Thinking about the opportunities presented by moving and building a new shop/garage.

I'm a packrat and at the moment I have a couple of dozen assorted styles and sizes of storage for small parts and hardware up to 5/8" bolts. I'd like to have a homogenous system in the new shop and have everything along one wall instead of here, there and everywhere.

I've seen some of the high end systems in Garage Journal and as much as I admire them, it's just not feasible with my budget. I'd like to get everything done (storage-wise) for $2000-ish. Plastic cabinets/drawers/bins are okay for anything up to say 1/4-20, but also need some heavy duty steel storage for larger hardware, bearings and such.

Something on this order for the heavy duty stuff.

Any suggestions or pictures of what you've come up with greatly appreciated.

It’s been my experience that all of those small metal drawer type storage solutions start binding up in a short time. Even if you keep them lubed up somehow, seems something always damages one and then it dominos from there. If you come up with a solution to this problem I would really love to see/hear all about it.

I was looking a while back and nothing seemed to fit exactly what I wanted...so I built my own.

Don't know if you have the time or just want a canned solution...but building your own ensures 100% satisfaction...LOL.

I settled on Home Depot storage bins (after a wide search) and build this for my small parts.

Top bins have all my electrical connectors and such, bottom bins are nuts/bolts/etc up to 3/8.

Basic wood construction with aluminum angle for slide-ins...casters for mobility.

Edit: I bought a snazzy labeler to identify the contents.

@Patriot -

I knew I'd seen similar approaches, and that would work perfectly for a lot of my smaller stuff.

Do you have some details on how the cabinet was built? Full shelves or just sliders for the boxes to sit on?

Edit - DOH! Reading is FUN-damental. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
@Patriot -

I knew I'd seen similar approaches, and that would work perfectly for a lot of my smaller stuff.

Do you have some details on how the cabinet was built? Full shelves or just sliders for the boxes to sit on?

Edit - DOH! Reading is FUN-damental. Thanks.

I used angle for the sliders...not full shelves. In this case aluminum. You could go steel if you have heavier items but, so far, the AL had been more than enough and cuts weight. I sand blasted the angle. I was going to powder coat them but my oven was down at the time. The sandblasted finish gives them a nice balance between slip-and-glide...as it turns out.

I created each side as a box made out of basic pine. I added the angles before I assembled each side. Once complete, they are bolted together. Then bolted to the base. Base is simple plywood with caster bolted to bottom.

Top cabinet, same thing as bottom but on the smaller scale. Once the two top cabs were bolted together, I bolted them to the top.

Its a tank...but needed to be for the weight it needs to support.

I have it loaded up and it still wheels around the shop pretty easy.

Thanks. That seems both efficient and affordable for all my small stuff.

Hmmm. I pile everything on my bench. Not great for work area, but I know where everything is!

On a more serious note, any classic family hardware stores going out of business near you? You might be able to come into some nice steel bins and racking from the liquidation sale, or local online sale.

For larger stuff you could build a similar cabinet, but use appropriately sized shelf bins.

https://www.grainger.com/searc...bin&categoryIndex=20

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
Hmmm. I pile everything on my bench. Not great for work area, but I know where everything is!

On a more serious note, any classic family hardware stores going out of business near you? You might be able to come into some nice steel bins and racking from the liquidation sale, or local online sale.

Organized by disorder, I too am a student.

Ya might wanta wait until you see if the house sells, don't want to have to move it around twice!

I've looked recently on Facebook marketplace and Craigslist of shelving/storage. I see a lot of tool boxes, shelves, storage bins etc from shops for sale at decent prices.

In my experience of hoarding hardware, it's hard to get fastener small bins cheaply. I personally ended up buying the Klein steel boxes and racks, but they're spendy:

16-compartment box $30

6-drawer rack, $200

I ordered small zip-lock bags to further subdivide compartments for different length screws, etc. This was enough for machine screws, wood screws, sheet metal screws, and shorter bolts SAE and metric.
Kinda spendy but a definitive solution.

I also like the HD boxes with separate bins, I use those for hardware, drywall and construction screws and the like.

For bigger stuff I have Helmer steel drawers from IKEA. They replace an old set of parts cabinets I had bought used years ago and are now beat up and rusting; plus the IKEA drawers slide more easily.

I do like Patriot's system, it would work fine IMO. I was starting from a pretty disorganized mess so wanted ready-made (except for the IKEA cabinets) I could quickly put things in. This is how I spent several months of the lockdown.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Ya might wanta wait until you see if the house sells, don't want to have to move it around twice!

Oh yeah, fer shure. Just daydreaming/planning at this point.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
Don't know if you have the time or just want a canned solution...but building your own ensures 100% satisfaction...LOL.

I settled on Home Depot storage bins (after a wide search) and build this for my small parts.

Not as fancy as yours, but the same concept and result. Just wish I could have made it bigger as I already have it completely filled.

@ Bigdeal - that, x4, would cover most of my little stuff...

What a timely thread!

I recently moved and wanted to use the opportunity to start fresh in my garage. After much research I settled on Cabinets from these guys. U.S.A. Made Cabinets

I spoke to one of the owners on the phone, wood from Michigan and Canada, built in Illinois by Greenberg Casework Co. They ship direct to your house via UPS freight, you assemble. My crate weighed 1400lbs! If you have any questions, let me know.

I still need to do final adjustment on the door fronts, run electrical/lights, and put away about 12 boxes of tools.

Nice! I've got tool storage and paint/general liquids covered, thank goodness. Those are gorgeous, but I suspect well out of my reach budget-wise.

quote:

Originally posted by Rev. A. J. Forsyth:

I recently moved and wanted to use the opportunity to start fresh in my garage. After much research I settled on Cabinets from these guys. U.S.A. Made Cabinets

I spoke to one of the owners on the phone, wood from Michigan and Canada, built in Illinois by Greenberg Casework Co. They ship direct to your house via UPS freight, you assemble. My crate weighed 1400lbs! If you have any questions, let me know.

I still need to do final adjustment on the door fronts, run electrical/lights, and put away about 12 boxes of tools.

Impressive! Can you ballpark the dimensions & budget for that setup?

quote:

Impressive! Can you ballpark the dimensions & budget for that setup?

After pricing out all options, I didn't think it was too bad. They have a really cool design feature on their website where you can pick and choose different layouts, even see what they will look like together.

Basically, it's around 11 feet long and 3 feet deep.

The side cabinets are 32-1/4"W x 79-1/8"H x 23-3/4"D, lower cabinets are 32-1/4"W x 35"H x 22-1/2"D, and uppers are 32-1/4"W x 23-1/2"H x 15-1/2"D. I upgraded to soft close hinges on everything, and the maple work top with slatwall and backsplash. All told, $2900 delivered.

Both Vidmar and Lista are owned by Stanley Black and Decker. Saw it on Vidmar website. Had never heard of either co. Guess Stanley B&D are pretty big.