Tool rack on wheels

[RogerrogerD]

Newbie here. Like many I have to squeeze my blacksmithing stuff in with all the other the detritus of life that ends up in my garage/workshop. I’ve not been forging long, but got frustrated looking for the hammer I put down somewhere 10 seconds ago and the tongs that disappeared from my hand seconds earlier. So I wanted one place to order them, and it needed to move.  This is it so far (don’t look at the crappy welds). I’ll probably build a shelf on the back of it for punches and stuff. 

[MikeTausig]

Ultimately, whatever helps YOU be at your most efficient is therefore a winner.  For me, I’ve found that The Pareto Principle is close to true - I use approx 15-20% of my tools roughly 80-85% of the time (could be closer to 90-10 in truth). THOSE are the tools I keep readil at hand & available. Building new units (like you’ve done, to solve a problem in a way that works for you) is not something I am fond of, as it adds one more footprint on the shop floor - or rather, leaves me with that much less working space - something I don’t have an unlimited supply of. My efficiencies typically go vertical, or combine multiple pieces in order to achieve multiple functionalities (eg, wrapping my anvil log with leather to hold my hammers, tongs, etc - loads of pix like this in the anvil section).  

Glad it works for you. I love seeing photos of shop solutions. 

Cheers,

Mike

ps...you mentioned being a newbie. While I too am new to smithing, I am not new to organization - that Six Sigma black best must be good for something! If I may be so bold, the beginning of your smithing journey is when habits are developed, and I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how difficult it is to break bad habits or change poor routines. I know we end up needing to move fast from forge to anvil, or quench, but THIS is the time to be disciplined in habits. This includes all safety precautions, technique, organization...everything. Doing things “correctly & efficiently” might add time to your short term projects, but it will save time, $$, and often prevent injuries in the future. 

Best of luck man!

[RogerrogerD]

Great advice Mike, thank you.  I take all your points.  As I become more proficient then perhaps I’ll adjust driven by the number of tools or other parts of the process.  For me, now, I find the wheeled trolley gives me more usable space, not less. Where it lives while I’m forging isnt the place it is when I shut up shop, or when I’m doing something else - but it can be in a second.  

As a recent retiree from business, I love your comments about Six Sigma applications.  Great stuff, and very valid. 

As an aside, the design and fab of the tool rack is probably the first thing I have physically “made” in oh, 35 years or more, beyond the coathooks  and bottle openers I am making as I start my smithing journey.  A military career followed by a business career doesnt often result in such tangible, personal end products, so that’s a thrill.  One of the beauties of being retired is the time to learn new skills, and I learned plenty of new lessons and remembered long forgotten ones, by doing this simple project from scratch, in slow time, by making mistakes, then resolving them, or living with them, as I put it together over a couple of days. Adapting as I went along driven by my limitations in terms of welding or whatever. As well as the pleasure of making something simple, stretching my mind in new directions is such a contrast from a working life of running a business. Thinking in three dimensions is new to me, and working out a process has been rather like solving a puzzle.  There’s something enjoyable about working these things out from first principles (if thats what they are).  The lessons learned in this first project, no doubt trivial to many, have been a joy to learn the hard way. No doubt as I progress with smithing or simple fabs like this I’ll learn less and less each time, improving my process each time.

Then, to burst my pompous balloon of self worth, I show off the trolley to my spouse. She blinks... and reminds me there’s a shelf in the bathroom that needs fixing, if I’m getting all clever with my hands these days.   ;- ) 

[JHCC]

Nice trolley, and I hope it continues to work well for you. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself outgrowing it faster than you’d expect, though; tools have a way of multiplying when you’re not looking. 

The only thing I’d add to Mike’s comment is that if you position your hammer stand as close as possible to where your hammer hand would be as you address the anvil to strike your workpiece, it’s a lot easier to grab the hammer you need and — critically — to put away the one you don’t. I find myself switching hammers a lot in the course of a forging session, and it’s amazing how much difference a well-placed tool rack makes in keeping that session organized. 

[MC Hammer]

I break ground in two weeks on the foundation of my shop addition.  I really like the idea of having a tool table on wheels as well.  I want mine to hold my punches, top and bottom tools, tongs and hammers.  I also have a lay-out table that I plan to put on wheels as well.  This is not a working table or heavy welding table, but some place to lay hot metal, draw on with chalk or soapstone (it will have a metal top).  The lay-out table will roll into the work area because it will be smaller and only containing the tools I need for the project at hand as well as the stock.  I already use this table now and it's greatly improved my efficiency.  When not in use, both tables can be wheeled out of the way.  In the future when I begin building a healthy amount of tools I'll probably build racks to house the tools I use occasionally and keep the tool table stocked with my most used tools.   Otherwise, I thing a guy will build a hammer rack, a tong rack and a table or rack near the vise for punches.  In a small space that can get real crowded.  I absolutely despise looking for a tool, especially when you have hot metal out of the forge and you are wasting a heat.  Nothing frustrates me more than completely wasting a heat.  I've learned over the years to quickly put my stock back in the forge and resume my search for that MIA tool.  I'll be working in a 20 x 14 space someday so efficiency will be something I'll be working on for a while.  

[ThomasPowers]

"Think while the workpiece is in the forge", "have all the needed tools ready when you take the workpiece out of the forge."   (Of course this is best for propane forges tuned to not destroy your workpiece if you stand in uffish thought. In a coal forge it works if you stop cranking the blower, pumping the bellows or turn off the electric blower...)

Students notice that I seem to get a lot more done per heat than they do.  One of the things I tell them is that the first couple of hammer strikes do the most as the steel is hottest then and knowing what to do I can make my first strike *hard* if I need to move it a lot.

[MC Hammer]

Good advice Thomas.  I try to follow those principles.  I'm usually working on two projects at once so there isn't a lot of time to be lost in thought.  I usually keep one end for heating project #1 and the other side for #2.  Before using the project table I was always looking for a hammer or whatever.  95 % of the time I try to leave my hammer on the anvil as was advised when I was starting out.  Still evolving the work process but love the concept of rolling work tables / racks.   

[VaughnT]

Looks good, and I'm sure you'll refine it or change things up as the days pass and you find what you like the best about it.  That's the neat thing about building for yourself!

Those vertical legs look a right good place for some tubing to hold your punches.  Easy to organize while taking up relatively little space.  I get the feeling that you'll want for more rack space soon as you grow your collection, but having a handy catch-all for the tools you're using at the moment is a greater boon than many think.  As was mentioned earlier the Pareto Principle is an amazing thing!

[ThomasPowers]

Mount a basketball hoop on one end and you've more than doubled your tong space and they are easier to access.

For some reasons well made sturdy basketball hoops seem easy to find in the scrap stream here and I have a number of them mounted in different locations 

[MikeTausig]

I used the basketball hoop for tongs, until I acquired too many, and I figured out it was easier (for my need to organize by size & style) for me to keep tools  linearly opposed to circular. Just make sure to hit the net holders of the hoop with a grinder so you’ll be left with smooth tubing all 360 degrees.