Sunday, May 2, 2010

"free" pegboard - shed tip #1, and magnets

A useful shed tip which saved me some money when I first set up my shed here. I know many people who adore the look of pegboards, with all their tools neatly silhouetted on the board, easy to see what you have, and if anything is missing.
Personally I'm not too fussed on having my tools on display (seems hypocritical after posting about tooling - bear with me), but I do like having commonly used tools in a location that is easy to get to quickly.
When I set up my shed, I considered pegboard, but it's not cheap. I then came across the idea of using an old hollow core door.
These doors get tossed out all the time around here as homes are refurbished. I grabbed some for use as trestle tops, and I took one of these and screwed it to the shed wall, effectively cladding that section of the wall with the door. The door is screwed on horizontally, and flush with the wall top.

Peg board works by having a 6mm (1/4") masonite board, pre-drilled with holes, mounted with a 1" (25mm) gap behind it for hooks to pass through.
A hollow core door is a sheet of 5-6mm masonite, with a 1" gap filled with a light honeycomb of cardboard, and then finished with another 5-6mm sheet of masonite. The whole assembly is edged with a solid wood frame which is around 35-50 (1 1/2 - 2") wide... other than the pre-drilled holes, the hollowcore door would pass for pegboard on a frame.


The photo above shows the door, with holes drilled anywhere I want them, things screwed to the door, things hanging off it... lots of options.
Once the door is mounted on the wall, I simply started screwing things to it, corner brackets for heavy duty hooks, blocks of wood for holding squares or saws. I can drill holes where ever I want for hooks, the tail of the hook simply crushes the internal cardboard if it's in the way.

Another thing which is good about the doors is that I could screw hard drive magnets to it where ever I want. I dismantled a number of harddrives over the years - mostly for collecting material for the furnace, but I also salvage useful components such as platters, magnets, and bearings.

The magnets get used for all sorts of things, but one common use is for holding things up. The photo below shows magnets screwed to the door and labelled for the hammers they hold.


I've yet to find a hook I'd trust for holding up my sledge hammers, but is easy to remove, or replace the hammers on. The photo below shows my club hammer attached to the wall via the magnet.



I'd show a better picture of some of the other things hanging on the wall, but it's hard to get a decent photograph through all the mess in the shed.

The magnets also get used for holding charts to the roof of the shed. I ran out of wall space in my shed pretty quick. Between shelving, door, tool storage, and a bench, the walls seemed to disappear pretty quick, so I stored my thread/ drilling charts on the roof. I simply covered the charts in contact, and then used some magnets to attach the corners to the roof.


So shed tip #1 - free pegboard by using hollowcore doors, and drilling your own holes where you want them, (as you need them, etc)

Bonus tip - save hard drive magnets for use for holding tools to walls, etc. I use one magnet for a 35lb sledge hammer - they are dynamite for holding, clamping, etc - and free for minimal labour.

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