Baby Storage (Part Two)

Intro: Baby Storage (Part Two)

Here's the second version of using baby food containers (we'll be using jars) to hold those loose nuts and bolts.

This is an easy and inexpensive (given that you already have a baby to take care of) project to help organize your workshop. You can do this with any jar with a screw-on lid (if you happen to have some laying around).

Tools:
1. Hammer
2. Drill with bits
3. Screwdriver

Materials:
1. Scrap wood
2. Baby Jars (jars with screw-on lids)
3. Small nails (I used wire nails)
4. Screws (length depends on jar size/weight)

Warning:
Be careful not to hit, hurt, maim, and/or kill yourself with the hammer or with any other object used in this Instructable.

STEP 1: Attaching the Lids

Nothing complicated here. If you get confused, there's only one thing I can really think of to say "There are no mirrors in Avalon"*.... now that we're all on the right track, let's begin.

1. Take the lids off of the jars. Position one on the piece of wood leaving about 1" on the end.

2. Drill two holes (picture only shows one, but I drilled the second one later). Drill one hole in the center of the cover and one off to the side.

3. Drive a screw into the center hole. Hammer a nail into the other hole. If the board's too thin, you may want to place another board underneath. You can tear this one off later before you do the final attachment.

4. Place another lid about 1" away from the one you just attached and repeat from the steps: 2-4 until you can't fit any more.

5. Drill one hole in each side of the board (and one in the middle if you want extra support).



*Note: quote above from Merlin (life doesn't have to make sense)

STEP 2: Final Attachment

I attached the jars in the first two pictures to show how they'll look. Don't do this yet unless you want to test to make sure the lids won't slide around when you twist them on/off.

If you used another piece of wood beneath the first, pry it off. Bend over the nails that are sticking up and hammer them down. Now simply find a place where you won't hit your head or anything else on the jars and, using the holes you drilled in the board, screw the board up into place. Attach the jars to their lids and enjoy.

You can also just skip the scrap wood and just attach it to the ceiling, under a workbench, etc.
This is by far not my own idea, it's been used by many other people before (in fact, I was just watching the newest season of Fraggle Rock the other day and Doc had some large jars attached to his ceiling)

Comments

[smokehill]

A nice job on what is actually a very, very old idea. When I was growing up in the 50s, almost every dad I knew had a bunch of these nailed to the underside of shelves in his workshop, to do just this kind of storage for nails, screws, etc. I've never tried the baby food jars, myself, but was inspired to use about a dozen old plastic peanut-butter jars in this manner, in my basement, just nailed to the subfloor above, between the joists. had to use two short screws because I only had 3/4" subflooring to work with, but using two screws or nails also makes sure the lid doesn't rotate when you try to unscrew the jar I worked hard to get all the labels and residue off, so I could see the contents of the jars better. Hot, soapy water worked OK, with a lot of elbow grease (using a spoon) to get the last of the glue crud.

[John Smith]

When I read the title I thought: Baby Storage.... ....Step One- find extra space in attic...

[gmoon]

My response, too. Step two- Wait for the police to arrive...

[Kiteman]

I was reminded of jokes my wife and I make about the babies in those green plastic seats in shopping trolleys - which aisle were they on? It's leaking, can we swap it? etc.

[Kiteman]

Oh, as well as Fraggle Rock, they did this in that comet disaster film (not the Bruce Willis one, the other one) when they hid the key to the bike's padlock in the jar of screws.