Building DIY garden tool storage

Working with high-performance power tools is fun and allows you to broaden your skills, which is great as long as you can rely on effective and safe protective clothing while using them. Always wear your personal protective equipment when working with your chainsaw. This includes helmets, cut protection trousers, safety boots and much more. For details, refer to your product owners manuals. Before using your power tool for the first time, fully familiarise yourself with it and ensure that it is in flawless condition before each use. On request, your STIHL dealer will be happy to prepare your power tool for its first job, and will also advise you on models and sizes of protective clothing that you can try on at your leisure. Please remember that personal protective equipment is no substitute for working safely.

• Board (spruce), 22 x 220 x 2040 mm

• 2 wooden wedges, around 25 cm long, construction wedges or shims

• 18 round dowels (e.g. beech), 20 x 110 mm

• Pieces of wood (for placing under the workpiece)

• Cable ties
  

• Drill/cordless screwdriver, with drill stand if required

• 20 mm wood drill bit

• Hammer

• Clamps (to secure the wooden board to the workbench)

• Garden pruner, e.g. STIHL GTA 26 cordless garden pruner
  

• Optional: 120-grit sandpaper
  

First mark the drill holes on the board. The centre of the holes should be 5 cm from the top and bottom edge of the board.

The spacing between the holes depends on the garden power tools that you want to hang up: spacing of 7 cm between the centre of the drilled holes (in other words, 5 cm between the dowels) is perfect for standard leaf rakes, spades and hoes. For very narrow tools a smaller gap will suffice, though you will then not be able to use the garden power tool storage for larger garden power tools later on.

If you want to hang up a hedge trimmer such as the STIHL HSA 26 cordless hedge trimmer, a gap of 14 cm between the drilled holes is ideal.

Place your wooden board onto wedges and put offcuts under the drill hole positions to avoid damaging the workbench. Clamp the board to the workbench. The wedges under the board mean that it will be at a 10° angle.

Now drill the holes. Make sure that you drill perpendicular to the workbench, so that the holes are at the right angle for functional garden power tool storage and the dowels can be inserted into the board at a 10° angle. If you are not used to drilling, you may want to use a drill stand to help you.

Bundle the round dowels together with cable ties and mark the cutting points. Clamp the dowels to the workbench. Using the garden pruner, saw the dowels to the required length, 11 cm in our example.

You can now sand the edges of the dowels or leave the cut edges as they are. Gently hammer the dowels into the board’s drilled holes; no need to glue them in as the dowels will hold by themselves.

Using dowel pins, mount your garden tool storage rack on the wall at a practical height.

Finished! You now have a DIY garden tool rack where you can hang up your power tools to save space.

• 2 boards (spruce), 22 x 220 x 650 mm

• 2 wooden battens, 30 x 30 x 650 mm

• Pieces of wood (for placing under the workpiece)

• 8 SPAX screws, 4 x 45 mm

• 4 dowels, 10 x 50 mm with matching screws (dowel thickness is based on the wall’s condition, may be larger for crumbly walls)
  

• 35 mm flat drill bit, alternatively use a sharp Forstner drill bit
• Clamps to secure the wooden board to the workbench
• Powerful cordless screwdriver
• Detail sander with 120-grit sandpaper
• Garden pruner, e.g. STIHL cordless garden pruner STIHL GTA 26
  

Mark three drill holes across the centre of the first board.

The first hole is 10 cm, the second 29.5 cm, and the third 49.5 cm from the short edge of the board.

Drill through the board at the marked positions with a flat drill bit. The marked points indicate the centre of each hole.

Draw lines to mark the recesses to be cut out onto the board. Start with the left and then the right-hand point of the holes. The line should be drawn at 35° from the left-hand point, and 15° from the right-hand point.

Now cut out the recesses along the marked lines. Check the cutting width of your garden pruner. The STIHL GTA 26 has a cutting width of around 5 mm, so you should cut just next to the line, inside the marking.

First score the board several times using the garden pruner, and then gradually cut deeper so that the chain does not get stuck in the wood and the cut doesn’t become skewed.

Use the finished board as a template for the second one and mark the recesses of the first board onto the second board. Now drill and saw the recesses on the second board.

Sand the corners and edges of both boards with a sander so that there are no sharp edges on your garden power tool storage rack. When sanding, remember to wear safety glasses and a face mask.

Use dowel pins to mount both boards and the 30 x 30 mm battens to the wall. First use dowel pins to mount the battens to the wall. Then pre-drill the holes for the boards.

Finally, use screws to fasten the boards onto the side of the battens; the boards in our example are 146 cm apart.

Finished! Your DIY garden power tool storage rack is finished and ready to use!

Garden power tools should be hung either upright or horizontally; they should not touch the ground and must be kept out of reach of children and pets. Tools should be kept within easy reach so that they can be quickly removed and replaced with one hand.

Boards for the double box

• 50 mm x 50 mm, total length 5.2 m

• 50 mm x 30 mm, total length 6.4 m (2 x 680 mm; 4 x 950 mm; 2 x 580 mm)

• 44 mm x 22 mm, total length 7.4 m (6 x 546 mm; 6 x 709 mm)

• 69 mm x 12 mm (32 x 950 mm; 16 x 580 mm)

• 15 mm OSB (2 pieces measuring 1050 mm x 680 mm, one with 50 mm x 50 mm cut-outs at each corner)

• 527 mm offcuts (spacers for the slide rail)
  

Drawer made from 18 mm thickness plywood:

• 2 x front and back panel 10 mm x 505 mm

• 2 x side panel 600 mm x 10 mm

• 1 x inner panel 564 mm x 10 mm

• Base board 576 mm x 700 mm

• 22 mm pine board (drawer front): 580 mm x 199 mm

• Drawer handle with appropriate screws
  

Slide rail for drawer:

• 2 pieces measuring 67 mm x 16 mm x 950 mm

• 4 pieces measuring 16 mm x 10 mm x 994 mm (drawer slide)
  

2 stoppers for drawer:

• 2 x offcuts measuring 30 mm x 9 mm x 110 mm

• 2 pieces measuring 80 mm x 35 mm x 30 mm
  

Screws:

• around 30: 5 mm x 70 mm chipboard screws

• around 118: 4 mm x 30 mm chipboard screws

• 4: 4.5 mm x 50 mm chipboard screws
  

• Garden pruner, e.g. clean STIHL FS 38 carburettor
• clean STIHL FS 55 carburettor
• Chainsaw, e.g. STIHL MSA 140 C-B cordless chainsaw
• Cordless screwdriver
• 4 mm wood drill bit
• Workbench

First take the shorter 44 mm x 22 mm battens. These are used as brackets for the lower box side panel battens. Screw the six brackets with 5 x 70 mm screws to the sides of the 50 mm x 50 mm uprights.

One batten is attached to the front uprights and two onto both of the back uprights at 90°. These act as brackets for the back panel and side panels. Use a side-wall panel offcut as a spacer for the battens, so that they lie in the middle of the uprights.

Now screw four 50 mm x 30 mm beams onto the uprights as cross beams. Two 950 mm timbers form the side cross beams, and two 580 mm long timbers form the front and back cross beams.

Screw the first cross beam on the workbench between the uprights to create an H-shape. Then assemble the base frame by screwing the remaining cross beams between the uprights.

If you are building your DIY lawn mower storage box alone, support the beams by placing shims under them.

Now put in place the OSB board with the cut-outs at the corners to become a raised base. The board is not joined to the cross beams but is supported by them.

Mount the bracket for the upper box onto the upright. Take the six 709-millimetre-long 44 mm x 22 mm beams and join them in the same way as the shorter beams in the lower box (two beams onto each of the back uprights, and one onto the each of the front uprights).

Now assemble the roof frame of your lawn mower storage box from the remaining 50 mm x 30 mm beams. The two 950 mm timbers again form the side cross beams, with the two 680 mm timbers at the front and back. The frame is additionally supported by the previously mounted bracket.

Securely mount the boards for the panels Use 69 mm x 12 mm boards and mount them to the uprights on each side with a screw.

The 32 boards with a length of 950 mm form the side panels, and the 16 boards with a length of 580 mm form the back panel.

Use, for example, a normal ballpoint pen to help maintain the 9-millimetre-wide gaps between the individual boards of your lawn mower storage box.

Assemble the drawer using the prepared sections of plywood for the front and back panel, side panels and inner panel, and mount these to the base board using 4 x 30 mm screws.

Attach the drawer handle to the pine board, and then fasten the pine board onto the front of the drawer as the visible face. Mount the board from inside so that no screws are visible on the outside of your lawn mower storage box.

Assemble both slide rails. To do so, fasten two 16 mm x 10 mm x 994 mm battens to each of the 67 mm x 16 mm x 950 mm boards with a gap of 19 mm between them.

Now attach the two slide rails 527 mm above the lower OSB board. Ideally, you should use a piece of scrap wood cut to the right length as a spacer.

You can now slide the drawer into the slide rails. Mount the two 30 mm x 9 mm x 110 mm offcuts and the two 80 mm x 35 mm x 30 mm timbers on the back of the drawer as stoppers. Stoppers prevent the drawer from accidentally sliding out completely.

Finally, mount the remaining OSB board using several 4 x 30 mm screws to make the roof.

Finished! Your lawn mower storage box is now finished. You can now store your lawn mower, scarifier, batteries, and other accessories in a compact space. The roof is also sturdy enough to hold a few more work tools.