I never really liked the idea of having a tool well on the top of my workbench. I just didn’t want to lose the uninterrupted flat surface of the top. But having such handy storage near the bench seemed pretty tempting. I came up with a solution that offers the best of both worlds. I found that attaching shelf standards and a few brackets to the legs of my bench provides an easy and inexpensive way to add storage capacity. Start by attaching a short length of shelf standard to each of the four legs of the bench. Then all you need to do is add shelf supports and you can make custom-built storage bins for your tools. This gives you easily adjustable storage that you can place wherever you need.
To make the system even more useful, I turned a shelf bracket into a board jack by attaching a piece of hardwood to the top. With one end of the workpiece in the vise and the other resting on the support, I have an easy way to hold a board for edge planing.
