Storing straight things

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David B
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Storing straight things

Postby David B » Sat Dec 05, 2015 5:38 pm

How many polythene bags of wire or metal sections do you have slipping around in a box or drawer? I have a suggestion that will make storage of these bits much easier.

I bought some plastic tube, in this case 6.4mm x 0.7mm wall and 375mm long. It works out at about 90p a length and will last you a modelling lifetime.

To fit my drawer and the length of metal, I cut the tubes to 330mm - it is not critical but uniformity makes life easier - then pushed a pin 2 to 3mm from one end, right through the middle of both walls and put a decent blob of epoxy in the same end to go round the pin. The pin is 'belt & braces' in case any rod goes in a bit hard and knocks the epoxy out. I made several tubes and stood them upright on a piece thick polythene (firm base, in this case a bit of glass).

storage-tubes_1083.jpg


I held them in place against my toolbox using some blu-tack at the top.

storage-tubesG_1082.jpg


When the epoxy had dried, I trimmed off the surplus and gently filed the pin back until it was flush, . . .

storage-tubes_1085.jpg


. . . labelled the open end with an indelible marker pen, . . .

storage-tubes_1084.jpg


. . . filled them with the appropriate material and put the tubes in to the drawer.

storage-tubes_1153.jpg
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Paul Willis
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Re: Storing straight things

Postby Paul Willis » Sun Dec 06, 2015 4:04 pm

David B wrote:How many polythene bags of wire or metal sections do you have slipping around in a box or drawer? I have a suggestion that will make storage of these bits much easier.


Very neat David. As is your usual style :-)

I continue to keep all of my wire, rod, strip and so on in one of the indispensable Really Useful Boxes. In this case one that seems intended to hold pencils and suchlike. It's about 30 cm long so I don't have to cut down the material at all.

IMG_2195.JPG


However I've recently discovered that Tesco supply some very useful holders for small drills, wire offcuts and the like:

IMG_2193.JPG


The plus point is that you can also have some very tasty rice puddings, creme caramel, or tonight's treat - bread and butter pudding.

Cheers
Flymo
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mickeym
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Re: Storing straight things

Postby mickeym » Sun Dec 06, 2015 7:37 pm

If you store long thin things upright they eventually become long thin things with a a nice curve where the weight pushes down or into the pressure ..
That is where the often recited urban myth that places such as Wickes and BnQ sell crap wood comes from - They dont often, they just store it wrong.

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David B
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Re: Storing straight things

Postby David B » Sun Dec 06, 2015 10:31 pm

Neither Paul nor I are storing the wire upright, Mickey.

Terry Bendall
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Re: Storing straight things

Postby Terry Bendall » Sun Dec 06, 2015 10:43 pm

mickeym wrote:That is where the often recited urban myth that places such as Wickes and BnQ sell crap wood comes from - They dont often, they just store it wrong.


In fact if you go to a proper timber yard you will find the timber is stored near vertically - a slight angle just to stop it falling over. I bought three 4 metre lengths of 50mm x 25mm planed recently which was very straight.

Terry Bendall

mickeym
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Re: Storing straight things

Postby mickeym » Mon Dec 07, 2015 11:03 pm

I do go to proper timber yards several times a week, to buy timber (preferably straight)
I think my next layout sub frame will be built of dried out "tanalised wood" - its cheap as chips and straight - or at least it doesn't go anywhere when in a frame :)

I was referring to timber stored at an angle - Though I don't think I made it clear enough - Store it on end is no problem, store it at less and it develops a bend especially if there is a knot in the area of the potential bend.

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Rod Cameron
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Re: Storing straight things

Postby Rod Cameron » Tue Dec 08, 2015 9:57 am

Interesting David, I'd probably just tape over one end but I know you like to do things properly!

All my long thin things are stood in the tubes you get with malt whisky bottles at the moment, one for metal and one for plastic, still in their individual packets in the case of Gibson straight wire or Evergreen strip. This means that I have to remeasure the odd ones with calipers if I need something specific.
Rod

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David B
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Re: Storing straight things

Postby David B » Tue Dec 08, 2015 1:48 pm

Rod Cameron wrote:Interesting David, I'd probably just tape over one end but I know you like to do things properly!

I do, Rod. My way, the wire does not get stuck to the sticky tape covering the bottom of the tube.

Rod Cameron wrote:All my long thin things are stood in the tubes you get with malt whisky bottles at the moment . . .

Would these be some intravenous device . . . or drinking straws?

Warehouseworker
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Re: Storing straight things

Postby Warehouseworker » Thu Dec 24, 2015 12:50 am

If, like me, you wear dentures you could use empty Steradent tubes for smaller things. I keep my masonry drills in one and it does the job very well.


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