The Thin Man 

** A more complete write up with more images are available through my blog link in my signature **

Bicycle restoration has been slow lately as I have been overhauling my shop to maximize time, efficiency and to bolster structure. My workspace is small and physical real estate comes at a premium. I needed a solution to keep my growing bike tool collection organized, within my reach and mobile. I envisioned a rolling pegboard but I didn't want to fabricate the idea from scratch. Through the powers of the internet I discovered that someone has already gone through the hassle of roughing out and creating the final product so I didn't have to.

Below is my attempt at recreating his work and giving it my own spin.



I did do a few things slightly differently:

• The final pegboard size was 4'x3.5' rather than 4'x4' only because it fits perfectly in a slot I have reserved in my garage. If I would have had the room, I would have put an extra 6" on the height and made it anywhere from 12"-18" wider.
• All welding was done at one time. I did not go back and weld bottom supports and shelf as Brad did in his instructions.
• A flat, solid piece of sheet metal was added at the bottom to securely hold future bolt bins.
• The casters were attached via drilled/tapped holes in the steel rather than welding the casters to the frame. This is a less secure setup than the original instructions but if any issues arise with the casters, they can be removed and replaced easily.
• I did not see the need to have the pegboards connected with a hinge and hung over the trusses so I welded a support bar horizontally at the top and bolted the pegboard frames to the sides of the steel frame.

A buddy has access to a full blown fabrication shop so he helped out with the metal work. Without already having that equipment (mainly the welder, metal saw and all equipment that goes with the two), it would have been a much more difficult and expensive project to accomplish.

Looking back, two alterations I wish I would have made are:

• Attaching at least two more bars in between the two trusses. This could serve as more points to hook items on or even as a frame to attached a custom cut piece of pegboard to.
• The casters are bolted down in three places leaving the fourth connection point open, since there is nothing to bolt it too. A solution to this could have been to cut small, 1"-2" chunks of scrap steel and weld them onto the underside of the sheet metal where a fourth hole for the caster could be drilled/tapped.

Now that all my hardware is up and visible, it gave me a sense of just how many bike specific tools I actually have. Wow! I am shocked that one entire side is nearly filled up with tools only used for bicycle repair work.



The other side is reserved for regular home improvement type tools.



After a few days of using the mobile tool cart, I am finding it to be an extremely necessary and useful tool. I am actually quite shocked that I did without it for this long. The cart has saved me loads of time, is keeping me well organized, navigates and rolls incredibly smooth, is stable, sturdy and holds all of my present tools with ease and with room to spare. Although, if I need to expand my bike specific tools, I could always take over the other side and build another cart dedicated for "home improvement" only.

This type of mobile cart may not meet the needs of everyone but it has certainly won my heart and is extremely adequate for a small time hobbyist like myself.

If you are a bicycle wrencher or have another specialized craft and space in your shop is tight, I would highly recommend this project!

** A more complete write up with more images are available through my blog link in my signature **

ColonelJLloyd 

I love it. Well done and thanks for sharing!

oddjob2

Excellent rack! Now I know what to do with the AV/TV carts from the community college.

rumrunn6

ingenious!

WNG

Interesting idea, a mobile pegboard!

rootboy 

Real nice !

AZORCH

Really nice, Josh!

I was thinking the same thing about some carts we have at school that get tossed out each year.

tiger1964 

That is so cool! Alas, I know I'd knock it over and into one of the cars. Maybe I should not drink-and-wrench.

The Thin Man 

Thanks for the accolades, everyone!
The tool cart has been in the works for so long now (about a month and a half) that it is strange to not be working on it. Although, I am still adjusting the tools by finding better ways to hang them and tweaking the placement for frequency of use and shape of the tool.

Plus, I still need to purchase some solid bolt bins (2; one for small screws/bolts/etc and one for larger parts like BB spindles and the like) to put below on the shelf.

So, although I am just about through on fabrication, the small details still remain.

On another note, I am really surprised (almost insulted!) that I haven't gotten the typically, "nice rack" comment!

ColonelJLloyd 

Perhaps. But some of my most inspired work (as well as blunders) takes place in the wee hours, wrenching on old bikes with bourbon in my belly.

oddjob2

I think i bought two Bretfords, about $20 each, real stable, tall, great casters.

BlueDevil63 

Very cool! A great idea. I bought a couple of these:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Commercial...hrome/11072962

and lined the shelves with tool box drawer liner. But I just use them for parts and tool storaqe while I'm working on a project and still have to transfer the tools from toolbox and back at the beginning and end of the project (or every couple days as the pile of tools on the cart grows). This is much nicer as you can move your permanent tool storage to your work space.

auchencrow

JesusBananas

What a neat build!

Thanks for sharing!

cyclotoine

nice rack!

randyjawa 

I like the idea a lot. At Bicycles for Humanity, we have several people using specialty tools. More often than not, more time is spent looking for a specific tool that is spent using it. The portable rack should help alleviate this problem for us. Thanks for the idea.