Quick and easy tool board pencil holder
Ah, the pencil, the nomad of the workshop.
Set it down, look away, and it’s gone. Not even a shirt pocket can keep it safe. This DIY linchpin can seem to disappear in an instant.
One solution is to cover all surfaces of your workshop in pencils. Work bench, table saw, walls, everything. This way, there will always be one (or 50) within easy reach.
A slightly more practical option is to make a pencil holder for your tool board. That’s what I did, and it was both fast and easy. See how in the video above.
A few months later, I’m still happy with the result. But if I had to start over, here is how I would make this pencil holder differently:
— Have fewer spots for carpenter pencils. Carpenter pencils are easy to sharpen but lack precision. I don’t need room for three in my wood shop.
— Add spots for Sharpies, a White-Out pen and a grease pencil. Sharpies are nice for writing labels out on tape. White-Out basically acts as a temporary paint pen, perfect for making removable marks on metal or plastic. Same goes for the grease pencil, except in black.
— Make the thing bigger. It pains me to say that seven pencil spots just isn’t enough. I have lost all of those pencils several times by now. I would shoot for at least 10 holes if I was you. You could add a second row horizontally to conserve space on the tool wall.
— Pretty it up a bit. Round the edges. Shave off the stained surfaces for a more uniform look. Coat it with some spray polyurethane. Wouldn’t have taken that long. But it is shop furniture. As long as it’s clean, who cares?
Do you have any tricks for keeping track of your pencils? Let me know. Send me an email at areuter@madison.com, shoot me a tweet on Twitter or tag me in a photo in Instagram.
