As an avid wood turner I often spend a lot of time at the lathe.  When doing production work I am often trying to figure out better ways to be more efficient in my work. A modest time sink is often finding the next tool to use as historically my turning tools usually lived in a Woodcraft tool travel bag which was overflowing on a nearby table or tool, and a small rack for 4 tools that would sit on the end of my lathe’s bed. Over the past few weekends I set out to fix this problem…

The drill press got a workout hogging through a LOT of Maple…

Then came test fitting the joints….

Then making sure the size, shape and angles I figured actually worked for tools in the real world…

Refined the design a bit by tapering the sides…

Next up was fitting together each of the double units..

Then finishing them and installing them on to the 4’x4′ plywood backing. The backing, much like everything else in my workshop rides on a french cleat, so I can re-arrange my wall space each time my needs, tooling or shop changes.

Part of the beauty of this design is the over sized holes and the large dowel underneath which allows shavings to easily fall through the rack, rather than fill up as they would if the bottom of the holder was closed in. (This was a design element seen on similar, but smaller turning tool racks we had at NBSS — so thank you to my friend Rich Friberg or one of his predecessors for the inspiration 🙂  ) The completed rack looks naked without any tools, so time to populate it…

The completed rack has worked out great. When I turned the handles for my tools, I made them different shapes and species so I could tell them apart with only a quick glance and this rack allows for very fast identification and selection. There is room for my full sized tools, room for my smaller detail tools, and room to add more. (I’ve been itching to build some of the hollowing tools from Alan Lacer’s video on making your own turning tools). The rack holds 28 tools, 14 on each level, so as your collection of tools grows you can still make use of the shelf space — I filled some of the space with tiny turning blanks and rolls of turner’s tape)

Time to get back out into the shop and keep turning…