Organize Cart - Small Rack Build Plans

Organize Cart - Small Rack Build Plans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0-QIM8U65s


A couple of years ago i saw a youtube video of Adam Savage on Tested.  He was showing how he organizes all his small parts, nuts, bolts, screws, bearings, etc.  He had a large rolling cart with removable cases by the company Sortimo.  The cases had a clear plastic top and inside there were different size trays which could be removed and reorganized differently inside the case.  Here's the organizer parts storage case that i built.

Here's Adam's version on the right.

Here's all the cases i got then and all the parts that i sorted into them.

Here's the plan i drew for that case.

And here's the cases i bought from Harbor Freight.

I was in need of organizing all my stuff because i was using old coffee cans, it was a huge mess and took forever to find anything.  So i bought 12 cases from Harbor Freight, organized everything and built an organizing cart out of wood OSB.  I spent time designing it and drew it up on AutoCAD so that the plastic cases would easily slide in and out.  This was the result:

I was happy then with the case cart and i'm still happy today with it.  I appreciate it every time i need to find something and it only takes me a couple seconds, versus the old way of dumping the coffee cans on the floor and start sorting.

Up north we currently use an old wood dresser filled with glass jars to sort everything.  So after my parents built a new garage i thought a great thing to stay organized would be a rolling cart with cases similar to mine.  This time though i only bought 8 cases from Harbor Freight rather than 12.  Also this time i bought the same type of clear plastic caster wheels from Harbor Freight, but only the front two wheels locked, the back didn't.  I found that i only really lock the front wheels when i want the older case to stay put and the back wheels don't need them.  Also i did buy some miscellaneous stuff from Harbor Freight that i thought would be good to have at the cottage.  I got some cotter pins, wingnuts, nuts, bolts, washers, etc, and put them all in the cases to go up.

Unfortunately i didn't take a bunch of pictures during the build.  I spent a lot of time running around and trying to stop my son from eating sawdust.  But the build process was the same as last time.

Organize Parts - Storage Stacking Cases 

Video of build
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctgp7JBPLXs
Blog
http://davewirth.blogspot.com/2014/07/organize-parts-storage-stacking-cases.html

I did take the original design and measurements and adjust it to the smaller size.  Just to make sure i remembered what i was doing, size of the boards to cut, and where to attach the runners.

Here's the updated AutoCAD design for the shelf.

I cut the sides, top, bottom and back out of OSB on the table saw.  Cut the 1x2 pine slides to length with the miter saw, then used the table saw to rip off 1/2" from one edge so that i had a straight edge to glue to the sides.

I used the same process of gluing, clamping, flipping over and nailing the slides into place as last time.  Some people commented on my last video that i could have cut the slides 12" long rather than 13" and that makes sense to get more out of the 8' board.  Another person said that i should have used a wood spacer, rather than measuring each time, to make sure all the boards are equally spaced.  That too makes sense, but i didn't do that either.  One thing i did do differently was to use a router to round over the edges of the wood 1x2's.  This made it a lot easier for the cases to be slid in and out.

After setting the wood sliders in place it was time to assemble the rest of the case.  Same as before, glue and nails to put everything in place, a quick sand of all the edges and corners to round them off.  Then it was time to add 2 coats of white paint.  I used white just because that's what i had on hand.  Then i added a coat of polyurethane to protect everything.  After that i screwed on the caster wheels and it was all done.

We took it up north and started sorting all the old nuts, bolts, etc. into the cases.

And it's important to label the handle on the cases so you know what's in each of them.

Then put the new organizer cart in the new garage.

Again this has been really nice to have.  All your parts organized and in place when you need them, instead of having to look through boxes and jars for the parts you need.