fww Cut-off bin

[Jerome Hanby]

FWW shows this cut off bin in one of their articles. This drawing is pretty much all the detail supplied. I've got one question. Does the framing shown for the outside of each side also exist on the bottom? This thing is made from 1/8" plywood and it doesn't seem like the bottom would be stout enough for the casters without the additional material.


188054

[Dan Hintz]

Seems okay to me... the filler blocks and the 1/4" ply on the bottom will hold quite a bit of weight.

[Jerome Hanby]

Very cool, thanks for the reply. Saves me work:D

I guess what was throwing me was that term "filler block". I was looking for it to fill something, like maybe the difference in the plywood bottom and framing around the edge (with the assumption that the casters needed to be inset off the sides for some reason).

[Kent A Bathurst]

Very cool, thanks for the reply. Saves me work:D

I guess what was throwing me was that term "filler block". I was looking for it to fill something, like maybe the difference in the plywood bottom and framing around the edge (with the assumption that the casters needed to be inset off the sides for some reason).


The drawing seems to imply that the bottom is in a dado along the bottom rails. In that case, that's what the filler block is there for in this design - fill that gap between the bottom edge of the bottom rail and the bottom itself, so you can mount the caster[s] on the corner. If you don't want to dado the rails for the bottom, you could just put long cleats along the bottom of all the panels.

[Erik France]

Jerome, you might take a look at the shopnotes bin in the pdf link from this thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?162633-Cheap-lumber-rack):
http://www.shopnotesspecials.com/smallshop/plans/pdf/10-plywood-projects.pdf

I had something similar to the FWW bin. Short cutoffs kind of got lost in there and long ones would fall over at times. I like the multi height shopnotes one. I'd probably do shallow dadoes instead on the angle brackets though.

[Jerome Hanby]

I posted that same link in another thread. I built the lumber rack (it's working great). I like that bin, my reason for looking at the one in FWW is that my shop has a block wall around the bottom several feet high which protrudes out farther than the 2x4 wall on top of it. This pushed my lumber rack higher on the wall to clear the bottom part and leaves me space underneath. I can size those roll around boxes from FWW to roll up under the rack and make that space useful rather than a catch all for junk... I have some other nooks and crannies that I may fill with a letter sorter style storage for short cutoffs.

I agree with you on the dadoes vs angle brackets. Good idea!

[Erik France]

hehe, I didn't notice that it was you who posted about the storage rack. :o

Where are you storing your sheetgoods? If the space below your rack is high enough for plywood to be stored on edge that might be a good use of that space too. I think Wood magazine had a neat plan for storing plywood like that so it could be easily sorted, but not fall over on you.

[Jerome Hanby]

I built a sheet goods cart. I saw it in either Woodsmith or Shopnotes. It's the one that uses vertical pieces of PVC pipe to form the separators. o have to wonder if the publisher ever built one of the things. As presented, it was way too rickety. I added a short piece of plywood across one end and another short piece running along the bottom of the two uprights and it became pretty sturdy. Let me see if I can find a picture of it online... Here it is (http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/images/20090312sn-1.gif)

Shopnotes should have known better :D

[Chip Lindley]

Very cool, thanks for the reply. Saves me work:D

I guess what was throwing me was that term "filler block". I was looking for it to fill something, like maybe the difference in the plywood bottom and framing around the edge (with the assumption that the casters needed to be inset off the sides for some reason).

It appears the "filler blocks" are there only to have something solid to screw the casters on to. 1/4" ply would not hold screws very well.

My cut-off bin is a big blue 55 gal. plastic barrel. It holds lots of cutoffs to be used as stove kindling next winter. It is covered, outside, so as not to take up even more of my valuable shop space.

[Jerome Hanby]

It appears the "filler blocks" are there only to have something solid to screw the casters on to. 1/4" ply would not hold screws very well.

My cut-off bin is a big blue 55 gal. plastic barrel. It holds lots of cutoffs to be used as stove kindling next winter. It is covered, outside, so as not to take up even more of my valuable shop space.
I have enough scrap to frame in the bottom too, so I think I'll do that in lieu of filler just for my own piece of mind.

Funny you mention using a 55 gallon barrel. I've got a big heavy duty beer keg cooler on a roller stand that I nearly pressed into service the same way. I used to host a Big, all weekend labor Day bash every year, but since that's stopped it hasn't seen service. We called it R2-RNot since after you finish half the keg it looks a little like one of those Droids.