color rod storage?

[mistahead]

hey folks! just wondering if any one had any well organized ideas for storing color rod?im useing more colors lately and keep gettin um mixed up in my drawers!! any ideas or pics would be nice! my organizational skills are pretty weak!

Cheers Randy!

[Fire on the mountain]

great question, im interested to see how people are handleing all their rods...ive been meaning to make some kind of shelf out of small sections of pvc pipes to hold each color...

[somberbear]

i have seen bamboo, square pvc is cheap and easy to use... then agian i seen people with wine racks so they can label each one with removable cards....

i havnt place a large color order yet just samplers so my need for this is pritty low on my list of things...

when i make mine ill do a write up.

peace
rob

[coil1002]

Pvc tubes cut bundled into a triangle shape and taped. They lay down real nice and dont roll

[mistahead]

yea i was thinkin pvc too! i was just at the hardware store but decided i'd wait and see if someone had some ingenious idea on here!!

[Matt Hess]

I grabbed a 3 stage rolling plastic storage bin from wal mart. Its great because its all clear so i can see inside it without opening a drawer. It keeps the glass clean from dust and dirt. I seperated my colors into reds,oranges,yellows - blues,purples,greens - blacks,whites, striking colors. When I receive my color I write on a small piece of colorfull tape the correct name of the color. So I never grab onyx thinking its turbo cobalt or multi adv. thinking its moss. The tape I have peels off easily when needed and leaves no residue, so when you get down to shorts you still know what it is and is still usable.

[Kalera]

I like the PVC tubes too because 1" thin wall is only $1.15 for a ten foot length at Home Despot and holds almost exactly a pound. For larger quantities, the square 3" PVC gutter downspout is great. I store mine on a shelving unit.

[baggedchevys]

im going to try and attatch a pic of my moms glass storage. you can see it in the back ground and i will try to get better pics tomorrow, basically she has a 10 foot long wall of cabinets that are 3 feet high and on top she has a shit load of the 1.5 inch square hole racks and the 2.5 i think racks from arrow springs, i made my own from 3 inch pvc rain gutter. cut to 12 inches drilled and riveted together. round tube works well also because of the small space left inbetween the larger round holes makes good use for storing small amounts. i also have a vertical steel tube rack that is 4 different length pieces of tube stacked together that i keep the current color and shorts im working in. keeps them handy and takes up less room.

[Dale M.]

Here is a concepts using PVC downspout (for rain gutters). Product is available at Homedepot.. Crate is a 12 x 12 inch milk crate.

Also a later version used 1-1/2 PVC pipe cut into 11 inch lengths... I was able to put about 63 "tubes" in crate... Crate is 12X18 milk crate...

Also one needs to put a flat panel on bottom of crate to keep rods from pushing through bottom... Storage can be used either vertically or horizontally


Dale

[darv]

The nice thing about the raingutter downspouts is they can hold a 5 lbs. bundle of color. If you order your colors in quantity it is a great way to go.

derek

[darv]

Here are 3 ways I store my color. I cut the 10ft rain gutters into 6 - 20inch pieces and then bundle them with duck tape. I label the top with the colors inside. I use this to store my bulk color.

Under the table I used 1 1/4 inch square pvc fencing. It is also cut into 20 inch lengths and bundled. I use this to store colors I don't stock a lot of.

On the wall under my hood I have 32 inch 2x4's with 20 - 1 inch holes drilled in them vertically. When I mount them to the wall I put a spacer at the top so they lean out slightly. This allows you to put onhly a few inches apart. I use this to store the glass I will be working with that day(or week if I get lazy and don't put it back where it goes).

Hope this helps and hope I can figure out how to post the pics.

derek

[wisco lala]

If you want cheap and fast find some wine bottle racks. Thrift stores have them all the time. THe one I use is kinda of "lincoln log" style.
lala

[christopher]

Right now I'm looking for a used flat file (the kind architects use for blueprints). The drawers are usually 2" deep, and you can get them up to like 5' wide... I'll post when I find one.

[Kronk]

I use the downspouts and pvc too.

I see I cut them too long. I'm going out now with my Skil saw and double my capacity. Sweet. I never have enough space and mess up many peices by grabbing the wrong rod.

I use a Caulking gun and silicone and stickem together.

Darv: I love the 2x4 with holes drilled naile to the wall. I'll find a role for that.

[IF-Designs]

I use arm fence rain its Vinyl and has 3 chambers that runs throughout the length of the rail. I had my fence place cut it down for me ill see if I can find pics it works great holds about 2 lbs or so of color i think....Here us a pic

[timinny420]

so um if you want to go really pimp ( i have been looking at these three so dope i think) check out buyrack.com - or the link below is cheaper if it works - but its a 3 or 7 foot high shelp with 6 or 13 rows of 8 bins ( numbers could be off and changes with manufactuer ) - the bins are 4 X 4 X 24 - and the big one has i think 96 total bins all plastic - i think each bin would hold 5# of color - only down fall is it in not total enclosed so some dust can get on there but way nicer than pvc and way bigger - but its like 500$ - so there it is folks have fun

http://www.anytimeproducts.com/meg/bin_shelving_4_all.htm

[Mr. Smiley]

I got my idea from watching an idiot demo anal sparklers. I went to a small foreign country and brought back some kids (don't worry, I paid for them). I taped them together and made my rack out of. It's cool, because they hold my glass and torch at the same time. Quadrupled my production. ;) The poop wipes right off the rod. :D

[jiminyrootkit]

ok, so the plastic pipe idea isn't anything new, but i mine was free, and yours wasn't :tongue:

find someone who installs carpet and ask if thier rolls (of carpet) come on the recycled plastic tubes or the cardbord ones.....lots of places get about 1/2 and 1/2......
the grey plastic ones are what you're after.....they're about 12-15 feet long, and unlike pvc, they are pretty pliable/not brittle.
the walls aren't perfect, and sometimes have thin spots, but hell, they're free and they keep color apart.

.....this 2nd part is nothing new either, particularly if you've been in a welding shop.
if you can come by one, a dead refrigerator makes a great box to put the tubes into, especially if you live somewhere dusty, it'll seal and keep your glass clean.
...just keep the lowest shelf to stack on (or the bottom, if it's flat) and gut the rest, you may have to take the door shelves off, if they take up the room your rods want.
i'll try to get pics of mine, but i'm exceedingly lazy, so don't hold your breath ;)

-f

[IF-Designs]

actually you can get free stuff from the fence places too ;) ask them about scrap :) I just paid them to cut mine but now I could do it at home...

[Kool]

I just finished making a color rod storage rack today. I decided to utilize some of the space under my bench. I wanted the rod to be accesible, yet I still wanted to be able to store pretty much all of it right there. Also, I made a sort of loft so I would still have some storage space underneath.
The tubes are 20" lengths of 3" diameter "Coex" drain pipe. Each 10' lenthg was $4 and change at the Home De Pot. That was a lot better than the other 3" diameter options, as a 3" diam. PVC was $11 and change. I checked out the downspout, but it was not near as strong. I can easily fit a 5 lb. bundle in each tube. I'm not sure how much more you could fit (prob. 6 or 7 lb.) 5 lb. was the biggest bundle i had. I used a couple dabs from a hot glue gun to secure each tube.
I made the whole structure boxed in (there is a back, too, so the rod doesn't slide too far back) with some sheetrock I had lying around and the lumber was all scrap, so the only cost was the pipe. I then made labels for each color and used clear packing tape to put them in the tubes (you can see the labels in the photo).

Kool

[Stagger Lee]

If you use the gutter downspouts. Glue it together with cpvc glue. It holds it together pretty good. I built a box around a bunble of the downspouts to help hold it together when it's full of rods.

[rustyglass]

Those are some nice storage bins, my question is about the length of the tubes. If the tubes and the rods are both around 20 inches, what do you do with your half used rods, and those annoying little 3 and 4 inch pieces left over?? Now you have to build another one that holds them?.... I dont think that would be the best way. A long time ago, I cut some pvc tube long ways(think half pipe) and screwed that to some wood supports, it works well for all lengths of rods but doesnt keep dust out, etc. Im still looking for the best way to store my color.....

[Kalera]

If your storage is horizontal, the shorties just stay at the front, on top of the unused rods. I put mine used-end-out so I can see which is the used rod.

Another thought if you have no time/patience for cutting down all that PVC, cardboard shipping tubes are great, and will hold up surprisingly well over time. They're more expensive than PVC but if you have a lot of colors you might be saving money by using them and spending more time at the torch instead of building a storage rack.

[LTD]

Roll away tool box works, approx. 20 inch wide x 12 inchesx 3 deep...craftsman makes a spendy one....some times you can find one at harbour freight way cheaper

[Kool]

Those are some nice storage bins, my question is about the length of the tubes. If the tubes and the rods are both around 20 inches, what do you do with your half used rods, and those annoying little 3 and 4 inch pieces left over?? Now you have to build another one that holds them?.... I dont think that would be the best way. A long time ago, I cut some pvc tube long ways(think half pipe) and screwed that to some wood supports, it works well for all lengths of rods but doesnt keep dust out, etc. Im still looking for the best way to store my color.....

My tubes are cut at 20", but there is about a 2" gap behind the tubes before you hit the back wall of sheetrock. That way, rods that are slightly over 20" don't stick out in front. Also, I can push all the rods back far enough that I can read the labels on the bottom of the inside of the tube.

As far as the shorts go, i just keep them in glass jars on the back of my bench. The jars are labeled so i know what colors are in each jar. I can keep a number of colors in only one jar. If i do that, i only put colors in a single jar together if they are different enough that it is easy to tell them apart. It helps to keep my bench uncluttered and saves my time and frustration trying to figure out which colors are which.

[Merlin]

or you can just attach a clear handle right away. you will have to sometime anyway. and stick the short with the handle in the proper tube with the clear handle side out so that you dont grab it thinking that its full length.

[MUPH]

I've got a large color order coming in next week (130 pounds) and I'm looking for a way to store it. I got some ideas from this thread, I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has come up with something new since 2006

[STROKER]

I've got a large color order coming in next week (130 pounds) and I'm looking for a way to store it. I got some ideas from this thread, I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has come up with something new since 2006

just have it dropshipped to knoxvegas ben, i have plenty of room for it.haha:D

seriously, that is alot of glass. i am jealous...

i use pvc tubes cut 20 inches long and stack about 25 of them in a plywood box i made.
each tube holds right at 3 lbs , give or take in a 2 inch diameter pipe.

all in all my box is 18 inche by 24 inche by 20 inches deep and its good for about 75 lbs of glass.

also, very easy to put casters on it to roll around the shop and out of the way.

[VertigoGlass]

This is the rack i Built for my moms soft glass rod storage. It was built around a pallet style rack from Lowes, the majority of the material was made from the white plastic fence material from lowes as well. the fence slat material has 2 dividers built into it and makes 3 nice 1 1/2 inch square holes. Also there are 4 inch plastic post for large volumes of one color and for some of those i ripped a piece of Masonite down so it sits in the tube cross corner. I liquid nailed the pieces together in modular sections then glued those to the shelf as well and added lights under the shelf since the rods sit back into the shelf. Nothing hangs out past the face of the rack so no one has a chance of catching a rod or cutting themself. The cabinets underneath hold excess color tools torches etc. there is also a frit cab i made for her that holds 3-500 small jars of frit, you pull the drawer out and can read all the tops of the jars. here is one pic. I will get more this afternoon when i go over there.

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt332/VertigoGlass/glassstorage.jpg

[hashmasta-kut]

wow holy cow.

[derekg0]

Ya thats a pretty impressive setup you got there Vertigo, thats a lotta color!

[VertigoGlass]

Thats just some of her soft glass. there is a whole nother wall with more softglass and boro........ She has a problem lol

[todd a]

I have gotten old paint brush displays from the local art store after they have sold all the brushes - they usually hold between 30-40 different colors

[Gold Fire Glass]

OMG I could only dream .