Tool Room

This document describes efforts to improve the tool room.

Kent Hall 106 is the University Museum tool room. It is equipped with a variety of hand tools and a few hand-held power tools. Most of the material appears to be related to wood working. There is a considerable amount of scrap wood and fasteners. There is also paint and brushes for touching up the gallery walls. Unfortunately, the tool room is often in disarray (Figure 1).

(a) General view of tool room before cleanup efforts. Photograph taken 2023-09-18.

 

(b) Detail of tool room cart before cleanup efforts. Photograph taken 2023-09-18.

 

(c) Alternate general view of tool room before cleanup efforts. Photograph taken 2023-09-23.

Figure 1: Views of tool room before cleanup efforts.

To address the longstanding entropy and disorder in the tool room, Craig directed UM student staff to work on cleaning the area up. This project took nearly a month to complete. The student staff did an outstanding job (Figure 2). Sophia Unruh and Nicole Marin worked on sorting out the paint supplies, stacking the scrap wood, disposing of broken fluorescent tubes that were mixed in with the wood, and generally brought improved order to the stacked materials (Figure 2 (a) and Figure 2 (c)). Dominik Gutierrez further organized the paint supplies, worked diligently to remove garbage from the room, and got the various tools in order (Figure 2 (b) and Figure 2 (d)). By April 2024, the tool room was brought to order; it is now possible to walk into the room and work on small projects. Maintaining good order will involve ensuring that materials and tools are put away after use.

(a) General view of tool room after cleanup efforts. Photograph taken 2024-04-12.

 

(b) Alternate view of tool room showing work bench and shelving with fasteners. Note that a person can now walk into the space and access the workbench. Photograph taken 2024-04-12.

(c) View showing materials shelving with stacked wood and paint easily accessible after clean up efforts. Photograph taken 2024-04-12.

 

(d) Alternate view showing tool wall after cleanup efforts with tools now neatly attached to the wall mounting. Photograph taken 2024-04-12.

Figure 2: Views of the tool room after cleanup efforts.

Figure 1 (a): General view of tool room before cleanup efforts. Photograph taken 2023-09-18. Figure 1 (b): Detail of tool room cart before cleanup efforts. Photograph taken 2023-09-18. Figure 1 (c): Alternate general view of tool room before cleanup efforts. Photograph taken 2023-09-23. Figure 2 (a): General view of tool room after cleanup efforts. Photograph taken 2024-04-12. Figure 2 (b): Alternate view of tool room showing work bench and shelving with fasteners. Note that a person can now walk into the space and access the workbench. Photograph taken 2024-04-12. Figure 2 (c): View showing materials shelving with stacked wood and paint easily accessible after clean up efforts. Photograph taken 2024-04-12. Figure 2 (d): Alternate view showing tool wall after cleanup efforts with tools now neatly attached to the wall mounting. Photograph taken 2024-04-12.