The large tool caddy (trebuchet or catapult) in the shop houses most of our hand tools. The sloping shelves are used either as shelves on which tools are placed directly, or platforms on which wooden boxes (partitioned for specific tools) present their contents ready-to-hand for retrieval without the necessity of rummaging for them. Each sloping shelf is, of course, outfitted with a lip.
Using boxes to store tools modularizes the configuration of tool-storage on the catapult because a change to one box does not affect the other boxes. The boxes are also portable, which means that the configuration of the caddy remains the same whether its contents are present or not.
The box at left contains mallets made from tree limbs, hatchets, hammers, and a brush. The middle box contains knives, wood rasps, planes, and small levels. The right-hand box contains assorted hand tools, some of which need repair.
We try to ensure that:
Every tool has a place to live whether that place is a slot of its own or whether it shares its space with other tools.
Rummaging is kept to a minimum.
When a tool is put away, it is ready for use whenever it may be picked up again.
The middle shelf on this side of the trebuchet is used primarily for electrical hand tools whose cords can be draped behind the shelf, where the cords fall into the center of the trebuchet. The bottom shelf contains a variety of tools as well as cases for pneumatic equipment. The right-hand side of the trebuchet is provided with pegs for long extension cords.
The boxes on the upper shelf contain the most compartmentalization of any of the portable tool boxes.
