Organized tool storage
The tools you use most often need to be easily accessible. If they are also organized and orderly, that’s even better. When the tool you need is where it’s supposed to be, you can maintain your focus rather than taking a mental detour. Searching for something disengages you from the task at hand, diminishes your concentration, negatively impacts the quality of your work — and is entirely avoidable.
Not everyone works at a standard jeweler’s bench with drawers for storage. In the absence of drawers, the typical storage alternative is the top of the bench. There are a couple of considerations for bench-top placement and staging; the tools need to be within easy reach without occupying too much of the work area. If your bench space is limited, you need storage systems that are compact and convenient, purposeful, and user friendly. For me, this means going vertical!
Some of the tools I use most are pliers, files, hammers, and chisels. I seldom keep these tools in drawers: I prefer to have them readily accessible on my bench top. Additionally, since I frequently travel to teach and work on location, there’s an advantage to having simple staging and storing options that are easy to set up and will work in virtually any setting.
With these requirements in mind, I devised some simple benchtop storage systems. These are mobile, functional, lightweight, and are easy to make with inexpensive, readily available materials.