Workshop hook

Just a simple project this week – producing a very useful hook to secure my ear defenders! In my day job I have used a wide variety of hazardous chemicals, all of which could cause some pretty severe, even potentially life changing injuries if handled incorrectly. So alongside other control measures to minimise the risks, I also make sure to wear suitable PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), including a lab coat, goggles, gloves, ear defenders when working with loud equipment and even a face mask and face shield at times. And I have avoided any injuries so far!

I follow the same mindset when working on projects in my workshop to keep myself safe- I have a face mask to help reduce the amount of dust I’m breathing in when sanding, and I always wear safety glasses/goggles when drilling, chiselling, using power tools or generally anything where there is the prospect of something flying at my eyes at high speed. And especially when in a confined space like my workshop, I have found my power tools can be particularly loud! So I have a couple of different pairs of ear defenders to protect my hearing as well (one left over from when I used to play the drums regularly!).

With so many different items of PPE and tools that I want to be able to access easily, I decided I wanted an easy-to-access hook that I could just put the ear defenders on, so I’ll always know where they are. And if something is really easy to access, it means I will be more inclined to use it for situations where it’s “just a quick cut”.

I started locating a small offcut of scrap wood from a previous project (I really need to sort out my scrap wood storage!) and drew a rough shape for the hook, making sure to make the hook thick enough to survive lots of use. I also made sure the grain was orientated horizontally across the hook, so hanging the ear defenders on the hook a bit too roughly wouldn’t just snap off the front section like it might with a vertical grain orientation. The scrap wood piece I selected was perfectly sized for this.

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Once I had the rough shape traced, I used my jigsaw to cut away the majority of the wood inside the rounded section. Then it was my usual combination of rounded files and rough sandpaper to produce the desired shape. This took quite a while as I wanted to make the inside curve of the hook as deep and rounded as possible to hold the ear defenders or anything else I wanted to quickly hang on it securely in the dip, so they wouldn’t fall off.

After a lot of sanding I was happy with the finished shape and rounded over the front edges slightly to make it more comfortable on the hands when hanging things on the hook. I then drilled a small hole through the hook, using a scrap piece of wood underneath to prevent tear out, and used a countersink bit to create a recess for the screw. Then it was the simple task of mounting the hook where I wanted it on the front of my mitre bench shelving. I used a single screw to hold the hook in place, as it isn’t going to be holding much weight and I can then move it easily in future. And now my ear defenders and safety glasses have a permanent home where I can easily grab them to keep myself safe on all my future projects! 🔨