# Reclaiming space with more efficient stock storage



## Clock work (Feb 28, 2018)

I'm working to create room in my shop for a shaper I just purchased.. The existing method of stock storage is in buckets, each on HF wheel dollies. Made a roll-out drawer to hold most of it under my lathe. Next step will be PVC tubes under my lathe table to hole "the good stuff"... stock where I "know the family" and want to store it a little more carefully. You can see that starting to take form in the photos.


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## Ulma Doctor (Feb 28, 2018)

sweet! nice work
almost everything i have, i try to put casters on it .


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## Clock work (Feb 28, 2018)

Ulma Doctor said:


> sweet! nice work
> almost everything i have, i try to put casters on it .



Thank you


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## jsh (Feb 28, 2018)

I always took reclaiming space and organizing, meant pile higher. 
Then I have to search for an hour because it is not where it was for the past year or more.


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## brino (Feb 28, 2018)

@Clock work, thanks for sharing this!
I am always looking for more/better storage ideas.
-brino


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## Clock work (Feb 28, 2018)

brino said:


> @Clock work, thanks for sharing this!
> I am always looking for more/better storage ideas.
> -brino



My pleasure


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## Clock work (Mar 19, 2018)

Finally loaded it up and got my floor space back... here's what it looks like 80% filled. Sorta feels like 500-600# when you put it around. 

One change which I'm pretty sure I'm going to build in... those HF dollies I built it on have wheels that articulate around to line up/trail any motion vector. Problem is, the contact patches stay pinned to the ground and the entire dolly shifts side/side when you begin to reverse direction (start to pull out/start to push in). As I maximized the width, it's a PITA when it shifts back/forth.  I already love the space this freed up but I'm going to replace the wheels with fixed wheels. Too much effort for an ancient guy to go thru just to look at his future scrap collection. Worth one last big pushup I think. 

CW


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## RandyM (Mar 19, 2018)

I have found that when I add casters to anything, I always oil them thoroughly. Not only the wheel axles, but the ball bearing swivels as well. It really makes a big difference for the heavy stuff.


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## woodchucker (Mar 19, 2018)

looks nice, but for me, that would just be too hard to pick through. I mounted tubes along the wall so I can just grab what I need. If I have to dig under stuff to find what I want, I'm not likely to do it.


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## dlane (Mar 19, 2018)

Small stock/parts storage , six gallon milk crates are getting hard to find though, not mobile but holds lots of stuff


Holds 6 crates they slide out like a drawers


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## Clock work (Mar 19, 2018)

RandyM said:


> I have found that when I add casters to anything, I always oil them thoroughly. Not only the wheel axles, but the ball bearing swivels as well. It really makes a big difference for the heavy stuff.



Thanks Randy. My point was the existence of the casters is what I'm going to rework. When you reverse the direction of rolling, the entire entity swings to the side to put the wheel into a new trailing orientation and that is making for constant work keep it off the legs of the table because I brilliantly build in minimal clearance

CW


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## RandyM (Mar 19, 2018)

You know, another option is to swap out the swivel casters with fixed ones. Then the whole unit will just roll straight in and out. Is that what you are thinking?


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## Clock work (Mar 19, 2018)

woodchucker said:


> looks nice, but for me, that would just be too hard to pick through. I mounted tubes along the wall so I can just grab what I need. If I have to dig under stuff to find what I want, I'm not likely to do it.



Absolutely a consideration... Agree. That's mitigated here by the shallow depth and by putting things in in some sort of order. Big steel in the back... smaller steel in the middle with bar steel back part of that and round in the front part... front aluminum and longer speciality metals and plastics. Small off to the left and on the lathe shelf above this drawer will be a bunch of PVC tubes to hole my "known" metals... things I can actually say what they are without spark testing, and my brass (bought a bunch to make a big clock). Would kill for even more more square foot of wall space... call me envious. I did this whole thing just to make space to add a shaper I bought. My life is a big sliding-tile game

CW


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## Clock work (Mar 19, 2018)

dlane said:


> Small stock/parts storage , six gallon milk crates are getting hard to find though, not mobile but holds lots of stuff
> View attachment 262842
> 
> Holds 6 crates they slide out like a drawers



THAT is hella cool!!

CW


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## Clock work (Mar 19, 2018)

RandyM said:


> You know, another option is to swap out the swivel casters with fixed ones. Then the whole unit will just roll straight in and out. Is that what you are thinking?



I would feel... comfortable... that I have cosmic permission... to use the word "thinking", had I done it prior to loading it up with 800# of metal. Though the concept of replacing the casters with fixed wheels is currently located somewhere inside of my skull. How it arrived there though does not really.. flatter.. me. 

If I chose to leave the casters, I could add a one-shot to lube them down the road

CW


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## chips&more (Mar 19, 2018)

Most of my small metal material is in 60” high Vidmars. The Vidmar alone is heavy. I would not want to move those things now, with all the metal I have in them!


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## tq60 (Mar 20, 2018)

Roller blades to the rescue...

They can be found for 1 buck a pair at yard sales and for that buck you get 8 ball bearing rubber tired wheels.

You either use angle iron for flange mounts or for lower profile mill out a slot in a 2 X 4 then side drill for a long bolt as an axle.

We have Gambrell roof on second level so walls lean inward.

So behind a bookshelf is wasted space.

These wheels allow a low profile skateboard like a creeper that rolls straight to roll behind the shelf.

For the op drawer unit same can be done and more added to distribute the weight and it moves straiggt.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337Z using Tapatalk


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## Clock work (Mar 20, 2018)

tq60 said:


> Roller blades to the rescue...
> 
> They can be found for 1 buck a pair at yard sales and for that buck you get 8 ball bearing rubber tired wheels.
> 
> ...



Hey, that is a great idea! Thank you!

CW


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