Small Parts Rack Build For 28 HF Containers

jonlb · Jan 2, 2019

I’ve seen several of these builds on GJ so I thought I would toss mine into the mix. I finished this cart up last week to hold 28 Harbor Freight containers. I used 22 of the 20 bin models and 6 of the 8 bins.

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The Cobbler · Jan 2, 2019

Nice work!

PugetDude · Jan 2, 2019

NICE!

SuperCat · Jan 2, 2019

Wow! That's going to last FOREVER! Definitely professional quality, I'll bet you could sell a few of those on the side. I'm jealous. Well done. :thumbup:

Whiskeymike · Jan 2, 2019

I’ve been wanting to build one of these forever. Nice work, good ideas. Do you think this style could be wall mounted? I don’t have any floor space, so I gotta put it up.

NUTTSGT · Jan 2, 2019

That's very nice looking and well done. :thumbup:

nadogail · Jan 3, 2019

Very well done.

Krang · Jan 3, 2019

That looks awesome, damn, now I’m having ideas....

Now that I’m designing one in my head, was there a reason aside from maintaining clean lines that you decided to drill and weld the hole of each shelf? Why not just weld the back side of each “rail” so you couldn’t see it from the front?

It’s surely stronger, but a case full of bolts isn’t THAT heavy.

Damn nice looking piece of kit though.

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jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

Whiskeymike said:
I’ve been wanting to build one of these forever. Nice work, good ideas. Do you think this style could be wall mounted? I don’t have any floor space, so I gotta put it up.

I don’t think I would be comfortable wall mounting one this large but a smaller configuration would certainly work well. I purchased right at 200 lbs of steel for the project and used somewhere between 3/4 to 7/8’s of it. That’s with 1” thin wall square tube and 1/8” angle. So that’s 150 to 175 lbs just for the frame. I’m not sure how heavy the hardware is but just the 5 or 6 containers I have of nails and screws are probably 75 lbs or more. It adds up quick but with enough lag screws I’m sure a wall will hold more than I imagine.

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jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

Krang said:
That looks awesome, damn, now I’m having ideas....

Now that I’m designing one in my head, was there a reason aside from maintaining clean lines that you decided to drill and weld the hole of each shelf? Why not just weld the back side of each “rail” so you couldn’t see it from the front?

It’s surely stronger, but a case full of bolts isn’t THAT heavy.

Damn nice looking piece of kit though.

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I honestly just thought it would look cleaner in the beginning and maybe I’m a glutton for punishment too. I ended up putting a heavy tack on the backs anyway because I didn’t feel like the plug weld would be enough. If I had it to do over again I would weld the back or the top and bottom of the angle and not drill 112 holes. “Facepalm”

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Keith_MN · Jan 3, 2019

I really like the density of storage you made. Looks great.

One question, why did you make the base frame stick out the front be a few inches? Just for added stability?

Krang · Jan 3, 2019

jonlb said:
I honestly just thought it would look cleaner in the beginning and maybe I’m a glutton for punishment too. I ended up putting a heavy tack on the backs anyway because I didn’t feel like the plug weld would be enough. If I had it to do over again I would weld the back or the top and bottom of the angle and not drill 112 holes. “Facepalm”

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Okay, sometimes there’s one of those obvious reasons but thankfully I can avoid the 112 holes lol.

Com_VC · Jan 3, 2019

Yeah well done, came up awesome, a credit to you.

phule · Jan 3, 2019

Wow! Looks excellent! Now can you make me one..lol!

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bugnut · Jan 3, 2019

Very nice work.

NUTTSGT · Jan 3, 2019

Did you buy all those containers at one time or a few here and there. I suppose if you have a HF locally, you could buy one at a time, each with a 20% off coupon.

Edit:
If you bought them individually, you could get a serious stack of "free" parts trays, cleaning cloths, tarps or something.

jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

Keith_MN said:
I really like the density of storage you made. Looks great.

One question, why did you make the base frame stick out the front be a few inches? Just for added stability?

That’s correct. My worst fear would be this whole thing toppling over and tens of thousands of parts start flying around. These particular containers are about 13” deep. I think I used 5” casters so they could each potentially swing inward 2.5” so it would only be 8” wide without the extension during a worst case scenario and about 54” tall.

jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

NUTTSGT said:
Did you buy all those containers at one time or a few here and there. I suppose if you have a HF locally, you could buy one at a time, each with a 20% off coupon.

Edit:
If you bought them individually, you could get a serious stack of "free" parts trays, cleaning cloths, tarps or something.

I purchased 9 of the 20 bins at a time for $5.99 with a coupon and I got 20-25% off on half of the larger 8 bins and paid full price for the other half. Three trips to the store total.

NUTTSGT · Jan 3, 2019

jonlb said:
I purchased 9 of the 20 bins at a time for $5.99 with a coupon and I got 20-25% off on half of the larger 8 bins and paid full price for the other half. Three trips to the store total.

Ahhh, I forgot about buying several off of one coupon. I just checked and see there is still a coupon to get them for $5.99, limit 4.

Often times, when I need something like that, I take the wife, give her the coupons and send her through the other check out.

jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

NUTTSGT said:
Ahhh, I forgot about buying several off of one coupon. I just checked and see there is still a coupon to get them for $5.99, limit 4.

Often times, when I need something like that, I take the wife, give her the coupons and send her through the other check out.

Here is the coupon I used for the containers in case anyone would like to buy some. It reduces the price from $8.99 to $5.99. Limit of 9 per trip. They will also ship the order for a flat $6.99 if you don’t have a store near you.

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jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

Here are a few pictures of the bins to give an idea of the storage density and bin sizes

Large Nails

2” - 4” Drywall Screws

3/4” - 1-3/4” Drywall Screws

Wood & Metal Screws

Concrete & Lag Screws

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jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

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jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

j

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TommyK · Jan 3, 2019

Awesome build. I will be copying for sure. Perhaps I missed it but do you have any plans for labeling?

jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

TommyK said:
Awesome build. I will be copying for sure. Perhaps I missed it but do you have any plans for labeling?

I have a p-touch labeler that I purchased yellow labels for. I put them on the handles but the handles are curved both horizontally and vertically so time will tell if they will stay on but for now it works great.

Kburk09 · Jan 3, 2019

Great Job. Subscribing to steal the idea down the line!

Jhoff310 · Jan 3, 2019

Damn, looks great. It almost looks like you knew what you were doing. :thumbup:

n2jeepn · Jan 3, 2019

Excellent build! I work much better with metal than wood, so I had planned to build mine similar to yours (minus drilling all the holes and doing the plug welds!).
I've been collecting the parts bins, but seeing how you arranged some of yours really helped my think outside the parts-BOX

Having things like the glue guns and glue sticks together in one is ingenious.
I usually know where my glue gun is, but the glue sticks, they can be anywhere!
Thanks for posting, and again, excellent job.

cderalow · Jan 3, 2019

this post, makes my OCD happy.

StormcrowAz · Jan 3, 2019

jonlb said:
I’ve seen several of these builds on GJ so I thought I would toss mine in to the mix. I finished this cart up last week to hold 28 Harbor Freight containers. I used 22 of the 20 bin models and 6 of the 8 bins. I still need to pick up two more but after using it for about a week I am really happy I took the time to build it.

Nice work! I am right in the middle of doing a similar build. Three rows across, 12 bins high on mine. Also going to use full-extension drawer slides riveted to the framework.

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hemiallen · Jan 3, 2019

Nice setup
I just looked online and I'm thinking there is only one model, and you juts intermixed the small and larger yellow bins to get the ones with mostly small bins and a few with just large bins?

Do they sell the bins separately? It looks like they have 2 versions, this one at 2-1/4" and a deeper 4-1/2" tall one also
Thanks

nitroracer20 · Jan 3, 2019

Super slick! Nice work! Great organization.

941designs · Jan 3, 2019

Great build! Did you take any pictures of how the castors mounted? And where did you buy the castors?

jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

941designs said:
Great build! Did you take any pictures of how the castors mounted? And where did you buy the castors?

I get all my casters on eBay. It seems like the best bang for the buck. These claim to have a 500lb rating each. They were only $25 shipped for a set of 4. I have several sets and they have held up well. I added the corner brace at the bottom to help support the 4th corner on the casters and secured them with the largest self taping metal screws I had. Not sure what size but it was a lot bigger than a #10.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/263305230814

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jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

hemiallen said:
Nice setup
I just looked online and I'm thinking there is only one model, and you juts intermixed the small and larger yellow bins to get the ones with mostly small bins and a few with just large bins?

Do they sell the bins separately? It looks like they have 2 versions, this one at 2-1/4" and a deeper 4-1/2" tall one also
Thanks

They don’t sell the bins separately but I ended up with a bunch left over because I like to take some bins out to put the tools in the container that goes with the parts.

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jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

StormcrowAz said:
Nice work! I am right in the middle of doing a similar build. Three rows across, 12 bins high on mine. Also going to use full-extension drawer slides riveted to the framework.

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That’s awesome. After using the cart for a while I can see that the slides would be really convenient but I’m very happy with the static rails too.

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Stuey · Jan 3, 2019

Looks great!

Is that paint or powdercoat?

ford33 · Jan 3, 2019

Good to see one made of metal and finished nicely.

I built a similar rack but wall mounted from wood which holds 12 plastic cases and find that I have out-grown it after 4 years. I could see making another wall rack like yours from metal.

FYI, P-touch label come in different marking tapes. Some have a strong adhesive and are UV tolerant. Cost more but they survive a long time.

jonlb · Jan 3, 2019

Stuey said:
Looks great!

Is that paint or powdercoat?

Three coats of Safety Red rust stop enamel spray paint from ace hardware.

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NUTTSGT · Jan 3, 2019

Now that you have posted pictures of the drawer contents, I'm really impressed.

:beer:

Small Parts Rack Build For 28 HF Containers

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