You might know about me and bins.... be aware

[reible]

I have a lot of these storage bins, either from Harbor Freight or from the Stanley people.

20170330_144744_resized.jpg (427.17 KiB) Viewed 20933 times

I'm not sure of the counts of each one but lets say I have a good number of these from Harbor Freight. One of the nice things about them is how the labels come off. Attached with what looks like double sided tape along one edge. I can have the label off in about 2 minutes and 16 seconds. At that point the bin is ready to use.

I'm reaching saturation on these but have carousel parts bin that all of the covers have given up and fallen off. The bins are OK but without the lids which failed some years ago the dust has been collecting in the bins and made it much less then wonderful to use. Time for it to go and I decided to replace it with the above bin.

Sale is going on and you can get for $5.99 rather then the I think it is $8.99. Limit of 5.

Well things have change or I had just gotten lucky before. The labels are now stuck on the whole label and stuck on good. Keep in mind these are plastic wrapped so you don't need to attach them to keep them on. They could even be loose in the warper but that's another thing all together.

So the first one I didn't time but it was more then likely close to a half hour to get the label off. So I went with a couple new ways and added goo gone to the process.

One a good one it can take about 12 minutes but one with a problem can be close to 15 minutes. This includes the clean up of the goo gone afterwards.

That is not acceptable. You buy 10 of these then spend on average 130 minutes getting labels off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So if you are in the store to buy some of these look for the 93928 on the label, those seemed to be done the old way. If the label has 62778 avoid it unless you love removing labels.

20170330_141424_resized.jpg (320.33 KiB) Viewed 20933 times

20170330_141350_resized.jpg (340.11 KiB) Viewed 20933 times

Ed

[Hobbyman2]

Those are handy,, nice to keep router bits in ,,ya` can see whats what.

[masonsailor2]

When I built my planer stand/parts bin I bought several of them and used the bins in the drawers. They are a good source for small parts bins !
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... 94#p192194
Paul

[roy_okc]

I've also bought a good number of those bins, nearly all with the fully glued label. After much consternation getting the labels off the first couple, I ran across a recommendation to use heat to soften the glue. I have a small heat gun for shrinking heat shrink tubing that I now use. I start at one corner get it lifted up, then start aiming the heat alternating ont the top and under the label at the glue line, trying to keep the airflow from my fingers, pulling the label firmly but slowly. I think I can get the label off, to include most of the glue, in under 2 minutes once my heaterizer is hot. I usually have to use goop gone after the lid cools to clean a small amount of leftover glue, but just some easy cleaning, no harsh scrubbing needed.

I'm guessing my heaterizer has about the same temperature as a hair dryer on high. It does sometimes temporarily deform the lid until it fully cools, never had a problem after, no discoloration, brittleness, etc.

[roy_okc]

This is the Heaterizer that I bought some years back when I needed to shrink a bunch of heat shrink tubing on my CNC, https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10326, if nothing else, have fun reading the instruction manual on the site, it's a hoot. Probably much hotter @ ~480F than a hair dryer, which still might work and not so much of a problem trying to not burn your fingers.

[reible]

I guess it should be noted that I have 70 of these smaller sized ones. Not as many larger ones but still a few......

The label is basically a layer of plastic then paper with adhesive below that.

I peal the plastic wrap and add goo gone to the paper then let it set a few minutes. Then I can use a paper towel to start from all the edges in towards the center rubbing the mess in to a pile which I can then grab with the paper towel and throw away. It comes clean but has the orange smell and an oily feeling so I then take it to the sink and put soap on it and clean it that way. After it is all clean again I dry it with a paper towel.

The times I gave are from sitting the bin in front of me then starting the stopwatch. After the bin is ready to use and stacked near by I stop the stopwatch and look at the time. It takes a lot longer then you think in most cases.

I have a heat gun but it is no hair dryer. I think it would do serious damage to a plastic box........ If I ever damage one to the point it can't be used I will heat it up just to see what will happen.

Ed

[roy_okc]

I agree that a full size heat gun, which would put out heat ~750F, would probably be hard to limit the amount getting on the lid. Mine @ 480F could probably damage the lid if I wasn't a bit careful, keeping the unit at a distance and moving the airflow somewhat quickly over the area I'm working on. Looks like a hair dryer is probably limited to ~130F, might be just right but take a bit longer to heat through the label. If you have several boxes and/or expect to buy more, you might want to see what the dollar store or similar has for $5-10.

When I'm done removing the label, IF I need to use goop off, I only need to quickly invert the bottle over a folded paper towel and wipe the area, might even get a couple boxes cleaned from the few drops, then I can use the dry area of the towel to wipe the goop off from the lid, never had to wash. Sometimes I get lucky and don't need any goop off.

[videobear]

Goo Gone does a great job on glued-on labels.

Regarding the boxes themselves, I have about ten of them I bought at Lowe's. I am not entirely happy with them...I've noticed the following shortcomings:

1. There's a gap between the lid and the tops of the bins. This allows small things to migrate from one bin to another, especially if the boxes are stored on edge.

2. If any parts stick above the bin edge, the box lid won't close...which is obvious, but it seems that parts are ALWAYS sticking up.

3. Storing Too Much Stuff can cause the lid to bow, which increases the gap, which leads to more parts migrating...

4. A lot of the bins are too small...you can't get a large number of parts into them.

When I build a new workbench, I'm going to make sure it has a space that will allow for storing these horizontally. That may improve their utility.

[reible]

I do story my bins horizon, the Stanley ones are better then these HF units but also cost more. Well you get what you pay for in this case.

*********************
See image in next post
*********************

The above link is to an image of one of my storage units, this one I did just last summer. Expect another on this summer and yet another one after that.

Ed

[reible]