seeking ideas for low cost sheet material for tool drawer separators

[jkn]

Hi All I have a nice large tool chest with sliding drawers, bought via Gumtree a while ago. It has eight drawers of depth varying from about 50mm to about 200mm.

I am using the shallower drawers for small tools, but want to separate the tools out and stop them rolling around. The edge of the drawers have useful slots (about 2mm thick) at 20mm or so intervals. So you can put thin inserts in these to mark out areas in the base, as it were - a bit like an adjustable cutlery drawer, if you get me.

The (italian) manufacturer of this chest charge a fortune for the 'proper' spacers, but I am after doing something on the cheap. So I am looking for ideas as to what material I might be able to ... find in a skip, type thing.

Some sheets of 2mm Alu would be nice, guillotined down, but that looks a bit pricy unless I happen across some. Thin MDF would be too weak, I think. FR4 PCB material might work, but the offcuts I see at work are only 10mmdeep or so, and some treatment would need to be applied to the edges - GF splinters are not nice!

The drawers are quite large, so I would need lengths of something like 700mm.

Any thoughts as to other sources of cheapskate materials I might consider for this?

Thanks, Jon N

[spuorgelgoog]

There's a skip near me full of almost new 4' or 5' fluorescent fittings that are being replaced with LED. Ample source of powder coated steel or aluminium.

Not much help to you, but that's the sort of place to look. Shopfitters and strippers-out of vacant premises.

Owain

[Bob Minchin]

Almost anything 2mm thick and 700mm long will not be stiff enough to stop is pinging out of the slots when the centre flexes as it will do inevitably. Cheapest/easiest will likely be some U channel of ali or hardwood fixed to the base and ends of the drawers, with ply dividers slotted in. You used to be able to buy ramin U channel moulding for bookcase glass etc but since the demise of Woodwork DIY and ramin being classified as endangered species, these useful mouldings are like hens teeth in the diy sheds now with only cr4p softwood ones. If you are stuck and want to go the wooden route, I can make hardwood mouldings for you? I'm near Southampton. you can pm me about it if you like. Bob

[Andy Burns]

Surely the dividers will be arranged in a grid, with cross-halving joints?

[Robin]

or glue on anything going spare as stiffeners so long as they stop short of the slots? possibly "braced" vertically too?

[newshound]

Polycarbonate sheet, as used for secondary double glazing? Relatively cheap, tough, reliable to score and snap once you get the technique (and then just sand the edges smooth).

Bob's point about pinging out is correct, though.

Slightly more expensive is perspex (poly methyl methacrylate) sheet which can also be scored and snapped. A merit of this is that it can be solvent welded either to a "footer" strip maybe 8 mm wide, which will provide stiffening and avoid the ping problem, or the "cross halving" joints could be glued up in the same way.

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail], jkn <jkn [e-mail]> writes

You could consider the hardwood offer below coupled with a careful sawcut each end to take a strip of 2mm stiff plastic/metal...

[jkn]

That's not a bad idea ... I should perhaps have said that

- yes, I will most likely be arranging things in a 'cross-halved' arrangement

- it might be that the required thickness will be nearer 1.5mm, rather than 2mm

How straightforward would it be to score and snap polycarbonate sheets of such thicknesses? Also, to make saw or dremel cuts for the cross joints?

Thanks, J^n

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I use that stuff for lots of things - and never had a problem with GF splinters. I would normally give the edges a rub over with a file, though.

[Thomas Prufer]

...and the problem where the spacer rides up, 40 thousand washers slip under it and mix with the washers on the other side, and prevent the spacer from settling back down until ALL the bits are removed, the spacer is reseated, and the bits sorted and replaced....

Aaaargh.

[jkn]

Indeed ... except that I'm only talking about this for tools.

I can probably use hot melt glue to strengthen in a few places as well ... the base of the drawers is perforated.

J^n

[jkn]

Hi Dave I picked up some from the waste bins a while back and got some horrid skin rash/cuts which I attribute to splinters from the GF. Mind you, it was punched out stuff. If it was easy to get in the length I was looking for I'd probably use it, and either take the edges off and/or paint the ends...

J^n

[tabbypurr]

Skips, auctions, freecycle/freegle, gumtree, there's some neighbourhood site as well.

NT

[Rob Morley]

Thin sheet steel as used in domestic white goods (so free if you get there before the scrap man - or try Freegle). Fold it double to stiffen it (or fold in a L or T shape for extra rigidity) Cross-dividers can be tack-welded in place.

[newshound]

Polycarbonate is available in 2 mm although IIRC the common size is 3 mm and this is obviously a bit stronger. Even if your slots are a bit narrow you could always put a gentle chamfer on the ends of the dividers.

Scoring and snapping polycarbonate is relatively easy, you can do it with a Stanley knife and a metal straight edge. For Perspex I've found it better to use a "scriber" with a 90 degree corner, for example you can use the corner of a chisel blade held almost perpendicular to the sheet, with a slight negative "rake", i.e. so that the point is slightly trailing the direction of movement. For perspex it is worth making a fairly deep groove. Polycarbonate and perspex both saw OK but as with all thermoplastics if there is too much load and speed the frictional heating causes the plastic to melt, and then it "snatches" on the tool. Junior or ordinary hacksaw is normally fine. Or jigsaw at low speed. I imagine you could do it with a Dremel too, pehaps the saw or alternatively the fibre reinforced cutting disks. Worth having a practice on some scrap.

[Vir Campestris]

Any old bit of MDF you have lying around with a couple of lost head nails banged in the end to drop in the slots.

Andy

[newshound]

Neat idea, could do the same with 6 mm ply (but I would drill and screw). Or you could make a sort of wide but shallow "U" out of coat hanger wire, fitting in two drilled holes.

[Brian Gaff]

Used to be able to get door slotted runners in wood and plastic that can be fixed too the bottom to add strength to dividers at the expense of some width at the bottom of course. Brian

[jkn]

Actually that is a really good plan. Yeah, I think I might go with that sort of thing. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Cheers, Jon N