Introducing: The SYS 5 SORT/6, aka 'MegaSortainer'

[john5mt]

You are right I've thought off doing this but your post let me know it was possible so I did it. It really sucked but got it done with a scrap peace of hickory and some screws and clamps, and a few choice words. I have mine full of my air guns and kreg stuff and keep it on top of my compressor that's mounted on a sys-cart. Thanks a lot for the post.[attachimg=1]

WOW!!!! GENIUS!

 

[pingvinlakrits]

I run a similar setup and have two of those stacks.

Top one fits a C15, batteries and sundries, drills and bits on top in the skinny drawers.
Bottom large drawer actually fits a BHC 18 with handle, divider and charger and one battery to the side (not mounted in charger though).

My other stack fits a Supercut and and a jigsaw as room mate, with a screwdriver on the top floor and lots of accessories.

These are the best Systainers for me. No stacking things on top and pull out drawers.

 

[Dundee99]

Could this concept continue indefinitely? Attach a 9/12 drawer sortainer to the top or bottom to eliminate the dead space of lids and bases in between?

 

[antss]

a 5-drawer sortainer was available from Festool for many years though I haven't seen it in the catalog lately.

Still available as a Tanos from Lee Valley:
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=64653&cat=64664

 

[tazprime38]

I have a 4 drawer sortainer and now just got two 12 drawer sortainers.

I would like to do something similar. I would like to add two of of the 3 drawer rows to my 4 drawer sortainer making a 10 drawer sortainer.  Then be left with a mini 3 drawer sortainer and keep one 12 drawer sortainer as is.

Those of you have customised your sortainers,  is what I want to do possible, do I have the correct combination of sortainers with enough parts for my attempt?

 

[rst]

I have the five drawer Tanos that I bought from Lee Valley, where I keep my Milwaukee 12V tools; impact driver, hammerdrill, recip saw, oscillating, rotary and five batteries.  It sits right inside the back door to my van above a 12 drawer unit that hold my various bits and counter sinks.

 

[semenza]

I have a 4 drawer sortainer and now just got two 12 drawer sortainers.

I would like to do something similar. I would like to add two of of the 3 drawer rows to my 4 drawer sortainer making a 10 drawer sortainer.  Then be left with a mini 3 drawer sortainer and keep one 12 drawer sortainer as is.

Those of you have customised your sortainers,  is what I want to do possible, do I have the correct combination of sortainers with enough parts for my attempt?

[member=5519]tazprime38[/member]

    Lets talk about it in number of  tall drawer and short (as in drawer height) drawer rows since the number of drawers in short rows can vary.

    From the above it sounds like you want one tall row and three short rows?

  Yes that works. Here is a picture of one I did. You may have a different arrangement of the drawers but this has one tall row and three short rows. This ends up at a Sys- IV height.

[attachimg=1]

Seth

 

 

[tazprime38]

I have a 4 drawer sortainer and now just got two 12 drawer sortainers.

I would like to do something similar. I would like to add two of of the 3 drawer rows to my 4 drawer sortainer making a 10 drawer sortainer.  Then be left with a mini 3 drawer sortainer and keep one 12 drawer sortainer as is.

Those of you have customised your sortainers,  is what I want to do possible, do I have the correct combination of sortainers with enough parts for my attempt?

[member=5519]tazprime38[/member]

    Lets talk about it in number of  tall drawer and short (as in drawer height) drawer rows since the number of drawers in short rows can vary.

    From the above it sounds like you want one tall row and three short rows?

  Yes that works. Here is a picture of one I did. You may have a different arrangement of the drawers but this has one tall row and three short rows. This ends up at a Sys- IV height.

[attachimg=1]

Seth

Seth, that helps a lot and now I understand short and tall rows

Your one looks like what I want just different combination of drawers. Starting from bottom will be 1 tall, then 1 short ( 2 small and 1 medium drawer), then the additions of two short rows (four small drawers each).

So I will use the sides from the 12 drawer sortainer leaving the top and bottom shelves to join together with the remaining short row of 4 drawers. Does this sound correct?

I will attempt this at some point and post pics here.

 

[tazprime38]

Just tried taking apart a sortainer and failed miserably. I trued using a piece if hardwood plywood with screws as tabs. I applied a lot of clamp force but its not budging. I don't want to break  the sortainers so will have to do a lot more thinking and trying again. The top tabs are very difficult to get to as the plastic locating fins for the drawers get in the way, so recesses have to be cut in the wood jig to avoid damaging them.

 

[semenza]

Just tried taking apart a sortainer and failed miserably. I trued using a piece if hardwood plywood with screws as tabs. I applied a lot of clamp force but its not budging. I don't want to break  the sortainers so will have to do a lot more thinking and trying again. The top tabs are very difficult to get to as the plastic locating fins for the drawers get in the way, so recesses have to be cut in the wood jig to avoid damaging them.

Yup, it is a task to get them apart.  [member=1725]jonny round boy[/member] had posted one method. When I did mine I tried a different way and have been able to get a method down to take one apart in about 15 minutes. I will try to get it posted sometime today. But basically you need to start at the bottom. Get four small flat pry bars and or tack pullers. Go through the opening in the bottom for each tab slot and pry them all at the same time. I did this by clamping to a bench. Too much to explain without pics.  I think I can get it posted later.

Seth

 

[tazprime38]

Just tried taking apart a sortainer and failed miserably. I trued using a piece if hardwood plywood with screws as tabs. I applied a lot of clamp force but its not budging. I don't want to break  the sortainers so will have to do a lot more thinking and trying again. The top tabs are very difficult to get to as the plastic locating fins for the drawers get in the way, so recesses have to be cut in the wood jig to avoid damaging them.

Yup, it is a task to get them apart.  [member=1725]jonny round boy[/member] had posted one method. When I did mine I tried a different way and have been able to get a method down to take one apart in about 15 minutes. I will try to get it posted sometime today. But basically you need to start at the bottom. Get four small flat pry bars and or tack pullers. Go through the opening in the bottom for each tab slot and pry them all at the same time. I did this by clamping to a bench. Too much to explain without pics.  I think I can get it posted later.

Seth

Thank you Seth that will be very helpful.  I have managed to get the top off but broke couple of tabs on one side. They are clean breaks so should be able to glue them back. Is acetone the best glue or a hard plastic glue?

 

[semenza]

Thank you Seth that will be very helpful.  I have managed to get the top off but broke couple of tabs on one side. They are clean breaks so should be able to glue them back. Is acetone the best glue or a hard plastic glue?

Super glue ( cyanoacrylate ) or PVC cement works very well.

Seth

 

[semenza]

OK, here is the method I use to get them apart.

  Disassemble Classic Sortainer

Seth

 

[tazprime38]

Thank you Seth. That is very well explained.

 

[tazprime38]

I got mine done and it was heck of a job. Very stressful but worth it.

So I ended up with my 4 drawer sortainer ( 1 large drawer and 1 medium with 2 small drawers on top) becoming a 12 drawer sortainer with two extra rows of 4 small drawers at the top. The 12 small drawer sortainer shrinking to a single row four small drawer sortainer.

I have tried posting the pics but post ends up in a loop and fails. I will keep trying.

Many thanks to JRB and Seth  fir the idea and help.

 

[tazprime38]

Here's one pic.

 

[tazprime38]

I made one big mistake due to eagerness to get it done. I took off the top from the originsl 12 mini drawer sortainer when I did not need to. If I hadn't done this I would not have broken two tabs.

I managed to use a plastic glue to weld them back together also adding extra ABS peices to the back of the tabs using same glue as reinforcement.  Worked well.

 

[tazprime38]

Here you can see my new fein t loc sys 2☺

 

[semenza]

Looks like it worked out well. Do you have any input on the disassembly method? Did you do anything different?

Seth

 

[tazprime38]

Seth, I used a piece of hardwood plywood with screws to begin with then after taking your advice used screwdrivers to pry from below for the bottom panel and combining it with the plywood. Worked much better. I have to say the bottom panel is easier to dismantel. The top panel being the most stubborn and pain in the I will gradually post some of the pics I made.