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

[jonny round boy]

As mentioned earlier today in this thread, two lovely new Sortainers arrived this morning:

[attachimg=1]

It's taken me most of the afternoon, a lot of tool making, and a little bit of swearing, but I've transformed them (plus my original SYS3 SORT/4) into this:

[attachimg=2]

[attachimg=3]

[big grin] [big grin] [big grin] [big grin] [big grin] [big grin]

The base, top, and uppermost side/shelf section are from the old one along with the original 4 drawers; the two lower side/shelf sections and the two new large drawers are from the new ones.

It's the same size as a SYS5, and should give me some options for moving my hand-tools into the large drawers.

Oh, and with the parts left over I was able to make these two little beauties:

[attachimg=4]

[thumbs up]

I may end up using one of these, but I will be putting at least one of them on eBay in the next week or so...

 

[GPowers]

thats what is so great about a modular system you can create what you want.

 

[Sean7a]

COOL!

What's the weight unloaded?  Loaded?

 

[GarryMartin]

What's the weight unloaded?  Loaded?

Monty Python fan?  [wink]

 

[Sean7a]

Haha!

 

[72anthony]

Sorry for the dumb question, but can you explain what you did? I don't understand what the drawers are fitting into.

I only have t-locs and no sortainers.

Thanks,
Anthony

 

[dltflt]

You beat me to the question Anthony.

 

[jimbouk]

That looks great Jrb. Can you elaborate on how you went about joining em? I fancy giving it a go....

 

[semenza]

Yes, finally someone actually got Sortainers pulled apart and back together ! OK, other than the swearing, how did you get them apart?

Seth

 

[jonny round boy]

COOL!

What's the weight unloaded?  Loaded?

Thanks! I don't know on the weight - I don't have any scales big enough to weigh it...

It will live permanently on my Sys-Roll anyway, so the only issue with the weight is lifting it in & out of my van.

Sorry for the dumb question, but can you explain what you did? I don't understand what the drawers are fitting into.

I only have t-locs and no sortainers.

Thanks,
Anthony

Anthony,

The sortainers are made of 3 types of sections: a base moulding, a top moulding, and then the centre section (which is made up of 2 sides & the shelf/shelves). It's modular, so you can add in more centre sections to increase the height. Here's a picture with the drawers removed:

[attachimg=1]

There's an old post HERE with some line drawings that explain (I can't believe that post is from August 2007!!! That means it's taken me over SEVEN YEARS to get around to doing this!!! [eek] ).

The sections are held together by very strong, locking, plastic tabs:

[attachimg=2]

There are 4 tabs on each side, and they all need to be pushed in together. Behind each tab however is a little plastic part that stops it from being pushed back! It's designed to be pushed together & locked, not to be dismantled! It takes a LOT of force to push the tabs back and push the support part out of the way at the same time.

I decided to make some kind of tool to push the tabs in, so used a piece of 6mm MR MDF & cut some notches in it to leave 4 'pins':

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

I then used this, and a couple of clamps, to push all 4 tabs in together. Unfortunately, it took so much force that this was the result:

[attachimg=5]

Back to the drawing board! I then tried various different methods/materials to come up with something similar that would take the required force, including gluing M5 nyloc nuts to a piece of timber to make the 'pins' (the glue gave way & the nuts fell off [eek]), using the MDF again, but saturating the pins with resin to strengthen it (pins stayed intact, but just sheared off at the edge of the reinforcement), cutting the shape required from a think piece of oak (the oak just crushed), and putting screws in a piece of timber, standing proud.

Ideally, it needs making out of a piece of 6mm thick aluminium, but I don't have any & couldn't get any locally.

Anyway, between the various methods I managed to get all 3 sortainers apart, without damaging any of them. Here's one of them:

[attachimg=6]

The tabs holding the top section are much harder to get to, and caused me some trouble!

I had intended to document every stage, but after all the faffing about I forgot to take pictures at various stages!

That looks great Jrb. Can you elaborate on how you went about joining em? I fancy giving it a go....

Once they're apart, it's just a simple, 2 minute job to push them back together.

Jonathan

 

[greg mann]

Uh, how about doing it over again and videotaping it for us. [poke]

 

[jonny round boy]

Uh, how about doing it over again and videotaping it for us. [poke]

No problem. You just order the 3 sortainers & have them delivered to me, and I'll happily do a video! [tongue]

 

[NHSP759]

Hahahahahaha that's great. Cool sorta inter too!

 

[semenza]

Excellent!  Just need to perfect the tool.  [thumbs up]

Seth

 

[oldie]

Brilliant - thanks for posting.  Just got to wait for the video now...
Richard

 

[jimbouk]

Looks great jonny thanks. Now just need to decide on how many and what configuration!

 

[Roadkilled]

Well done mate can't wait to see it. I love the little sys 1 sortainers  [tongue] rather than letting it go on eBay any chance you'd sell it to a friend  [big grin]

 

[jonny round boy]

Well done mate can't wait to see it. I love the little sys 1 sortainers  [tongue] rather than letting it go on eBay any chance you'd sell it to a friend  [big grin]

It would depend how much the friend was offering.  [tongue]

[big grin]

 

[Roadkilled]

[big grin] I have no idea mate. Txt me but I'm sure you'd get a fortune for it on eBay  [embarassed]

 

[WastedP]

JRB: Your pics are loaded with great info, but I still have a ton of questions for you.  How has your custom unit been working out?  Do the Sortainers play well with T-Locs in daily usage?  I see the labels on the older parts, but what are you carrying in there?  What are the interior dimensions of the large drawers?

I've been lugging my Makita drills in a T-Loc SYS-4 with a stack of T-Loc minis filling up the other half of it.  I have been picking up some installation slack over the last week with that setup, and I found myself needing just my impact driver and some bits without opening up the whole kit.  I kept thinking of this Frankentainer as a better approach.  I don't see myself making the mega version like yours, but the five-drawer Tanos unit looks good.

Again, I appreciate the great pics you posted, but any other info you can give me would be a big help.