# How do you organize all your piddly doodads?



## redfishsc (Jun 15, 2008)

I am about to move all my equipment from the house to the woodshop I work at. My lathe is in a huge cabinet (5' long, 4' tall, 20" deep--- a cave). Inside the cabinet is plenty of storage for my gouges and such up on the walls. 


However, for storing things like the myriads of bushings, barrel trim adapters, drill bits (those that don't fit the master 144 bit case), etc.... become a cluttered mess for me and most folks. 


So far here is the best I've come up with. I put the bushings in a plastic baggy(from a pen kit) labeled with a sharpie. This bag stays beside the lathe until I'm done with the bushings and they go back into the bag. I store them all in a Rubbermaid storage drawer thingy I got from Lowe's. Top drawer in the Rubbermaid is for good scraps for center and oops-bands--- yes mine is approaching FULL. Middle drawer is for baggies with bushings, barrel sleeve adapters, etc.... and the bottom drawer is for spare pen parts, all in baggies. 

This has worked well for me in some ways but is a hassle digging through endless baggies looking for bushings and trimmers and pen parts. I reckon that's part of being  pen maker who makes so many different kits[B)].


On the other hand here is a pic I took a literally a year and a half ago of my cabinet, and it's changed since then but you get the idea. There is a 4' shop light that hangs from the top now (instead of the face shield) and I have removed the shelf stack on the right side and added the extension bed to my lathe (fits with several inches of room leftover). 

And no, that is NOT a Task Force wet/dry grinder that you do NOT see in there that I NEVER used and am NOT ashamed of NOT wasting $30 on. The racks hold all my gouges, various chucks and live centers,  widgets and whatnots, and I tend to keep my most common drill bits laying on one of the racks (7mm and 10mm). 

And YES it is a mess but at the time I was just poking stuff wherever it seemed to fit. 

Once I get the stuff moved to the new location I'll take some pics of how I REALLY organize my stuff. But for now, feel free to shoot with any suggestions, other than "hire a maid".


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## dalemcginnis (Jun 15, 2008)

I have all my pen kits in a rack of bin trays, and the bushings and instructions for each kit are in the bin with the kit.  Since my wood collection has not grown that big yet it is in the extra bins.  Other misc supplies are in a small roll away tool chest.


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## jedgerton (Jun 15, 2008)

I didn't buy one of those grinder's either so let me know if you need another!

John

Native SC resident (Florence) now in Austin, TX


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## GoodTurns (Jun 15, 2008)

wood lives in a rack with those shoe box sized boxes (50 cents apiece on sale at ACMoore...





kits live in a harbor freight rack (on sale frequently...$20 I think)





Bushings and such in a wall rack/cabinet


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## redfishsc (Jun 16, 2008)

Very nice Jon, I like the way you have that set up. At the moment I don't have the space for that many racks, so I'm stuck to vacuum packing everything


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## rincewind03060 (Jun 16, 2008)

Tell me what kind of grinder it is you didn't buy, so I will have not bought one too.


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## woodworker (Jun 16, 2008)

Well, I did buy that grinder.  The great thing about mine is that the wheel broke exactly in half.  I was then guilt free when I placed it in the dumpster where it had always belonged.


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## monkeynutz (Jun 16, 2008)

Organization is such an individual thing.  General idea is keep whatever tools and supplies you use most the closest at hand.  For all else, all bets are off.  Whatever feels best to you is what you should use.  One suggestion about the shop light hanging over your lathe...  Make sure you have a guard over the tubes, as chips or pieces thrown off the lathe can shatter a bulb and send shards raining down on you...  (DAMHIKT  [:I] )

Oh, and I'm glad you told us that was NOT a Task Force POS-Max grinder, because some of us might have gotten the wrong idea.


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## sbell111 (Jun 16, 2008)

Our bushings live in two storage boxes that each hold 24 little containers that are perfectly sized for bushings.  I use a sharpie to write what kind of bushings they are on teh top and bottom of the tiny containers so they are easily identified without digging through them all.  I bought the containers at HF:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90243






Barrel trimmers live with my deburring tool in a small plastic box near the drill press.  A gladware container would be ideal for this.

I bought the HF 115 piece drill bit set, so all non-metric drill bits live in that big index box.  I was finding myself having a hard time corraling the metric bits and keeping them straight, so I just ordered an index box for those from McMaster Carr.  It only cost a little over six dollars, so I bought one for Cathy's dad, also.  (Pretty much every time we buy something for our shop, we get the same thing for his.)






Kits are stored in clear, labeled, lidded bins.  blanks are stored either in similar bins or in (used) flat-rate shipping boxes.


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## redfishsc (Jun 16, 2008)

> _Originally posted by rincewind03060_
> 
> Tell me what kind of grinder it is you didn't buy, so I will have not bought one too.



Take a closer look at the one that isn't in the pic, and I won't tell you to buy the Task Force from Lowe's. It's the only wet/dry grinder out there I've seen that's like $30.


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## hilltopper46 (Jun 16, 2008)

My version of the grinder that no one has admitted to buying is a Sears - it didn't even earn the Craftsman label.


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## bitshird (Jun 16, 2008)

You guys would throw up if you saw my shop and the way stuff is scattered!!
 But I have to do silversmithing, silver,gold and brass casting, pen turning, Lapidary work and metal turning and some Dichroic glass work, in a 12x 32 building!! Oh wait I forgot about the PR casting, and now I'm trying to figure out where to put 1 12x36 wood lathe.
 Until a year ago I had a CNC bench mill in the kitchen, which wasn't bad until I started milling a bunch of aluminum with a fly cutter, (the flys didn't mind) wife did. 
 So now I have my mill and computers in my back bedroom/office along with a very cluttered shelving unit with pen kits and junk. I did get smart and use Don Wards idea for storing my bushings, which is about the only smart thing I've done..[8][8][8][8][8]
In my defense of the CNC mill in the kitchen, our kitchen is 14 by 28 ft. she could have shared[}][}][}][}][}][}][}][}][}]


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## sbell111 (Jun 16, 2008)

I once tried to talk my wife into letting me put the laser engraver in the office/spare bedroom.  She didn't go for it.  I wouldn't be brave enough to try for a CNC in the kitchen.


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## Paul in OKC (Jun 16, 2008)

Simple, where ever they are, is where they are


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## redfishsc (Jun 16, 2008)

Judging by some of the responses here, I'm one of the more organized folks around here. That's pretty rough![B)]


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## woodmobiledrivr (Jun 16, 2008)

I was getting ready to ask the same question. I can see major problems developing in my case if I don't get organized.  So I, too, will be looking for any suggestions or ideas.


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## great12b4ever (Jun 16, 2008)

I took a 5" by 24" piece of 1/2" plywood, drove 12 penny nails almost thru them space 1.5" apart in two rows, clipped the heads of the nails, and store each set of bushings for a kit on a nail.  I then made labels and placed below each set of bushings.  This is on the wall, right behind my lathe.  I have my back-up or extra bushings in the zip-lock bags and stored with my pen-kits.  When one of my bushings becomes unusable (or lost), I pull the back-up set out, and write the info about the bushing on my need to order kit.  My oops stuff is stored by the blanks on dedicated shelves on my moveable wood storage rack, or at least it was moveable before being loaded with wood. [}]  small specialty items, like nibs, special clips, refills, cartridges for fountain pens, extra tubes, brass and alum pieces for segmenting, Delrin strips etc are stored in the 12 bin Lowes wall racks, that are around 4" width, x 2" height, by 6" deep or so. (I have 3 of them).
I haven't mastered uploading pictures yet or I would show you.  Maybe someday


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## bitshird (Jun 16, 2008)

> _Originally posted by sbell111_
> 
> I once tried to talk my wife into letting me put the laser engraver in the office/spare bedroom.  She didn't go for it.  I wouldn't be brave enough to try for a CNC in the kitchen.


Heck it's just a little Taig mill,with an 18 in table, I had it in a semi enclosed cabinet, I guess I'm glad we have 5 bedrooms, but my hole also has her Dryer in it and do I complain and tell her to move it, No Sir not me I'm a nicer kinder person than that, (besides she'd kick me so hard, I'd be wearing my sphincter for a turtle neck)


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## redfishsc (Jun 16, 2008)

> _Originally posted by woodmobiledrivr_
> 
> So I, too, will be looking for any suggestions or ideas.




Make "organizing things" your hobby and make "penturning" the thing that goes along with your hobby, instead of vice-versa[B)].


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## redfishsc (Jun 16, 2008)

> _Originally posted by great12b4ever_
> 
> I took a 5" by 24" piece of 1/2" plywood, drove 12 penny nails almost thru them space 1.5" apart in two rows, clipped the heads of the nails, and store each set of bushings for a kit on a nail.  I then made labels and placed below each set of bushings.  This is on the wall, right behind my lathe.  I have my back-up or extra bushings in the zip-lock bags and stored with my pen-kits.




Fantastic idea for those of us who make a lot of pen styles. Thanks for the idea! I will be trying that very soon.


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## sbell111 (Jun 17, 2008)

> _Originally posted by redfishsc_
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Agreed.

I'm something of a slob.  If I simply set something on the workbench, that's where it will stay.  Soon, the bench becomes just a very fat shelf and I have no place to actually work.

Therefore, every time new materials are brought in, they need to be immediately put away.  If a brand new thing is puchased, it has to immediately be assigned a home.


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## RussFairfield (Jun 17, 2008)

I feel sorry for people who are organized. They never experience the thrill of finding something they had thought was lost forever.


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## Firefyter-emt (Jun 17, 2008)

It has been posted before and will again I am sure...

From about a year ago looking at the photo tag.


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## karlkuehn (Jun 17, 2008)

Hey, mister! You better watch whose doodads you're calling piddly! I'll have you know that my doodads will live on in woodturning history as being anything BUT piddly. Dang, almost all of my smallest doodads are 'dinky' at worst. Piddly? Dang, man, grow a set! LOL

I'm with Russ on this one. If I spent the amount of time organizing my doodads that I should, I'd lose that amazing and wondrous feeling I get when I clean the shop and find something awesome.

Shoot, the other day I swept and vacuumed and realized that I have _three_ lathes in the shop, and none of them are remotely 'piddly'! How cool is that!? Of course, this was shortly after the sweeping stage when I realized that I actually own a shop vac...

I do have a few labeled, clear divider boxes that hold my bushings and what-not, but other than that, so far it's been a free-for-all in there.

Seems like anytime I build a new set of shelves, all they do is hold the maximum amount (+1) of worthless wood that I can scrounge up.

Piddly, he says. Pfft.


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## OldWrangler (Jun 18, 2008)

For me, organizing my stuff is a waste of time because it easily scattered all over in a few pen turnings. More important for me is knowing where everything is so I can lay my hands on what I need quickly. My tools, kits, wood, etc are all "kinda" in various places and I really do know where something is when I need it. I have a big shop but I have a ton of tools and equipment. When my memory get worse I may have to get better organized but for now I am better off with my own system.


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## Jarheaded (Jun 18, 2008)

I figure if I vacuum the shop once in a while, it is the same as organizing it, right? Someday, I will organize my shop, until then I will just use it. The little suprises are nice, like Russ said, but my suprises are normally found right after I buy  the replacement.[:0]


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## Splinter (Jun 19, 2008)

I store all my bushing in 35MM film canisters. I tape the original tag from the baggy to the side of the canister and also write the type of busing on the lid with a sharpie. I made a rack out of 1/2" scrap plywood with rows of holes cut so the canisters sit down in the holes. The rack is in a drawer in the lathe cabinet.


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## Ron in Drums PA (Jun 19, 2008)

Organize???


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