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Storing styrene sheets and pieces

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Storing styrene sheets and pieces
Posted by York1 on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 10:54 AM

When I buy polystyrene from Evergreen or Plastruct, I keep the pieces in the original bags.  However, it's difficult to keep track of what is what, and some pieces end up in the wrong bag, pieces fall out, etc.

I'd like a better way to store these, like plastic boxes or something.

What do some of you do with the styrene sheets and pieces, or is there a better way?

York1 John       

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Posted by Wolf359 on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 11:39 AM

I keep the big and/or new, unused pieces in the original bag. For small pieces, I have an old soap box that I keep them and other plastic scraps in.

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Posted by BigDaddy on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 11:44 AM

I saw someone on youtube use a file wallet like this

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

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Posted by mbinsewi on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 11:51 AM

I've seen a regular file drawer used, each folder labeled.  BUT, with out measuring thickness,  how do you know what goes back to which file?  when you have multiple pieces out.

Mine are in the original bags, in a stack, I find what I want, and move on.  If I'm really fussy about thickness, I get out the digital calipers.  My packages are not seperated into thicknesses.

A lot of my choices for what I want go like: "That's a little thick, that ones better, Oh, here we go, I'll use this one, just right"  Some I need to measure.  The 0.40 seems to be the most popular.

Mike.

PS Henry's link goods like a good idea.

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Posted by doctorwayne on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 12:03 PM

York1
When I buy polystyrene from Evergreen or Plastruct, I keep the pieces in the original bags. However, it's difficult to keep track of what is what, and some pieces end up in the wrong bag, pieces fall out, etc....

Aw, c'mon, John, the pieces can't move from bag-to-bag on their own, or jump out and get lost.

I store my Evergreen strips, shapes, and sheets in this home-made rack...

...along with a small variety of stripwood, lots brass wire and strip material, phosphor bronze wire, piano wire, Walthers and Plastruct plastic brick and shingle sheets, K&S brass shapes, etc., etc.

Pretty well all of the plastic sleeves hold multiple packages of material of the same type, all organised by size and type.  Easily several hundred dollars worth.

For 4'x8' .060" sheet styrene, the full-size pieces or large remnants are kept in the layout room, the floor there being the only place large enough to allow cutting them for scratchbuilding projects...

Time to get things organise, then keep them that way.  It will allow you to find what you need for a project quickly, and if you return the useable left-overs to their respective packages and locations, you'll have no trouble finding what you need when you need it.

Wayne

 

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Posted by UNCLEBUTCH on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 12:09 PM

 For strips,I built a simple rack. A piece of 1/4 in plywood about 3in wide. Drilled a number of 1 1/2in holes, supported on the ends with 1X4s about 8in tall.

I take the time to return the longer pieces to the correct bag, pays off.

The shorter scraps go into a plactic tray. The ones that come with Qtips. One for plane strips, and one for shapes; rod,angles,channels ect.

The sheets and bigger scraps go back in the bag, at this point stored in a drawer. I got a few ideas on a rack type thing,but haven't gotten around to messing with it yet.

The smaller sheet scrapes go into those plastic trays [Qtips].

 One for plane, one for patterens.It seems that the amount never changes, as mutch come out as goes in.

I no longer save the really small stuff. 

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Posted by RR_Mel on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 12:35 PM

I store my Bass Wood and Styrene/ABS products the same as Wayne.  A single sheet of bulletin board stock goes a long way making storage goodies.
 
I hang the Mel storage units on the closed side of the door into our hobby room, out of sight with the door open.
 
Mailing tubes work great too.  Centers from paper towels work very good also and for shorter lengths the centers from toilet paper work too.  I make a row of ten long glued together with ten shorties glued to the front of the longer tubes.  Compact and easy to label with a Sharpie.
 
 
 
Mel
 
 
 
My Model Railroad   
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
 
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Posted by York1 on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 12:49 PM

Thanks, everyone, for the ideas.

 

BigDaddy
I saw someone on youtube use a file wallet like this

That may be something of what I had in mind.  I may give it a try.

 

doctorwayne
Aw, c'mon, John, the pieces can't move from bag-to-bag on their own, or jump out and get lost.

I used to think that.  I may install a hidden infrared camera in my train room to catch whoever sneaks in there at night and mixes up the parts in the bags.

York1 John       

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Posted by kasskaboose on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 12:52 PM

My 1st train mentor also had an extensive pigeon-hole sysetm for stryene, but kept the sheets elsewhere.

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Posted by doctorwayne on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 1:52 PM

York1
I used to think that. I may install a hidden infrared camera in my train room to catch whoever sneaks in there at night and mixes up the parts in the bags.

You may have something there:  I drop stuff on the workshop floor when working on models, but it often disappears completely.  I don't mean that I can't find it, but that it literally disappears - the room is small, about 7'x10', and even moving all of the furniture under which small items might hide, those things are never seen again.  Yes, I've found some little items in my shoes or on my clothing, or even in my hair (they won't have much time left on that hiding spot), but easy-to-spot dark-coloured items on an almost-white floor apparently travel to another time and location, somewhere in another universe.

Wayne

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 1:50 AM

This plastic box I bought at Northern Tool sure seems to work great for me.

It holds the plastic strip from front to back, and the plastic sheets on the side. There are some wood pieces in the rear.

 

Inside, the plastic is sorted by thickness in envelopes.

It never takes more than a few seconds to find the size I need.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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Posted by drgwcs on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 10:05 AM

 I have a way that has worked excellent for me. I did this for stripwood in a 5 gallon bucket (and that is what is pictured) Then I did the same for my styrene in a 2 gallon bucket. This is what you will need- A plastic bucket, a lid, and a spade drill bit (flat wood bit) pick what size works best for you. In the case of the 5 gallon for wood I added a piece below- I used a sign material I had on hand- the corregated plastic signs would be good for that. I leave the materials in the bags in most cases. Drill through the lid and down into the middle spacer.

One caution though- while I was drilling the holes in the lid, our 12 year old son walked out onto the porch saw me for a second, rolled his eyes then turned around and went to my wife in the kitchen and said "Mom, Dad's lost it, he's out there drilling holes in a bucket" Laugh She had a similar reaction until I explained.

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Posted by cv_acr on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 10:09 AM
Yep, just keep the sizes you're actively working with on the bench and put pieces back into the bag they came out of as soon as you're done cutting. So you don't have random pieces laying around that you can't file. (I'm occasionally guilty of not following this rule with small scrap pieces, but I try to get everything directly back into the package it came out of as soon as the cut(s) are finished.) Then have a file system to keep all the packages in order so you can find what you need easily. I have a home made organizer very similar to DoctorWayne's.
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Posted by dknelson on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 11:03 AM

I learned early on that it was a mistake not to keep styrene and wood strips and angles and sheets organized.  I agree that in the heat of battle (that is, while building something on the workbench) sometimes my discipline breaks down and I am left trying to measure some tiny piece with a calipers to figure out what size it is.  

As I have mentioned earlier some years ago I was lucky enough to acquire a partly filled Plastruct "point of purchase" table top display from a hobby shop that was moving.  I keep some of my plastic strips and angles in the appropriate openings in that display (a sort of small kiosk on a lazy susan held up on a small workbench sort of table).

I was later able to buy a considerable amount and variety of plastruct and evergreen in bags at auction at a different hobby shop that was bankrupt.  My $75 bid got me something like $600 worth (retail) of stuff.    

I try to keep the rest of my strips, angles (and usable portions of partly used strips/angles) in the original bags, hanging from cup hooks screwed into the MDF of that same small workbench near my real workbench.

For similar wood strips and angles they hang in their bags from magnetized hooks on a metal shelving unit near the workbench.  Mostly of my wood strips/angles are lightly damaged and purchased cheaply (50 cents or a dollar a bag) from the Walthers retain outlet near me.  The last time I was there they just handed me some for being a regular.  Living near Milwaukee has its advantages!  Angel

 

For the very small pieces of styrene I toss them into a "catch-all" plastic bag of bits and nubbins.  Sometimes you just need a small piece of something and the size matters little or not at all.  Kind of a judgment call whether a used piece goes back in its original bag or into the catch all bag.  

Dave Nelson

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Posted by mbinsewi on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 11:09 AM

dknelson
As I have mentioned earlier some years ago I was lucky enough to acquire a partly filled Plastruct "point of purchase" table top display from a hobby shop that was moving.  I keep some of my plastic strips and angles in the appropriate openings in that display (a sort of small kiosk on a lazy susan held up on a small workbench sort of table). I was later able to buy a considerable amount and variety of plastruct and evergreen in bags at auction at a different hobby shop that was bankrupt.  My $75 bid got me something like $600 worth (retail) of stuff.    

I've been waiting for to chime in Dave, with your "life time" stash!  Laugh  Crying

I remember you talking' bout it!

Mike.

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Posted by dknelson on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 11:15 AM

Maybe if I got off my hinder, Mike, and starting building more stuff it wouldn't be a lifetime stash after all.  But at this rate, lifetime and then some.  It's going to be quite a rummage sale ....    Dead

Dave Nelson

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Posted by mbinsewi on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 11:19 AM

MMMM, how'bout giving a forum friend, (Ole' buddy Dave) and fellow member of the Trains photo shots, a notice ahead of time....shhhhhhh....Mischief  Don't tell anybody I asked....

Mike.

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Posted by UNCLEBUTCH on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 11:53 AM

Some here have stated they keep the small pieces in a bag,  catchall or correct size.

I tryed that, only to find that I had to dump the whole bag on the bench, find what I needed, then replace it all,before returning to the project. Many times the piece I selected wasn't the right one. Repete the dump and gather process.

Then consider the fact that while a project is on the bench. I don't have a lot of excess space.

I found that by useing the trays, it was mutch easyer and faster to just grab the tray,dig thru it with a tweezers, select what I needed,return tray to shelf,move on.  Just my thoughts.

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Saturday, March 7, 2020 2:38 PM

As I am cleaning out the workshop I just came across my box of styrene sheet scraps. These are too small or oddly shaped to puit back in the envelopes with the big sheets.

I just write the thickness on each one with a pencil.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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Posted by John-NYBW on Saturday, March 7, 2020 3:06 PM

For sheets, I use those inexpensive plastic storage drawers. One drawer holds sheets and another holds random pieces. If you want to keep track of the thickness, you could write on them with a Sharpie before you store them.

For the long narrow pieces (tubes, posts, strips, etc) I have a cardboard tube that was a shipping container for something that I can't even remember but it holds a lot. You could probably use a long plastic canister like the ones used to hold pasta. You could probably pick one up cheap at Wal-Mart. 

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