One of the first projects I did after I retired was to replace an old broken down bench with large shelves for storage. It was a good improvement to the shop and did fine service for the last couple of years. However, in two years I’ve acquired more tools and as I filled up that shelf I realized that it was messy and inefficient for getting to things without having to move everything else. Then I was watching an Adam Savage YouTube video of one of his one-day builds to make Flat File Tool Storage and I saw the solution to both problems. Additionally I realized that much of the stock for the project could come from my off cut pile, which needed cleaning out in any case.
The space I had available in the middle shelf next to my bench was 45” x 24” x 13” this included clearance to have the drawers come out and not run into things on the pegboard on one side and to not interfere with my clamp storage on the other side. I decided to split the space down the middle and make five two inch drawers on the left and three three and a half inch drawers on the right. Originally they were going to be all the same width but due to a mistake I made while routing a dado in the top and bottom ( which it turns out I didn’t need anyway ) I ended up making the three and a half inch drawers a little narrower.
I wrestled with going out and buying a compressor and a brad nail gun to assemble the sides and drawers like Adam Savage does ( I often joke to myself that his projects are 80% brads by the end… ) But, for good or ill I just decided to use some short wood screws, a rabbet on the front and rear panels, and glue to hold stuff in place. The looks didn’t really matter to me for something that was going to be in the shop.
I did get slightly fancy and put on drawer fronts and trim around the installation both for looks and to help reduce the sawdust that could get in on the tools and drawer slides. I also broke down and labeled all the drawers in the shop (and even some bins) to help remind me where things lived.
I used the drawer installation method that I’ve seen Jimmy Diresta do and which I’m sure many others have done where you screw the slides to the drawer and then you line everything up in the opening and slide the drawer forward on some spacer/support sticks and screw in the slides. It definitely works great for getting them aligned nicely and for stacks of drawers where you want nice tight consistent spacing.
After it was installed it triggered a review of where all my tools were stored and a bunch of sorting and culling which was also good for the shop. I got rid of a bunch of broken stuff that I had to finally admit I wasn’t going to fix/adapt/use in any reasonable future. It also flattened out the retrieval for a lot of tools making them more usable because I wasn’t meeting the resistance of having to claw through a pile to get to them.
I’m really happy with how this came out and it is a big upgrade for the quality of life in my shop!
