The shop has been up and running for a couple of months now--I've built a few pieces of furniture, brought in new tools, and done a photo shoot for an upcoming magazine article. I couldn't be happier with the new space. Though there are still multiple storage units, workstations and dust collection to be built or set up, it was pretty easy to turn the space into a working shop. I'm still tweaking tool layout, but there seem to be multiple options and they all work well.
One of my first tasks was getting the storage units I already had up and onto the walls. Aside from the clamp rack seen below, all of these storage units came straight off the walls of my old shop. None of them are masterful pieces of furniture, but all of them do a serviceable job and offer ample storage space. Since I've always known that my previous shops were temporary workspaces (at times, not temporary enough), I've tried to design storage units that are versatile and easy to move. And all of them are hung on French cleats: Not only are they easy to move from one shop to another, but it will also be easy to move them to a different place in the shop.
Aside from the clamp rack (which is pretty self-explanatory from the photographs) all of these storage units have appeared in print before --If you'd like to know more about them, click the link to my book (at right) or check out the article on my earlier shop: http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Workshop/WorkshopPDF.aspx?id=2818
Sized to hold my collection of clamps (and a few I have my eye on) the new clamp rack is little more than a shelf ledge screwed to a 5 ft. x 5 ft. sheet of plywood and mounted on the wall.
Shelf brackets (canted upward about 2 degrees) support a length of plywood notched to accept the bar of each clamp.
To hang the clamp rack--and everything wall-hung in my shop--I use French cleats. Nothing more than a length of plywood cut apart at a 45 degree angle, they're easy to make and offer plenty of strength.
With one length of cleat attached to the unit being hung and the other attached to the wall, the storage unit slides into place and the two cleats interlock.
Over one bench, I arranged storage units that already existed in my old shop and started stowing tools and hardware.
On the back wall, I hung a pair of plywood storage cabinets as well as a series of three high units that feature adjustable dividers. The right side of the wall, by the way, is left open and reserved for a dust collector.
One thing I've learned--no matter how many storage units you build, there's always going to be a pile of lumber in at least one corner of the shop.
