Organizing my hardware drawers w/ lasers!

[tarbellb]

Yup. Fricking laser beams.

I priced out those Schaller red plastic parts bins, excellent product ive heard. But they ring in $100+/ drawer for me (34x22). I have 14 drawers...$.

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

So I decided to build my own with the 55w Universal Laser I have access to.

1/8" Baltic Birch ply, couple hours of "cutting", couple hours of gluing, and the final product is a total custom set of bins that hold 10+lbs of hardware if needed.

There are a few sites that you simply input your OD, and it generates a file for the laser to read. I had to nest all the pieces tho.

Oh the reason- I recently moved and dropped my screws drawer, probably 80lbs of assorted screws. I manually picked and sorted all 80lbs, it wasnt great.

Ready for assembly

Assembled!

The mess

Boom

 

[fordguy64]

Nice

 

[McLean]

That is very cool! Love the markings too. Smart!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Ummm, you know you could probably sell those things.

 

[tarbellb]

Thanks!

They are marked mostly for ease of assembly. But also to test out a new font for my website.

NUTTSGT- Sell.... Im not sure I have the patience to build dozens or hundreds of these. While fairly straightforward, it may drive me bonkers.

I will be cutting some more soon, mostly small nesting boxes for little hardware and some large boxes.


What I really like about boxes instead of dividers is when I move again (I am working out of garage instead of a shop) it is so much easier to do a switch out with bins vs bulk dividers.

 

[LSU]

I envy your OCD.

I wish I could get that organized.

Very nice.

 

[NUTTSGT]

NUTTSGT- Sell.... Im not sure I have the patience to build dozens or hundreds of these. While fairly straightforward, it may drive me bonkers.

No need to assemble them, sell them in kit form. It would make them easier to ship also.

 

[y'sguy]

yep seriously you could sell them. OR the pattern idea, patent etc. And yes you are OCD. welcome to the club

 

[bullnerd]

And the burnt wood smells good too.

Nice job.

 

[Richard Cranium]

good ideal with the boxes

 

[viikinki]

very nice boxes

 

[hawaiiysr]

awesome idea. sell um in kits as a side biz.

 

[pamike]

How much clearance did you leave between the tongues and the grooves? Tight fit?

 

[tarbellb]

How much clearance did you leave between the tongues and the grooves? Tight fit?

Crazy tight, I literally had to use my soft-face hammer to knock them together.

I believe the kerf is .008". You can call out how many fingers you want as well.

 

[pamike]

So you drew up the tongue and the grooves basically size on size and bumped them together? Or did you actually add interference into the fit? My buddy has a laser, that's why I ask...gunna make me some bins...

 

[tarbellb]

So you drew up the tongue and the grooves basically size on size and bumped them together? Or did you actually add interference into the fit? My buddy has a laser, that's why I ask...gunna make me some bins...

You might be able to get away with that, the laser kerf to tight fit tolerance is very close. BUT, I would test cut pieces regardless. You will find out real quick how tight you want them.

Here is the link to the box generator- http://boxdesigner.connectionlab.org/

Simply input your OD, material thickness, notch(finger) width, and cut width (kerf) and it will generate a 6 sided box PDF.

I went back and eliminated the lid, cleaned up the top edge, and marked each side for clarity.

Nesting them for optimal material usage was probably the biggest pain.

 

[Capt Chrysler]

Looks good!!! Kinda like old cheese boxes.

Capt. Chrysler