I built this parts organizer rack a couple of years ago. I rarely talk about it, and don’t think I’ve ever shared a photo of it either.
This is built with older-style Sortimo T-Boxx organizers, Sortimo van racking shelf rails, ball bearing T-Boxx and L-Boxx drawers, and 80/20 aluminum t-slot framing.
I have a couple more organizers like these, and also Allit metal ones that I sometimes swap out depending on what I’m working on.
Advertisement
I still have to add plywood sides and – more importantly – I need to figure out what’s going on in the center space. Eventually. The center isn’t usually empty. I also need to add covers to the t-slots, as they are prone to gathering dust.
The top drawers are on ball bearing slides and allow for quick access to the contents. I can just slide out the drawers, open the lids, and get what I need.
My original plan was for the entire cabinet to be mobile, but I scrapped that plan and liked this idea better. I still have a few blue rails and 2 more drawers for a workshop cabinet build. The drawers work well, but impact storage density. They were also much pricier.
This is by far the best parts organizational setup for my needs that I’ve ever found, and my favorite. I can grab the organizers and take them to my workbench or a different space, or swap them for others depending on what I’m working on.
It works better for me than drawers with bins. The clear lids are awesome. Some of the T-Boxxes have a removable tray for two levels of bins, which provide huge storage density for very small parts.
I’d love for an organizer rack the size of Adam Savage’s, but the price of Sortimo T-Boxxes made that difficult it justify. I purchased mine in smaller batches over the years, leveraging different discounts and offers.
Advertisement
Despite this being about the most efficient parts storage method for my needs, it’s extremely difficult to recommend to others.
I could never justify this for personal use – it’s too cost-prohibitive compared to slightly less efficient but far more affordable options.
But for business purposes, that’s different.
Sometime after starting ToolGuyd 15 years ago, I realized something important.
When buying something for personal use, I’m spending after-tax dollars. If I’m buying something for business use, I’m spending pre-tax dollars.
I ordered the 80/20 parts cut to size and with counterbores for the anchor fasteners, saving myself many hours of work. Hours of labor are not tax-deductible.
I’m not sure I would build the same storage rack today, simply because it would hurt my wallet a lot more at current pricing, but I have zero regrets with what I built here.
Should YOU build something similar?
I would say NO, unless it’s for business use or something you’ll use daily. I use Stanley and IKEA systems for personal use (such as Legos).
I think there are ways to get maybe 80 to 90% of the storage efficiency and functionality at less than 50% the cost. You can increase the storage efficiency and lower the cost further if you’re willing to throw a lot more time into it.
It gets really weird at times, using very different thought processes to make purchasing decisions.
For personal use items, I look for ways to save money, even if it means spending time and effort. For business use, I look for ways to save time and effort, even if it means spending money.
I could not justify an organizer setup like this for personal use. It was difficult to justify for business use, but I amassed the organizers over time and then justified the 80/20-framed rack for them.
So that’s why I didn’t talk about it before. I figured this was a setup that very few readers would be interested in. It’s difficult to justify price-wise, and the personal vs. business use mentality can be difficult to explain.
I spent 2 hours last week prepping supplies for upcoming veggie garden seed-starting activities, and have maybe another hour of cleaning work.
Would I spend 2 hours cutting 50 too-long screws down to size for a ToolGuyd project? Nope – I’d order the size of screws I need.
I recently ordered steel weights for a painfully-expensive camera stand, so that there’s less risk of toppling.
Each block shown here is supposed to weigh around 22 lbs (I didn’t check them). I priced out how much it would have cost in plain steel that I could cut, drill, tap, and finish myself, and the difference wasn’t significant enough for me to bother with the DIY route.
For personal use, I might have just bought or made saddle sandbags filled with play sand.
The Sortimo organizers provide a greatly improved user experience compared to the Stanley and other organizers I primarily used before (and continue to use).
But I would not recommend my setup for personal use.
How do I say “this was a major game-changer for me, and I’d build more of the same if Sortimo hadn’t ‘upgraded’ their organizers” followed by “but I’d never do this for personal use and am highly reluctant to recommend it to anyone here”?
So that’s why I never talk about my Sortimo organizers. It’s too difficult to discuss anything where I hold what would normally be mutually exclusive standpoints – i) this is what I bought/built and use, and I love it, and ii) I can’t recommend this to others without significant reservations.
It’s that time of year where I reevaluate what needs to be in my different workspaces for the next few months of work and projects, and that’ll likely mean cycling out some of these organizers. I probably won’t share much about that process either, for the same reasons.
Similar things happen in other tool categories, but in different ways. For review and explorative purposes, I tend to be highly reluctant to ask for test samples, especially these days when every “influencer” is begging tool and product brands for freebies.
But I need well-rounded exposure, especially when exploring new product categories. That means that if I’m trying out several brands and styles of flashlights, I need to venture above and below my personal comfort zone. The same is true for folding knives, hammers, screwdrivers, ratchets, and so forth.
I keep thinking that the disconnect and contradiction between personal and business purchases will resolve itself, but that hasn’t happened yet.
So, if you guys are interested, we can talk more about tools and gear I’d never justify for personal use, but justified either for business use or ToolGuyd exploration, maybe starting with the Sortimo rack shown above.
Saulac
I use Dewalt organizers and plywood racks. Very reasonable cost and totally worth the price. Not sure if I am the only one…but I remove the bins in about half of the organizers to fit bigger items.
James
I do this. Lots of those bins + lots of Packout.
Stuart
That’s definitely a good DIY route.
I plan to do the same for the Milwaukee Packout organizers I bought with double-dipped savings last year. Eventually.
The Dewalt organizers are fantastic, especially when purchased during holiday season sales. But they’re designed for bulk storage, and a lot of what I’m storing are very small.
MoogleMan3
Honestly, I’ve tried a few of these organizer systems over the years and they all end leaving something to be desired. Bins too large, too short, expensive, inefficient use of space, etc.
I’ve found that rarely do I ever need to take an entire case of hardware to a project so the concept of bins inside of cases is lost to me; it’s just wasted space.
What works best for me is the bins inside of drawers that I can remove if I need to. I’m not a big fan of any of the off the shelf bins, so I’m printing my own. They look similar to the ones Travis from shop nation printed for his ikea drawer units. I printed one at the sortimo size but it’s a tad too big for the hardware I use, so my bins are 45x45x60mm. I adjust the length and width in 45mm increments for larger fasteners.
The drawers are very similar to what jer schmidt or ron paulk made; no runners; the bottom acts as the runner. That way I can remove an entire tray of hardware and bring it to a project if necessary, but like I said, that’s very rare for me.
This has absolutely been the best solution for me and makes me happy that I invested in a 3d printer a few years back. IMHO, a worthwhile investment for any shop.
My references/Inspirations:
Drawers – Ron Paulk, Jer Schmidt
Bins – Travis/Shop Nation, Alexandre Chappel, Pete Rondaeu, Gridfinity.
CMF
I also find that there is no one organizer that fits all of my needs. I have 1 Sortimo (nice but too, too expensive), 5 Allit’s, through some Lee Valley promotions. A couple of Milwaukee, many Dewalt. Also a lot of HD’s HDX, then a quite a few other no name or house brands.
This was to meet different needs where some I need thin, others tall, some wide and so on. What this does is make a difficult rack scenario.
So I made one that is 4ft wide, so each shelf can hold 3 to 4 organizers.
What this did was a nightmare making structurally sound shelves to hold 3-4 per. I had to take it apart and redo it. The nightmare being finding a inexpensive, strong, feasible way of doing it. Of course 2″ steel tubing would easily support, but expense, space and practicality were not there.
Anyway, I managed to make something that works. All from seeing someone else’s rack solution.
Ron K
Drawer bottoms as slides is exactly what I’m planning. Did you put a dado in the drawer front? A jig to hold the sides for fastening?
Thanks!
JGonzo
Gridfinity/a grid system is the way, particularly when you have a 3D printer that you can just let run all night. I just wish there was an organizer case with a clear lid that could seal the top of a set of gridfinity parts boxes. Keep a couple cases handy for when you need to move stuff, brag the bins/boxes you need, throw ’em in, and hit the road.
Jimmie
I’d like to see more of your organizers for personal use. I like the L-Boxxes and T-Boxxes but, like you said, it’s hard to justify them for personal use. So I’m presently stuck storing parts and gear in stackable clear plastic tubs.
Robert
Stuart, the reason you’ve not brought this up before may be is it invites comments on the distortion of our overly complex tax system.
Stuart
No.
Jared
I think it could be valuable to explore projects like that, even if they aren’t likely to be directly applicable to most of us.
It’s valuable to consider your goals and resources when picking between off-the-rack and custom solutions to problems, or something in-between. It can really change your perception of a ready-made product’s value or the importance of customization and other knock-on benefits (e.g. space-savings, functional improvements, making use of existing resources, etc.). It reminds me about the discussion when to DIY vs. buy a project (https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/diy-projects-vs-products/%3C/a%3E%29.%3C/p%3E
Recently, as in the last year, I’ve personally been trying to avoid taking on new projects for things I could just buy instead. I kind of got in the habit of always DIYing during a time in my life when time was plentiful but money wasn’t. I came to realize my projects were stacking up faster than I could complete them.
That doesn’t mean I stopped making stuff though – sometimes there are good reasons to DIY even when it’s not cost-effective, especially if you can make something better suited to your needs. It sounds like something similar is going on for your projects that you couldn’t justify for personal use. You still have a reason to do it that way.
M
Personal use vs business use is such a tough thing to explain to people, specifically those who have never owned or run a business. Yes you “can” often buy something that costs less up front to get going with a lower startup cost, but the tax implications do not make that advantageous because as you said you cannot bill for time. Nevermind the fact that you can decrease your personal tax liability through your LLC by claiming operating expenses and depreciation which can carry year over year up t a certain threshold.
…but I digress….What I’m trying to say is I get what you’re saying. To me it’s pretty “obvious” what you’re talking about but to the vast majority of people this will likely confuse the every loving crap out of them.
Rcward
You were right in not writing about this subject before this.
mla
I’d be interested too. I’ve been slowly acquiring allit organizers from lee valley (plastic ones). I haven’t built a rack for them yet though.
Todd
I built a poor mans sortimo by putting harbor freight boxes on drawer slides and then 3d printing replacement boxes for the interior
MoogleMan3
Yep. I tried that too but with the stanley version the HF one is modeled after. For me though, the short boxes were too short and the tall ones too tall.
Scott K
This is very cool. Even if it isn’t accessible for most people, I still think it’s worth sharing. Which IKEA items do you like for storage? I’ve been looking into turning a trofast unit or two into a Lego table for my kids.
Stuart
A lot of Ikea cabinets and drawers have compromises, but I like the Alex and Besta for drawers. The Alex doesn’t have full extension, and Besta shallow drawers aren’t available anymore.
The Trofast is great for kids – we had one for a few years. I can see that being great as a Lego table.
If I had a do-over, I’d likely get the play table – https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/dundra-activity-table-with-storage-white-gray-30472499/ and use rolling boxes underneath for bulk storage.
Ikea’s kitchen organizers tend to be fantastic for tool storage – trays, small totes, wall rails with cups and hooks, and similar.
I LOVE Ikea’s plastic food containers. I keep intending to build a rack to hold them Trofast-style, but haven’t done so yet.
They sell them individually and without lids in-store, but seemingly only with lids online – https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/ikea-365-food-container-with-lid-square-plastic-s49269105/ . I like the square ones, the rectangular ones, and also the deep versions.
Those are fantastic for building Lego sets. We used to use the less expensive ones, but moved to the 365+ and they nest together when everything is done.
Ikea rotate styles every so often, which can be a headache, so anytime I see something potentially useful I pick one up.
The Variera had a long run and are apparently now on “last chance to buy” status. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/variera-box-white-30155019/ It looks to be replaced with something new – https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/uppdatera-box-anthracite-80504049/ .
One can get into a lot of trouble at Ikea.
CMF
Ikea is really something. For many it is cheap or too cheap, and even the butt of many jokes; to each their own.
Personally, I find many items are quite good. Plain white melamine shelves, I can barely buy the material to make one for the price they sell the unit. Granted, you have to assemble it but no cutting and measuring involved, fairly easy to do.
I do not go often, but like you said, easy to get in trouble.
Scott K
Thanks for all of the ideas. A quick Ikea trip is non-existent and can definitely add up quickly. I really like the idea of modifying an Ikea unit or two for legos and trains, but I’m also considering mounting some Lego baseplates to one side of a scrap backing board as a removable top for a table we already have.
Al
Thanks for sharing. My entire garage, cabinets, tools, parts, etc cannot be justified for personal use.
But I like doing it. It’s good to see solutions that work. It’s even better for people to point out where it doesn’t work.
As for samples…we already see the ‘influencer’ volume of free goods. I’m OK with people who actually use them and provide useful analysis. That was the original intent for free products for review.
DRT42
Thanks for sharing. It was timely. I will be starting construction of a shelf-type system for DeWalt boxes this weekend. Not like yours, of course, but I’m always looking for inspiration.
Tucker
Even if something is too pricy for personal use, it can be a good starting point for ideas on “that but cheaper/simpler”.
I’ve built a a rack for organizers from plywood, but I struggle with many different organizer brands I have bought over the years on sale which are all different sizes.
James
Spot on. This is a super relevant post to us small business owners. Home organization is significantly more affordable and rudimentary. Having said that, the home organizers are cheap Craftsman and Stanley units in plywood towers that I built for my first truck when I started the business. They got handed down when we moved into our house and had a few more things to keep on hand than when we were in our condo.
Just a note: that case looks really nice, and I personally find it just a little bit more fun and motivating to work when the items I’m in interacting with are clean (relatively) and pleasing to the eyes.
Nathan
Interesting you bring up pre and post tax. I’ve thought for a while about hanging out a shingle for car repair and carpentry or the like. But then only doing work for me and people I know very very well
Same sort of thing. Now my impact wrench and miter saw etc etc are business expenses and I can sell work at a loss. But even without that idea my time has gotten extremely valuable of late. So anything that saves me time is worth quite a bit.
James
I don’t know anyone who has gone through the process of starting a business and regretted it.
The maintenance costs of even a corporation (LLC in USA) can be very low, and there are a couple of cheap apps (one for customer/job management, one for accounting) that can basically take care of the back end for you with very little headache.
The absolute worst case is you shut it down and learn a lot and have a bit of fun.
Another Bob
Best parts organizer I’ve ever used is Stanly Vidmar or Lista cabinets with the dividers and bins. They are awesome, built like a tank for industrial use, can handle extreme weight, can be very parts dense but they cost a fortune. Also you can’t easily take the organizer to the job. I’ve gotten a few good deals on used ones but they are few and far between.
I use the DeWalt plastic bin organizers DWST14825 in a metal storage tower I built as a more economical option. Not as part dense as Lista but easily transportable to the site and $8 on sale at Christmas.
Bill
Does anyone have a recommendation for storing taps?
I have adopted Stuart’s recommendation of buying HSS taps in sets of three, (taper, plug & bottoming), that you need for creating new threads. For thread chasing, I purchased a fairly completed set, metric and SAE, of high carbon steel taps and dies from Gearwrench, for a little over $100.
With over thirty HSS taps now, each in their own little case with dividers, I am looking for something to help me consolidate to a single case with dividers for each tap. While there is a myriad of plastic containers on the market, I just haven’t found anything compact enough with narrow or adjustable dividers.
MM
I store them in the telescopic plastic tubes that end mills and quality drill bits typically are shipped in. For example:
https://www.mcmaster.com/products/end-mill-containers/square-adjustable-length-shipping-tubes/
If you want something more like a toolbox, Huot makes various cabinets designed for drill bits and taps.
DRT42
This isn’t the solution you are probably looking for, but I have exactly the same setup as you: Gearwrench taps/dies plus some higher quality 3-piece taps for blind holes. My solution is simply to place everything in an older/smaller 4-drawer Craftsman tool chest that is no longer appropriate for tool storage. Top lid area = handles, thread gauges, etc. First drawer, metric. Second drawer, SAE. Third drawer, pipe thread. Fourth drawer, left hand. The taps basically just sit in each drawer, roughly organized with large on the left, small on the right. Drawer liner material keeps them from sliding around, even when I yank the drawers open. It’s not perfect, but it works quite well and it cost me almost nothing. Can be replicated very cheaply.
Stuart
I hope the strategy works out well for you!
I use a Durham organizer drawer for most of my loose taps, and I never tilt the case vertically. Small tool box bins can work too.
I wonder if the Dewalt ToughCase would be good for holding taps in the plastic cases they usually ship in. https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-Tool-Tough-Medium-DWAN2190/dp/B07Z6XBYJT/?tag=toolguyd-20
CMF
Not sure why you figure this was not a justified article.
From the cheapest to the most expensive tools or solutions, it can always be good information. It can indulge “fantasies”, like when reading car magazines about Ferrari’s and other exotic cars. Few, if any of us can afford or will ever have these exotics, but still like reading about them.
Most of all, ideas can sprout from anyone else’s projects. One can use less expensive than Sortimo and use an adaptation of your metal frame. I saw an article elsewhere on something like yours, and from there made one for myself that met my needs based off of what I saw.
If anything, maybe you should have not delved into the personal versus business expense, write offs, and so on, which seemed to confuse or perplex some readers.
The same article, just simply you made because it you wanted to, despite the price, probably would have been perfect. The business & tax implications omitted would have not made a difference.
kent_skinner
Speaking of 80/20…. where’s the best place to buy it these days? Best = low price via mail order. Doesn’t have to be 80/20 brand, but I may need to mix & match with some 80/20 I already have.
Chip
This is the standard time vs money bell curve.
Different points of valuations along the way,space,endorphins, mental frustration.
A happy organized person with materials and tools on hand,will accomplish more tasks then one who lacks any of these.
Stuart
Yes, but with the added complication that paying with pre-tax vs after-tax dollars offsets valuation considerations.
Hypothetically – meaning the numbers are convenient but not accurate – spending $1.33 on something as a business expense results in the same out-of-pocket cost as making a personal purchase for $1.00.
75% of $1.33 is $1.00 and 25% is 33 cents, which might be the average tax on the $1.33 if it wasn’t spent.
Then factor in opportunity costs or other factors, and it spits out a completely different valuation curve.
Not a lot of people are in the position where they spend their own money on business expenses, and so most default to understanding a personal-use valuation curve.
I could never justify some of my business expense decisions for personal use.
I rarely discuss what I buy for exploration, testing, or review purposes, lest it come across as a “flex.”
MFC
You didn’t pull a drawer out and take a picture!
Stuart
I did. I just didn’t show it here.
The image above wasn’t taken for this post either.
This discussion did prompt me to put more work into reorganizing some more parts. I swapped 6 of the side-rail shelves for 4 drawers I already had.
I might share more when all is said and done.
MFC
Please do. I like seeing different setups and products in the wild.
Mike
Hi, I’m looking to do the same thing with t-boxxes. I am curious about the drawer hardware, did you buy it directly from sortimo in the US? What was the cost if you don’t mind me asking. Thanks.
Stuart
It’s been a few years, but I ordered via Inlad/US Upfitters https://www.inlad.com/
Sortimo USA might be a good place to start today. The model number was SS4.
Pops
@stuart
I love this. I’ve got a tower of WorkMo cabinets to hold my Sortimo cases and they work well, but I would prefer something more like you have. Where did you order the extrusion from for this build and do you happen to have measurements? Did you also get the extrusion threaded for the feet?
Great work.
Stuart
Total depth measures ~14-11/16″, and internal bay dimensions are ~18-5/16″. The exact dimensions will depend on the support brackets used and method of cutting.
I’ve ordered from 80/20 directly in the past, as well as a regional supplier that can usually provide a 10% discount on larger orders. It’s a lot easier to order direct. Prices have gone up, I do my own cutting for smaller projects.
For larger feet I use threaded foot brackets – these are 5-hole plates, 4 to secure to the extrusion plus a central threaded hole for a swiveling leveling foot.
Here are the exact dimensions I used for a slightly different build: 18.268″ for the horizontal cross members (~18-5/16″, 464mm), 10.7″ for the depth cross members. 10.7 plus 2″ + 2″ for the legs gives a total depth of 14.7″ (~14-11/16″).
For the Sortimo brackets, if I recall correctly, the 464mm is critical for the interior bay dimensions. Other than that, there’s some flexibility in depth dimensions based on where you want the screw holes to land. I set the depth such that the screw holes align with the inner t-slot of the front and rear legs. Center-to-center that’s around 11.7″, hence the 10.7″ cross member dimensions. The t-slots are 1/2″ from the edge, so 10.7″ + 0.5″ + 0.5″ = 11.7″.
I have a lot of SAE hardware, which is why I stuck with the SAE extrusions. Metric extrusions might be easier to design with.