Introduction: DIY Tools Organizer

By Just Can't Stop Thinking
About: Just an ordinary person who loves #thinking and #tinkering

It has been so long that I want to clean up the messy tools in my workshop. Now the time has come. I have got my cordless drill so I can work on it at any short spare time I got. I spent a long time playing with Qubism 3D Modeling app on my Android phone while I was waiting for the tools and materials I need, and these were what I made :





Step 1: Materials and Tools

Materials:

  • 1 piece of MDF board (or plywood. Pegboard is preferred because this is what we really need here).
  • 2 pieces of 1" PVC pipe. (aprox. 12 meters).
  • 12 pieces of 1" T-joint.
  • 12 pieces of 1" elbow.
  • Bolts and Nuts (depends on how many tools you want to hang and you can use different length for different tools).
  • A piece of angle iron.
  • A piece of sandpaper.

Tools:

  • Saw.
  • Drill.
  • Clamps
  • A tape measure/ruler.
  • A marker pen.

Step 2: DIY PegBoard

If you decide to buy a pegboard, then you can skip this step. If you want to buy a piece of wood for your DIY pegboard then I suggest you to buy MDF board which is widely used for speaker box. I had been hunting a pegboard for a month and I couldn't find one. Living in such small town like me is pushing my creativity limit to the max. I decided to make one by myself. I found unused plywood, half an inch thickness, with jagged sides bitten by rats. Then I cut it into smaller piece, I took the best surface as large as possible.

Drill 2 holes with 1" in diameter, one hole on the left and one hole on the right side of the board. These holes are where our pipe stand will grips the board.

I am not good in tool size numbering. I use bolt and nuts that fit wrench number 10. We use to call it bolt number 10. Use the drill bit that fit the bolt.

Clamp the angle iron to the board.

Now start drilling. You see that it is exactly one inch between holes. This is why I use this angle iron as my guide.

One thing you have to remember is to maintain your push down power while drilling. You have to remember when you should stop or your drill will hit onto the angle iron and make a very bad scratches like mine. Using a flat iron with holes is better if you can find one

Mark your one inch down per row. Well my tip is to use the angle iron in vertical and start drilling the first column and the last column. These will be my marks one inch down per row. Now take your time drilling the whole rows. This is the most time consuming in this project, so.. enjoy it :D

After that, use a piece of sandpaper wrap around a piece of wood or something and start sanding for a smoother surface, front and back.

You see that the front side is a little jagged when we use plywood, this should not happen when we use MDF board. The rear side is more jagged, but it doesn't matter to me because it will be facing the wall and no one is supposed to walk through there :P

We are done with the DIY PegBoard.

Step 3: The Stand

Firstly, I print out the stand design which I made with Qubism 3D Modelling.

All the measurement here is not fix, depend on how large your board is, how tall you want the stand be. You need to check out how deep the pipe goes into the joint. In my case with 1" pipe, it goes about 1 to 1.2 inches in the joint. This is important as we want to measure it right, we don't want to have unbalanced heights for the stand we make.

Here I test how deep the pipe goes into the joint and how thick my board is. Two elbows clip the board on each side, the one inch holes on the left and right side of the board.

Now we make the bottom holder for the board using 2 'T's and 2 'L's.

Measure 4 pipes to join the middle board holder and the bottom board holder.

Go on with the bottom of the stand through this pictures below :

Okay, so I make the front side longer than the rear side to prevent the board bumps to the front. We are going to hang tools there which will give more weights in front.

You might want to remove the board first to join the upper and lower of the stand. Ask a friend to help you place the board on it. If you do all this project by yourself just like me, you have to do it very carefully because you surely don't want the board bumps on your feet.

I make the stand taller. You might want to make a shorter one for more sturdy. You will figure out my reason to make it taller on the next step.

Step 4: Put the Tools on It

Now put the tools on it. Organize your tools on the floor first to decide where and how you want to hang it on the board. Put the bolt and nut on the board where you want to hang. I use two nuts on one bolt to secure it on the board because I am hanging heavy duty wrenches there.

Now you see why I make my stand taller, I put a whiteboard on the bottom. We are running transportation business. We need to write down who takes what kind of tools because we lost our tools frequently. Drivers are running out of time for the delivery, so they just put some tools on their trucks and they never return to the workshop.

I bought brand new combination wrench set and double ring spanner set with their bags, so I just hang them there to fill the middle area of the stand. I figure out that it flip to the back, so I add a pipe to hold the set straight.

Now I doubt if this pipe stand can hold my heavy duty tools which I don't expect to be this much and heavy, but I will give it a try to see how long it stands until I get a more sturdy stand. To make secure of it, I put a hook on the wall and I tied the stand to it. I don't want to get bumped by my tools when I am walking in front of it :P

So, this is it. My DIY Tools Organizer. I will upgrade it to a larger board or build some add-on to place my screw drivers and any other tools. (^_^)