Ultimate Workspaces

You've sent hundreds of ideas showing us gadgets you've built to better organize your work and make it less time consuming. We've used your innovations to fill our long-running Handy Devices page and other columns. So we thought it would be fun, and useful, to build some—with a few twists. Here are the first pieces to our new Ultimate Workspaces project plans. Let us know what you think.

 

Our locker has enough space for all your tack. Built from birch plywood and trimmed in maple, it is 72 square feet of organized storage. The cabinet is lined with pleasant-smelling cedar, but it is a wood that repels insects. The wood floor frames a metal grate that allows dirt to fall to the ground. There are two deep storage areas up top for horse care products and pharmaceuticals. The saddle rack has clearance to hold a Western-style saddle. The saddle rack also has a large storage area. All storage areas can be locked. We've also left enough space in front of the saddle rack and storage cabinets to hang ropes and halters from the doors. The doors hang on piano hinges and are closed with a high-quality lock that secures them, top and bottom.

This cedar-lined tack locker has 72 square feet of storage space. It can hold a saddle, ropes and bridles, horse care products and pharmaceuticals.

Sitting on heavy-duty casters, the tack locker is portable. It also can be mounted to a wall for additional security. A series of four locks keeps everything secure.

Here's an all-cedar potting bench with enough room to actually spread out your plants and flowers. It's 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and, for comfort, the work surface stands 38 inches off the ground. This is a bench also defined by storage spaces. Starting with the top, there are cubbyholes for smaller, not-often-used gardening supplies. Two pieces of pegboard are cleanly framed, stiffening the normally flimsy material. Move down a level. Three plastic tubs, each 11 inches deep and more than a foot square, hold soil, gravel or other bulk gardening materials. Pull them out with sturdy, 1 1/2-inch diameter doll rod handles. The tubs are set into a cedar wood frame and move on 100-pound drawer slides. The bottom shelf, raised just off the floor, keeps bulk gardening supplies dry. And the round bar decoration in the middle? Yes, you can hang things on it, but we just like the design.

We framed two pieces of pegboard for gardening tools. It gives the otherwise flimsy pegboard more strength. And, frankly, we think it looks nicer.

This is one of our favorite ideas. The potting bench has three pullout tubs to keep dirt, gravel and other materials close at hand. Thick doll rods serve as handles. The tubs are supported by 100-pound rated drawer slides.

You know how frustrating it is to be working on one side of your shop and see the wrench you need sitting on the workbench on the other side. Here's the solution: a welded-steel portable workbench sitting on large, heavy-duty casters. At 5 feet tall and 30 inches square on the bottom, there is a generous amount of portable workbench here. But it isn't so big as to clog up already tight spaces. The pegboard is large enough to hold a good selection of tools. The work surface measures out at 3 square feet of space. Each storage shelf has more than 2 feet of clearance to store bulky supplies and large parts containers. The feature we like most is the racking system on the back. We've put wire, tape and paper towels onto the rods. But any bulk material on a spool—tubing, rope, string, chain, Romex&—can be stored here for easy access.

The portable workbench is a flexible piece of equipment. It holds tools and parts on the front half. In the back, a half A-frame holds spools of almost any kind of bulk supplies. Best of all, the cart fits into tight spaces.

Since we're talking portability, here's our mechanic's cart. The whole thing stands 33 inches off the ground. It steers easily with the large, tubular handle. It's very handy for changing oil (see inset at left), and when you're done, the oil tray folds down. The tray edge even has a lip to prevent residual oil from dripping onto the floor. The bottom shelf has more than a foot of clearance, the upper shelf nearly a foot.

A bar mounted across the back of the cart holds paper towels and tape. A tool rack holds screwdrivers.

Under the oil filter is a piece of grating and a funnel. This feature drains oil from the filter into a disposal container below.

Okay, this project got a little...big. But the idea comes from one of you, and we loved it. We only added onto it a bit. This Ferris wheel-like parts bin stands 3 feet tall and is 4 feet wide. We made it tall enough so you can sit it on the floor and still reach into it comfortably. There are seven parts bins. You rotate each to the top to find the part you need. We like this because unlike shelving-style parts bins, this one gives you a great downward view into each bin. You don't lose parts in the darkest reaches of your conventional parts bin. The rotating bins also allow you to take a quick inventory of the parts you need for reordering. But upon further reflection, we do offer three additional ideas:
1) Put dividers into the parts boxes. But be careful; you'll lose space if you divide them too many times.
2) Add a frame to the bottom and, with heavy casters, make this portable.
3) Identify the parts in each bin by writing on a piece of tape stuck to the handle. You could engrave it if you choose. But even for us that's just a bit too much.

Each of the seven parts bins are 7 inches wide and 21 inches long. From the bottom of the bin to the bottom of the handle is 7 inches of clearance.

You've seen this light stand design in any store for $50. But the one we've chosen holds just a few more ideas than your run-of-the-mill light stand. Let's start with height extension. You work on big equipment, you need these two 500-watt halogen lights up high. This one extends to nearly 9 feet. You know those on-and-off switches on the store models. Kind of a hot sport for a push switch, don't you think? This one turns on and off by a simple switch mounted to the pole. Like a little bit of power at the light stand? This one has two outdoor insulated outlets. One last idea: When you store it, the light bar folds down parallel to the stand in a nifty space-saving maneuver.

Outdoor plugs bring a handy power supply to your light stand. The stand has 50 feet of cord for greater portability.