Anyone Tried This Saw Blade Storage System?

[willshak]

Doug White wrote the following:

This is the best way to store recip blades and the fastest way to pick the right one.

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------------- Sounds like you are looking for affirmation, not commentary.

Lew

[-MIKE-]

Are you really that worried about reciprocating blades? I have probably 30 of all different sizes in the top of a small tool box and it takes less time to find the right one than it would to siphon through that glorified file folder box you linked to.

[-MIKE-]

Oh, you want a pre-fab solution for reciprocating blades. Why didn't you say so? Here you go...

[Larry Jaques]

Why don't you build your own out of 1/8" and 1/4" plywood, with MDF housing?

, From Art Mulder in '05: I have a simple drawer unit that I built for storing saw blades. Found the idea in a magazine about 10 years ago, if I recall correctly.

Just make a plywood box, but run 1/8" saw kerfs in the sides every

1-2" up the side. Then lay the blades on pieces of 1/8" hardboard that slide in the kerfs as "drawers". Tack a small piece of wood on the front of each "drawer" to close up the front and voila.

The advantage of this is that each blade is kept separate, no dinging into other blades to damage the teeth, or scrape your hands. Glue a small dowel piece in the middle of each drawer to keep the blade from sliding around.

--snip--

Or try something cheaper for the 7-1/4" set?

Ten dolla.

-- Remember, in an emergency, dial 1911.

[Doug Winterburn]

He doesn't have time - too busy building violins.

[Father Haskell]

the sawzall blades in a cheap tackle box.

[Ecnerwal]

So. You have shelves. Go to Staples, grab a file organizer (in/out trays, vertical organizer, etc - they have all sorts of them, including the plastic box that this "saw organizer" is based off) and some file folders, or envelopes. You can even get clear plastic envelopes if you can't write descriptions on paper ones. File your blades. It's not a complex problem.

I have some plastic shoeboxes I'm not in love with but use as cheap unitized organization (along with various coffee containers) until the round-tuit points to wooden shop drawers.

Durability? keep the shop dry (or find some camphor blocks for the boxes to keep the rust away) and you'll find that plain old cardboard lasts a long time. I have some cardboard blade sleeves I know to be at least 34 years old and still there. Office file folders/envelopes are cheap enough that replacing a few won't break the bank. If you're not slamming the blades around, you shouldn't be tearing the folders they are in, so they will last fine.

Or buy the glorified plastic file box "specially for saws", rather than ask for advice you don't seem to want.

[krw]

I generally don't change blades all that often and when I do it's usually for a dado setup. They came in a similar case, so I'm juggling blades anyway; not really that big of a deal for me.

I like these because they _are_ rugged. My shop still isn't close to being set up, and the garage is a mess with too much stuff stacked around. I don't want expensive blades banging around. When I do get set up I'll probably "file" blades in some sort of drawer in the extension table. Some of the ideas offered here give me some great ideas for that.

[krw]

Mine are just thrown in the saw's case. Most of them are junk left over from the contractor I bought the saw from (he had a stroke about fifteen years ago and could no longer work). I rarely use the saw so everything sits in the case.

[Doug White]

Ecnerwal wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I asked for a couple of reasons that seem to have escaped people here.

One is: Is the thing fairly rugged? If I lug it around, is it going to crack & the handle rip off if I fully load it, and is the latch any good?

Storing circular/table saw blades isn't very tricky. Storing reciprocating saw blades where they are easy to get at, easy to select for a given job/material, and without bouncing & rattling around getting dull is. I was wondering if their system (which isn't clear in the pictures I've seen) is very useful. It looks on the surface like it may not work well for all blade sizes, and/or uses up a lot of space to hold a small number of blades.

That's the sort of info I was curious about.

If I'd wanted to take the time to build a box to hold 10" saw blades, I could have designed one myself. I was looking for something more versitile/universal, especially for recip blades.

Pardon me for asking.

Doug White

[Swingman]

Don't blame you for wanting to find out before buying.

Do know that DeWalt sells a 12 piece set that includes a "telescoping case" for the blades (10 blades?) that fits in a tool box and is supposedly designed to keep the blades from rattling around.

Might want to look into that.

[Larry Jaques]

A dozen finish nails on the side of the box will hang those recip blades, Doug. Or glue dowel pieces on one or two of the "drawers" to position the long slim blades. It -ain't- rocket surgery.

-- Remember, in an emergency, dial 1911.

[dpb]

Doug White wrote: ...

Because you didn't specify the expected usage, maybe???

Well, again, is this for shop use or job site? Your initial post indicated simply for in-shop storage in which case wouldn't seem to be getting much toting (unless this is a huge shop or some other unspecified thing is going on)...

...

Well, the latter would seem a problem to me in all these systems that are much more than either a series of slots or a peg on the wall.

As for reciprocating blades, mine lay in a shallow drawer in one of the tool chests or are in the plastic slide covers in which they come.

Can't see as there's any need for much more...if you don't have a drawer somewhere amongst all these shelves that is convenient, that's what I'd say you need for shop storage. If you're toting stuff around to job sites, that's something else again. I don't do that but if did, would have a spot in the truck drawer system for small stuff of the type.

It can't have taken as long to throw something together in the shop that would function (or go to an office supply or similar and purchased) as has been spent here so far as for the shop time...

--

[Ecnerwal]

From looking at it, which is about as far as I'm likely to go, probably No, Yes, No. The kinship to a plastic file box is a bit too close for happenstance, and plastic file boxes fail being used for paper files. One of many reasons I'd make, not buy. "Well made" and "plastic" are a rare combination.

You get a lot of earthquakes, or do you have some out of shop usage you didn't mention before? You certainly seemed to be talking about shop storage, having shelves, not having pegboard - portable makes a few changes, but still not too hard.

A simple cloth tool roll keeps reciprocating saw blades organized and separated if you want to haul them. Reduce the durability a bit if you want to see them and use clear flexible vinyl for part of the roll. Slots in a hunk of wood also do, just that for the shop, that plus a piece of masonite over if you want to haul or want to stand them up in the shop. Or you can get the binder-spline material at the office or woodworking store to clip over the toothed edge and put them in a drawer or tool/tackle box tray with no fear of edge damage. Hanging on nails works perfectly in the shop, or setting in a drawer, or grab some cutlery trays from the kitchen section to organize them in drawers.

Someone who wanted to bother making something could easily make a form-fit masonite section for the "wide" direction of their various blade types and sandwich that between a sheet of masonite and a sheet of plexi to make a "hard" visible organizer; 2/3's of that and you have a french-fit drawer for in-shop use.

[Jack Stein]

Dewalt used to sell a packet of reciprocating blades that had a tube with a hinged lid that would hold about 15 or so blades. I have one and it is perfect. If you are worried about the blades getting dull touching each other, you need better blades. If you are worried about dust, you need a different hobby. Anyway, I did see this:

as tidy as the tube, but it fits your needs, being manufactured and such.

For table saw blades, the second one on page two at woodsmith mag

Lew posted is the one I would build, and hang it off a French Cleat, if I needed one, and had 10 minutes of "free time" to waste.

Asking is one thing, bitching about the answers from those that take the time to answer you is the problem.

[-MIKE-]

I love that. But go to the fishing section of WalMart and get the same thing for 6 bucks. Save the $19 they charge for the Dewalt logo. :-)

[Larry Jaques]

And some of us may have wall space but wouldn't dirty it with pegboards. I've never liked the things at all.

"On pegs" would be my guess. ;)

It would take as long to purchase and unpack the storage containers as it would to build from scrap at hand, Doug.

For recip blades, 1/4" dadoes would hold ~3 blades per. Narrower dadoes for individual blades could be cut at an angle and the board hung from the side of the saw storage box you built in the other hour.

-- Remember, in an emergency, dial 1911.

[Larry Jaques]

We're up to 8.57" for the month here. But our freeways shrug it off and ground soaks it up, unlike LoCal, where I used to live.

-- Remember, in an emergency, dial 1911.

[Larry Jaques]

I keep 12" demo blades, too, and that's too small for them.

Had he taken the time to lay out the parameters of answers he wished for in advance, he wouldn't have been as miffed now, huh? I hope that people pick up on this concept. Ask a simple question, get a wide variety of answers. Ask a specific question and tell folks what you've looked at why you don't like some designs, and you get a much better informed answer.

They'll also waste far less time complaining about the quality of the answers.

-- Remember, in an emergency, dial 1911.