We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.
Most of us have used, at some point, a pegboard to organize our tools. In fact, a few years ago, I reclaimed a hanging pegboard toolbox (a colleague of mine discarded it) and have been using it ever since. While pegboard hanging is not a rock-solid way to support heavy tools, it does provide a good solution for light or moderately heavy tools. The main advantage of a peg board is its versatility; one day, a tool might be hung here, and another day, as we reorganize the panel, we can easily migrate it to some other area of the pegboard. I wrote about how I designed and built tool caddies for my pegboard here, here, and here, and today I will show two plane shelves that I made recently.
One of these shelves was made for a router plane, and the other for a block plane.
The key to installing mini cantilever shelves on a pegboard is medium-length pegboard hooks. These hooks can come in pairs or as individual hooks.
The first step is determining the shelf’s surface and whether you need to include a fence. If the shelf is stationary and affixed to a pegboard that doesn’t move, you will be OK with a flat design. But if the shelf is connected to a door, I recommend adding a low fence or ledge.
Shaping the shelf
The shelf can mimic the tool’s sole or be simple and rectangular. In the case of my block plane, I used a compass and traced an arc to echo the bow and stern of my Stanley plane.
In the case of the router plane, I settled with a simple rectangular shelf.
Securing the shelf
The best way to secure the shelf from shifting or lifting is to dado it with tranches that accommodate the hooks. You can do so using hand tools, a band saw, a table saw, or a router.
Alternatively, if you want to speed up production, you can settle with notching the edge of the shelf with divots that will accept the ascending arm-ends of the hooks (see the router plane shelf).
After completing the shelf of my block plane, I decided to add a fence. I also decided to include a cove in the middle to make lifting/placing the plane back on the shelf more convenient.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
