The cordless tool battery situation is one of the defining organizational challenges of the modern home shop. Five cordless tools means ten batteries, two chargers, and a tangle of charging cables that lives on a shelf somewhere and slowly spreads until it occupies an embarrassing amount of prime real estate near an outlet. The solution – a dedicated charging station – is simple in concept and endlessly varied in execution.
We collected reader charging station setups across all budget levels and shop sizes. The common denominator in all the good ones: dedicated positions for every tool and every battery, a power strip or outlet panel with enough circuits for simultaneous charging, and a system for knowing which batteries are charged vs. dead without having to pick them up and check the indicator.
The cabinet charging station (Linda, Texas) – A wall-mounted cabinet about 18 inches deep, with dedicated foam-lined slots for six cordless tools on the shelf below and six battery chargers mounted to the underside of the shelf above. The charger cords route through a hole in the shelf to a power strip mounted inside the cabinet. Doors close to hide the whole system when not in use. Cost in materials: $80. Satisfaction level: extremely high.
The open rack charging station (Pete, Ohio) – A simple wall-mounted rack of angled plywood shelves, one per tool. Each shelf has a charging dock mounted at the back and a tool slot at the front. Batteries charge in place; when charged, the tool sits on the shelf with a fresh battery installed and ready. No hunting for charged batteries – the tool is always charged when it lives on its shelf. Elegant and simple. Cost: about $40 in materials. Share your charging setup – we’re especially interested in systems for larger battery collections.