Drawer organizers

[PumpkinDad]

Hi everyone,

I recently renovated my home garage and have been spending a lot of time here lurking on the forum. It's still a work in progress but it's turning into a killer classic car workshop. I started with Armorpoxy floors in light gray, new paint job, 60k lumens worth of lighting and Ulti-Mate cabinets in black metallic.

In short, it's killer.

However, a good garage can't just be for show... it needs good organization to keep the tools happy and the clutter at bay.

So I spent yesterday building drawer inserts for my screw drawer. And I guess while they are pretty functional and acceptable, they aren't great.

So I've started thinking about what the ultimate solution for drawer organization would be for a garage like mine. Some considerations:

* Easily customizable and can be changed over time
* Can resize to fit the drawer
* Sometimes I want bottoms (ie: for small parts) but other times that would be a waste of space (ie: larger compartments sitting on a rubber mat)
* Color: Black metallic... powder coat?
* Should look consistent with both my shiny cabinets and glossy black US General toolbox.
* Optional: sliding top compartments for deeper drawers (?)

Are there any products out there like this? I don't want to break the bank either.

 

[PumpkinDad]

(FWIW I attempted to paste a link to a photo of the drawer inserts I built but it's not showing up)

 

[arnoldcp]

Going to be a bit of a self serving response here but I put up a couple videos on YouTube about my own organization system. I spent many years trying to figure out how I wanted to do my drawers and this finally worked for me.

Part 1

Part 2

If nothing else maybe it provides some ideas for you.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

 

[LeeG]

Schaller is a good source for drawer organizer boxes. They have a pretty good selection of sizes in both 1" and 2" high, in red or blue.

 

[APEowner]

Lately I've been keeping my 3D printer busy with custom drawer organizers. That's not an option for everyone but if you've been thinking about getting a 3D printer here's one more reason to do it.

 

[Grimpala]

I got silverware drawer organizers from the dollar store, they fit my old craftsman toolbox really well.

 

[peterp]

I started a thread a while ago about drawer organizers -- it was more about organizing tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets, etc) than things like nuts and bolts -- so I'm not sure it's relevant.

I received a lot of great solutions and it made a night and day difference in organizing tools, so the this is the thread in case it's useful -> https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428602

 

[macgee]

PumpkinDad,

I think we first need to see your cabinets to know what you're trying to work with. Sounds like you have a nice set-up that you built but hard to give you advice as Ulti-Mate comes in all sorts of sizes, shapes and styles.

Without seeing how much space you have or style of cabinets you chose but I recommend googling: Vidmar, Lista and Rousesseau tool cabinets.

They're very high quality, clean looking but most importantly they're the ultimate in tool storage. Each drawer is rated to approx 400lbs rated handling weight. They have these really killer cabinets with bottom HD open rolling trays that can handle big tall heavy items that just roll in and out with ease and above that have thin drawers for screwdrivers, fasteners or whatever else you would want. While the whole time having a more architectural clean look complimenting your Ulti-Mate's cabinets and not look like a typical mechanics garage tool chest (no offense to you pro mechanics out there).

And they come in black. And by the sounds of it, could be in your budget.

The tall ones and double wide ones can hold an insane amount of tools, parts and other items for the foot print size and most likely never run out of drawers compared to the conventional foot print tool cabinets. Or you can get lower ones and have work benches.

 

[PumpkinDad]

Thank you, MacGee - I learned about some new brands from your post!

However - I'm locked into Ultimate (ie: Glossy black metallic). I will post a photo in about a week once all of the cabinets are installed and the clutter is gone but in the meantime, one of my design goals is to match the inside of the drawers with the outside. So I'm thinking powder coated aluminum or steel drawer inserts. It would be really great if the vendor offers matching options for ratchets, wrenches and screwdrivers.

FYI - I'm a hobbyist so my specifications may not suitable for pros. I guess I'm looking for something functional with nicer aesthetics than some of the cheaper options out there.

 

[PumpkinDad]

 

[macgee]

PumpkinDad,

I misread first post, I thought you were wanting to add more cabinets that complimented your Ulti-Mate's.

Finding internal adjustable flexible layout Gucci looking dividers is a tall order. Typically check with your cabinet maker (Ulti-mate) and see what they have to offer?
It's hard, as all interior drawer dimensions are different from maker to maker so there's not really an after market supplier; you might have to make your own custom versions and have them painted to the matching color. FYI, not that you need them but Rousseau will paint their cabinets to high end custom colors. Many interior designers specify them for high end product businesses like medical tool manufacturers needing HD drawers in show rooms.

Some people use "tool drawer foam" like Kaizen that's cut out to fit their tools or for fasteners and for loose parts needing containers will use those red Schaller tub containers found on ebay and Amazon.

Example:

 

[PumpkinDad]

The high end look is exactly what I'm going for. Industrial metal + matching powder coat.

Sounds like perhaps a project is in order.

 

[Throughfaith323]

Are you locked into putting things in the drawers?

I’ve seen some nice builds where people take a bunch of briefcase style organizers and build a box with dado slots for them to be slide into.

Like this:

 

[PumpkinDad]

Yes - looking specifically for drawer organizers.

 

[e015475]

I have the US General boxes too.

The organizers I have are kind of all over the map, but the one that's worked out best comes from Formfittools.com

I had this one made for my lifelong accumulation of dogs and cats sockets, but you can buy them pre-made for popular socket sets and other tools too

View media item 44573
If you want to go really over the top, there's a company in Phoenix that you can send your tools too and they scan them to a computer file, design your box insert for you to approve, then cut the inserts out on a CNC.

Other drawer organizers I've made from the EVA foam that HF sells as floormats -there's lots of tutorials on youtube on doing this. I wouldn't recommend the "Kaizan foam" product that you tear out to get to the depth you want - looks like hell in my opinion

View media item 44572
Here's some organizers I made from HF EVA foam for a junkyard toolkit that fits in a HF 'Pelican' box. Not that this is applicable to you, just showing it's pretty easy to make your own custom inserts - these took me just a few hours.

View media item 83466

I have several drawers that have the plastic Shaller boxes that I use for drill indexes. On Shaller's website there's a layout tool for their boxes that's fun to use to design your drawers. Mine is similar to Macgee's box but I varied the length of the Schaller boxes to fit the jobber length of the bits.

The next project is organizing my taps and dies in a drawer in my US General toolbox. I have SAE, metric and Witworth so will have to carve it myself out of EVA foam. Believe it or not, the folks that make cosplay costumes out of EVA foam have a lot of good tips on Youtube about cutting it to perfection and getting really good surface finishes.

 

[texasprd]

Durham makes some decent organizers. I got this to go "vertical" with ratchets and extensions: https://www.durhammfg.com/products/...nd-racks/large-6-vertical-compartment-insert/

"Drill up" from the link to see what else they have that may be good for smaller stuff like fasteners.

 

[Craig Balzer]

Schaller is a good source for drawer organizer boxes. They have a pretty good selection of sizes in both 1" and 2" high, in red or blue.

Another nice feature of Schaller is their Drawer Builder
https://www.schallercorporation.com/drawer-builder/
You enter the dimensions of your drawer(s) and drag and drop their products.