[HH] tool and parts storage

[Tom Metro]

Drew Van Zandt wrote:
> 5 for $2...  They snap together.
> http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/-p-1169.html?cPath=207

I guess I'm old school and cheap. Almost all of my parts are stocked in
those small cabinets loaded with clear plastic parts drawers.

Similar to:
http://www.harborfreight.com/40-bin-organizer-with-full-length-drawer-94375.html

Typically you get 30 to 40 drawers for $10 to $15.

The down side to them is that they take up a lot of vertical space, and
due to the way you interact with them, they're optimally placed at waist
to eye level. They don't make good use of depth, like the removable
parts cases shown in Adam's setup.

On the other hand, everything you have is available at a glance, mostly,
and retrievable by a single action of pulling out a drawer, rather than
removing a case, finding a place to rest the case, opening the case, and
removing a part or bin. The drawers are also removable so you can take
them to your project, but obviously not in batch, like a case.

If you do want to go the case route, I see HF has some cheap ones:

http://www.harborfreight.com/15-bin-portable-parts-storage-case-93929.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/19-bin-portable-parts-storage-case-93928.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/8-bin-portable-parts-storage-case-93927.html

ranging in price from $4 to $14. The later two are 16" x 14", while the
first one seems to be half the width at 8" x 13".

It says they are designed to stack, but if you want quick, random
access, I guess you'll need to build your own "baker's rack" style
cabinet to hold them.

These are still not super cheap. Consider a fairly small rack that is
just a bit over 2 feet high (Adam's rack was like 5 feet?) will hold 10
of the medium size cases, which will run you $80. But that should get
you a lot of storage.

The design could be better. The interior of the case has a notch for the
carry handle. They should have made it square, and used a fold-flat
handle. If they did that, and also sold a version with no inserts, which
you could then add your own custom foam inserts to for tool storage,
it'd make a nice modular system.

(As with all things from HF, I highly recommend inspecting them in a
store before buying. A good percentage of the items you'll find aren't
even worth the low prices on closer inspection.)