Hide-away metal storage drawer.

[DICKEYBIRD]

I posted this on another forum but thought maybe someone here might find it useful as well.

I made a big drawer to slide in & out from under the middle workbench in my shop rolling directly on the floor on 6 ball-bearing wheels saved from youngest daughter's cast-off inline skates. The base was made from a panel pinched from a display unit at work I've been hoarding since 1992. It's heavy 3/4" particle board with genuine imitation woodgrain formica on both sides. The usable space is 55" x 26".

The black colored front & rear panels were pieced together from the deck off of a parted out treadmill. It's MDF with a hard plastic laminate on one side. The partitions were made from scraps of 5/8" plywood I had lying around.

I stumbled onto a bargain at H/F the other day; 20 - 4"x5"x3" plastic storage bins with wall hanging strips for $4.99! I mounted 8 of them on the back panel to put smaller stuff in which leaves a couple inches under for flat stuff plus they're easily removable for access.

I figure on putting roughly 4 ft. long flats & angles in the 1st long partition and rounds in the second. Wider/shorter flat stuff goes in one side of the back and short rounds in the other. It should make my metal junk MUCH easier to find now. It's not fully loaded yet but has at least 150-200 lbs in it and rolls real easy on the urethane wheels. Time will tell if they get lumpy from the weight...so far so good!

Milton

 

[mgbrv8]

Thats funny I made almost the same thing a few years ago. Its amazing how similar minds think alike.

Dave

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

Well, if anyone makes a similar drawer, don't use inline skate wheels! I added more weight and one of the wheels shattered during the night. The harder plastic hub that the urethane wheel is bonded to shattered into a zillion pieces.

I'm in the process of making some metal wheels now which should fix the problem.

 

[kustomkb]

Its amazing how similar minds think alike.

I suppose they do! I used small diameter quality rubber casters and they have held up to the excessive weight quite well, except mine aren't as pretty as yours Milton;

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

...except mine aren't as pretty as yours Milton;

Yabbut I don't have a neat little motorbike to drag hunks of metal over to my lathe like you do! :big:

 

[kustomkb]

I don't have a neat little motorbike to drag hunks of metal over to my lathe like you do!

Ha Ha, that was quite a while ago when I built some training wheels for my friends daughter. That will be coming back soon, as my Son is just about ready to start riding, he is 19 months old.

This was him a year ago;

 

[ronkh]

Kevin,

Priceless and topped up a good day, lovely photo!!

Regards,

Ron.

 

[maverick]

That's some nice work Kevin, made me smile.

Regards,
Mike

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

Awesome picture Kevin; I love it! 2 really great creations in one picture. :bow:

Since we're playing kid picture poker, I'll see your boy and raise you my 19 mo. old granddaughter Anneliese. She loves to hang with Pap-Paw in the shop and was so fascinated with me sweeping the floor, I made a special little broom for her. She loves it!

 

[kustomkb]

Thanks Fella's he is a lot of fun.

That's awesome Milton! I'm going to have to fold. ;D That's all I got at the moment.

My Son is also very fascinated with sweeping. But as you noticed, regular brooms are too big for him to do anything productive. So, if you don't mind, I'll have to steal your Idea and get his Grandpa, the master wood worker, to make him one too.

 

[mklotz]

That is one serious-looking little girl. I don't think I would want to be in her way while she's wielding that broom. Adorable but DETERMINED.

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

Thanks, she is an amazing young lady. She's not usually so poker-faced and has the most heart-warming smile you've ever seen. Could I get her to re-do the laughs & giggledy smiles for the camera she had when I first gave it to her? Could I get her to stop moving around long enough for a blur free, no flash shot? HECK NO!

She spends 2 days & nights with SWMBO & I every week while her Mom works and she is quite special. It's amazing to watch the intelligence & inquisitiveness grow in leaps & bounds every week.

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

The rest of the story:

The softer outer covering of the skate wheels failed instead of the hard plastic inner hub like I had originally thought.

I decided to make a new set of aluminum wheels to replace the plastic ones using the 608ZZ ball bearings from the skate wheels. They were made from some 5/8" plate I had lying around. I rough cut the blanks on the bandsaw, drilled & stacked 'em on a 1/2" bolt mounted between centers in the lathe & turned them down to the same O.D. (2.75") as the plastic wheels. I bored pockets in each for a slip fit of the bearings and installed them with Loctite "green" for a permanence. I finished them yesterday and the drawer rolls very smoothly after loading it down with metal stock with no sign of wheel or bearing failure.

 

[dalem9]

never to young to start them in the shop . I had my grand son running the mill at 8. Thanks for the wonderful pictures .Dale

 

[Swede]

Wonderful pics! I raised three kids, all grown up now, and while I tried, sadly none of them have taken to working in metal. Maybe some day...

A few years ago, my metal stock was growing exponentially, so I bit the bullet and built a rack on wheels using lumber, plywood, and peg board, so as to hold all raw stock. It has big shelves for sheet and larger stock, but the most important part are the pigeon holes made with stacked 4" PVC pipe, like a honeycomb. The number of pigeon holes, all in use, is amazing. I've got separate pipes for every type of stock that is round, hex, or square. Everything from O-1, A-2, 12L14, 4140, 1144, four different aluminums, various brasses, bronzes, and stainless. I could not imagine all this stuff mixed up - I'd lose track of what alloy I'm dealing with.

If anyone is interested, I'll take a picture. It solved all my storage issues. But one thing I blew - this thing must weigh 800 pounds, and the caster wheels I used are too small. They have pretty much frozen in place - the mobile stock cart - isn't! ;D

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

Yup, it doesn't take too big a pile of metal to be VERY heavy. I found that out pretty quickly when the skate wheels started collapsing. :big:

Funny, like you I was planning on building a storage area with some PVC pipe as well but decided against it. My little area couldn't afford the wasted space between the individual pipes. I figured that rectangular PVC gutter downspout would work great but decided to go with a big drawer to use up stuff I had lying around.

 

[Sleazey]

I did something very similar for my 4'x4' square worktable. I built a drawer out of 3/4" plywood on the bottom, with 44" 2x4's for the sides. I routed out on the bottom recesses to mount 4 heavy duty ball casters (metal balls).

I routed recesses on all 4 sides of the drawer for flush mount brass pull rings.

Since my worktable sits in the middle of the shop, with nothing around it, I wanted the drawer to be accessible from any of the 4 sides. That's why I used the ball casters, and mounted the pull rings on all 4 sides. When closed, the pull rings don't stick out any, allowing me to size the drawer just a 1/4" smaller than the spaces between the legs on all 4 sides, for maximum capacity.

It's only slightly overengineered. The only weakness is, I should have put 2 pull rings on each side. It's getting kind of heavy to pull out one handed, and since it's such a close fit, it needs to be carefully guided to get it out.

I thought about, and even bought the folding handles like you see on stage equipment boxes, but they stuck out too much. Those would have been easier on my hands.

 

[ronkh]

Where is the pic then Swede?

 

[Swede]

Where is the pic then Swede?

Sorry, I'll try to get one up. It might give guys some ideas. There's no perfect answer for stock storage, but anything that organizes a bit is helpful.

One thing that drives me crazy are the common "mud dauber" wasps we have in Texas. These critters find any likely crevice or hole, decide to build a nest, and then spend days building a home inside of it out of MUD. They have decided that my metal storage rack is ideal, and half of my tube stock, and a lot of the PVC pipe holes, end up with mud dauber nests. They aren't aggressive but the moisture causes a lot of rust, and the dirt is annoying.