Chat with a machinist made me rethink my tool storage

Buddy at the shop said he organizes his end mills by material not size. Told me he wasted 3 hours last week digging through wrong bins. Think he might be onto something, anyone else sort their cutting tools by job type?

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erickelly2mo ago

Did you catch that thread on Garage Journal where a guy sorted his drill bits by the project they were for?

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wren2302mo ago

yeah I actually saw a thread on practical machinist where a guy had a whole setup for his carbide end mills sorted by coating type and it made way more sense than I thought it would lol. he was saying how some of his TiAlN coated stuff eats through steel way faster than his uncoated ones so he started keeping them separate. I think it really depends on what you are doing most though if you are bouncing between aluminum and stainless all day sorting by material would save your ass. my buddy tried that grouping his tooling by operation type like roughing vs finishing and he said it was a disaster at first but now he swears by it. gotta spend the time upfront to figure out what works for your own workflow.

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jenny_lee2mo ago

Sorting by project sounds like something I'd attempt, get halfway through, then realize I have 14 unlabeled drill bits in a coffee can and give up. My shop's organization system is basically "the tool I need is always the one buried under three other tools I bought on sale." At this point I'm just happy when I can find a half inch drill bit that hasn't been resharpened into a stub.

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