Member Storage Update: Locker cleanup

Hi all,

Just a short update on Member Storage. As lockers are emptied, I’m cleaning them off in preparation for posting for sale on Craigslist. They’re temporarily stored by the door until the remainder are emptied and they can be listed for sale en masse:

People who have stored things on top of the lockers, can you please take them home? @baptiste, @toma, @Gibbtall

Cheers!

short term gain - long term pain

Or store in member project storage area.

Thanks @wander for taking care of this.

Update:

Thanks to everyone who has moved their stuff out. Can @TyIsI, @Daniel_DeGagne, @laftho, and @JayTheDude please grab your stuff by this Saturday, March 31st?

I now think we have enough lockers cleaned up so that I can start listing them on Craigslist. Once I’ve cleared out sufficient space the next step is the racks for the totes.

@SteveRoy any word on that used racking?

Thanks everyone for your patience in this process. We’re getting pretty close.

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I’m wondering if it might be a good idea to keep some of those lockers for tool storage?
Please participate in this totally unscientific poll!

  • Sell all the storage lockers
  • Keep some storage lockers for VHS tool storage
  • Keep all the storage lockers for VHS tool storage
0 voters

Thoughts

Mark

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@wander I won’t know anything until next week

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Was checking to see if some of the wood work shop stuff might be ok stored in a locker.

Could be good for small tools and small boxes. Bonus is that doors will help with keeping the dust out.

@wander I hope we can keep some of these lockers and not sell them all off? Perhaps the tidy space committee could review?

Mark

4 Likes

I <3 Love It! Speciifcally the blue one would be great for exactly what you are showing off there! I was just thinking about how I could construct boxes with acrylic fronts. Do you think it would be crazy to use some lexan/acrylic to replace to doors? I worry about shelving that people can’t see what we have.

Historically, what people can’t see, they generally don’t know we have, and therefore don’t use.

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There’s tonnes of shelving in the woodshop already:

I’m open to suggestions here, but I’m not sure I understand what problem @Majicj and @mike are trying to solve.

Is it because you want a specific cubbyhole where a given tool can be found all the time as opposed to a shelf where it’s more likely to wander?

Wouldn’t something akin to a IKEA Kallax with labels be more in line with that goal? If you want to exclude dust and show the contents, you could then stick rubber strip like what is used over each cubbyhole:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CLEAR-PLASTIC-DOOR-STRIP-7-STRIPS-each-strip-12-wide-x-8-ft-long-x-80mil-/401486237523

Finally, the woodshop is really full already. A locker needs to be against a wall. Where would you put it?

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I think specific locations for smaller tools, and to keep accessories bundled with the assocated tools. My biggest problem with Kallax is that the volume taken up purely by the shelves themselves is actually quite significant (the walls are quite thick). If, however, this isn’t a problem, I’ll have 2 Kallax shelving units to donate soon, so we can consider them free.

The benefit of the blue lockers is that they are small, tall, thin-walled, and the right size for hand tools. They can be set up to contain related blades, attachments, etc, but yes, they have the downside of not having visibility. Keeping dust out is important for efficient cleaning, but I don’t know where they’d fit.

I’d recommend one shelf contain routers, router bits, and any wrenches/keys that are associated with routers.

One shelf should contain angle grinders, discs, and any wrenches/keys/guards

One shelf should contain our sandpaper library

One shelf should contain all our rotary hand tools (dremel-style tools) and associated bits. This may take 2 shelves.

But this is just me saying all this without measuring or being at the space.

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Good idea, @Majicj. I like this line of thinking and the general idea of cubbies for tools (and their accessories) but I don’t think the lockers are the ideal solution. These lockers are best for personal belongings that need to be locked up at a gym. The doors have a flange that obstructs the full opening, etc.

If the tool cubbies have doors then a new person has to open them all to discover what we have. Labeling the doors would help but nothing beats just seeing the thing. Especially if you’re searching for a missing tool.

Another concern is that junk is likely to get stashed in the cubbies, just as it gets stashed in every nook already. Any location that is “out of sight, out of mind” is likely to accumulate junk even faster.

We could remove the locker doors, and maybe replace them with clear acrylic. That would be unfortunate because the lockers are valuable for their intended use. And at that point we would probably be better served building or modding our existing shelves. Or hacking an IKEA Kallax shelving unit.

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After reading the above responses regarding using storage lockers for the woodworking area I have to agree these are not the best storage solution for the woodwork shop.

That being said we are a hack space and as such there is always going to be stuff that does not easily fit somewhere.

A locker could be a handy place to keep it. Out of mind, out of sight perhaps but I would say that having the TSC review locker contents (as they do now with everything else) should help with the long term accumulation of cruft and junk.

However if it is the opinion of the Tidy Space Committee that selling all these lockers is in the best interest of VHS then full speed ahead!

My 25 cents (adjusted for inflation)

Mark

Hi all,

The current plan is to sell most of them, with the exception of the one that had a slot cut into it for a Donation Bin.

That one will end up being Donations, Fire Extinguisher, First Aid locker, and Lost & Found.

I’d suggest a good use case for lockers would be to actually lock consumables/tools that are sensitive to damage.

@rsim does this already with a locked storage cabinet for CNC materials.

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Out of curiosity, is there a plan for a new physical drop box in place yet?

Dang, that’s right. One of those was supposed to be the drop box.

Okay, probably merging fire and first aid then.

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Changed my opinion on the lockers. I think one of them to store tools would be a good idea. Would keep the dust out of them as well.

Other option would it be use 1 or 2 as a chemical locker. I do worry about the fact everything is much more mixed up in the large one so harder to keep bad stuff apart.

I think we should hold off the rush to sell the lockers.

There seems to be good uses like locking tools that require restricted access because of training / safety or easily damaged without training.

Organized chemical storage.

Where would we put them in the meantime? The space for them has already been allocated.

Well, this is what the space looks like now:

You’ve got a stack of the lockers by the front door, and there’s no space in VHS to store them. I’m hearing that we should hang onto “some” but haven’t heard which ones or a compelling use case where they can be useful.

If there are hosts of specific areas like the laser cutter, CNC, wood shop, 3D printing or soldering that have a use for them, please state which one you want.

Otherwise, let’s get on with the business of making room getting them out of the space.

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