# PA parts containers with removable bins rack - ALMOST Sortimo



## kylemp (Sep 29, 2015)

I don't know about all of you but I am in the endless struggle of trying to sort my bits and pieces, keep my work area clean, open and usable, and try to be somewhat efficient. Up until now I have been pretty well unsuccessful, but I keep trying none the less.

I picked up some of these months ago and use them on a regular basis.. I REALLY like that you can remove the trays and they index. They're probably nowhere near the quality of the Sortimo stuff, but this whole project cost was probably 2 or 3 of their bins.






http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/parts-organizer-with-removable-bins/A-p8439226e

So, since I liked them and then all the sudden they were out I found them on the PA website, which won't let you ship to store and the shipping on 30 of these things was going to be $70, and I ain't payin' it. Called into their order centre or whatever it is, asked for ship to store, they said no but the store in the south had 60 en route, should be there in a week or so. This was all while I was away at work, timing was a little sketchy and I wanted them but I didn't follow up with the store.. The day after I got home I called and they had "more than 20", the lady was a real bitch about it too.. I conned the wife into going to PA (as a waypoint to somewhere she did want to go) and picked up 30 of the 32 they had (tried to get all of them, but the same lady who answered the phone took off with 2 for some reason), ended up being about $250. Got them home and this is what they looked like in my basement... The stack is taller than me, which makes me happy.





I had in mind for a rack, I just didn't know exactly how I was going to do it but this is what I came up with:





Not all that fancy, thats for sure.. But I need racks to make this work since lifting a bunch of these things off to get to the bottom one is going far against what I was trying to do. Went to Federal and picked up 90' of 1/2 x 1/2 x .065 and 48' of 1 x 1 x .065. Obviously this stuff isn't great, but for this kind of thing its perfect. It's light and cheap, which the cheap part is to some degree the idea of this project.

I got to Protospace and started cutting, with a bit of a plan.. which is exactly like me, a half of a plan which is almost certainly doomed to fail. I got the 1 x 1 all cut down, then cut down the 1/2 and then cut and angle on it so that the side structure piece had something to lift up on since it could be a pain to try and lift it from the handle. (side picture of the box explains it to some degree). Luckily past Kyle was smart enough to plan for that and it ends up being a good indexing point, so these things wont move until rocked a little bit.







 













I made up one set, half way through realizing that I was using the wrong damn spacing and lost a few shelves, which pisses me right off but I REALLY don't like cutting stuff back apart for some reason, so I went along with it.

I also had this great idea to cut feet on the CNC plasma that could be used to either bolt them to each other, or castors, or eventually the idea is to build a whole new workbench and this would be the spacing between the table top and cabinets.






This thing won't let me do any more than 10 images in one post, so I will continue on below..


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## kylemp (Sep 29, 2015)

Moving on, I stalled out because I hadn't eaten all day and then we had an intermission of moving a 400 lb transformer out of the back of my truck, which ended with no ones funeral (somehow) and my truck un-damaged..









It seemed like a good idea at the time, I will rebuild!

Moving on, today I went back up when I wasn't supposed to be there (if my better half is on here, this part is a lie) and decided that now was a good time to re-check my drawing and just do the jigging.. which I am VERY happy I did. A minutes per setup and it probably saved me hours. Half my issue is that the welding table is garbage and isn't a welding table at all, but I've got a 4x8 of 3/4" en route so that won't be a problem soon.. Move, align, tack and so on.. 







And it was over.. I haven't done the feet because I ran out of time that I wasn't there. I'm short now, I should have had more spots but that's ok. If I were to do it over again I would give less clearance to each bin since there is still another 3/8-1/2 that could be taken, which would be enough for one or two more per rack.






And finally, drumroll please..






On by table downstairs, just waiting for me to clean up all the crap I have laying around.

Hopefully someone else finds this useful, I'm really happy with them and think they will work for me for a long time. Still plenty to do but if this makes it so I can find stuff and not be moving all sorts of crap to get to it, I will be one happy guy.

You could also go for the Husky or Stanley ones, they're just a LOT more money.

All in, I think I've got about $400, which is about.. 3 Sortimo's?


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## Janger (Sep 29, 2015)

Anyone have my problem - the more storage I have the more crap I keep? Can't put my car in the garage anymore...

Looks good Kyle.

And what's with the transformer?


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## EricB (Sep 29, 2015)

Good job, looks really nice, and I like how each bin kind of locks into where it sits. I've seen similar systems, but this is one of the better non-Sortimo executions of it I've seen!


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## Alexander (Sep 30, 2015)

Fantastic write up. That is a super useful project too. Glad you didn't dent the truck with the little crane.


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## kylemp (Sep 30, 2015)

Janger said:


> Anyone have my problem - the more storage I have the more crap I keep? Can't put my car in the garage anymore...
> 
> Looks good Kyle.
> 
> And what's with the transformer?


I am a pack rat.. I figured that having more storage would at least let me organize and keep my junk clean-ish.

The transformer was from an auction, I had 2 but sold one and this one went to a friend. I wanted them so I could have 600v power for the day I end up with a machine that needs it.. its ineivetable. But after having 1k of weight in the back of my truck for a few months I let them go.



Alexander said:


> Fantastic write up. That is a super useful project too. Glad you didn't dent the truck with the little crane.



That was my first concern, then not killing myself or my friend.


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## Jwest7788 (Oct 5, 2015)

Looks great. I need to invest in a similar setup. I'm at the point where I have a bucket full of mixed nuts bolts and screws from tearing things down for parts. I'll never sort that bucket, should get a system like this and start over.

Thanks for posting!

JW


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## Johnwa (Jan 19, 2017)

I found these on sale today at Princess Auto $6 each


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## kylemp (Feb 18, 2017)

Johnwa said:


> I found these on sale today at Princess Auto $6 each


I didn't go with that style because I really like the ability to remove the bins and rearrange or pull things out when working.. I noticed kms is selling something similar to the ones I picked up, not quite as cheap as mine were but still reasonable.


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