Basement Progress
Jimmy gave me a good idea on the basement layout after my last post. Here is what I’m going for:
This setup combines the laundry and storage area and keeps them away from the workshop area.
In the last week I’ve built the new wall for the laundry/storage room. Rory came over on Saturday and helped me hang the drywall and plywood that finish it. I’ve been putting on drywall mud since Sunday and the last coat went on yesterday. The wall is drywall on the laundry/storage side and plywood on the bike/workshop side. Hopefully by this weekend we’ll be moving items into the new storage room from the old and preparing to take out the walls that made the old storage room.
Now that the wall is moving along I’ve been thinking about cabinets and workbenches. I have good enough wall cabinets scavenged from places like The Restore, but I’d like to get a few more cabinets with drawers. My best one right now is an old punch card filing cabinet, but those are very hard to find. It’s too bad because they are perfect for holding bike parts and tools. The drawers aren’t too deep, they are very well made, and 20 years ago they were being thrown away everywhere.
Since I can’t find another punchcard catalog I’ve been looking at some stuff actually built for basements and mechanics. The Gladiator stuff made by Whirlpool has caught my eye. It is a little pricey, but appears to be well made, is on sale at Sears, is domestically produced, and is nicely modular. I like that the cabinets roll around, fit under the workbench, and you can mount a small worksurface on top of them.
It won’t be this fancy (this looks more like a kitchen than a workshop), but I might end up with a couple of pieces:
Try library card catalogue drawers. I assume those are still being thrown away as I found a couple on the side of the road a while ago. They hold 6″x4″ index cards are work really well for tools. Unfortunately I only found one… I might have to approach my local library.
Most of the libraries in the US moved away from card catalogs at least 10 years ago. There are a few local stores that get old cabinets from high schools though, and I might be able to find one there. I”ll have to take a look.
One of the nicest designed small shops in Seattle is called Perfect Wheel and he uses old card catalog drawers for keeping spare parts.
I ended up ordering a workbench and two rolling cabinets yesterday. I”ll try to find surplus cabinets for the rest of my storage.