So when I moved from Kansas City to Austin, I left behind an ideal shop space where there was room for everything to have its place. I had stations set up for wiring, welding, bench racing, etc… The new space in Texas is nice, but it’s just not as spacious and there isn’t enough room to have stations for every activity I end up doing. It took awhile for me to get settled and figure out a solution, but I am finally happy with my setup.
The idea was to create the same activity stations that I had before, but to make them mobile and collapsible. I did this by putting my passion for collecting to work for me. I have a number of old boxes that I have gathered through the years – advertising crates, vintage tool boxes, etc… I stick to the vintage stuff because it’s higher quality and simply more fun than the modern plastic stuff. Old wood and tin is cool. Anyway, each contains an activity and each can be wrapped up and stored under the work bench when not in use.
I’ll use the three pictured here as examples simply because I had them out for a current project. From left to right:
1. Vintage TV repair tool box. I got this little number from an antique store in Oklahoma City. It’s thin gauge metal with a removable tray and a locking top. In it, I keep all of my Dremel essentials – bits and what not go in the removable tray while the Dremel and all necessary jigs fit nicely in the large open bottom. It’s super light and the blue color makes it easily recognizable when stored under the bench.
2. Really old homemade wood box. This one is my favorite. I recently got it off eBay and I’ve declared it my buy of the year. The two removable trays up top are absolutely perfect for my wire terminals and other small wiring resources while the large open bottom compartment hosts my wire rolls, soldering irons, etc… The great thing here is that it keeps all of my wiring supplies in a tidy/small area, but completely opens up when I need to do some serious electrical work.
3. Some sort of military locker. I have no idea what this box is or where it came from, but it has done a great job masquerading as my rivet center. Some kind of deal as before – rivet gun in the tray while the rivets themselves are organized by size and separated by dividers in the bottom compartment.
Again, these are just three of many. The idea is to keep things small and compact, but still accessible and practical when you need to call on them. So far, this set up has done me right.
