Question about staying organized

[Unknotted]

I started with a cardboard box, now I have a few more, plus some plastic totes and that is all working fine so far except that I'm having trouble with small things (like blades, bits, etc.)  I saw somewhere (maybe Steve's videos?) where someone was using round plastic tubes to store blades.  Do any of you have clever ideas for storing and/or organizing your stuff?  If you got containers online could you please point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Brenda

[newfie]

i believe sloan's carries the plastic tube your talking about.they don't ship to Canada so i went on ebay and got them cheaper then sloan's. go to ebay look under beads and crafts your sure to find them.

[ChuckD]

Brenda, there has been a couple of posts about the tubes.  Some folks even make their own with 1/2 inch PVC and caps.  Sloans is one of those places and so is LCM, which I found on Amazon.  This how I store them.. I like it because I has a very small footprint on my bench and they are easy to make.  sorry about the closeup picture but you get the idea, I hope.

[daliclimbs]

I get my tubes off of eBay. Most of them come standard 6" so They fit blades great. For my blade storage I took a 2x6 about 12" long and drilled holes for the tubes to fit and presto! Instant blade organizing! I added a few scrap pieces of ply on the bottom to make an enclosed shelf to hold sheets if sand paper..

[dgman]

Hey Brenda, Here is my version. I do a lot of demos and I also teach scroll saw at  the local Woodcraft store, so naturally I have to dress it up a bit. Mine is built from three layers of 1" Mahogany. The overlay on the back is a Steve Good pattern. The tubes are available at www.sloanswoodshop.com
I use a label maker to make the labels.

[mrsn]

I use a drawer set like thrones used for storing small hardware. The drawers are the perfect size for blades. Each unit has about 20 small drawers and 4 larger ones. I have one set for mostly blades and another for other small hardware and stuff.
I also use PVC tubes with caps to keep the blades I am using for the current projects. My husband is a plumber so we had the PVC on hand.
One piece of advise is to make sure your system is secure.  I knocked mine over once a long time ago and still have a selection of question blades.

[geneVG]

I went to the Dollar store here in town and they had some kids watches in plastic tubes just the right size for saw blades.  I took the watches out and gave them to some neighbor kids and used the tubes for my blades.  They only cost a dollar each.

gene

[Crabbyboater]

Brenda, I bought the tubes with caps from Sloans, then took a piece of a 4X4 I had laying around, drilled two rows of holes (12 total) with the front row being about 1/2" deeper than the rear.  I cut the label from the blade container when I get them and either insert it in the tube, or tape it to the front, vertically.  That way it's easy to see just which blades are in each tube.  The 4X4 is heavy enough that it doesn't tip easily.

[tux_linux]

Check if you know someone working in the hospital. For operations they sort the tools in plastic trays (more like bowls) that need to be thrown away afterwards. I have friends working as an OP assistant and got so far like 50 of those bowls.

I can stack them and have my little projects and stuff often in those trays. I can set up one bowl for the pieces to cut on left side of the saw,  one on right side of the saw for the cut pieces. That makes production kind of simple.

[Unknotted]

Thanks, these are all such great ideas

[woodcutter]

Lee Valley also has the plastic tubes in 2 sizes Thats where I got mine.

Jim

[tinker1]

What I've found to be handy for blades is a couple of thin magnet strips (found in craft stores, hardwares,etc.) attached to my scroll saw stand to hold the blades I use most often.
The rest of them I keep in a fishing lure type case on a shelf next to the saw, and take them out as needed.

I also use a fishing tackle box with pull out drawers to keep alot of my small tools, drill bits, etc. together in one place.

works for me

Tink

[Unknotted]

Tink, I do a lot of fishing, so I have plenty of old tackle boxes.  Thanks for the idea.

[Blackie]

We down under often have good ideas but the best is how to keep scroll saw blades from being mixed and easy to get at. Take a tool box put a ply insert where the tray sits drill holes to take a 1/2 inch pipe like a pvc condut that electrictions use to run wires in,cut them to 4 inches if they don't reach the bottom put a board in so they sit on the bottom.put your blades in after marking what they are beside the tube they will poke out the top, easy to get at,and with the lid closed canot fall out and get mixed ,great to carry away or keep by scrollsaw for everyday use. Blackie  

[Unknotted]

Thanks so much Blackie.