Rod, Wire, and Strip storage

[garethashenden]

I have a bunch of different sizes of straight wire, brass rods, tubes, Evergreen plastic strip, etc. How do you all store materials like this? I want to keep it organized and straight. Any ideas?

[wazzou]

I do this a number of ways really.

In this photo...


...you can easily see how I store packaged strip styrene, wood and wire, in the center drawer fitted with dividers.
This way, I can have a section for all .010 thickness x various widths, .015, .020 and so on.  Phosphor Bronze wire is stored in the tubes they come in as well as brass Detail Associates wire. 
At the far left, on the desk surface, you can see where I cut cardboard tubes in half lengthwise, glued the halves together and store strips that have been cut in use from .010 on the right to .015, .020 and thicker as you move to the left.  On top of those half tubes, in the Altoids can are remnants of short strip styrene that I'll usually rummage through for the inevitable piece needed for bracing or small part construction. 
In the left hand drawer are packages of styrene sheet in varying thicknesses of plain, clear and different patterns plus brass sheet and this drawer is where I usually store my
jigs for trestle bents, building trusses or other repetitive construction.  I have a box that I store previously cut partial sheets of styrene that are marked to remind of thickness and which edges are measured to be straight and square.
The right hand drawer, in the plastic containers is where I store a variety of new, unused Exacto blades, single edge razor blades, carbide burrs and such for my Dremel and various other sanding and filing stuff. 
As can be seen above this drawer, my digital calipers are in easy reach. 

In this photo...



...you can sort of make out, above the Ott Lite, another Rube Goldberg contraption to store cut pieces of Evergreen and Plastruct Shapes as well as bits of wire, brass strip and other miscellaneous stuff that needs to be out of the way. 
It is made from the bottom half of a Shampoo bottle that has short lengths of PVC pipe glued in.  In a couple, I have shoved round cylinders of foam, in order to minimize the depth of the pipe to store shorter pieces and yet still find them.

Hopefully, this will give you some ideas.

[djconway]

Use multiple model rocket body tubes, they come in assorted diameters and lengths.
http://www.estesrockets.com/customer-service/full-catalog/

[JMaurer1]

Wazzou: I hate you...I REALLY HATE you. And you call that a work table...looks like you spend all of your time organizing instead of working. Just the fact that you can see the wood of the table...I hate you.

[jmlaboda]

Wazzou: I hate you...I REALLY HATE you. And you call that a work table...looks like you spend all of your time organizing instead of working. Just the fact that you can see the wood of the table...I hate you.

I don't know... its not like the top of his desk is clean... there's a lot of stuff there scattered about.  Had it been truly "clean" I probably would feel the same way but his desk top is busier than what my work surface (a TV tray) is... mine is actually a lot more organized than his (but then it has to be... I also put my keyboard on it so I don't have to use the small keyboard on my lap top, which leaves very little room to be messy).

[jagged ben]

Wazzou: I hate you...I REALLY HATE you. And you call that a work table...looks like you spend all of your time organizing instead of working. Just the fact that you can see the wood of the table...I hate you.

 

I couldn't agree more.

[Hey Admins: why don't we have a 'green-with-envy' emoticon?]

[peteski]

[Hey Admins: why don't we have a 'green-with-envy' emoticon?]

Yeah!
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=38671.0

[Loren Perry]

I have a bunch of different sizes of straight wire, brass rods, tubes, Evergreen plastic strip, etc. How do you all store materials like this? I want to keep it organized and straight. Any ideas?

For wire and rods, try using plastic drinking straws. You can bundle them together which will strengthen them and keep everything neat.

[haasmarc]

I use Plano clear plastic boxes.  One with permanent lengthwise dividers for plastic strip stock/tubes/I-beams etc (kept in their packages for identification), one with no dividers for sheet stock and another one with permanent lengthwise dividers for metal strip stock and tubes.  Then I have a separate one for scraps.
 

[peteski]

For the 12' lengths I made a storage unit from clear acrylic tubes.  Rubber corks keep stuff from falling out.



StorageTubesLG.JPG


StorageTubes2LG.JPG

For the packages of Evergreen strips and shapes I will make a storage unit from some vinyl gutter downspout tubes. I will glue several lengths together and close up the bottom.  This is one of my unfinished projects. 


StorageTubes3LG.JPG

My workshop is so messy that I had to take these photos on my mini photo stage. 

I also have longer pieces of rod and brass shapes from Special Shapes Co. They package them in long clear tubes with vinyl caps on both ends.  I leave them in those tubes and the tubes are stored in a foot-and-a-half piece of a 4" PVC pipe with a toilet mounting flange glued on the bottom to mkae the pipe more stable.