Need help with industrial hardware organizing ideas

[darkostoj]

Hey all!

I am going through and organizing my building. I have 100k square feet of industrial space full of all kinds of machines, tools ,equipment, etc. It has been an accumulation of things over decades and I have started the task of cleaning and organizing it all. There is A LOT of stuff.

I have a lot of things like small electrical connectors, fasteners, industrial electrical components, pipe fittings, anchors, etc etc.

All of the options I see out there are relatively small and expensive.

I was curious if somebody may have a recommendation of of cheaply putting together a large moveable storage system for small components? I say moveable because I like the idea of easily being able to move everything with a forklift. I see lots of expensive options out there, but nothing that I think is reasonably priced that is for a large volume of items.

Something like this is ideal, but I would probably need 5-10 of these...and at 1k each that would not work.

I was looking at putting something together like this, but I'm not so happy with it either.

Something like this doesn't seem very heavy duty and comes off as mickey mouse.

I also have maybe 10 of these style storage organizers full with stuff

Was hoping there was a good system of storing this all in one way to keep it all nice, neat, and organized.

Thanks!

 

[86turbodsl]

100,000 ft2 of space??? I hope you have helpers for that. I can barely manage my 2500 ft2.

Good luck!

 

[nutjob]

The junkyard Lista specials would be worth looking at. You can add the stands for a forklift to the cabinets and nothing matches the drawer dividers that you can get.

https://www.americanworkspace.com/2-junkyard-specials?p=2

Can you sell off some stuff to generate the funds for your storage needs?

Kevin

 

[aka Larry]

Wait a minute. I just recognized your screen name. So you built the Viper-powered Rolls and didn't start a thread here? I followed your epic build on the LeMons forum (my S/N over there is VKZ24). Looking forward to seeing it person at Barber in a few months. You can check out the build I'm involved with by clicking the link in my signature below.

Sorry for the thread hijack!

 

[darkostoj]

Wait a minute. I just recognized your screen name. So you built the Viper-powered Rolls and didn't start a thread here? I followed your epic build on the LeMons forum (my S/N over there is VKZ24). Looking forward to seeing it person at Barber in a few months. You can check out the build I'm involved with by clicking the link in my signature below.

Sorry for the thread hijack!

Hah yeah, your work looks really good! I've been so busy that I'm kicking around the idea of maybe skipping barber in February and doing Autobahn in the spring.

----------------------------------------

Been looking at different options today.

Came across these pegboards on amazon. There are 2 per pack for $31. That is a total of 32 square feet of pegboard. They also have pegboard bins and more storage flexibility.

I may just weld up some 2x2 square tubing with casters and weld the pegboard on both sides. That way I get a 2 sided 8x6 rolling bin rack that can fit roughly 1,000 small plastic bins for a total of less than $1,000 and still use my small drawer cabinets.

 

[kbs2244]

Start spending time on the industrial auction sites.
In spite of the recent economy improvement the are many shops shutting down in the mid-west.
Many had your problem.
I have even seen walls of storage sold "with contents"

 

[darkostoj]

Start spending time on the industrial auction sites.
In spite of the recent economy improvement the are many shops shutting down in the mid-west.
Many had your problem.
I have even seen walls of storage sold "with contents"

I have been watching the auctions, and it is very tempting. They are generally full and all I solved was having more junk I need to find a home for.

I've been thinking about it and I think I'm going to build a rolling pegboard wall.

 

[tshetter]

Drawer storage cabinets are the best option for density and mobility.

Lista is a great option. I personally have experience implementing a small parts storage scheme in an industrial manufacturing environment using Lista cabinets and the outcome was top notch.

Those were purchased directly through Lista and the process was incredibly smooth.


Very recently I made some Lista purchases through American Workspace for a garage organization project. Again very smooth and great service.

 

[OldNeons]

I installed some heavy duty shelving with a large number of the yellow plastic bins like you have pictured above (I used various different widths). They did the job of storing many various items, but I don't care for the look of it overall if you are concerned with that? The bigger issue is that they collect dirt, moisture, etc.. I've been stock piling used Listas and some large shelving units with roll up doors for my future shop build. I also like the big bolt bins (like blue ones above) for fasteners and small parts, but you can't see what's in there easily so they are best if you can fill one bin with exactly the same item.

 

[tatra]

Don’t care for the open plastic bins . Heavy items distort them after awhile and are great for collecting dust . Drawers with removable trays are my choice . Lista of course for bigger and heavier things . As for the blue bolt bins , if you can find some kind of container that fits in them the become very handy but as mentioned , best for alike bulk use . There is something to be said about paying retail for items as needed , as in you know you have it in your personal possession as opposed to tearing the shop apart for something you know is somewhere in there . Good luck .

 

[matt_i]

Its definitely a hard issue to solve.

As others have mentioned, the Lista/Vidmar is a good place to go, albeit not cheap to jump into it. But you don't need that many if you can get dividers to maximize the space. Those cabinets will eat up literally 1 ton of stuff.

Open bins are OK but I don't prefer them because 5 years from now they will have a lot of dust in them, somewhat dependent on how often garage doors are open and how much welding and grinding goes on nearby.

I've tried the pure plastic cabinets and they sag badly if loaded up. Probably better for electrical connectors than fasteners...

I have some Equipto cabinets I found that have metal drawers kind of like the old card catalog system that use dividers, this is waiting to go. I did build a wooden base for those designed to accept a pallet jack.

One thing I've never tried is to spend time in a woodworking production setup and build cabinets and bins or drawers in large multiples. The material seems to be priced right but then its a tremendous amount of labor.

 

[930dreamer]

Let's see the building.

 

[545_days]

More importantly, lets see details of the overhead hoist. (It was in a picture from his Lemons build, and it is EPIC.)

 

[darkostoj]

So....I worked on this a little bit today.

Doing a 4x8 pegboard on a rolling frame with room to keep drawer bins on the bottom.

Should cost less than $1,000 and get me 400+ bins

 

[GrayFlattop]

I know the price may fit the budget, but the plastic bins are - in my opinion - just a temporary solution. Since they are open, dust and dirt get's in them and while it might not matter much for some things, it's a PITA to have to rummage through dirty dusty bins and then to clean the fasteners.

Check out ebay for Lista cabinets. There is a seller not too far from you in Walled lake Michigan that seems to have a lot of used Lista. Here's one listing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Lista-9-drawer-cabinet-industrial-tool-parts-storage-bin-1579-Vidmar/253983132066

That said, you really need to buy / inspect something like that in person. I'd bet you could talk to the seller and many used Listas I've found have been abused and just as many have been well maintained. It's a bit of a ****-shoot - look for rollers that aren't worn out. Frozen rollers can be restored, but it's time consuming. The argument is always time vs. money on a cabinet restore, so it pays to buy carefully if you buy used. American Workspace offers great deals on new as well as scratch and dent inventory - nice people with great customer service.

Nothing will beat Lista / Vidmar / Lyon in terms of durability and density. You can buy dividers for the drawers or if your needs aren't that complex and you have a shear, you can use aluminum sheet to make dividers. - or you can use the drawers with plastic bins inside.

Just thinking you might want to take a drive to Walled Lake to check out what that seller has. If I had an extra couple of days, I would have done it already.

 

[Punkinhead]

I design custom robotic equipment and all the shops that build my machines have bin racks similar to your third picture but on casters. A couple shops have them double sided so there are bins on both sides. This is how they store fasteners, dowels, pneumatic fittings, etc, so they can roll them up to the machine they're assembling.

 

[darkostoj]

A lot of people mentioned dust. I would rather have my stuff dusty but be able to see it all out in the open then closed off and have to open every drawer to see what's inside.

My shop is so dusty, there is no avoiding it anyway.

The bottom will have my drawer cabinets, and I have these hardware bins i'm going to mount on the sides for all the fasteners.

I have 3 harbor freight tool boxes just full of stuff that will probably all fit on this one piece.

Getting there! Not bad for 400 bins, $750 investment (pegboard, bins, casters, steel, etc), and about a days worth of work.

 

[lis2323]

Dust is unavoidable. I have a combo of open bin storage for high usage fasteners and covered containers for the smaller specialized items.






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[lis2323]

A lot of people mentioned dust. I would rather have my stuff dusty but be able to see it all out in the open then closed off and have to open every drawer to see what's inside.

My shop is so dusty, there is no avoiding it anyway.

The bottom will have my drawer cabinets, and I have these hardware bins i'm going to mount on the sides for all the fasteners.

I have 3 harbor freight tool boxes just full of stuff that will probably all fit on this one piece.

Getting there! Not bad for 400 bins, $750 investment (pegboard, bins, casters, steel, etc), and about a days worth of work.

Looking forward to seeing it loaded up!


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[darkostoj]

So here is the final product.

Roughly a day of work spread out over a few weeks and 1k in materials for 440 bins with lower storage space for my cabinets.

Hey, its exactly what I wanted!

 

[kbs2244]

If it is what you wanted
it is good

Two observations,
that looks like a rough floor.
You might think about larger dia casters.

And maybe handles on the ends to have something to grab when it is time to move it.
(Mount them low so you don't tip it if it becomes top heavy.)

 

[lis2323]

Nice job. Looks great and it’s the way YOU wanted it. [emoji481]


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[Nuccio]

Steel shelving with cardboard bins for hardware and fittings. Just shelves for larger stuff. One of the hydraulic shops I use often must have a room about 25,000sf just of shelves and bins.

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[jeffmoss26]

looks good!!

 

[darkostoj]

If it is what you wanted
it is good

Two observations,
that looks like a rough floor.
You might think about larger dia casters.

And maybe handles on the ends to have something to grab when it is time to move it.
(Mount them low so you don't tip it if it becomes top heavy.)

I use much larger wheels for other things I build, but the problem with this was I didn't want to go much higher because I wouldn't be able to see what was in the top bin. It isn't going to roll much, so I sacrificed that for overall height.

 

[matt_i]

That looks like a really interesting shop building ! I thought I saw a bridge crane in another part of it Any history on what/who previously occupied it? Not trying to pry but it looks pretty impressive

 

[bradpac]

Look on craigslist. here in Austin there is a guy listing the uline akro style bins for $.50 each and the racks for $15. A room full of them, probably cheaper if you buy a lot. I'm sure there are similar deals closer to Detroit. I went on an organizing binge about 8 years ago and found some used bins then as well.