As we've mentioned in some of our earlier posts on tool storage, when designing your own system there are two opposite poles you can lean towards: Broad-and-shallow, or tight-and-dense. The first approach means you can see every tool in the collection, which makes selecting a tool much quicker, but requires a large surface area. The second approach is better for a space-tight or mobile application.

Here's a good example of the former that has tinges of the latter. Oregon-based cyclist Josh C., who runs The Simplicity of Vintage Cycles website, is a self-taught bike mechanic. When he found the pace of his restoration work suffering from poor shop organization, he resolved to build a better tool storage system. "My workspace is small and physical real estate comes at a premium," he writes. "I needed a solution to keep my growing bike tool collection organized, within my reach and mobile." After poking around on the interwebs, he found an Instructable by Brad Justinen entitled "Build a $500+ Peg Board Cart for $30-$50." (Justinen's creation is pictured up top, Josh's take, directly below.)

While Josh wasn't able to match the price—"I believe the [projected] cost is a bit misleading, that is, unless you already have your own scrap steel station lying around," he writes—he was able to keep the cost down to just over half of what he'd spend on a $500 cart.

The results were well worth it:

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....

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

Next we'll take a look at a super tight-and-dense approach.