's never worked, as far as I can tell it's just a shitty, shitty design.
But maybe I can fix it. ^_^
