Yesterday I did some work in the shop, finishing up a couple of small projects and prototyping a small display shelf for Carmen. The result was a fair amount of sawdust everywhere, so today I spent some time today vacuuming and tidying, putting away tools and generally just enjoying being in the shop. It just felt virtuous.
But I’m actually pretty bad at organization, so it took a while.
One of the things that I have trouble keeping track of is just pens and pencils. Carmen had actually bought me an actual box of Pentel GraphGear 1000 pencils (actually, the PG1015, with the 0.5″ lead, which are truly awesome incidently, highly recommended) for me to keep in the workshop, but it is shocking the number of times I put down a pencil and then seemingly can’t find it again.
While cleaning, I decided that I should make a single place where I can put my pencils, in the hope that I will actually keep track of them. So I picked up a chunk of 2×4 that was lying on the ground and instead of continuing to clean, I made more of a mess, albeit in the interest of organization.
It’s really nothing but a block of wood with some holes bored in it.
Okay, I did a bit more. There are two offset rows of holes of different sizes. The back holes are 7/16″ which is good enough to hold my new mechanical pencils as well as Sharpies. The front row of holes are 5/16″ in size, which is good for regular pencils, as well as a couple of small handy screw drivers. I did a little bit of shaping. Each end has a 22.5 degree bevel and the top is sloped by 5 degrees. I also cut a couple of shallow grooves on my table saw just to make it look nicer. I sanded it down with some 120 and then 220 sandpaper, and then rubbed on a coat of Danish Oil. It took about twenty minutes to make, most of which was boring holes.
Hopefullly I’ll now have a place to return my pencils to, so the investment that Carmen made in nifty mechanical pencils will not be wasted. This is actually just a prototype: I want to build a more elaborate caddy that includes some other spaces for basic tools like a small ruler, a small square, a couple pairs of pliers, my complete set of small screwdrivers, and maybe even some Allen wrenches. But we’ll see how much this helps first.
It is, after all, just a block of wood.
Hope you all are having a good holiday season.
Heh – I did the ‘Block O’Wood’ concept with screwdrivers – one set of miniatures, one set of – I guess you’d say – ‘mixed’ sizes, and a separate one for just tuning and alignment sticks for use with various old radios I like to repair.
It’s a great place to a) get them out of the drawer, where you’ll need to search for them, and b) fostering a ‘place for everything’ way of working. Things don’t pile up on the bench or desk so much.