More Tool Cabinet Stuff!

I bought the top box for my roll cab yesterday. I couldn't help myself! I was amazingly lucky because I got there just as they were changing all their prices and the price of it dropped £30 while I was in the shop! Because of the current financial crisis it seems like you can't pay full price anywhere - even if you want to!

New Kit!

I suprised myself today! I'd been mulling over the idea of getting some more storage for my tools for a while but I hadn't really been actively searching for something!

A bit of christmas cash and a the timely arrival of the Machine Mart catalogue changed all that though! I had a look on the website and noticed an Clarke roll cabinet for just over £100. Thinking that this was too good to be true, I popped into my local shop to take a look at it. It looked good from the outside but after pulling a drawer out I realised that the quality was not all that good - especially when compared to the more expensive 'HD Plus' range.

I thought about it and weighed up the options. Eventually my mum persuaded me that I wouldn't be able to put up with the rubbishy drawers and the thin metal of the basic cabinets and that I should look at the more upmarket ranges! While browsing I spotted a 'Blue Line HD Plus' 3 draw cabinet that seemed to tick all the boxes. Solid build quality and roller bearing drawers had me convinced. What finally pursuaded me was the £50 that that they had taken off the price due to a slight dent on one side. It's a very shallow dent that is just under where the side handle attaches. It hasn't even gone through the powdercoat and I reckon it'll fix up just fine!

There was just one small cock up! The keys were in the top drawer and during the car journey home they managed to find their way into the bottom locker which just happened to be locked! Luckily, the drawers are removable and I when I eventually realised that, I was able to retrieve them fairly easily!

Garage News!

If you're a regular reader of my blog you might be wondering what I've been up to lately! Sadly, as the Spitfire is concerned, the answer is not much! It has been left out on the drive in all weathers recently. I've got a new job working for the NHS and have spent most of the last month either working hard or visiting friends and family.

It has also been a victim of my garage renovation project! This started off as a quick project to paint the floor with some nice garage floor paint but soon started becoming much more involved! Cleaning the floor took ages because scrubbing off 50 years of soaked in oil and brake fluid isn't an easy task! I ended up painting the floor in sections and moving stuff around to clear the next area to clean and paint. It worked rather well and after that was completed I thought it looked pretty good. The only trouble was that it showed up exactly how bad the paint on the walls was, so I had to get the brushes and paint out again!

Moving stuff round while doing the painting made me realise that I didn't have any storage for anything whatsoever! There were loads of oversize tools lying around that were too big for my tool cabinet. To sort that out I made a tool hanging rack from a sheet of MDF that was lying about. This is fastened to the wall with screws and the MDF is just about soft enough to screw hooks into by hand.

That's about as far as I've got so far. There's still lots more to do. There's loads of wood that could do with being stored elsewhere and I'm still waiting on the rack mount storage bins that I'm going to mount on the wall for small parts storage. I've actually cleared enough space to get the car back in so I'm feeling very pleased with myself at the moment!

I was soon feeling less pleased with myself when I realised the brake pedal went completely to the floor! I suppose at least now I've got something to do in my garage!

I'd also like to hand out some thanks to the various people from Club Triumph who suggested ideas for my garage and workshop on the 'Show us yours' and 'Garage/Workshop' threads. There were loads of useful suggestions and plenty of good ideas that have or are in the process of becoming a reality!