Help! I need organization! Shop Apron?

[Jeff Johnson]

I misplace things in the shop. Small things, commonly used things like pencils, small squares, marking knife, etc. I've been working at organizing and putting things back into their place when I'm done with them. But these frequent - use items I'd like to keep with me, so I'm considering buying a shop apron or something to help me out and am wondering what some of y'all use. Brands, types, features, stc. And, what do you carry in yours (and where).

[David Hostetler]

I have a Husky ballistics nylon shop apron. It's got the obligatory hammer hoop, a loop for a tape measure, about a half dozen chest pockets including one perfectly sized for a carpenters pencil.

The good.

I LOVE the pocket arrangement on it, as well as the hoops and loops it has. The quick release buckle for the back strap is great. The nylon has proved to be VERY durable.

The bad. The nylon does NOT breathe well like a soft leather would. In the hot, humid Texas environment this is a MISERABLE thing to wear in the summertime.
The neck strap is WAY too long and puts the top of the bib around the middle of my fat gut. A skinny guy might find it around the knee caps. There is no adjustment for this aside from just tying off the excess. Like the main part of the apron, the neck strap is nylon, webbing in this case, and it is VERY abrasive and itchy against the neck.

All in all, I am still looking for my ideal shop apron. I would LOVE the same pocket setup in a calf skin apron with either cotton, or leather adjustable straps, with quick release buckle for the waist strap.

[Jerome Hanby]

I've about given up looking for an apron. I'm just too tall and too round for any that I've found. Got my wife talked into making me one, basically modeled on the one from Lee Valley. One major mod, she keeps seeing suspenders at teh thrift store, so she's going to recycle them into the x straps. After she had the idea, I actually saw an apron that got good comments that used the same idea.

On the other hand, there is a Creeker that makes Aprons. He told me he could make any size and gave me instructions for measuring, I just never got around to doing it.

[Ray Binnicker]

I've got 5 or 6 different aprons hanging in the shop. One day someone put me onto Woodenboat.com. They have an apron, made from canvas, criss-crosses the back (which I really like); this think is really well made. It is only $21.95.
Ray Binnicker

[Dave Lehnert]

I use one like this.

http://www.duluthtrading.com/search/...ture=&kw=apron





They also offer.

http://www.duluthtrading.com/search/...=&kw=shop+coat



If I were to buy another it would be this one from Shopsmith.

http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/c...itileapron.htm

[Ed Hazel]

I hated my apron until I got a good dust collection system, the pockets would get full of sawdust. I usually only keep a tape, steel rule, phone, dust collector remote and pencils in mine.

[glenn bradley]

I am still on the search for one that I will actually wear more than once. I would really like to have my pencil and a pocket rule handy without putting where they will bend, break or stab me when I squat down to do something. So far, the disadvantages outweigh the benefits; but I'll keep watching for one.

[Hong Le]

i have the same problem as you, using the rockler cross strap apron now helps a lot with measuring tape and pencils. i use a magnetic bar attached to the side of my workbench for my rulers, squares and whatever else that is metal

[Thomas Crawford]

I also decided it was too hot in Texas to wear an apron. I've decided to make a custom tool caddy instead that will sit under my bench and hold all my commonly used tools, pencils, phone, etc. I might even put a cupholder in it

[Randal Stevenson]

CW McClellan is the creeker who has made aprons for several people on this forum. I am not an apron guy (house has no a/c), but was VERY impressed with the one I had made for my father. I tend to leave things on another bench that I grab a lot (exercise is good), except when I am on a ladder. I have used both a tool belt (need to find a smaller/ligher one) and a vest for ladder work before.

[Jon van der Linden]

Originally Posted by Jeff Johnson

I misplace things in the shop. Small things, commonly used things like pencils, small squares, marking knife, etc. I've been working at organizing and putting things back into their place when I'm done with them. But these frequent - use items I'd like to keep with me, so I'm considering buying a shop apron or something to help me out and am wondering what some of y'all use. Brands, types, features, stc. And, what do you carry in yours (and where).

I would take a completely different approach. A carpenter needs to carry things around because he has to do similar tasks in different places around the worksite. When you're working in a shop (you did say shop!), the key is to keep each task in a given area. For example, a marking knife should only be used where you do your layout. There's no reason for it to be anywhere other than in its storage spot or on the bench where you do the layout... nor should you be doing layout on the tablesaw, drillpress, etc. Adding more places where you keep the same things isn't useful, it just adds confusion. I happen to hate carrying anything I don't have to, just one person's preference.

[Dave Anderson NH]

I personally hate shop aprons but have 3 of them in various places. I almost never put anything in the pockets because it can get forgotten and lost or dropped when the apron is taken off. At most, a pencil will go into the pencil pocket. I keep organized by working between my bench and a wall of tools behind me. I try (and rarely succeed) to put a tool away immediately after it is used to prevent clutter and dropped or broken tools. Occasionally I will have a small 5 sided tray with tools in it off to one side of the work area if I know I will be picking up and putting down a several tools during a short period of time. This sets up a specific set of boudaries for my clutter and leaves most of the bench ws it should be, a useful work area.

[Jerome Hanby]

Originally Posted by Dave Anderson NH

I keep organized by working between my bench and a wall of tools behind me. I try (and rarely succeed) to put a tool away immediately after it is used to prevent clutter and dropped or broken tools. Occasionally I will have a small 5 sided tray with tools in it off to one side of the work area if I know I will be picking up and putting down a several tools during a short period of time. This sets up a specific set of boudaries for my clutter and leaves most of the bench ws it should be, a useful work area.

Guess I'm the Anti-Dave. My workbench is still on paper and in my lumber pile, my shop area is pretty much cut in half by a wall of junk. Tablesaw is on one side, Shopsmith, miter saw, pegboard hung items, and tool chest are on the other, usually my homemade cutting table is setup in front of the open garage doors doing double duty as an assembly table/bench. Currently I always have a mechanical pencil in one pocket and a tape measure in the other (It's Birmingham, usually closer to 100 degrees than 80, and the short pants I buy at Walmart only have 2 pockets ).

All this means I get lots of exercise going back and forth to get my combo square from where I set it down on the other side.

I'd love to have a light canvas apron with enough pouches to carry a few basic items and big enough to keep me from being covered in sawdust.

Plus I could hang up the apron before I leave the shop and my stuff would still be there when I came back. If I do that with my short pants, the neighbors complain.

[Jeff Johnson]

Originally Posted by Jon van der Linden

I When you're working in a shop (you did say shop!), the key is to keep each task in a given area. For example, a marking knife should only be used where you do your layout. There's no reason for it to be anywhere other than in its storage spot or on the bench where you do the layout... nor should you be doing layout on the tablesaw, drillpress, etc. Adding more places where you keep the same things isn't useful, it just adds confusion.

Agree that for most items, one place, and in that place is best. I'm looking to make that one place, for a few items, be the apron.

The marking knife isn't the greatest example of a multi-place item, but if I'm working a big item on the floor, marking a piece to fit, I need it away from the bench. And I use my small square at the bench, over on various machines, etc.. And for short-term storage, it'd be nice to have a pocket to put the handfull of dowels in when I'm pegging something, or the wrench I needed to adust the bandsaw, rather than on the nearby drillpress, where I'll forget it or knock it off and behind the machine or into a pile of sawdust. If it's in an apron, i have an opportunity to re-organize all of the stuff I've taken out by emptying the pockets.

Or, at least, that's the plan....

[jay gill]

I went a completely different route and added a drawer to my workbench. There is a home for most things that I'm always reaching for but were cluttering up the top of the bench at the end of the day.

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