I thought the price for sortainers to be rather exorbitant, but I looked at my floorspce vs storage problems. I thought i would atleast give it a try.
What works for me is that i do not always need the same combination of tools, screws, accessories, etc. To store all in permanent fixtures, such as drawers, even on casters, does not always work. there often is no place to roll a small storage cabinet to without rolling something else to another location.
With the sortainer/systainers, i just look at the labels, think about what will be needed for a project/the day/whatever and pick what i will need. I lock them together as a group and pick up the pile, deliver to general proximity of where I will be working, leave all other "packages" locked together stacked to ceiling or set up as a base for a temporary assembly table. My shop becomes so much more versatile that cost factor becomes less important.
I would love to have space where I could just roll a heavy cabinet/set of drawers/what have you out to where ever i will need it, but that just means a whole lot of other stuff needs moving. Even with a bad back, i can still pick up a pretty good pile of sortainers/systainers and move as necessary. I did get one of the festool dollys to set at bottom of a pile.(they don't cost much more than a set of 4 casters >>> unassembled) that works out so fine, i will get another one or two. I will mount tools etc according to most anticipated combinations of usage and if the stacks cannot be rolled around, each stack will still be light enough that they can be picked up and carried without moving everything else in the shop.
$$$ vs usefulness is the way i try to prioritze. what the heck, if i impact the budget too much, it just means another year before retirement. I have answered the question of retirement as "when i look up and see them throwing the dirt over me. problem is, they will probably hand me the shovel to finish the job." So, maybe if i spend all my money @ Festool, they will hand me the tools to build the box
:
Tinker
What works for me is that i do not always need the same combination of tools, screws, accessories, etc. To store all in permanent fixtures, such as drawers, even on casters, does not always work. there often is no place to roll a small storage cabinet to without rolling something else to another location.
With the sortainer/systainers, i just look at the labels, think about what will be needed for a project/the day/whatever and pick what i will need. I lock them together as a group and pick up the pile, deliver to general proximity of where I will be working, leave all other "packages" locked together stacked to ceiling or set up as a base for a temporary assembly table. My shop becomes so much more versatile that cost factor becomes less important.
I would love to have space where I could just roll a heavy cabinet/set of drawers/what have you out to where ever i will need it, but that just means a whole lot of other stuff needs moving. Even with a bad back, i can still pick up a pretty good pile of sortainers/systainers and move as necessary. I did get one of the festool dollys to set at bottom of a pile.(they don't cost much more than a set of 4 casters >>> unassembled) that works out so fine, i will get another one or two. I will mount tools etc according to most anticipated combinations of usage and if the stacks cannot be rolled around, each stack will still be light enough that they can be picked up and carried without moving everything else in the shop.
$$$ vs usefulness is the way i try to prioritze. what the heck, if i impact the budget too much, it just means another year before retirement. I have answered the question of retirement as "when i look up and see them throwing the dirt over me. problem is, they will probably hand me the shovel to finish the job." So, maybe if i spend all my money @ Festool, they will hand me the tools to build the box
: Tinker
