[Swansea Hackspace] Storage Improvements

Sun Mar 4 11:33:04 GMT 2018

If the shelves only need access from one side some thin ply or hardboard on the back would give enough bracing to make it plenty sturdy. MDF for shelves is no good it would just bend and warp under the weight and wouldn't last, it also needs to be completely sealed and is pretty nasty stuff in general.
I can bring a circular saw down if we do need to break down some ply sheets.

Personally if I was building shelves to hold plastic boxes I'd use hardwood and rout grooves to run the edges of the boxes in (IKEA style) but that might be beyond the budget we have. Alternatively a simple carcase with just battens to run the boxes on would work the same and alleviates the issue of shelves entirely.

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On Sat, 3/3/18, Jon Pitans <jonpitans at googlemail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Swansea Hackspace] Storage Improvements
 To: "Swansea Hackspace" <hackspace at swansea.hackspace.org.uk>
 Date: Saturday, 3 March, 2018, 20:40

 If
 everything is going in plastic containers then why not just
 use something like 2x1 roofing baton with say 2-3 inch
 spacing for the boxes to sit on? It's cheap, plenty
 strong enough and would eliminate the need for cutting up
 lots of sheet material which as you rightly say creates a
 huge amount of mess. 
 On 3 March 2018 at 20:20,
 Joseph Bhart <jjsbhart at gmail.com>
 wrote:
 Happy to lend a hand as well, I'm moving into
 a place this week with enough space to construct something
 like this.

 12mm MDF seems
 like overkill to me for some shelves? That's a huge
 amount of weight, MDF doesn't hold screws very well and
 the dust is a right pain to deal with. Not to mention it
 pretty much dissolves if any water/solvent is spilled on
 it.
 My instinct would be something like 9mm
 ply. More than strong enough for the job and less than half
 the weight.

 As Jon said,
 some cheap 2x2 pine and some battens to make up the frames
 is all that would be needed (depending on the size of the
 boxes, if the shelves are 800x400, you'd get exactly 9
 of them per sheet).
 Could even make the
 shelves removable, so that oddly shaped things could be
 stored?

 I'll be at the
 hackspace on Monday with some paper and ideas.

 On 3 March 2018 at 16:27,
 Jon Pitans <jonpitans at googlemail.com>
 wrote:
 Also I'd suggest Hancock and Brown to buy the
 timber as they are the cheapest I have found locally and
 will cut the sheet material to size
 On 3 March 2018 at 16:25,
 Jon Pitans <jonpitans at googlemail.com>
 wrote:
 I'm pretty handy at woodwork and am happy to
 lend a hand. I would suggest constructing a frame from 2x2
 and use something like 12mm MDF for the shelves for the
 boxes to slide onto. This is basically what I have
 constructed my workbenches at home from and these are good
 and sturdy, they can even take my ample weight standing on
 them.
 On 3
 March 2018 at 16:09, Justin Mitchell <justin at swansea.hackspace.org.
 uk> wrote:
 At the
 last Hack-the-Space day we discussed the increasing problem
 of

 storage and finding items, too many items are stuffed in odd
 drawers

 and cupboards and not well labelled, so it becomes difficult
 to tell

 what we have and to locate what we do.

 It was also noted that at the far end of the room where the
 textiles

 work area is currently located the lighting is quite poor,
 both from

 windows and from ceiling lighting.

 The proposed solution to both problems is to swap the
 computers and

 textiles section around, and to build a custom shelving unit
 inbetween

 them to better store items.

 We want to build something from wall to wall, and floor to
 as high as

 we can reach, which will hold a grid of storage boxes.

 As in this picture: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6VY8
 LD0GxaIJYe823

 These storage boxes will be marked with coloured stripes
 that instantly

 indicate their correct location, and labels to indicate
 contents.

 Now, we need some volunteers that are handy with their
 woodwork, that

 can help construct it, and to plan what materials we will
 need so we

 can have it ready to go at the next HtS day (5th May)

 The space we plan to fit it in is 260cm wide and 242cm high,
 and the

 shelf will need to be as deep as the storage boxes we
 select.

 Anyone with suitable skills ?

 Proposals for the structure and materials to use ?

 A cheap supply of plastic storage boxes ?

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