Sprucing up the workshop…with MDF mostly

As I have been accumulating more tools over the past year or so since I first started doing woodworking as a hobby, I have just been storing them in a relatively small tool bag on a shelf. But the bag is now somewhat full, things keep falling out and I know it is only a matter of time before I slice my hand open rummaging around for something small in the bottom. So I decided to make a couple of additional storage items for the workshop (the back of my garage) to make life easier and (hopefully!) mean I keep all of my fingers intact for a bit longer!

The first item is a chisel holder which I made out of mdf and pine I had acquired from someone getting rid of a load of scrap wood. As it is a shop project I am not really concerned with aesthetics, although I do actually think it looks pretty smart and it is highly practical which suits me perfectly! I worked out the width of each of my chisels – 2 vaguely decent ones and 4 EXTREMELY budget ones – plus the space required for the handles and a gap between and planned it all out on paper first. I do a lot of planning of my projects, either in a journal or using Sketchup which I love using. As I do all of my woodworking outside, it is really nice to still be able to plan projects and see what they might look like when completed when the weather is terrible. And as this is England, it rains around 90% of the time in some form or other!
So the chisels are arranged on the mdf backing plate, with strips of mdf running in between as dividers. After making sure that the chisels actually fit in correctly and a little bit of adjusting, I glued on the front plate, clamped it down and waited for it all to dry.

For anyone not familiar with the French Cleat system, it involves two pieces of wood cut at opposing 45 degree angles, each one secured onto the two different items to be connected. The angles then act as a holder and work really well to keep things in place, but still allow the items to be removed if required. They are used a lot in workshops I have seen belonging to other people and as I am still working out the best use of my space, and will potentially be moving house soon, having everything being movable is very helpful! So in this case, while the glue was drying on the mdf holder, I ripped a piece of pine with a 45 degree angle to attach to the shelving in the garage. Currently it is still clamped to the shelving, but I may screw it on at some point. As it is not having to take a lot of weight currently, the clamps seem to be doing a good job of keeping the beam in place. And if I end up with more space at the new house (whenever that happens) I may look to create several similar beams and screw them onto the wall for a larger amount of storage space. To finish I cut an angle into the top of the holder to allow for the ease of removal and replacing of the chisels and then simply glued the opposing 45 degree piece of pine onto the back of the mdf holder and clamped it until it dried. Once dry I placed the chisels inside and it sits nice and securely on the beam, allowing me to quickly grab whatever size chisel I need, or if I need several, I can remove the whole holder and take it with me to my workbench.

While creating projects involving glue, which is pretty much everything really, I always end up with a nice quantity of “glue squeeze-out” as I clamp things. And I get it all over my hands too. So I decided to create a blue roll/kitchen roll holder to put in the garage to make it easier for me to clean up after myself. I am generally pretty good at making a mess, so anything is worth a try I think!

The holder is simply a piece of broom handle I had left over from making a sign post ages ago, and then several scrap pieces of pine. I drilled a hole in two of the cubes using a spade drill bit – I drilled a pilot hole first to reduce the amount of material the spade bit would have to remove – and made sure the broom handle fitted tightly inside. I glued one end of the broom handle into the cube so it would be secure and also glued on another piece of the 45 degree ripped pine on the base. I kept the top cube removable so I can replace the blue roll/kitchen roll when it runs out (which happened between me making this and taking the picture!) and once everything was dry I tried it out on the French cleat beam. I am very happy with the result – it is not going to live there permanently, but as I do all of my woodworking just outside the back door of the garage, having some way of getting the kitchen roll nearer is always useful! I place the holder in the shelving when I am not doing any gluing and then move it out into position for when I need it. So far it has worked perfectly and has made it a lot easier to clean up glue squeeze out and stop me from getting so much of it all over my hands! Now if only there were a way to solve all the other ways I make mess… 🔨