Tool wall tips

Right. I’ve repurposed a part of a packing crate into a false wall in the corner of my shed.

Next I need to make it into a tool wall. I’m hopeless at planning this kind of thing, but there must be heaps of great STW tool walls out there… so are there any general principles I should follow?

Decide the tools you use the most and make them the easiest to get at.

My Allan key and torx set are on the top right so easiest to grab.

Make a french cleat system from plywood. Loads of YouTube bids on it. It allows you to constantly move, tweak and customise the wall as you add or remove things from it.  A couple of magnetic kitchen knife strips are useful too. Don’t go mad and try to put all your tools on it, just the stuff you use all the time. Keep the rest in tool boxes.

French cleats! I’ve got heaps of wood I can use for that. Brilliant tip, thanks.

As the rest have said, French cleats. Divide the wall into regular sizes so you can make interchangeable pieces to fit on it. Maybe a peg board to hold your spanner or cut outs for a drill stand etc. Have big stuff at the bottom as it is heavy, smaller stuff at eye height swo you can find the bit you are looking for and a few more bigger ones at the top for stuff you don’t use so much.

This pic shows how you might divide the wall and you can swap the sections where they have the same letter. That way, if you are doing a lot of one thing, say wood work, you put all of those tools where they are mnost handy. Then when you swap to rebuilding the car, you move the woodwork tools further away and the car tools to the prime spots.

Here is a funny foreigner making one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoEzgVDmL2s

Thanks, makes sense. Probably should have said this one will probably be for bike stuff only, but should work.

Because it’s extremely dusty (dirt driveway) where I am it’s going to be good to get things up in the air a bit… the floor is permanently filthy.

There’s a ~2 metre work bench along the other wall with shelving underneath for all the power tools etc, and more board that already has lots of hooks etc.

Because it’s extremely dusty (dirt driveway) . .  .

Exactly why you should get a decent tool box. Zero advantage to a shadow wall. The only item I have out is a set of T handle hex keys.

If it is dirty/wet on the floor then don’t use the bottom 50cm of the wall and that should reduce the dirt moving up it.

For bike stuff only you could make something like one slot F into an array of screw drawers and the other a set of drawers for valves, chain links and all the other fiddly littl bits. The D slots can be tools you use a lot with the C slots for the same but bigger ones. Slot E for tyres/wheel rims?

It is a versatile system

Given where you live, fill the gaps behind the board with expanding foam! 🙂

Mice already make homes behind the other boards, then that brings the snakes in. Stops me from getting lonely.

Before a massive storm came through accompanied by a power cut I tried out making a French cleat along the middle where it’s reinforced.

A cheap circular saw without a fence wasn’t ideal, but it should work ok.

Moved the axes up a better spot on their existing hooks.

Buy a pre made board system on ebay. Save a lot of trouble and the different parts – clamps/clips, boxes,or shelves fit on easily. Interchangeable parts will work best in the long run as you always eventually need to add something bigger or longer.

This is free though.

I’d say don’t be too precious about it. Stick some screws in where you want to hang tools. If you want to move something or add an extra tool it’s easy to do.

A few little shelves and some parts bins are handy for small bits

I built mine when my son was on the way. I find it much faster than rummaging about in multiple too boxes for something that had migrated to the bottom. Stuff like I need a 7mm spanner is easy on the wall compared to rummaging about in a tool box.

I put off cuts of vinyl floor down and found that was much easier to keep swept that the bare concrete floor.

Mine was off cuts of floor, some wood that was lying about and a load of screws.

I agree, I’m often wasting time trying to find stuff. I lost a saw whilst trying to build this yesterday!
Floor is a bit big to cover really… but could do something in the corner.