It’s not that I only work with MDF, but you can’t buy decent ply in my area and solids just don’t exist short of mail order and exorbitant postage… and I have a MDF growth germinating out of the spare bedroom’s carpet,
Reflecting on my past storage after browsing Moke’s storage and seeing his mobile cart
got me remembering the issues I had with stacked storage containers. I still have some stacked,
and I don’t have to be Nostradamus to predict the next bit of hardware I’ll need will be 5/16” 8mm, requiring physical removal of the ones on top before I can lift off/access the required one.
I will never champion the proliferation of MDF forests; however, I have staked my claim on a part of downtown Churchill and feel compelled to earmark that proposed construction media and hit the computer (keyboard only… bellicose not condoned ).
First step was to measure and simulate/draft the storage containers using SketchUp,
The above photo should give an indication of the size of the containers which will determine the overall dimensions of each tower. I won’t herald it here as all storage containers offer different dimensions.
Drafted the “containers/frame”
around them
Then it was off to my standard laser path of SketchUp → Layout → CorelDraw → Jobcontrol (my specific laser print/cut software) → workshop
for assembly.
Being thin stock primarily 3mm MDF, glue up required a lot of support from squares and clamps,
The small tower was no less challenging due to the smaller pieces and lack of contact surfaces for clamps and squares,
but eventually the stood tall,
I also made a three tier tower for some of my larger boxes,
which could have benefited from thicker 6mm MDF as I’ve had to re-glue a few times due to the weight of the hardware.
The other two sizes have endured over 6 years of container manipulation traffic without signs of wear and tear.
Thin! Really helps without eating up space. This is about the only solution for the stacking issue unless you go for a system used by the data warehouses.
Those are great, LBD. I like how space-efficient they are. I wouldn’t have expect 3mm MDF to be strong enough, but I guess the way everything interlocks really helps there.
I need to get more organized like this. Every hardware container I have is a different size, and I also end up searching two dozen little plastic drawers every time I look for a screw.
