Hey folks! What have you come across in the past that has helped you organize all your CNC related tools? My current organization method is…. not working. The cart is cool though.
Anything you’ve either 3D printed or carved on the table, I’d love to get a hold of the files. I’m more likely to get it done if the machines do the fabrication for me. I wanna know what you like about it, what you wish it had, and so on.
I also finally got a base for the compact router, so ways to organize that tool and accessories as well would be awesome.
I am currently in the process of cleaning and reorganizing my shop. I have a large and fully equipped shop. What I am finding is I have a lot of things that I have not used in quite a while. Those things I am evaluating and getting rid of a lot of excessive baggage. By removing the excess that gives me more room for things I actually use/need. The upside of the cleaning and sorting is I am finding things that I forgot I had.
By removing excess I have room to better organize what I want to keep. Also I was finding that by gathering up all related items together I was better able to organize them. For instance I had glue and glue related things in about 3 places. Glue dispensing bottles, sponges for removing excess glue, glue spreading sticks, pop cicle sticks of various sizes, acid brushes and getting all the various types of glue like wood glue, epoxy and spray adhesives… having them all together is making me more efficient and easier to find what I need. In the end it is helping me better organize. Over the years things have collected and although good stuff it is good stuff I dont need/want. So I am finding new homes for the good stuff which are with friends or the dumpster.
This does not answer your basic question of specific organization files but my advise will help you in the long run keep your shop better organized and hopefully safer. Removing clutter and finding a proper place for things will help your organization.
I had to laugh a little at this as my shop is always in a state of reorganization!
I am using a newly acquired desk to store all of my cnc stuff. I designed some very simple bits and collet trays and cut it out of mdf. Definitely helps keep there’s a bit neater looking.
I’ve been watching YouTube shop videos while working through repetitive tasks at my day job, and and a recurring theme is that a shop is more a process, or work in progress for many of the more prolific folks, with at least two noting that an annual shop reorganization was a tradition/schedule which they tried to keep to.
My favourite blog post on organization is:
which I believe sums up the options and trade-offs well, though I’d love to see a follow-on post discussing Gridfinity.and where it fits. I was quite successful with it making one case for my misc. drill bits to replace a much larger/bulkier 10-tray case which I was previously using just using standard bins — next up is optimizing it using a couple of custom (or at least further divided trays) and one largish one for some bulky items, then I’ll look into where else it would be a good fit.
I will note:
is back, and I’m trying to decide how many I can justify buying, and to what end I would then use them, though I am also trying out:
I wanna know what you like about it, what you wish it had, and so on.