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CNC's and overkill shop storage solutions go hand in hand. While in early development of the Washagamis Bay Training Facility it became apparent we would need a secure and organized storage solutions for all our hand and power tools. A shared shop space like this can suffer when tools are difficult to access, go missing, aren't returned correctly, or batteries aren't charged. The idea was to make a large french cleat wall with custom holsters for every milwaukee power tool and hand tool we owned. An empty holster was an obvious indicator of what tool had been checked out or not properly returned. The french cleat system allowed for endless reorganization and expansion as the shop space grows. Each holster would also carry any specific accessories and consumables (blades, bits, sandpaper etc.) for easy tracking and access.

After documenting a list of all tools, accessories, and consumables, the digital design process began. If possible, I would download existing 3D models of the tools and build the holster around it in SketchUp. If the digital model didn't exist, then I resorted to tracing the tools onto a piece of paper, scanning it, and modelling it in Rhino. After the first few, it became a quick process to model the holsters, add CNC jointery, and prep for CNC cutting.