Electronics bench small tool holder (Mk II)

[rhb]

I cobbled this together over the last two days.  At the moment my bench space is very limited.  I wanted something that would put the tools close to hand when working and out of the way when not in use.  So I cobbled this together from scrap and a $13 monitor mount from Walmart.com.

There's another holder for soldering tools an similar on the right side, but I need to add a small board with holes to keep them from sliding sideways.  The photos show it retracted to the side and pulled all the way out to the limit of the mount I used.

It's all experimental.  I wanted to try the concept without investing a lot of time.  If it works out I'll probably make it a little longer,  add a 3rd row of tools and use nicer materials.

[mtdoc]

Very nice! I like it. 

One thing I have really come to love is the magnetic strip tool holders from Harbor Freight. They're cheap or sometimes free with a coupon!

I have several of them deployed in my lab.

[rhb]

A friend of mine is big on the magnetic strips  also.  But they are low density storage for pliers. 

I'm giving serious thought to making similar mounts for the soldering station and the binocular microscope needed to solder SMT devices.  But first I need to power a couple more shelves of test gear.  I've got a bid in on another piece of gear which will entail some rearrangements.

Except for parts bins which are elsewhere, my electronics space is 4 ft x 7 ft.  It shares a 7 x 10 room with several computers, printers, monitors, etc.  Eventually it will be much bigger, but that entails wiring a 1500 sq ft building, install HVAC, etc.  Not a quick undertaking.

[JS]

I lie the idea, will keep in mind when I come to that point, right now because of life I don't even have a steady location and I'm solving storage issues...

JS

[KL27x]

Those setups would drive me crazy. Redundancy is bad in my lab. If it is bigger than a pencil, I will only keep just the one on hand. If I can't find it, I have to stop and look for it. Backups will be had, but they will be stored out of sight and retrieved only after the the death certificate has been signed.

In sight, I would have just one (needle nose) plier, one flush cutter, one small screwdriver handle (with set of medium reach 4mm hex bits), etc. If i need to go beyond that, some case or toolbox must be opened. Or things may need to move to the garage.

[GreyWoolfe]

Nice idea, rhb.  Definitely not applicable here.  I keep all my tools locked up in a good sized tool box.  My office is just off the kitchen and dining room.  The rest of the family always wants to borrow tools and use them in ways that the manufacturers never intended.   They are out when needed and away when not.  The toolbox is close at hand, I just spin my chair around and there it is.

[Wimberleytech]

Love Makita (scoping out all your tools!)

[rhb]

I only have one redundancy.  I've not decided which pair of flush cutters I prefer.  I have a lot of tools, but most are at an inconvenient distance in another building.  Eventually the electronics will move elsewhere, but I don't want to wait to get all that work done.  It's an awful organizational nightmare as I'm trying to consolidate Dad's tools into my shop so I can sort them and get rid of the excess.

I've got a small tool cabinet and chest I may try to squeeze in to hold infrequently used and larger items such a hot air gun.  My work surface is only 20" x 48".   The tool cabinet would cost me shelf space.  But those will probably have to go to mount the microscope at a convenient height, so it may be a fair trade.

[mtdoc]

No redundancy on my bench.

I was taught long ago that it’s  always best to use the right tool for the job. For years I wasted time dicking around with the wrong tool because it was all I had and could afford. I’m also an inpatient bastard when working on a project, so if I do have the right tool, but it’s not within arms reach, I may very well not take the time to go retrieve it.

Now that I can afford it, I’m damn well gonna have the right pair of pliers, cutters, or screw driver all within reach! 

[rhb]

Here it is pretty much complete.  I still need places for forceps and adjustable wrenches.  I may add a shallow tray across the front for adaptors, soldering heat sinks, etc.  But this should be good enough to test out how convenient it is or is not.

[ferdieCX]

I'm giving serious thought to making similar mounts for the soldering station

I am also still looking for a good place for the soldering station, it always seems to be in the wrong place.
If it is on my small bench, the cable and the soldering iron take valuable space and difficult the work.
If I put it on top of a small table with drawers, the cable tends to get trapped when I open the drawers.

[rhb]

An idea I'm considering is to mount a monitor arm on a pair of ball bearing full extension drawer slides so the whole thing can be pushed back into a corner out of the way, but when needed can pull put and then swing side ways.

There is a 19" deep space next to my 8560A which looks as if it might work if I get clever. I've currently got the soldering station stored there, but have to pull it out to use it and then put it back.

[KL27x]

I was taught long ago that it’s  always best to use the right tool for the job. For years I wasted time dicking around with the wrong tool because it was all I had and could afford.

There's a best tool for every job, but when I slip down that hole, I become tool museum curator/collector (mostly lost tool finder) more than getting the job done, easily.

For pliers, for instance, I have settled the best GENERAL purpose pliers for most of what I do at the electronics bench. If I can't do a job, properly, with this pliers, then I stop and think and figure something out. That sometimes means digging out a different pair of pliers that might be in a toolbox 3 feet away, and that's fine for me.

There is too much electrical equipment, too many wires and leads/probe, in addition to the hundreds of components I need to have access to, to also operate a full hardware store on my electronics bench. When debugging, that just leads to 4 sets of pliers getting sucked into w/e is the mess/project that is currently consuming the bench top.

Worst of all, if i glance at my tool holder and one of half dozen pliers is not there, now I have that niggling my brain when I'm trying to figure out something that is already overloading my total RAM.

That said, I do make and use a lot of very specific custom tools and variations thereof for electrical work...  but which do slip into the pencil cup on my bench and which in some cases can take the place or larger tools. Chisels, scrapers, probes, strippers, scalpels, files. If a pencil sized tool will do the job of a larger tool, it might find its way into my pencil cup.

[mtdoc]

You’re right. There’s a balance to be achieved - and everyone is different in where that is.

I’m quite happy with my current setup. The magnetic tool holders allow quick and easy access, take up no bench space, and help me keep the frequently used tools off my bench yet within sight and reach.

I also have tool chests nearby for less frequently used tools.

[KL27x]

For what it's worth, here is my electronics bench pliers.

This is off a junky micro multitool. The plier head was just perfect for what I need. So I brazed it to some mild steel rod bent into a handle and wrapped it with hot glue and twine.

It lives here, at my bench, under my flush cutters and small tin snips.

You can see I have a magnetic tool holder, too. I only use 2 things on there, regularly, though. Most of those jewelers screwdrivers are just taking up space I might need, later. But they don't break my pencil size rule. That weird slot in the bench is for my hot air station. It's underneath, and when it's on the cradle, the hot air can shoot up through the hole without burning anything.
 
Here's my goto electronics bench screwdriver and bits in a slide out mini drawer.

  The screwdriver is usually hanging on a magnet on my mag lamp.

[rhb]

Looks to be a pretty practical setup.  I built this because the lazy susan holder I'd been using kept snagging things when I rotated it.  It worked fine until I filled the space it used to occupy with test gear.

At one time I had a 36" hollow core door with a large number of tools stored on the side panels that supported it.  But moving and space constraints made that go away.  The lazy susan wound up with the most basic stuff.  A single 1/4" nut driver instead of a full set of SAE and metric sizes.  I've been surprised how seldom I had to go in search of a different driver.

Initial impression is that I like the monitor mount, but not quite as happy with the tool holder itself.  Though a lot of that is badly dimensioned materials.  And the rest is mostly fabrication errors.

[rhb]

Well, after a lot of head scratching I decided on a plan.  It's not quite finished.  I still have a little space left and need to decide what merits being on this now that I have some drawers under the bench.  It also needs some provision to keep things from flopping around.

This is made of ~ 0.043 aluminum sheet that the previous owner of my house left behind.  Unfortunately, in the weather, so it got a bit corroded and it took a lot of work to polish up.

Back row is Torx drivers and pliers.  Middle row is nut drivers and front row is screw drivers.  I do plan to get a shorter #3 Phillips.  The holes are sized so that most things will only fit where they are supposed to go.

[rhb]

Here it is pretty much finished except for mounting to my bench.  I may add some spirals of aluminum wire underneath to keep the screwdrivers from flopping around.