Ok guys you all know i have a garage full of tools and parts for trucks and very little room. The one thing i do have is a decent nut and bolt storage area. On my cabinet doors i screwed in HF bins and i also have a shelf of clear plastic jars for the bigger stuff.Mine all started in a junk bucket but thanks to some too young kids that wanted to help me in the garage. i had them sort them. My workbenches get cleared when I just cant stand it anymore.

 

I love a place for everything and everything in it's place. However, the reality is I get everything organized and then trashed pretty fast. Then I clean and organize when I can't stand it anymore.

I did take a whole weekend ONCE....... to go through ALL my nuts, bolts and fittings and got them put into bins and drawers I bought.

It just doesn't last long.

 

do 9 old metal coffee cans count as proper nut and bolt storage? as for tools yeah they are everywhere and no where to be found all at the same time.

 

I am the type of guy that stops midstream in a project to clean up and put away my tools....I have 4 work benches all are 8 ft long but only 18" deep....that way there not used to store junk!!! I do have 2 big shelves that have storage bins on them....you know I'm bad when woman make fun of my garage and how organized I am

 

The pedal thingie makes the car go, right?

 

Hmm interesting, seems as if we are in most cases hard wired at birth, to be one way or the other, I'm sure folks with Military training tend to be on the more organized side of things, but imo the rest of us either are or aren't organized. But the cool thing is that no matter how organized or not organized we are, we all love our trucks exactly the same. REALLY COOL So KEEP ON ROCKIN ON, and do our best to clean up after.

 

Sounds just like my father. I'm not too good with the misc. nuts & bolts but I've learned to clean up and put away my tools when I'm done. It's way too frustrating to spend half an hour looking for a tool that you know you were working with yesterday.

 

I have a plastic flower pot on my workbench that I've been filling up with various nuts/bolts/washers/springs/grommets/clips and other strange parts for 23 years.
Periodically I have to dump half of it out - on the floor cause there is no room on the bench- to root around and find something. But it usually is in there.

My workbench is scattered with parts from the last four project cars and trucks done over the last 13 years. And boat parts too. I really should clean it cause I'm forgetting what went to which. Here's a good one....last year I put an observation hive in the garage - the type with glass sides to watch what goes on inside. They were outgrowing their box so I moved them outside and taped up the entry hole in the garage wall. For a week straight I had them trying to get back in. Probably a 1,000 bees came back and were crawling over every square inch of the place. My superstar queen disappeared so I had to grab as many bees as I could to try and find her. Never did but my stuff was tossed all over the place. That is when you realize how much crap you have. Still haven't tidied up after that event.
I'm embarrassed to let anyone in the garage. P I G P E N.

 

I'm a train wreck. A workbench, heck any flat surface is a horrible thing. Tings tend to accumulate on flat surfaces. Things that I can't seem to throw away.
The top of my work bench is an old 36" door. Out of that 21sqft I bet I have maybe 1sqft that I can work.
Every so often I clean things up. Then, when I start fiddling with something I try very hard to stay clean and organized. But then, at some point things kind of blow up and I have parts, pieces and tools everywhere.
Right next to my bench I have a big cabinet about 5' tall and 30" wide with drawers for all my nuts, bolts, misc parts, odd ball stuff, and a myriad of other treasures that are too good to toss. The top of this cabinet is a train wreck also.


I don't know what happens, I just kind of explode when I'm working....LOL


Bobby

 

I clean off my bench between small jobs on the 54 f100. Tools go away between jobs or at the end of the night. Over all its sort of tidy but will have to do a major clean and repaint the shop walls ( 4 years of grinding and bondo) before last paint job on the truck. Some areas up high the stored boxes have about 1/16 inch of dust on top. Sweep floor every couple of sessions


My work bench is 8 feet by 24" on top of base board cabinets with a narrow tall cabinet on the one end that leads into wrap around open shelves that are 2 feet deep and are floor too ceiling. and are 10 feet wide.


to the left of the bench is my tool chest then a row of wall mount cupboards above the tool chest with more 2 foot deep open shelves. five feet more feet of plastic slide out drawers (around 96) and three school style lockers that are upper and lower.
Things are reasonably organized with nuts bolts washers organized in small, small to med. med to large and large to excessive. Cables, springs, clips etc get their own drawer. Section for auto wire bulbs heat shrink etc, Sections for threaded rod stainless, galvanized. drawers for sanding paper, tack cloths. power tools are in the lower cupboards and the open shelves as are parts for 56 and 54 f100.


I'm always bring home found bolts washers etc.
5 to 6 years ago I had a job building cellular towers and roof top installs They offered mileage on my truck for the in town work. I countered with I the I want the left over hardware for plunder and they agreed. I still have several 5 gallon pails of bolts, clips most are stainless or galvanized. I quit bringing it home when I had 3 to 4 hundred pounds.


today I just scored about 35 tube and pipe clamps, and 6 adjustable telescoping wall supports. several more sections of 1 inch and two inch thick wall pipe and several short sections of aluminum pipe. I passed on so much other good stuff.


sigh... I need more storage.

 

My Dad had a good friend that was a line mechanic at the local dealership. He had two big tool boxes, one full of tools and one full of every nut, bolt, clip, washer, hose clamps, fasteners ,springs, and anything you could imagine. I was young and learned a lot from him. I asked him why He kept so many things . He told me it was simple, the toolbox full of parts makes him money, example : when working on something and you need a part, nut, bolt washer etc... and you have to stop working and go to the parts store you just wasted 30-45 minutes of your time. If you save those things you can finish the job and start another. He was a great mentor and I miss him. I learned things from Him I use every day . When He worked at the dealership, he wore a white uniform shirt and seldom got it dirty. As for picking up tools after a job, I wipe them off and back in the box they go. My tools are magical and often can disappear in plain sight. My friends come to me when they need small odds and ends because I never toss anything away that can be used. Less time at the parts store = more time not wasted.

 

HELP!!! I am in the same situation. I accumulate fasteners lake a magnet grabs steel. When it comes to organization I am only semi-organized. I have piles, but I know what is in each pile. If I need something, I know which pile I need to look into. I am getting organized, but by golly it sure takes a long time.

Philip

 

You know how when working on fixing something and you drop something and it rolls somewhere where you can't reach it?
Just read this in the news...this poor guy put down his tools and lost them in the worst way.... with a woman and the world watching to boot....

Lost in space: 'Peggy, I don't have a shield' - BBC News



.

 

24x24 shop.. walls and ceiling finished... I've officially used every square inch of wall and most of the floor... the major occupant is the truck now in two places... cab and frame take up most of one side, bed on rolling rack takes 1/2 of the other half... I'm now hanging things from the ceiling... workbench gets cleaned as parts of projects are finished... if I leave something unfinished the tools/parts/detritus stays in place until finished... even if its months.... I try to organize enough to find stuff... looking at the pictures you'll see lots of under cabinet tool drawers, several tool boxes and lots of little plastic organizers... and one corner is full of bolt and part bins... hardware from 6-32 thru 3/4"... another cabinet for only brass and stainless steel hardware... you gotta do this to find anything... losing tools is common but usually can be found with a walkaround... but it's all fun

and you got to do special things... like keep all of one thing in one place... see next post

 

some more ideas...

and tools http://jniolon.classicpickup.com/tools/NEWTOOLPAGE.HTML

did this for insurance purposes... agents are so picky... he didn't believe me and came out to look...

and it's not up to date any more

but when you have 'x' amount of room and x*4 stuff you got to get creative... workbench is never completely clean...

john