Recently I started on a job right at the bottom of my To Do list: sorting out my garage. I consider myself a pretty organised guy but if looking at my garage might convince you otherwise!
When it came to sorting out my cycling tools I decided that getting them all hanging up on a kind of shadowboard would be the best way to make them easily accessible.
Materials/Tools
Purchased:
- 1220mm x 610mm x 18mm (2 sheets).
- ‘Lost Head Nails’. 65mm.
- 75mm Screws.
Tools Needed:
- Drill
- 10mm drill bit
- 10mm wall plugs
- Spirit level & pencil
- Screwdriver
- Pencil
- Hammer
Construction
Drill holes in the wood. Ensure you clear off the excess chipboard from the back so it will go flat to the wall.
- Mark the holes through the wood onto the wall using the spirit level and pencil. I found 6 holes to be best for keeping the chipboard secure.
- Drill the holes into the wall. Use a piece of electrical tape or similar to mark the depth of the wall plug so you don’t drill too deep.
- Put the washer on the screws and put the bottom piece of chipboard up. You may need some help to hold this in place whilst you screw it in.
- Repeat steps 1-4 for the top piece of chipboard.
Hanging up The Tools
Now you have the chipboard in place on the wall it is time to start hanging up the tools. This is where the headless nails come into play. If you have anything slightly heavier or that needs a lip to stop it falling forward then use the screws.
You can be as creative as you want with this, but I worked on two principles:
- Try and group similar tool types together
- Put the most used tools in the most accessible positions
Most of the tools hung up fairly easily and even have holes built into them for exactly this reason, though in future I will now be ensuring I buy tools that are easy to fit on the board!
There were a couple of unique items that were harder to fit.
The first was the hex key set. Thankfully I bought a set by Silverline which came with a stand. I mounted this onto a small piece of wood and used brackets to attach it to the board. Whilst these are not the sturdiest hex keys in the world, for £7 they are worth it for the stand alone. Even if you are planning to upgrade, most other sets would not fit this easily onto a shadowboard, so I would certainly recommend these.
The second unique tool to fit was the hex bits for my torque wrench.
Luckily, I had kept hold of the box they came in and managed to glue this to the board to make it easy to access them. They are very snug so do not fall out.