My swedish garage storage...

[SoL from Sweden]

I am a foundryworker, and i dont make that much money so i can afford "real" tool boxes, like snap-on and even cheaper alternatives.

So what should a swede do? I turn to IKEA...

We swedes are proud of IKEA, even if we hate it, and we hate building our furniture out of a flat packed cardboardbox with sub standard allen keys, but still, we are proud.

So we went to IKEA, and i bought 3 red "Helmer" drawer units ($39.99 each), and a bunch of "Glis" ($3.99 each) boxes with lid.

Before i assembled the helmer units i spraypainted the front of the drawers black, for the extra luxurios look on it.

Then i put th glis into the drawers and they fit quite good.

Time for some poor cellphone pictures, tell me what you think:






This cost me about what i make in two days of salary from my job.

So its quite cheap and affordable, and i think it looks good.

And as usual, i sound like the chef on the muppets show so i apologize for any spelling and grammar errors.

 

[yellowdartdave]

Great job on the storage compartments !!!

Looks really professional.

As for "spelling and grammar errors", if you did not tell us where you are from,
I'd think you are a well educated American.

And your English is better than a lot better than some of us .

 

[Wastedwagesracing]

That looks sweet, nice job.

 

[Nighttrain]

Those are great! Put a Snap-on sticker on them and no one would know the difference!

 

[4wd4ever]

They look really good!

 

[willymakeit]

Nothing to be ashamed of . They look great.

 

[gahrajmahal]

I love the chef from the muppets! We are fortunate to have IKEA here in Ohio now for a few years. I have re-purposed a few items from there also. Last year I put together a kitchen island, but on wheels for my wife to use as a workbench for crafts. I was really impressed at the drawer guides that are purchased separately with a wood drawer bottom. A person could build their own box and use their own drawer fronts for an awesome tool box.

Since you are a foundry man can you give us a few tips on building forms and casting some parts for our projects? That would be cool.
Now I want to go to IKEA for my Swedish meatball fix!

 

[slickgt1]

Dude they look great.

 

[Pate]

Those are nice looking cabinets for small part storage.

 

[1320stang]

hey borsch der, de yum de dee to do. hey borsch der do dee yor boerk boerk boerk!!

 

[SoL from Sweden]

thank you for all the positive response!

as for making forms for sand casting the best tip i can give you is, make your "models" as good as you can, make them sturdy, because if its a sloppy made model, the result will look very disapointing, but with a good model that has some good "angling" so it releases easy from the sand it will probably come out great.

90% of the looks in making castiron goods is made when the carpenter is making the models for it.

 

[rogsmart]

I really like the way those turned out. They are a good fit in your steel shelving units and
the fact that they didn't cost an arm and a leg is a big plus. Every body has a budget that
they have live within. It's how you creatively deal with those constraints and still get the
job done that counts.
Nix the Snap-on sticker you want "Sol's custom cabinets". Good job man.

 

[KnurledNut]

solid look and creative

 

[lowbucktruck]

Very creative! I like.
Those Helmer drawer cases are made out of steel??? And powder-coated, no less! I may have to look at Ikea more.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40107872

 

[Carl B]

Hi Sol:
You should be proud of IKEA... As a business model - it is a very bright idea and is doing quite well around the world. The "bright idea" plus a lot of effort - has allowed brilliant Swedish Designs - to be brought to everyone at very affordable prices today. Everything we have bought from IKEA has represented very high Customer Value as far as I can see..

IKEA was the only place around here - that offered what I consider to be excellent design alternatives in terms of product aesthetics in packages I could afford.

I also agree with others - your command of the English language {aka Americaneese} is excellent as well.

I think it was Winston Churchill that said "America and England are two cultures separated by a common language".

Also interesting to note that according to some sources - there are more people in China that speak English - than there are in America today.

OK - back to the actual subject - - - I think you did a great job of carrying out a great idea there.
thanks for sharing it with us.

FWIW,
Carl B.

 

[lwlobo]

I love Ikea, as well as being able to poke fun and laugh at it. I've browsed Ikea for garage storage stuff in the past, and bought some of the boxy wood drawer units, but don't remember seeing those Helmer units. Very nice solution, SoL.

I'd love to come to Sweden someday, as well as Norway.

 

[SoL from Sweden]

look what i found in the "shop fan" thread!

user krupanut has a helmer in his garage too!

 

[sscustom]

great ideas

 

[Virgil Cain]

Utmärkt!

 

[Johnsons Garage]

Quite Simply, Brilliant solution to a age old problem. Well done!

 

[Sunnfjordingen]

Looking good, been looking at the "Helmer" myself but they are always out of the red ones
.... and if anyone gives me any hazzard about any spelling and grammar errors I just threaten to start writing in norwegian

 

[Virgil Cain]

I liked you solution so much that I went to the U.S. Ikea site to see if I could buy them over here.

Are these what you used? http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40107872

What is the material those units are made of? Looks like metal in the picture.

 

[Sunnfjordingen]

I liked you solution so much that I went to the U.S. Ikea site to see if I could buy them over here.

Are these what you used? http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40107872

What is the material those units are made of? Looks like metal in the picture.

Those are the ones. And yes they are made of powdercoated metal

 

[Virgil Cain]

Those are the ones. And yes they are made of powdercoated metal

I like them. I have a Craftsman roll around tool chest, but I think these things would be excellent to hold parts on a workbench. I really like your idea, thanks for sharing it with us.

BTW, I think Ikea is pretty cool. Wish we had one closer to where I live. I don't mind putting furniture together with a cheap allen wrench. Besides, I've got good allen wrenches to use.

 

[Brad54]

I really like how you stacked them on that shelving unit, too... That's a great solution.

(and your reference to the Swedish Chef made my day!)

-Brad

 

[Kroggers]

Nice. I have one of those as well, and plan to get more once we get into the new garage.

BTW have you seen the sale that Bauhaus has on at the moment for tool cabinets? http://www.bauhaus.se/verkstadsvagn-3-delad.html These will fit your storage cabinets really well

Bauhaus here in Finland do not stock these

 

[SoL from Sweden]

Nice. I have one of those as well, and plan to get more once we get into the new garage.

BTW have you seen the sale that Bauhaus has on at the moment for tool cabinets? http://www.bauhaus.se/verkstadsvagn-3-delad.html These will fit your storage cabinets really well

Bauhaus here in Finland do not stock these

i havent seen those, but thank you for showing me, but now i feel like the storage for the garage is done, as in i ran out of floor space

 

[venom50svt]

Well there ya go again... Thinking out of the box..... looks great...
Being in the office furniture business I always find interesting old file cabinet designs.... No one wants them but there are some that are unique..

Great job from a fellow swede.......

 

[SoL from Sweden]

Yet again i have turned to IKEA

here is may latest purchases

4 "Josef" cabinets and some "Samla" boxes, the cabinets is $44.99 each






i hope you enjoy even if its poor quality of both pictures and garage


and maybe some of you might go to IKEA later on?

 

[AETD]

A question about the 'josef' cabinets.
Would they be strong enough to hang them horizontal against the wall? Like overhead cabinets.

 

[Vvmvbb]

---the Helmar is a great thing. I have one in the office and am looking for excuses to buy more. Great red finish.

While we are on the subject of high praise for Ikea and horizontal overhead cabinets, etc, I'll paste in something from my thread about my garage Ikeas:

---hung some inexpensive Ikea Cabinets that I like above the big Lista. Spray painted the doors Rustoleum Sunrise Red and added the rail handles. I think it came out pretty good:

 

[bad_idea]

And your English is better than a lot better than some of us .

Too many betters. I reiterate the previous comments on your English, would have thought you were an English teacher based on your use of punctuation. The issue I find with many online forums is no one proof reads their posts. There are countless grammar errors and misspelled words. I spend more time trying to figure out what Americans are trying to type/say.

Back on topic, those cabinets look nice. I like the plastic drawer inserts. The nearest IKEA to me is approx 3 hours away. I take the wife about every 6 months or so. I will have to look for those dividers when I go next.

 

[7th Kahuna]

Awesome. I'm going to have to look into those.

Like most any store, Ikea has some great items and some not so great items. My last kitchen came from Ikea. Easily better quality than I saw at a lot of the local cabinet stores and I rather enjoyed assembling it myself.

 

[little d]

Thank You for the posts, I personly love it when someone can find a "out of the box" idea that is cheep.
On the grammer thing, don't get to good at it or us "Americans" wont be able to read it, lol.

 

[RobSmith]

Well that just blew my plans ! I just looked at ikea in Australia and the helmer drawers are $129.00 each.

 

[Summergirl]

Wow...that looks great. Very impressive. Thank you for sharing it.

 

[SoL from Sweden]

Well that just blew my plans ! I just looked at ikea in Australia and the helmer drawers are $129.00 each.

i checked it out, and well thats a bit steep, but in perth australia they are at $79, odd aint it?

http://www.ikea.com/aa/en/catalog/products/00176099/?query=HELMER

 

[Cougar67]

I saw the "Josef" cabinets in the new catalog. Do you get the sense that they can be hung on a wall? They only show them at floor level.

 

[Vvmvbb]

Ikea says "This cabinet is intended only to be used standing on the floor. Do not hang it on a wall".

 

[SoL from Sweden]

yeah, but the structure in the corners of the cabinet is in square pipe about 1,5-2mm thick in a profile of about 20x20mm so if you drill through it then i guess its possible, and it would be as sturdy as standing on the floor.

but as said, some modifying is needed.

there is 4 holes in the rear panel of the cabinet for "anti tilting" purposes but the holes are in the sheetmetal, so thats a no-go.