Quarantine Projects!

The most mystifying thing to me hman is how you even found that unit! IKEA search engine is all but useless to me but I never buy anything from them so it's obviously my inexperience.

If you think the website's bad, wait til you go to the store! My dad and I went there once to look at something and I felt like I was on some kind of "Lord of the Rings" style quest!

Nice work there @middle.road ! All you guys are killin' it with your hundreds of drawers. I gotta step up my drawer game!
 
Those card file cabinets are nice. We got a guy around Lake Wiley that sells them on CL.
Robert
 
$40 is cheap but I'm hoping hman can enlighten us as to sturdiness. My main concern was drawer slides and it's looks like bent metal with some plastic sliders? That isn't a complete deal breaker but for moderate stuff it would be fine but it might need some reinforcing to hold heavy stuff. Check out the assembly instructions on the IKEA site.

Yep, most modern stuff isn't anything like they used to make it. Probably those drawers would work for relatively light things like spare flap disks and hacksaw blades. Have to see them in person to know for sure.

I do have a fetish for old school desks, cabinets, stools and the like. I'll pick them up whenever I can get them free or cheap, I know the hipsters are looking out for this stuff too....

John
 
One the best scores I ran onto was off Make Something Cool YouTube. Small 3drawer file cabs. The two upper are "letter drawers" with one file drawer on the bottom. I've got 3 and thanks to mikri the last two were free. Heavy duty with great slides that can hold anything. We used to go to the Visalia School District sales and get stuff super cheap. My assembly table and the table my bead blast cab are on two heavy duty school tables. I think they were $5ea. You say hipsters are into school surplus ??
 
One the best scores I ran onto was off Make Something Cool YouTube. Small 3drawer file cabs. The two upper are "letter drawers" with one file drawer on the bottom. I've got 3 and thanks to mikri the last two were free. Heavy duty with great slides that can hold anything. We used to go to the Visalia School District sales and get stuff super cheap. My assembly table and the table my bead blast cab are on two heavy duty school tables. I think they were $5ea. You say hipsters are into school surplus ??

Yep, check out the "tanker desk" phenom....


John
 
I guess it's not hit here yet as I still see tankers for free on CL.
 
$40?!? Are they sturdy? It says they are powdercoated metal.
OOPS! Sorry, C-Bag. Didn't see yur question until just now. Regarding sturdiness - they're a pretty light gauge of sheet metal, but well designed. The fold lines are punched, so it's easy to fold in the right places without a brake. The drawer ends slip on, then you bend a tab to retain them. I ran a bead of hot melt along the joint areas, to reinforce and de-rattle, as well as to prevent small objects from slipping out. The drawer sides have inverted U channels on the top of the outside edges, Mating U channels are assembled to the sides of the case. They slide pretty nicely by themselves, but I used a Q-tip to apply Motor Honey inside all the Us. Now they slip in and out very easily. Each drawer has a pair of tabs you can bend outward, to prevent it from pulling out all the way. But the tabs are not too easy to bend back, and I decided I'd rather be careful opening drawers than not be able to remove them. The kit comes with four non-swivel casters for the bottom. I left them off because of how I was using the units.

What else to say? The cases are NOT something I'd want to place a heavy load on top of. And I'm sure they're pretty vulnerable to dents, etc. As others have pointed out, the drawers are not suitable for heavy loads. And I don't see a good way to reinforce them. But they've served me VERY well for what I'm using them for. I think I saw somebody (sorry, couldn't find it again in my hurry) suggest downloading the assembly instructions. That would be a good idea if my ramblings aren't clear enough. As you and others have pointed out, $40 ain't bad.

If you think the website's bad, wait til you go to the store! My dad and I went there once to look at something and I felt like I was on some kind of "Lord of the Rings" style quest!
AGREED!!!! I really dislike the maze-like layout of the stores. Nearly impossible to find anything specific! They want you to take the full tour and get "ideas" and buy on impulse. I guess their business model/ target market is hipsters looking for ideas to decorate their first apartment. As the saying goes, Ikea stuff is good for at most two moves.

IF you're able to figure out what you want from the website, you can save a lot of time and aggravation by going directly to the warehouse section and using one of the kiosk computers to find out where the item is stocked, then just grab a cart and pick it up. Skip the maze! The rub can be figgering out what it is you want. When I was first composing my post above, I'd forgotten the Helmer name, and tried various (fruitless!) searches for "drawer unit," "metal drawers," etc. No joy. So I went out to the shop and found the assembly instructions I'd filed away. About the only other Ikea item I've bought recently was a bookshelf unit that I'm using as a display case. Got the name of the item from watching one of Adam Savage's videos on https://www.tested.com
 
OOPS! Sorry, C-Bag. Didn't see yur question until just now. Regarding sturdiness - they're a pretty light gauge of sheet metal, but well designed. The fold lines are punched, so it's easy to fold in the right places without a brake. The drawer ends slip on, then you bend a tab to retain them. I ran a bead of hot melt along the joint areas, to reinforce and de-rattle, as well as to prevent small objects from slipping out. The drawer sides have inverted U channels on the top of the outside edges, Mating U channels are assembled to the sides of the case. They slide pretty nicely by themselves, but I used a Q-tip to apply Motor Honey inside all the Us. Now they slip in and out very easily. Each drawer has a pair of tabs you can bend outward, to prevent it from pulling out all the way. But the tabs are not too easy to bend back, and I decided I'd rather be careful opening drawers than not be able to remove them. The kit comes with four non-swivel casters for the bottom. I left them off because of how I was using the units.

What else to say? The cases are NOT something I'd want to place a heavy load on top of. And I'm sure they're pretty vulnerable to dents, etc. As others have pointed out, the drawers are not suitable for heavy loads. And I don't see a good way to reinforce them. But they've served me VERY well for what I'm using them for. I think I saw somebody (sorry, couldn't find it again in my hurry) suggest downloading the assembly instructions. That would be a good idea if my ramblings aren't clear enough. As you and others have pointed out, $40 ain't bad.


AGREED!!!! I really dislike the maze-like layout of the stores. Nearly impossible to find anything specific! They want you to take the full tour and get "ideas" and buy on impulse. I guess their business model/ target market is hipsters looking for ideas to decorate their first apartment. As the saying goes, Ikea stuff is good for at most two moves.

IF you're able to figure out what you want from the website, you can save a lot of time and aggravation by going directly to the warehouse section and using one of the kiosk computers to find out where the item is stocked, then just grab a cart and pick it up. Skip the maze! The rub can be figgering out what it is you want. When I was first composing my post above, I'd forgotten the Helmer name, and tried various (fruitless!) searches for "drawer unit," "metal drawers," etc. No joy. So I went out to the shop and found the assembly instructions I'd filed away. About the only other Ikea item I've bought recently was a bookshelf unit that I'm using as a display case. Got the name of the item from watching one of Adam Savage's videos on https://www.tested.com
Well I'm glad its not just me and my Oldtimers. Thanks for the complete rundown hman! I did go through the assembly instructions and that was very informative. Makes you wonder how in the world Adam Savage ever found that thing.

It's doubly weird Adam Savage is talking about a drawer unit as he's supposedly a hang it on the wall guy. Some stuff I'm guilty of that but my eyes are easily overwhelmed by a wall of clutter. My main goal is to have at least a couple of drawers for each machine tool if it warrants it. Some like the bandsaw and drill press I've just started putting magnets and festoon them with chip brush, adjustable wrench, and special made tools. The vertical bandsaw is getting covered.

I believe they change all the stores around just to keep me from just running through and getting exactly what I need and get out. I was already a super focused get in and out shopper so the idea of being forced to browse is infuriating.
 
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