Finally scored a card file cabinet on CL!

Modern Jess · Jun 27, 2014

Been trying to get my hands on one of these for quite a while now. They don't come up for sale very often around here, and then they generally go pretty fast. I've scoured the office surplus places, and they just laugh at me.

This one was about an hour away, and a bit more than I wanted to spend ($175). Got tired of waiting and jumped on it.

It weighs a metric ***-ton. First thing I did when I got home -- before I even tried to take it off the truck -- was to build a permanent dolly for it.

Going to have fun filling it up with hardware.

UPDATE: Found som bin cups that fit well in the drawers, as detailed in post #32.

southalabama · Jun 27, 2014

Congrats.
They seem to be getting harder and harder to find.
I'm still looking

Outlander · Jun 27, 2014

Harder to find because no office needs them and GJ people have been snatching them all up! When I think of all those cabinets I was surrounded by in the early 80's when I was filing tool drawings. Now we have teams of people managing virtual filing cabinets and electronic storage by the petabyte. No GJ guys going to estate sales to pick up petabytes of disk yet

cheechi · Jun 27, 2014

How tall is it? most of the ones I see that are that big are much wider and less tall. Congrats.

Modern Jess · Jun 27, 2014

cheechi said:
How tall is it? most of the ones I see that are that big are much wider and less tall. Congrats.

This one is 52.5" tall, 13" wide, and 28" deep (not including the drawer handles). Made by "The General Fireproofing Co" in Youngstown OH. No date on it that I can find.

I've seen a few go by that were short and wide, but never something in the right price range.

Modern Jess · Jun 27, 2014

Outlander said:
Harder to find because no office needs them and GJ people have been snatching them all up! When I think of all those cabinets I was surrounded by in the early 80's when I was filing tool drawings.

A buddy of mine has a couple of these (though I think they might be 4x6 size, not 3x5) and he says he got them cheap. You know, twenty years ago.

tomd · Jun 27, 2014

I've got 3, solid maple. They came from the state historical society.
They are sooo heavy.

Toolfool · Jun 27, 2014

I just saved empty milk cartons (half gallons and quarts) and cut them down to the right height. They work fine.

rmsg0040 · Jun 27, 2014

Got a 2 drawer made in Canada today myself, they are hard to find now, last year I had a chance to buy a bunch but only got (2) 3 drawer style

They are good stuff

Duct Tape Man · Jun 27, 2014

Very nice save - I can't find them for cheap around here, all the owners think they are gold plated. But they are priceless, for storing small screws/nails/parts.

ADSR · Jun 27, 2014

Thats a nice cabinet! Looks mint condition!

Great find!

Modern Jess · Jun 27, 2014

Toolfool said:
I just saved empty milk cartons (half gallons and quarts) and cut them down to the right height. They work fine.

Good tip! I'll try that.

Modern Jess · Jun 27, 2014

Duct Tape Man said:
But they are priceless, for storing small screws/nails/parts.

Priceless for sure. But only to a small slice of people, I guess.

LORDDiESEL said:
Thats a nice cabinet! Looks mint condition!

Not totally mint. The side is dented in a bit toward the bottom, but it doesn't affect the drawers. All the drawer slides work perfectly.

bczygan · Jun 27, 2014

Mine was $20:

ADSR · Jun 27, 2014

bczygan said:
Mine was $20:

you ****

Modern Jess · Jun 27, 2014

LORDDiESEL said:
you ****

I second that.

67carl · Jun 27, 2014

Did you get that over here in Sac? Where I got my wood library card catalog they had several of those as well as some black ones, plus some architectural plan cabinets.

jakemac · Jun 27, 2014

Modern Jess said:
...................... It weighs a metric ***-ton. .....................

If I'm not mistaken, an ***-ton is SAE only. I believe that a bum-ton would be metric. Let's not go confusing our weight and measure standards.

:lol_hitti

toomanytoyzz · Jun 27, 2014

jakemac said:
If I'm not mistaken, an ***-ton is SAE only. I believe that a bum-ton would be metric. Let's not go confusing our weight and measure standards.

Nice

!!

Leave it to a man from New England to bring that to our attention :pimpflash

.

Modern Jess · Jun 27, 2014

67carl said:
Did you get that over here in Sac? Where I got my wood library card catalog they had several of those as well as some black ones, plus some architectural plan cabinets.

Pleasant Hill. A guy doing garage clean-outs as a business, I gather.

Modern Jess · Jun 27, 2014

jakemac said:
If I'm not mistaken, an ***-ton is SAE only. I believe that a bum-ton would be metric. Let's not go confusing our weight and measure standards.

I stand corrected, sir!

PFSard · Jun 28, 2014

Modern Jess said:
Been trying to get my hands on one of these for quite a while now. They don't come up for sale very often around here, and then they generally go pretty fast. I've scoured the office surplus places, and they just laugh at me.

This one was about an hour away, and a bit more than I wanted to spend ($175). Got tired of waiting and jumped on it.

It weighs a metric ***-ton. First thing I did when I got home -- before I even tried to take it off the truck -- was to build a permanent dolly for it.

Going to have fun filling it up with hardware.

Can anyone suggest plastic bins (recycled or otherwise) that fit well in a 5" wide space?

NICE. I have a cabinet with 7-1/2" wide drawers. Computer punch cards maybe. I just cut the tops of quart oil containers (2-1/2" wide). MOBIL were the best for me (the most square); from the Car Wash place up the street.

Have fun filling that baby up. I wish I had a few of them. They are rare around here also. I bought a woman's garage contents (divorce settlement) just after I bought my current house 3+ years ago. Cabinet included in the deal.

Olafur · Jun 28, 2014

Wish I could pick up something similar for the price you paid. Looks solid and no doubt great storage. :thumbup:

Olafur · Jun 28, 2014

jakemac said:
If I'm not mistaken, an ***-ton is SAE only. I believe that a bum-ton would be metric. Let's not go confusing our weight and measure standards.

I agree

I did a search for "bum" and discovered it's "sweet spot" seems to be just a tad south east of metric heartland.

Modern Jess · Jun 28, 2014

Olafur said:
I did a search for "bum" and discovered it's "sweet spot" seems to be just a tad south east of metric heartland.

Excellent search results, Olafur!

bob15 · Jun 28, 2014

I bought my bins from Schaller Plastic:

http://www.schallercorporation.com/plastic-boxes/

The pictures show my 1/4 bolts, with 1/4-20 on the left side and the 1/4-28 on the right, along with nuts and washers. The other picture has lock nuts and jam nuts. All the red bins came from Schaller. The yellow were dumpster diving specials.

Packard V8 · Jun 28, 2014

Nice find. Those old card files were built to withstand a direct nuclear hit.

Twenty years back, I bought a similar cabinet for about $50 and it was half-full of hardware.

The rest of the story is a friend bought some stuff at the same sale and offered to haul my cabinet home for me, not realizing how heavy it was. He was too lazy to spend a lot of time strapping it upright, so he laid it flat. That dumped everything out of the drawers and toward the back. I was sorting screws and bolts for a week. There's no such thing as free hauling.

jack vines

Alan Douglas · Jun 28, 2014

Do remember to either secure it to the wall, or never ever open too many drawers full of heavy hardware at the same time. Cards were lighter.

rsieracki · Jun 28, 2014

I missed a shaw walker the other day on craigslist bout an hour n half away in union il.... for...$35... i was going to go today for it.... not sure where i would have put it tho my woodshop and garage are packed as it is

Modern Jess · Jun 28, 2014

Alan Douglas said:
Do remember to either secure it to the wall, or never ever open too many drawers full of heavy hardware at the same time. Cards were lighter.

Good point!

Modern Jess · Jun 28, 2014

bob15 said:
I bought my bins from Schaller Plastic:

http://www.schallercorporation.com/plastic-boxes/

The pictures show my 1/4 bolts, with 1/4-20 on the left side and the 1/4-28 on the right, along with nuts and washers. The other picture has lock nuts and jam nuts. All the red bins came from Schaller. The yellow were dumpster diving specials.

Nice!

Modern Jess · Jun 28, 2014

UPDATE: Found some cups that fit well.

I had a stack of these bin cups left over from a Craftsman cantilever toolbox (which I emptied to use as an actual toolbox) and they were taking up space in a drawer. I stuck them into the card file cabinet, and voila! They fit perfectly.

Then I had some Akro-Mils small bin cups, and was able to arrange them into a drawer, sort of -- some going one way, some going another. It's a good fit when they're arranged correctly.

I checked the specs on the larger size of Akro-Mils bin cups yesterday, and it seemed like a good fit. I ordered a box, and it arrived today (record time! I was shocked). Lo and behold, these fit even better.

The two bin cup sizes should cover most of my bases.

Strouty · Jun 28, 2014

I like those bins, I used a bunch of the plastic inserts from the stanley boxes. I bought a pallet with 50 of them loaded at an auction a few years ago and I kept all the yellow boxes and sold the totes to some guy on clist.

Brunel · Jun 28, 2014

Modern Jess said:
Made by "The General Fireproofing Co" in Youngstown OH. No date on it that I can find.

I wonder if it's a fire resistant one - which would explain why it's so heavy.

Modern Jess · Jun 28, 2014

Strouty said:
I like those bins, I used a bunch of the plastic inserts from the stanley boxes. I bought a pallet with 50 of them loaded at an auction a few years ago and I kept all the yellow boxes and sold the totes to some guy on clist.

Excellent re-purposing!

Modern Jess · Jun 28, 2014

Brunel said:
I wonder if it's a fire resistant one - which would explain why it's so heavy.

No obvious signs of a fireproof lining inside, save for the fact that it's made out of a metric bum-ton of metal.

Bogey won · Jun 29, 2014

I bought 3 of them $25 bucks delivered

7 4drawer filing cabinets,$20 bucks delivered

3 proto black chests 4ft or bigger wide 5 or 6 drawers,3 of them $125ea delivered

1 metal 2dr cabinet with key $75 delivered 6ft tall,3ft or so wide,20inches or so deep,gray in color.

4 kitchen cabinets,(wall hangers) 3 or 4ft wide,20inch deep with doors,$60 bucks delivered.

drivesitfar · Jun 29, 2014

Jess: nice score on the cabinet because those are great to own. I have a couple and like the plastic bins you had and bought more of. did you buy from Zoro http://www.zoro.com/g/Plastic Shelf Bin Dividers and Cups/00052457/

or where did you order yours from because it sounds like they arrived quickly?

have fun finding the next one while you are filling this one up.

isn't it great to have a hardware store at home and one you know where to find the stuff you own?

Local · Jun 29, 2014

My dad scored 4 free ones, a guy a few houses away was throwing them away. Edit actually his are file cabinets. You might be able to buy some at a government auction for cheap.

Modern Jess · Jun 29, 2014

drivesitfar said:
I have a couple and like the plastic bins you had and bought more of. did you buy from Zoro, or where did you order yours from because it sounds like they arrived quickly?

I got them from Amazon, where I do most of my online shopping. I get my money's worth from Amazon Prime. (I'll buy local when possible, but some things aren't readily available locally).

Akro-Mils Large Bin Cups

Akro-Mils Small Bin Cups

drivesitfar said:
have fun finding the next one while you are filling this one up.

Exactly.

drivesitfar said:
isn't it great to have a hardware store at home and one you know where to find the stuff you own?

Most definitely. I love being able to go straight to a drawer or a case and pull out the exact hardware that I need, and skip the trip to the store.

Finally scored a card file cabinet on CL!

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