Tools of the Trade: My company specializes in the installation of cabinets and millwork, tasks that require the use of many different tools and supplies. To avoid running back and forth to the truck for missing items, I outfitted a rolling cart to carry everything needed to do the job.
5 comments:
the first thing I look at with any tool cart is how fast I can get to any item that I need. Any tool organization has to have the practicality of being able to find what i need quickly without having to think too hard about it. Adam Savage has done several great videos and articles on tool storage and he always comes back to "First order of Retrieveability", I take that as I should be able to close my eyes and know instinctively where the tool i need is. This way when your head is filled with various tasks and measurments you dont have to think about what you need or where it is. Borderline muscle memory.
This cart is a great design for many reasons, my favorite reason is because of how easily he found a cart to modify and make it how he wants. I have been working on a tool cart concept that resembles some roadcase tool boxes. but this is a great easy home made option that (not including the tools) doesn't seem to incredibly expensive to make.
I enjoyed looking at this article. It's always very interesting seeing how different people do their storage and organization. I've often thought about making my SM kit into more of a cart than the current fishing tackle box that I use and many SM's use as well. I just have never had the time to do something like that. But he gives some good ideas on how to outfit a cart and make it more useful. Sean's comment thought about retrieveability is also something that is very important in organizing something like this. And it really is a good home solution to creating a road box which most theatre technicians want/use.
I agree with Sean. There is nothing more impressive to a client than being able to produce a tool from your bag or job box without even having to look inside. Knowing where things are and getting to them quickly is priority number one.
Personally, I feel like I've seen my fair share of rolling tool boxes lately, what impressed me most about the slideshow was the box truck that the cart rolls into. Wow! Like the author said, having an inverter in the back of the vehicle for charging your tools on the road is extremely convenient. My dream is to truly have a mobile shop in a truck, with carts that can break off of it to go inside the building, but the truck would be fitted with any tool necessary. Maybe something like a trailer with sides that folded out (similar to Stage Line's Mobile Stages). Yes, it would also probably require a generator, but having access to a panel saw and table saw and router tables might come in handy if your assignment is to build the next Burning Man.
Upon first reading this article and looking at the pictures I wasn't too impressed. It's a tool cart that can hold lots of tools. Cool? But people in the comments above seemed to think it was a pretty great cart, so I looked up some tool cart images, and now I understand the beauty of this cart. It's amazingly compact, yet not section is hard to reach or navigate. I imagine a storage unit like this one is monumentally helpful at site-specific load-in jobs where you have no easy access to a tool room and need to work a efficiently as possible. By allowing yourself and your crew the ease of locating tools by wheeling around something as small as a tool cart, I am sure productivity goes up and worker frustration goes down.
Anna Rosati, I suggest you go look at this video. http://www.tested.com/art/makers/462370-tour-adam-savages-cave/
The whole video is awesome but if you skip to the 10:00 mark you can see him show off some of his tool boxes and he gives a great explanation of how to be extremely efficient with your tool storage.
If you have to move something to get to something else that is time wasted
If you have to stop and think to yourself about which drawer you might have put it back in that is time wasted.
There is also a flip side to this whole tool storage conundrum, and that is sticking to the storage parameters you have developed. If you take something out put it back. If you don't put it back when your done it will be potentially easily months before you actually put it back. I am of course speaking from personal experience.
This summer I saw a lot of guys who have customized their own pelican cases. Using a smaller size 20"X30" (I am guessing at that size I am sure someone will correct me) and with a mix of place in a hinged lid inside the case and a mix of organizer pouches and foam inserts create an incredibly decent mobile tool storage solution.
Anna also touched on a point about your crew being able to find tools. A tool cart scenario I personally have found to only really be good for yourself and maybe one or two others. If you have 3 or more people for productivities sake you are going to want something far more extensive then a tool cart... Like this author's box truck.
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