The Ultimate Small Part Storage Carts

not too long ago i built a raised office in my workshop i did this for a few reasons one is to keep the dogs out so they don't chew on any wires or damaged electronics another reason is to maximize storage space in the workshop if the office is on the ground then all the space above is practically wasted and becomes a graveyard for old tools to collect dust if i raise it off the ground then all the space underneath can be utilized as super organized storage i've been collecting these harbor freight storage containers for a while as they're really good for organizing small parts and various tools i have a box for just about everything electricity drill bits plumbing marbles wire chain and threads extra ikea parts extra screw and nail boxes the list goes on and on i already built a test card a while ago but i've since collected a ton more containers so today i'm going to build an entire new cart and add on to the existing one to create these ultimate storage container carts they roll perfectly underneath the office to open up some much needed floor space i know this workshop is relatively large but if i don't utilize the space in a smart way it gets eaten up quicker than dogs eating watermelon these storage bins come in two sizes tall and short they have the same length and width but the tall one is almost double the height of the short i did the hard work a while ago and figured out that i can stack ten short bins with spacers and it equals six tall bins with spacers the test cart has two columns but there's enough space underneath the office to have three columns per cart two columns will be for the short boxes and one for the tall boxes [Music] for now i'm just going to focus on the new cart i started by ripping a sheet of three quarter inch plywood into 13 inch wide strips i looked at a bunch of different kinds of storage boxes before choosing these harbor freight ones these are plenty sturdy for what i'm going to be storing and they were also the most economical option there's a few stores around me and with the 20 coupon always available on my phone i could just swing by when it was convenient and grab a box there was leftover plywood so i ripped it into one inch wide strips to be used for the shelves next i moved on to the miter saw i cut down the long strips to the right lengths then i used a jig to cut all the long one inch wide strips into 13 inch long pieces [Music] for one cart here is my cut list for the three quarter inch sheet of plywood two pieces that are 53 and a quarter by 13 four pieces that are thirty and a half by thirteen and forty six pieces that are one by thirteen i started by attaching the shelves to the vertical pieces each shelf is separated by a two and three eighth inch gap the boxes are actually two and a quarter inches tall so an eighth of an inch vertical clearance prevents wasted space the trick to getting evenly placed shelves is to use spacer blocks two blocks of equal height kept the shelves evenly spaced and square as i moved up the board each piece was glued and nailed with one and a quarter inch finish nails the nails are mainly just to keep it in place until the glue dries the first vertical piece just gets slats on one side [Music] the next piece goes in between two columns so when i finish the slots on one side i flipped it over and did the same to the other side [Music] the third piece gets the nine shelves on one side but the other side will hold the tall bins i used different spacers to create a gap of four and a half inches between each shelf [Music] the last vertical piece gets five shells for the tall bins [Music] alrighty the shelves are assembled so now it's time to put the whole thing together the first piece was pretty straightforward it connects flush at the corner for the inside pieces they have to be in the right spot or else they won't properly hold the boxes i made a mark at the top and bottom to have a sixteen and three quarter inch space from wall to wall the boxes are actually sixteen and a half inches wide so there will be an eighth inch clearance on either side these are attached with glue and two inch finish nails [Music] to attach the other long piece i marked ahead of time put some glue on all the edges then quickly lined it up and nailed it in place [Music] just like the test piece these carts will roll so i added a three inch caster to each corner [Music] this thing has the potential to hold quite a bit of weight i don't think it really needed a fifth caster in the middle but i added one anyway to prevent the plywood from bowing it was rolling around great and fit nicely underneath the office [Music] okay next is to add a backer to one side this will square up the cart and keep it shaped like a rectangle instead of a parallelogram also it would be bad to push a bin in too far and have it fall out the back i have a few sheets of quarter inch luan from when my workshop plywood was delivered they'll work great as a backer board i lined up two sides and attached it with brad nails i rolled the carts outside because i don't have a dust collection system yet i trimmed it with a circular saw then made it flush with the router [Music] i could then go through and easily spot all the other edges to nail the rest of it and just like that one cart was fully functional there's still some features to add to it but first let me build the third column for the already existing cart i followed all the previous steps to make a single column for six tall boxes [Music] [Music] in order to make this one secure i drove screws through both sides of the plywood [Music] the test cart had some janky backing on it i ripped it off so i could put a fresh sheet on the entire thing i also moved two of the casters and added the extra one in the middle [Music] so i decided to paint the face of each cart to give it a little pop of color this will also make it easier to remember which carts hold which bins because there's so many one cart was painted orange to hold more of the tools and house renovation things and one was painted green to hold more of the modeling and marble machine things there's a lot of plain wood in the workshop so it's nice to start adding some color i really like the look of the metal pipe that i added around the office door and decided that i should use it again for the card handles this is 3 8 inch black pipe the smallest i could find i sprayed them black just like the other pipe while all that was drying i moved on to something else all the casters on the carts are swivels which tend to have a mind of their own in order to keep them in check i had to add a track to the underside of the office to guide them into their parking spot there was enough clearance for three-quarter inch strips of wood so that's what i used i marked a straight line down the center of the ideal spot and attached the strips with nails into the floor joists i added two blocks to the back of each cart to create a y-shaped opening to meet up with the guide rail the wider opening will make it just a bit easier to repark it if i pull the card out all the way all the paint was dry so i attached the handles with three-quarter inch screws and small washers all right i could not wait any longer i had to see what it looked like with all these containers finally put away they've just been stacked up like this getting shuffled around the workshop for way too long [Music] it was so rewarding parking the loaded carts for the first time this has been part of my master plan for quite a while so there are guides in the back to keep them straight as they go in but the front could just merge into someone else's lane without signaling so i figured the best option was to add another set of blocks to the front i made these ys a little more [Music] exaggerated many of the boxes weren't labeled yet so i went ahead and did that and also i spent some time shuffling around the boxes to group similar subject matter together to make the most sense more frequently used items will be on the left most column so i don't have to pull the card out as far there's still some empty boxes yet to be filled hopefully that lasts me a while before i have to build a third card we'll see i'm stoked with how these turned out it's all part of the grand plan to make my workshop as organized as possible okay that's it for now see ya foreign ah you oh hi hi coach hi puppy call the dogs [Music]

Channel: Ben Tardif

Views: 280,575

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Id: IacD6J8Ed-4

Length: 14min 49sec (889 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 29 2020