Space saving wrench holder

[Philip Davies]

Therbligs are a good template for analyzing tool storage and retrieval. The concept is more than 100 years old and still relevant: http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/Therblgs.pdf

In a home workshop (as opposed to a repetitive manufacturing task) you can conceptualize the motion study as solely retrieving and returning the tool, independent of any task you may complete using the tool. Specifically, look at Search, Select, Preposition, and Position.

Jon, do we have any discussions about analysing our own efficiency? (Or lack of it?) I think there should be a Therblig for obstinately continuing to work with blunt tools, instead of breaking to sharpen. And another for accumulated clutter!

[Jon]

Jon, do we have any discussions about analysing our own efficiency? (Or lack of it?) I think there should be a Therblig for obstinately continuing to work with blunt tools, instead of breaking to sharpen. And another for accumulated clutter!

Delaying sharpening may be related to a cognitive bias called "time-saving bias": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-saving_bias

Accumulated clutter is more difficult to understand. There are legitimate reasons to store materials, especially considering our hobby, but correctly interpreting the calculus of storage cost vs. future utility is challenging. The DSM-5 definition of compulsive hoarding (vs. rational storage) relies largely on the value of the items: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/N...table/ch3.t29/ . If you save many different pieces of wood or metal stock, you're probably not hoarding. If you save the paper wrappers around sticks of butter, you probably are.

However, sometimes we accumulate things because we think that they may have legitimate future value, and we turn out to be correct. Are we sorting and saving fifty different types of screws for that one time when we have the perfect one? Or do we regularly pick through our screws to find some to help move along a project?

This may also be related to "action bias": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_bias . There is a temptation to do something rather than nothing, even when doing nothing is a superior solution. In this case, we are biased to collect and store an item, rather than doing nothing. We think that it can't hurt, but it can be a detriment in non-obvious ways. Cataloging it (both physically and mentally) consumes time and space, and may violate a good principle of a healthy shop: that you should always have some free floorspace and free shelf space.

[Philip Davies]

Appreciate this, Jon, although what I had in mind is what accumulates on the bench/work area during the course of the day. In the morning, I tend to tidy as I go along; as I tire, tools are left lying around, things fall on the floor unnoticed among the debris building up.