I’ve been getting my tools out of drawers, and onto the wall, but I have a bunch of stuff I’m calling “Hardware”. Stuff like screws, hinges, bolts, nuts, all that stuff.
I like that idea, but the bins are only 13" deep, and where I’m putting this, I have plenty of depth, so I thought I would also build some bigger doors to hang some more stuff on them. I could hang on the front or back of the doors, and I would make sure they were things I could secure very well, so they wouldn’t fly off when I opened the doors. I’m going to make the door frames out of 2by material, and the rest would be panels. I’m toying with the idea of making the door fronts that wall paneling, but they need to stay stable to racking.
The Blue is 3/4" ply. The Purple is 2by material, the cyan is either panels or the blue wall panel stuff I have a bunch of. The blocks on the bottom are casters (I’m not drawing up casters, you’re nuts). The black boxes are the storage boxes. I will cut into the 3/4" ply about 3/16" to make gaps for some hardboard supports for the boxes, and if I want a bigger area, I just won’t install a shelf there.
The other thing I was thinking about is, how to join everything. Should I make tabs on the sides and the middle piece, and then cut grooves in the top/bottom?
I’d probably put in horizontal pieces to join to the center vertical one to provide some horizontal stability to help keep the sides from spreading in the front (I’m reminded of tall network racks that have a horizontal piece about midway up). Are you planning on using the recessed sides to hang things outside the cabinet?
I went by HF after work today and got a couple of the organizers. They are larger than I thought.
I have a similar box made from 3/4" plywood with shelves that slide into different positions and it is rock solid. This isn’t sheet metal, so I don’t think it will bow out, especially because of those 2bys supporting the door hinges. And I made for a full thickness 3/4" back panel, which is overkill.
I might be convinced to make the middle double thickness, just so I can make the dados for the shelves deeper and not end up with 1 ply in the middle.
The video I linked (or maybe it was another one) linked Adam savages similar build. His is 6’ tall or so and uses $90 bins (must be nice). They are Sortimo brand.
This actually feels like one of those great arbitrage situations. I wonder how much I could get for this, with the bins on Craiglist. Some of those rolling steel carts don’t have this much storage and cost a bunch… I should slow down and see if I actually make one for myself.
I’m going to get better measurements of the box and decide what kind of shelf system to do next.
Skinny dados with removable skinny shelves.
3/4" dados, with just 1" slats glued in on either side.
attach 3/4"x3/4" slats we screws and glue, but without any dados
I don’t think I’ll hang anything on the sides, because I have another cabinet on one side, and the low rider on the other. But maybe in it’s next life.
Those milwaukee bins look nice, but $45 each. I can’t spend more on my bins than the screws inside. Maybe if I was going on location somewhere, or I had some really nice tools in them (I don’t think I own any really nice tools).
Although, I may have to do some more planning, because these things are much bigger than I thought. I’m not sure I need 20 of them.
I really like the idea of being able to take out a little box from inside like the HF ones you linked. If they don’t suck that would be a win.
I have a bunch of clear tackle box style boxes for all the reprap type parts I have been acquiring over time. lots of hardware. I might have to give something like this a try. I just use stacks on the NSF racks but now maybe your sortimo so I don’t have to do the box shuffle when I want to get at the one on the bottom of the stack.
OK, they kind of suck… They are OK. The sizes are reasonable. The boxes stay put a little when they aren’t surrounded.
But, they certainly aren’t going to survive if I grab the handle and carry it like a briefcase, the top doesn’t seal that well.
The boxes on the smallest container fit in the medium one, and visa versa, but they are 5mm difference in height, which is definitely weird.
Some of the boxes missed the lid, where it tries to grab them, so they are curved inward.
I bought two large, two medium, and two small. I like the small ones the best, and then the medium. I don’t think I’ll ever fill the two large, unless I put stuff like sprinkler valves in there or something.
I might look around for some better, more plano tackle box looking things, but they would still need to be cheap. I think these will work, but they are not great. If I was getting into them everyday, I would get frustrated quickly.
Here is a pic of my power tool storage shelving. The shelves are loose. They just friction fit in place:
The plano boxes definitely wouldn’t let me just bring a bunch of screws with me to do a project. That’s a good point, Ryan. Maybe I’ll look at HD later and see if they have anything better in a husky or something. That DeWalt one I posted only has bins of one size, which seems like a poor decision. If only I had some way to create objects out of plastic my pushing strings of plastic through a heated nozzle…
This is giving me some good idea’s I have a small gorilla rack in the garage but a few of these would be nice maybe made out of the two halves of the rack with some sides on it. As soon as I get the new printer finalized I really want to have a go at the LowRider and that means shop storage. This thread came at a great time.
I’ve been sick for exactly one month today, I hope this mornings blood tests are a little better than last time I really need to get some sh*t done. Getting antsy to go clean up the shop and make some improvements.
Stay away from those! I have some of the next size down. The clear plastic locking tabs will break after a few uses. They have a version with metal locking tabs, might be better.
Hmmm. These are pretty tempting. They don’t have removable bins, but if you can flip them without the screws flying into neighboring bins, then they will be worth it vs. the HF ones:
2/$10! locks on all sides, good. Only 1/2 adjustable, not bad, might even be a plus.
Looking at my Plano style boxes I am glad they are smaller the one I have the Bolts in is pretty heavy, much bigger and I would never expect a latch to hold them in. Your adjustable cabinet seems better and better. I have a bunch of tools in plastic carry boxes various plastic bins but really they are fairly similar. I think If I make one I might make one side narrower than the other for small boxes and the other side for tool boxes and larger bins.
I think I am getting at one size fits all and an Adam savage style storage with 100 of the exact same bins isn’t for me. I would prefer all the bins to be a little different so I don’t need to read labels to find the right one at a glance.
