Day 67, Magnetic Pegboard with many Daiso accessories
Look, nobody should take organizational advice from me. All my attempts at organization are
feeble at best, and it would be overly nice to say something like "well, at least he is trying".
But today's garage gem entry is a collection of related items that I have found to be a bit helpful,
and I thought I would pass them along to you.
There isn't anything all that amazing about pegboard in general. The cheap, pressed board form of it is practically ubiquitous in workshops, along with the crappy wire hooks that get stuck into it, and so often fall out that it makes them, well, annoying. But there are a few things that you can do to make them less annoying and more generically useful.
The classic white pegboard has one major advantage: it's cheap, about $12 for 8 square feet at the big box store. It also has one major drawback: it's cheap, as in "not very good". It's flimsy and flexible, meaning you might have to reinforce it with battens or something if you choose to hand heavy tools on it. It's also not very versatile. It's got... a grid of holes. And... that's about all you can say for it. You can buy all sorts of wire hook assortments for it, some of which might be good to hang certain things, but most will probably be useless. But this pack of hooks from Harbor Freight is probably a pretty good buy if you have some of that pegboard, and if it serves you well, who am I to judge?
But when I decided to put some pegboard above my workbench, I decided an upgrade was in order, so I got Wall Control Metal Pegboard. It has one major disadvantage: it's not that cheap (about $45 for 3.5 square feet, making it about 8x as more expensive as the white stuff). But I find it really to be a huge upgrade. Not only is it sturdy, it's compatible with the white stuff, but also includes some additional slots which can be used to add additional accessories. Wall Control makes items like metal shelves that slip into the vertical slots, and are nicely powder coated and sturdy. I have one that use to hold my adjustable power supply and some additional items which not easy to hang. They lock in tightly with no slop, and work out well.
Of course, even with conventional pegboard, you could make your own shelves by using L-hooks, something that I learned about from YouTube:
This works pretty well. I made a little box to hold my oscilloscope, and another that is a box with a 3x3 array of small cubbyholes to hold undefined small items.
One small negative to the steel pegboard is that the material is substantially thinner than the Masonite versions, so conventional hooks may have more slop when used with conventional hooks. A little firm mechanical adjustment in a vice will probably adjust them sufficiently. If you make your own hangars using L hooks, you can adjust the fit by screwing them in or out to match your particular style of board.
But anyway, back to why the metal pegboards are better.
They are steel. Which means that they are magnetic.
And that means that you can stick things to them with the same ease that you can slap stuff onto your steel refridgerator.
And that rules.
I photographed a small section of my pegboard above which has a high density of magnetic items stuck too it. Many of them come from Daiso. If you are lucky enough to find yourself near one, by all means seek them out. Think of them as "Japanese Dollar Tree". They sell many items at very cheap prices. One odd thing about them is that the prices of most items are listed in yen, rather than in U.S. Dollars. Don't panic though, they have conversion charts posted all around so that you can figure out the cost of most items really easilly. And if you encounter an item which doesn't have a price listed, it's a flat rate. It used to be $1.50 or so, but on my trip there today, I found that it had risen to $2.25. Still, for many items it's a great price.
Things that I often buy there are:
- stationary supplies, including pens, notebooks, and pencils
- rubber bands (more on this below)
- small clock modules, and occasionally things like an emergency ethernet cable,
- stuffed toys for my grand daughters and, most notably for the purposes of this post...
- magnets, and things with magnets in them.
Sadly what they have available varies over time (like Dollar Tree), so you may not see these same items when you visit, but I visit there maybe once a month, and sometimes find good stuff that can find a place on your workshop.
For instance, on the left, there is a little black holder that has a magnet on the back and a hook on the bottom. I use it to hold pens and the occasionally useful used toothbrush that I can use to clean things in the shop. I find the hook to be useful to hold a small flashlight, where it is handy.
To the right of it is an odd little gadget: a magnetic holder to hold rubber bands. Rubber bands are essentially disposable items. I find that over time they simply get brittle and snap, but having them around can be really useful when you need to just get a cable organized so it won't be tangled. But if you have to dig out the box where you keep them, they seldom get used. This little holder is shockingly good: you just reach up and pull one off. I haven't seen this holder at Daiso in a while (I wanted a second one for my office) and might very well create a design for something similar that I can 3D print instead (more on this below). Keeping rubber bands always handy is really helpful.
To the right of this, I have some round button sized magnets that I just keep stuck on the board.
They can be useful if you just want to hang a note to yourself, or (as is the case here) just keep a
few screws out of the way until you need them. (Frankly, I forgot what these screws were from,
I probably should figure that out some day.)
Below I have a small button battery. I superglued a small 6mmx2mm magnet to the back of it, and keep it stuck to the pegboard. Why, you might ask? I use it to test LEDs. Because I'm not especially organized, I have loose LEDs lying around, or even when they are in my organizer (hey, I haven't shown that off, I should do that in a future installemnt!) I might not know what color they are just by looking at them. Small button batteries like this can't source enough current to burn out an LED, so you just pull it off the board, touch the leads to either side of the battery, and voila, it will light up and you'll know whether it is good and what color it is. If it doesn't light up, you flip it around, and it probably will light up, telling you which is the anode and which is the cathode of the LED. And then, I just put it back on the pegboard for next time.
Below it is a little white cup that also came from Daiso. I use it to hold some cheap tweezers and the like, but it could be used for anything. I have several more of these scattered around.
To the left you'll see that I have a hook with some zip ties. I got both the zip ties and the magnetic hooks from Harbor Freight. For situations which are more permanent than just organizing cables, I use zip ties, and always have several different sizes avaialble. Being able to hang items like this are useful. I also keep a hole punch handy so I can convert all kinds of plastic bags into things I can hang. The Harbor Freight hooks can hold a fair amount of weight, and are very reasonably priced.
And, lastly, also from Daiso are velcro cable ties, for things which you might want to hold, but which also might want to undo and redo. Being a cat lover, I can't resist the whimsical cat design. (Shockingly, people seem to resell these on Ebay for up to $20 with shipping, which would seriously decrease their whimsy factor for me, but for $2.25? I keep them on hand.)
Not pictured are some of the other things that I keep on the pegboard. I have a small stainless steel ruler that I superglued a magnet to so it is always available. I have a set of cheap digital calipers that also got the magnet treatment. I have a nice iFixit Moray Driver Set that I glued a strong magnet to the back of it, as well as some small Stanley screwdrivers that got the same treatment.
And if you have a 3D printer, you can design your own parts and either glue or embed magnets in whatever parts
you can imagine.
Harbor Freight can sell you a small set of 10 are earth magnets for just $2.99 which are good to use in projects, and also has some
larger magnets for just $.99 which
actually are suprisingly strong, if less small.
The greatest thing about magnets is that they can be reorganized at will, which I really like.
Anyway... that's my Saturday garage gem. Hope you all are having a good weekend.