I have been remodeling my shop...and wanted to build some storage
systems to solve some of my clutter problems....I think I have a good
idea I would like to share...

All of us have buckets of nuts and bolts...I use coffee cans, but I
have these darn things all over my shop. They take up room and I can
never find what I want unless I dump the contents on the floor or work
bench..then it is a pain to pick them all up again.

"someday I will sort them all out...!!" I am sure we have all said
that.

So my solution...

I used an old kithen cabinet and installed two six foot tall (as that
is as high as I can reach) 2x4s on each side, spaced to accept a 2x4 in
between them. sort of like a railroad track. Then built 2x4 cleats with
a 2x4 spacer so that the cleats slide up and down in the "tracks" my
shelfs will sit on the cleats. Next drill holes every two inches
through the tracks, and drill holes into the cleats so they line up
with the holes in the tracks. You now have adjustable shelf cleats. I
use pole barn nails that I slide through the tracks and into the cleats
to hold them in place. I space the shelves to accomidate the size
containers I am storing in the unit. Now the best part....I used a
metal shelve I had laying around and set it on top of the cabinet unit.
Place shelf upside down so the sides of the shelf help to contain what
ever is dumped into it. I installed slide guides, so I can pull the
shelf top out. I drilled a large (3 inch) hole in the corner of the
shelf. Now all my nuts, bolts, and misc. hardware are all in one place,
and when I need to look for a bolt, I pull out my "shelf table" dump
contants of can into table, find item and then holding can under the
hole, scrap the remaining nuts, bolts, ect,,back into the can.

It is a great system the I hope others can use. If anyone is intersted
I would be happy to post some photos.

Brilliant.
JR
Dweller in the cellar

wrote:

I have been remodeling my shop...and wanted to build some storage
systems to solve some of my clutter problems....I think I have a good
idea I would like to share...

All of us have buckets of nuts and bolts...I use coffee cans, but I
have these darn things all over my shop. They take up room and I can
never find what I want unless I dump the contents on the floor or work
bench..then it is a pain to pick them all up again.

"someday I will sort them all out...!!" I am sure we have all said
that.

So my solution...

I used an old kithen cabinet and installed two six foot tall (as that
is as high as I can reach) 2x4s on each side, spaced to accept a 2x4 in
between them. sort of like a railroad track. Then built 2x4 cleats with
a 2x4 spacer so that the cleats slide up and down in the "tracks" my
shelfs will sit on the cleats. Next drill holes every two inches
through the tracks, and drill holes into the cleats so they line up
with the holes in the tracks. You now have adjustable shelf cleats. I
use pole barn nails that I slide through the tracks and into the cleats
to hold them in place. I space the shelves to accomidate the size
containers I am storing in the unit. Now the best part....I used a
metal shelve I had laying around and set it on top of the cabinet unit.
Place shelf upside down so the sides of the shelf help to contain what
ever is dumped into it. I installed slide guides, so I can pull the
shelf top out. I drilled a large (3 inch) hole in the corner of the
shelf. Now all my nuts, bolts, and misc. hardware are all in one place,
and when I need to look for a bolt, I pull out my "shelf table" dump
contants of can into table, find item and then holding can under the
hole, scrap the remaining nuts, bolts, ect,,back into the can.

It is a great system the I hope others can use. If anyone is intersted
I would be happy to post some photos.

On 24 Jan 2005 07:46:31 -0800, wrote:

I have been remodeling my shop...and wanted to build some storage
systems to solve some of my clutter problems....I think I have a good
idea I would like to share...
snip

It is a great system the I hope others can use. If anyone is intersted
I would be happy to post some photos.
I have a centre wall in my basement rather than post and beam. One
side of this wall has chip board (OSB) sheeting, on the other side I
ran horizontal 1"x2" about 6" apart. Each stud space holds three
tobacco tins of sorted hardware. My previous shop had block walls,
here, I used 1"x4" studs anchored to the wall.
For sorting etc., I use a slice off the side of a plastic jug which
can be tilted and flexed to pour the contents back into the container.
I use tobacco cans because I used to smoke a pipe, and our office
manager rolled her own cigarettes, but any uniform sized containers
could be used, plastic tubs with lids in the half litre size would
work well, although straight sided containers are better as I print
1 1/4 x 14 paper labels and hold them on with 2" clear packaging tape
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

On 24 Jan 2005 07:46:31 -0800, wrote:

I have been remodeling my shop...and wanted to build some storage
systems to solve some of my clutter problems....I think I have a good
idea I would like to share...

All of us have buckets of nuts and bolts...I use coffee cans, but I
have these darn things all over my shop. They take up room and I can
never find what I want unless I dump the contents on the floor or work
bench..then it is a pain to pick them all up again.

"someday I will sort them all out...!!" I am sure we have all said
that.

So my solution...

I used an old kithen cabinet and installed two six foot tall (as that
is as high as I can reach) 2x4s on each side, spaced to accept a 2x4 in
between them. sort of like a railroad track. Then built 2x4 cleats with
a 2x4 spacer so that the cleats slide up and down in the "tracks" my
shelfs will sit on the cleats. Next drill holes every two inches
through the tracks, and drill holes into the cleats so they line up
with the holes in the tracks. You now have adjustable shelf cleats. I
use pole barn nails that I slide through the tracks and into the cleats
to hold them in place. I space the shelves to accomidate the size
containers I am storing in the unit. Now the best part....I used a
metal shelve I had laying around and set it on top of the cabinet unit.
Place shelf upside down so the sides of the shelf help to contain what
ever is dumped into it. I installed slide guides, so I can pull the
shelf top out. I drilled a large (3 inch) hole in the corner of the
shelf. Now all my nuts, bolts, and misc. hardware are all in one place,
and when I need to look for a bolt, I pull out my "shelf table" dump
contants of can into table, find item and then holding can under the
hole, scrap the remaining nuts, bolts, ect,,back into the can.

It is a great system the I hope others can use. If anyone is intersted
I would be happy to post some photos.

One picture would be cool , I think its just me with getting mental
images from just type. I did get the pull out table like for a key
board on some of those computer desks. That's a pretty good idea and
a quick and dirty hole for the stuff to make it in the can.

Got big time interrupted , ya know those drawing filing cabinets would
be just the ticket and leave them all unsorted. Kinda like stacks of
shallow drawers to scan parts like looking for puzzle pieces. I had a
chance to get some of those for free , but couldn't get out of the
large paper storage concept at that moment , next time I'll jump on
them.

The start of your post reminded me as a kid. My dad use to get tons of
fasteners from the AF and I spent many a day sweating my ass off
inside an old house with hardwood floors in the summer sorting
immeasurable amounts of parts into baby food jars. It is amazing how
many different types of fasteners are used on airplanes. IIRC they
use to just burn them along with the paint and other chemicals , but
we'd pick them up before the fire drill or whatever they did.

I wish I could find more cheap fasteners so I'd have real problems
storing them. Got a kid... Pay backs are a bitch.