How to: make your own plier stand

Until recently I was using an old jam jar to keep my pliers in. I would hang one arm of the pliers inside the jar so the other hung outside the jar and they sat around in a circle on the rim of the jar. The system worked great until I took out all the pliers on one side of the jar and then the weight was unbalanced and the whole thing fell over.

However I do keep adding to my plier collection and unfortunately, my little jar was getting too small to fit any more pliers in. I've seen loads of plier stands for sale like this on on the left but I was reluctant to spend any money when, I reasoned, I could make my own.

Wooden plier stand from Plane N Grain

There was a slight problem with making my own. The afore-mentioned living in a 1-bedroom apartment and not possessing woodworking tools. However, when I saw stands more in this style I knew how I could make my own.


Not having woodworking tools isn't a problem when you can use card. I used mountboard (I believe its called mat board or matting in the US) to make sure it was thick and sturdy enough card.

1. Start by cutting a rectangle from the card. I made mine 10 1/2 inches by 8 inches. If you have loads of pliers you might want to make yours longer than 8 inches.
2. Mark horizontal lines at 4 inches and 8 inches, creating 3 boxes 4x8, 4x8 and 2.5x8 inches.
3. Score along the lines you marked
4. Fold into a pyramid shape and tape or glue the sides together
5. Paint or cover with colourful paper to decorate. Handmade style paper works well because it is very porous and flexible so will absorb the glue well and fold into the corners easily.

Finished Plier Stand

I didn't stop with just a plier stand. I also made matching pen pots and the notecard box I mentioned in my last post. The pen pots are just empty Pringles containers, cut to the right height and covered. The notecard box is an old iphone box which just happened to be the perfect size.

My family of matching desk organisers