Bike Tools Cabinet, Storage and Workbench

With more space available in the new house, I can now set up my own bike workshop area, complete with proper tool storage and parts storage, as well as a proper workbench.

Starting with a tool cabinet, I decided to get a mobile one with many drawers, so that I can place all my tools in the cabinet. I plan to park this tool cabinet under my workbench to save space, so I needed one that was short.

Most tool cabinets are rather tall, with a minimum height of 740 mm. This is because they are used as a table on its own. I needed a shorter one that can fit under a workbench.

After much searching, I found the TZ25 model by Tankstorm, which is a shorter tool cabinet with a height of 680 mm. Shipping by the normal way would be very expensive, as it is bulky and heavy. I used ezbuy with Prime membership to ship this, which makes it much cheaper to ship. I only paid a total of $104 including shipping for this tool cabinet, which is a great deal.

Tankstorm TZ25 short tool cabinet, with a height of 680 mm. I think it will tuck underneath the workbench nicely.

After a 1 month wait, the item was delivered to my door step! The wait time was not an issue at all since I had not moved in to the new place yet. In fact, I timed it perfectly, to have the item delivered when the renovations have been completed, but before moving in. This gives me lots of space to assemble the tool cabinet in the house.

Assembly was straightforward, as I only had to mount the 4 wheels and the side handle. The corner of the tool cabinet was slightly dented during shipping, causing the tool cabinet to be a bit out of shape. In the end I added a shim at one corner of the wheels, so that all 4 wheels can rest flat on the ground.

Tool cabinet assembled! An integrated lock is available if you need.

In order to prevent the tools from moving around inside the drawers, a sponge layer can be placed on the drawer to hold them in place. If you want, you can even cut the sponge to fit the shape of the tools.

I ordered the 2 cm thick sponge, and asked for it to be cut into 50 x 28 cm pieces, as that is the interior dimension of the drawers.

After that, the layout of the tools in the tool cabinet is entirely up to individual's preference!

Top drawer is used to store the most frequently accessed tools.

Second drawer has all the wrenches, including the awesome Park Tool PW-4 Professional Pedal Wrench.

Third drawer houses all the measuring equipment, including the Giant torque wrench which I have used since 2013.

Fourth drawer is a bit more random. With tire tools, cable tools, dropout alignment jig, torch lights, etc.

The fifth and bottom drawer houses the heaviest tools. These are the bottom bracket and chain tools.

This tool cabinet rolls and parks nicely under the workbench.

When I am working on the bike, I will pull out the tool cabinet, for easy access to the tools. The top of the tool cabinet also provides extra working space, in addition to the table top.

You may have noticed that I am using an Omnidesk as my workbench, when it is usually used for office work or gaming. I like the electronic height adjustment feature, as it allows me to adjust the table height to best suit the work that I am doing, regardless of whether I am sitting down or standing up.

It happens that I can set the minimum height of the desk too, so that it does not hit the tool cabinet if someone accidentally lowers the table below the height of the tool cabinet. This minimum height is set at 780 mm, which is slightly higher than the standard desk height of around 750 mm.

Other than the new tool cabinet, I also got a new storage cabinet for the bike stuff. Previously, I used to keep bike stuff in the storeroom and all over the house, which makes it hard to find and access the parts when I need. Now, I can have a dedicated storage cabinet which can hopefully keep most of the bike parts neatly in one place.

New tall storage cabinet! I initially wanted glass doors for the top half, but it was not available in this configuration.

3 large shelves on top, plus 4 drawers below. The cabinet is extra tall at 2.1 metres, which maximises the use of space.

After much organizing and reorganizing, I have finally settled on an arrangement which I like. It is a combination of display and storage, with less frequently used items stored high up, and more frequently used items at an easily accessible height.

I have used most of these parts, and now they are either retired or in standby mode.

Top shelf holds the chain rings and disc brake rotors, plus spare chains and bottom bracket. The Dura-Ace 7900 crankset has been retired, and is now on display.

Middle shelf has the shifters, derailleurs and cassettes, all of which have been used before. I would keep them for display, rather than sell them away cheaply.

Lower shelf has the lubricants and cleaning agents at the left. The small drawers hold all the small parts as you can read from the labels.

I had a hard time deciding which component goes where, and whether it was better to keep them in the drawers or on the shelf. In the end, I realized that it will never be perfect, it just has to be good enough.

The drawers hold the parts that are even less frequently used, as you can see below.

Top drawer holds all the brake related parts and tools, including spare parts.

Second drawer is more random, with inner cables and outer casings on the left, pedals in the middle, and shoe parts + helmet parts on the right.

Third drawer houses all the bike bags, portable tools and bike accessories like lights and bottle cages.

Bottom drawer stores all the wheel, tire and inner tube related stuff. There are spare tubes for every bike. I wonder how long spare tubes can be kept before they disintegrate?

Final setup! Check out the Omnidesk workbench, with a bunch of charging cables on top. I had space to put up two (out of 8) posters, brilliantly created by Bike School Asia. 

Update: Added a small bench vise to the tool list!

After a few months of using this setup, I am really pleased with how everything is stored neatly and is easily accessible. I no longer have to look around the house to find the parts that I need, as everything is within reach, as the bikes are nearby as well.