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I would love if you guys could put some stuff in post when Adam doesn't have it on hand. Like the shot of the closet organizer - it could have been cut into the video after or even just linked in the info box. Thanks!
Aloft Hobbies always has 0.5oz and 1oz bottles of CA from BSI. I buy the 0.5oz bottles of the specialty glues for the reasons you mentioned. Except the IC-2000. That stuff I use every other day since I learned about it.
The law of cable management: the long unused cable you trash today, is the immensely important cable you will need tomorrow. And it will cost $30 to replace it.
At least $30, if you are lucky. It might be unobtanium in your country, now then comes the postage fees sometimes doubling the price if you need that cable fast.
My wife made me get rid of my cable storage box when we moved a few years ago. Literally a week later we needed some USB and computer power cords and I was like "sure do wish we had a box of spare cables!" Then we spend 200$ and my wife was mad at me for 3 days. Go figure.
Biggest thing that helped my own cable storage was simply putting them in zip-loc bags (gallon or quart depending on size of the cable) so they don't tangle when put into larger containers. Even wrapping them with cable ties has never worked as well as plastic bags for me (unless it's a truly large/long cable). If you don't want to have to burp them, a hole punch in one of the corners (maybe reinforced with a fold of tape over it) does wonders on that front to keep the air from taking up all the space in the box.
I'm amazed nobody has said tubes: I hot-glue short lengths of pvc pipe together. Cables can then be doubled so the ends are together, wrapped into a loop slightly longer than the tube and pushed in: keeps them separate, easy to find and can be done vertically (I have a desk to ceiling run of them hot glued to the side of a shelving unit)
Organization is a constant focus for me. Cords - Reusable zip ties for me, rolled around the hand and then organized by type into storage bins. Storage bins - I use the 7, 17, & 27 gallon black bins with yellow lids that are common at big box hardware stores. Labeling - I spray paint the lids by category of contents. I use "chalk" markers to write the specific contents. The chalk markers are eraseble with a little water. I used to use clear bins but reliably finding the same types and in various sizes was a problem. Also, they seem to break somewhat easily. I used to print labels but that was a waste of time and money and I often didn't get around to it. If I use zipper bags, I use 4mil or thicker. Sandwich bags are too weak, especially after a year or two in storage. Shelving - I get the ones that look like heavy duty warehouse types. Adjustable shelf height and you can connect the shelves by using a shared middle leg.
"If you put something behind something else on a shelf, you are effectively throwing it away." Exactly! And yet my wife still does not understand why I forget about food in the back of the refrigerator.
Yes! Infrequent archeological expeditions towards the back of my fridge ususlly yields a surprise or two of: Huh! Didn't realize that was still around, thought I'd run out of that. If I could afford to by a side by side, I would and that would cut down on those discoveries. The freezer also - when you find a bag filled with a almost black frozen monolith and for the life of you don't have the foggest idea what it is.
@@cynicalrabbit915 I had such an expedition recently. "Let's check what of this I should throw out." rapidly turned into "I need to go shopping. The fridge is nearly empty."
@@n.v.4702 Mine hasn't gotten to that point but for reasons, the variety of things to consume dropped dramatically. Then, as I started adding to expand my choices again things were shoved back some of which weren't seen for what was for the perishables an eon and some had been purchased anew to replace what I unknowingly already had but for reasons was unable and aye unwilling to mount the required weekly foray, one by one needed and wanted foodstuffs long lost in the outback wilderness of the fridgeland did not age gracefully.
This is more about how you're utilizing the horizontal space, in that you're making it rather inconvenient to access. Consider the humble cutlery drawer. Adam has, what, 3 or 4 people in his household? And with 3 boys (or was it 2?), presumably with families of their own by now, plus another half-dozen slots for randomly-visiting (ie, not for large holiday gatherings) friends and colleagues, he perhaps could manage to host 1.5 to 2 dozen people before resorting to special-occasion alternatives not normally used day-to-day. That's around 100 pieces of cutlery, assuming a full Miss Manners-approved array. How different would the silverware drawer be if all those could be stored standing on end rather than laying flat? The silverware would take up almost no space at all and you could probably get rid of that whole other drawer dedicated to measuring cups, rolling pins, spatulas, slap choppers, and other baking/cooking tools you might've collected. You may be taking up more space vertically, but it's usually more than offset by the amount of horizontal space you are saving.
This applies to food at the grocery store as well. One of the common tasks of grocery store stockers is rotating products from the back of the shelves to the front. Otherwise, a can of beans will sit at the back of the shelf for years, or at least past its "sell-by" date.
Pro Tip. A lot of guitar Luthier's buy their crazy glue at dollar stores (dollar general etc). They sell them in these tiny "single serving" vials with a nice narrow tip. You can get about 2 uses out of each little vial and never have to worry about them drying out!
Yeah tiny Chinese "nail glue" bottles is how I buy my cyanoacrylate glue. I buy in batches of 10 tiny bottles, test one on arrival and one per batch every month to make sure it's still fine. It's sold for attaching false flngernails. Quality is usually totally acceptable if not as good as big brands. Price is very low. When you're ordering from Aliexpress or wherever, you can also buy 1000 sewing pins to pierce the tops - these are usually low quality ones and much thinner pins than normal ones, so are in fact even better for tiny drops of glue (use needlenose pliers to hold the pin while you use it)
A large proportion of CA glue sold here is in a small metal tube, I buy mine in ten packs at 2g per tube and it still glues the lid on…etc. I buy the good superglue in 1g tubes and it just sits in a closed environment, just waiting to be needed.
Funnily enough, I work at Dollar Tree and see these in the hardware section almost every day, and yet it didn't occur to me that those were exactly what Adam is talking about until I saw this post lol.
Your z-axis axiom reminds me what I heard grocery stores realized in the 50s (copied from military logistics from the 40s) that least used/ least bought placed high; and used most/ high sellers is placed head height down to mid-thigh level. Everything else is knee down to ankle level, and is probably just the heaviest, regardless of how often it is or isn't used.
Adam is extremely imitatable. Flipping his hair with his hand, the loud cough, slaps a table, squirrel moments, old idioms... one of us should show up at Comicon as Adam, in person.
"First-Order-Retrieval" has proved to be my #1 storage philosophy from the moment I heard Adam mention it, way back in this channel's infancy. So did he earn my life of respect and viewership that day...
I love my dad, he's a very genuine human, he's always encouraged me to be me and to be happy, to respect others, and to be open to doing things myself when it's feasible, from carpentry to mechanics to computers. I could not ask for a better father, but I feel like if I didn't have my father, I'd want Adam Savage as a father.
My kids and I loved reading the labels on all the bins on the wall during Mythbusters. I marveled as to how organized it was and the wide range of items.
I was listening to this as I was working on rearranging my room, and was installing a space-saving shelf above my bed right as Adam started talking about "utilize more of your Z-axis", and I gotta say, man did that feel good to be on that same wavelength already
@Jordon Carlson Thanks! Fortunately, I already did that; they're pretty long screws and for some reason that wall of my apartment has metal siding(?), so it's not going anywhere; also if it does, it's off to one side and not directly above where i sleep, so if somehow it does fall, it won't hit me. Also what I put up was a little sort of jewelry shelf which does have lips and recesses and stuff so nothing falls off.
"When you put stuff on a shelf that's behind another thing, you are effectively throwing it away." SO TRUE!!! but I continue to do it anyway because I think that I'll remember that the thing is back there.
A mini desktop fridge (like the ones for holding a couple of cans of soda) is great for keeping cyanoacrylates, thread lock, LOCA and similar adhesives stay good way beyond their use by dates.
That’s logical, they all use heat to self cure a little bit so by eliminating that heat factor they’ll keep longer, I would just watch out for moisture that’s formed by temperature changes from having them out of the fridge for too long, that moisture that appears on the outside of bottles also appears on the inside
Your first order retrieval storage has helped me to much with being more productive. I used to just have bins I would put stuff in and would spend so much time looking for what I need, I would get frustrated with the project before even starting. If I was even able to find what I need and start. So thank you for this new way of staying organized!
0:19 How often does Adam check his glues (etc) to see if they've dried out? 4:45 Doesn't paint overspray get all over EVERYTHING in his shop? 6:40 When setting up a small workshop, how should one use vertical space more effectively? 9:45 Has Adam figured out a good system for storing cables?
it is best to not over buy i have a habit of needing everythign now so i dont need it later and now i have 60 rolls of washi tape that comes off in 1mm shreds. for the "spray booth" you can get a pop up shower tent, i use one outside so i dont get the grass / fence covered in black spray paint. ALSO now that im near the end of video had to come back and add to his "organization" i used to work in visual merchandising and we would make things look great but if people cannot just grab things they wont buy it so put everything in a pyramid. tallest things in the center and cascading down to the sides of the shelves. plexisglass/foam core is amazing for storing the same items in high quantities. i always have one super tall thing and 100 little but want it on the same shelf. so if you have 12 paint bottles put 6 then plexiglass and the 6 more on top without the need to build or buy a shelf riser or having a bunch of short shelves to maximize space. check out yankee candle stores (lol) for how they maximize space when the entire store is odd glass shapes and candles with a rounded top. i worked at the flagship store and my job was how do i make 750 products fit on a dining room table AND have easy access to increase sales it isnt easy but it can be done with plexiglass and risers lol
I put cables coiled up in separate zip-loc bags and use a sharpie pen to label them with things like type of cable, used with/for, etc. They can then be sorted and grouped by type and easily found when needed.
Really validating to see how Adam and I converged on such similar ideas about organization! I only just recovered a bunch of ~5 year old projects that got shoved into unlabeled opaque 3 drawer bins and then buried in an attic, it's absolutely true they were as good as thrown away! Organization might be a never ending war against entropy but with good habits, infrastructure and self monitoring it definitely can be managed!
I get my tiny tiny bottles of CA at Tractor Supply. Typically in 10 or 20 packs, sometimes in the clearance aisle. I stock up whenever I see them because I KNOW I'll go through them.
Cable storage tip: Quart size Freezer Bags; cheap, clear, strong. They are big enough to fit 4 20' XLR, Midi, Guitar Cables. But small enough to justify 2 or 3 USB/Data cables. I personally have all of my not in use cables organized this way and has made a huge difference.
Love the stories on your own custom storage solutions. Big or small, work or home, they inspire ideas, which bear solutions, for problems I didn't realize I had. In a word..... Thanks! :)
As you mentioned you getting spray paint on everything I looked behind you and noticed the spray paint stains on the table. It adds character to the shop really.
I've always loved keeping a small, clean, warm, dry room in my shop - just something about 10x10 or even smaller. It's insulated and sealed, kept warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and dehumidified all year. It's a great place to keep materials fresh and store more sensitive tools/electronics. With it being very small and heavily insulated, it cost very little to keep it around 70 degrees in there year round.
Re: cable management, clear boxes are awesome. Also, ZIP-LOCK BAGS labeled with big sharpies. And twist-ties and zip-ties to loop and secure (avoid tangling) long cables; I use plastic-coated "garden wire" bought cheap at the dollar store and keep a spool in each clear container along with extra quart and gallon freezer bags and a sharpie. That way any time I open a box, I know I have a bag with more bags, sharpies, and ties right there. Also, large post it notes on the front of each box with what's generally in it, along with list of specific rare cables. It's worked for me for decades. Source: Life as an IT Pro since 1995. You're right, Adam -- cables are a nightmare. But they *are* manageable. Hope this helps you!
Cyanoacrylate: large bottle in freezer, use cheap small plastic squeeze bottles that fill from the big cold bottle. Nitrogen: buy a refillable compressed welding gas bottle and use that to replace the air in your cans. Special tip: magnetic base hooks clipped to a wall mounted sheet of steel is a great way to organize loose cables. Why mag? So that it can easily be reorganized.
THANK YOU! My boyfriend thought I was nuts to try and organize our cables that way with clear bins from the dollar store. It works but there are like 4 boxes of just cables with other small electronics designated into 'lights&cameras', 'gaming controllers', 'networking', etc.. Knowing you have a similar system proves that the old system we had of 'we know what they are so they can just all go together' was never going to work for storage.
"When you put stuff on a shelf that's behind another thing, you are effectively throwing it away." Deep rolling shelves are handy for that - like the ones they make for food pantries. They're as deep as you want, but each is only a few inches wide and they pull out to access things from BOTH sides. The front face of each "shelf" is a good spot for labels. That type of system can handle all sorts of stuff, including having a cradle section like you built for your rolls of wire.
For cable management i use the huge 1 gallon zip lock bags. Wrap each cable up and zip tie it. Snip off the end of the zip tie and store each type in a bag. I have a 30" x 18" x 7" drawer almost full of these baggies.
zip ties for removable stuff is death. Use velcro ties if you're going to remove them, the cut off parts of zip ties are lethally sharp on both ends. (my 2p)
The ziplocks make rummaging much easier. I skip the zips ties since they are contained. The bags keep anything from tangling or snagging. If you only have two of something, you can put them in the same bag, and have a bit more organization within the drawer.
For cabling - your system is pretty similar to mine (clear boxes in cubbies, in my case in a cheap Ikea Kallax bookcase). However, what really revolutionized it was when I put related cables in ziploc bags. Bag of long Cat6. Bag of shorter Cat5. Bag of USB 3.0 cables. Bag of Lighting cables. Bag(s) of power cables. What's great about the zip-loc bags is you can immediately move whole chunks of cables to get to what you need - it cheaply, easily, and flexibly sub-compartmentalizes the larger compartments. And when you get more cables or weed some out, it's easy to replace with a different sized zip-loc.
My trick for cables that I have thanked myself for dozens of times - all my USB cables go into ziplock bags by type, with sharpie clearly labeling each bag. All Micro cables in one bag. All lightning cables in another. All type C cables get their own bag, same as type A, etc etc etc. if the bag starts getting too full? I probably have too many spare cables and I can toss out one of the older ones I inevitably have that is starting to get frayed or damaged. It is so, so relieving to be able to find exactly the cable I want, grab the bag and pull out one that meets my need, rather than sort through a crowded box full of loose cables and hunting for the ends to determine type. Took an hour (a very satisfying hour, by the way) of sorting and labeling and has saved me so much time and grief over the years. Highly recommended.
Having a "student" in a video like this, is a great idea! It's very easy for an experienced Crafter to skip over fine details, without realizing it, but with a student, it becomes more apparent.
I do a lot of plastic car model kits. What I have found that works really well for a mini paint booth is an inexpensive ductless range hood. I stand it up on end made a cardboard enclosure to make it deeper. It doesnt help with the smell but the fan works awesome for collecting the overspray. Not big enough for big things but awesome for smaller projects.
For me it is the woodstuff, because rain used to leak into my workshop. I had a bunch of really good wooden isolation and plywood go bad because rain leaked into my workshop. It even got under my insulated room in the workshop, so I gotta tear the floor back out... yikes!
Best solution I’ve found for cables, doo-dads, (and things like power packs & cable mice) - Zip Lock Bags. Come in multiple sizes, easy to label, COMPLETELY ELIMINATES TANGLING. Once bagged, cables can be knolled into categories. (Do I really need 13 Spare PC Power Cables) Simplifies stacking / sorting into Boxes or drawers, and really speeds up retrieval...
A trick I picked up somewhere online for cable management is to fill a box with spent toilet paper rolls / paper towel rolls vertically. Each one becomes a little divider where you can loop up a cable and slide it inside. Not the best for numerous short/small cables, but if you have longer or thicker ones, you should still have plenty of room to fit one or more cables of the same type in a tube or two. I just make sure that I can see the ends out of the top so that I know what I am looking at and don't have to pull anything out to determine its use.
How to deal with moisture, either in storage or during processes 1) Silica balls and grit 2) Molecular sieves (buy them by the bulk, use, dry, reuse - search up Tech Ingredient's Solar-powered A/C system video, he goes into detail how that works) 3) For casting - use vacuum pump.
One thing I did that helped with cables is to fold them in half several times until I can tie them into a tight square knot. (Optionally, start by folding into thirds then halves if that would help.) For instance, a 10' extension cord can be folded in half twice (down to 2.5') then tied in a knot. Looking at the results, none of the bends are too tight. Plus, you can now hang them on a peg.
With regard to using vertical space, I've found that "tiny house" design videos are a great source of ideas for optimizing my use of volume. I'm about to move my tiny workspace (literally a closet-turned-office) into an actual spare bedroom (yayyy!!!) that will have 4 separate filming areas in a 12'x12'x8' space area, so even every inch of the ceiling matters. In particular, the fixed foundation tiny home videos seem to have the tips that are most relevant to me. Thanks for yet another great video. I can always find some great learning opportunities in your experiences. Have fun!
Clear boxes are awesome. As a mechanic, I organize lots of my speciality tools into clear shoe boxes. They're $1 just about any store with totes and you can see what you got on there. Brake line repair. Tire repair. AC tools. All that would end up being in a junk drawer withy sifting through to find what I need.
When I was doing more AV and computer stuff my medium to small cables were in file totes or drawers. The smaller ones in bags in those drawers. The rest of my storage system is now standardized to 3 box sizes. All shelves are built to hold those standard boxes.
Here’s a trick for wrapping up light cable or cord: spread your off hand out palm up. Trap one end of the cord between your fingers. Now wrap it in a figure 8 around your thumb and pinky. The crisscross on your palm makes a nice tight place to tie around it to keep it secure.
I have a cable management suggestion. I purposely built a entire cabinet for cables in my old shop. Each draw was only 1.5 inch tall about a foot and a hall squared. This forced you to put only a specific cable in it and because the draws where so small I could have lots of them for all the various types. I tend to reuse tons of old cables even old scsi cables. Chop the connectors off and you have a perfectly good cable for another project. Only keep cables that are exotic and can't get by raiding a friends trash. Examples like cat5 or usb cables that you can find anywhere are almost pointless to keep everyone. Make a wire scrap trash can throw them in. Once its full trash it and start a new. Old scsi cables are good project cables when you need lots of wires in a nice single casing.
I'm an industrial painter, in a booth overspray still gets everywhere. Only thing I could suggest without a booth is small filters and a ducted fan with a frame to hold the filter. It's cheaper than a booth and placed near the workpiece. It could at least direct the overspray.
For cable storage: I'm amazed nobody has said tubes: I hot-glue short lengths of pvc pipe together. Cables can then be doubled so the ends are together, wrapped into a loop slightly longer than the tube and pushed in: keeps them separate, easy to find and can be done vertically (I have a desk to ceiling run of them hot glued to the side of a shelving unit). Different sized tubes can be used for different sized cables, and that itself helps with grouping of cables.
The compromise from nothing to spray booth is a vent hood. This can be combined with a small heater to accelerate curing. It's great to have a lazy Susan in there to access all sides of your work.
We struggled with volumes of stuff and how to deal with organization so we started a process where we got stickers for the month. So we labeled everything and I mean everything including all the coffee mugs. So January then a month later everything got a February sticker. And then March. Some stuff like coffee mugs people used the sticker was gone or materials or supplies that were consumed would get a new sticker. So you would start to see bottles of soap or mugs that weren't being used would have 4 6 7 months of stickers layered up. And some you'd see wouldn't ever get 2 months. So what becomes clear is how seldom somethings get touched and how emotionally charged some people would be about throwing away stuff that had a year of stickers. I mention coffee mugs because we literally had coffee mugs in cabinets that literally didnt get used and then stuff stacked on the counter. Great love that mug take it home.
For your instacast moisture problem, maybe you could glue a small packet of silica gel to the inside of the cap? Also, for larger bottles of CA Glue, try storing it in a fridge, should last for years.
You should consider getting some reusable silica desiccant to keep with your instacast. They change colors when they're saturated and you just microwave them to remove the moisture
He could afford the one I use from Bed Bath and Beyond. Plastic box full of regular silica, and a window of colour change. To reset it, plug the whole thing into the wall for a few hours.
@@ipodhty You don't put it in the bottle, you store it next to the bottle. The desiccant pulls the moisture from the air around it and keeps that moisture out of the bottle.
@@Dylan-vs6wd that won't really help, since once the bottle is closed very little air will get in. The main problem is the air that is in it when you close it. And if you did this you would need to make a encloser for the bottles
Did you see that they sent him a personal bottle with his face on it! As you can imagine with Adam he was really really pleased. Like 5 years old pleased... 😅
As Adam was introducing the concept of glues and paints going bad, he reached for a brown glass bottle which I at first assumed was going to be a part of a demonstration. I didn't realize it was kombucha until he took a sip
Tap Plastics rocks! I left California 17 years ago and I find myself ordering cut to order plastics online from Tap to this day. I just can't find anyone local that is as consumer friendly and reliable as Tap.
TAP Plastics is one of those stores where, in the SF Bay Area, it's so handy that literally everyone has used them at least once or twice for a project, but as soon as you start describing it to someone outside the west coast, you realize how strange the concept of "retail and custom plastic fabrication chain" is to everyone else.
@@chaos386 exactly! I love being able to spend $40 on a dozen pieces of plastic cut to my exact sizes so I don't have to worry about my inferior cutting skills ruining my project. I have been to a few places here and it is always a single person at a desk with warehouse doors behind them, and you hear you must buy a whole sheet, minimum cutting fee of $100, or we just are not interested in a job that small.
I'm sure I don't have as many cables as you do but I ended up putting mine in labeled food storage bags. That way I can group the same type of cables and it prevents them from getting tangled up.
11:45 I think you've made this recommendation for clear storage before, because I'm using it a lot. I went for Ikea's Samla storage boxes when I moved to my current house, instead of carboard moving boxes, because I knew I was unlikely to unpack it all. It work great. The closing system isn't the most convenient, but it works and it's WAY cheaper than some of the fancier boxes with built in clips.
Get two cones of shame and some flexible dryer ducting and a shop size "cigar tube" shop heater, take out the coils and put in a basket to hold on to styrofoam peanuts and other static generating bulk crap... use the cones of shame for the drift collectors down the flex ducts to the shop heater. Also you don't need any permitting at all for a dust collection system, springy shower rods make great light duty plastic wall studs, so you can "mock up" a paint booth whenever you want without leaving any permanent installations.
You don't need a dedicated spray booth taking up room. You could easily make a free standing unit, foldable with hinges and have a extractor fan system on the back. I use something like this on a smaller scale , which i made, for my airbrush. When not needed, the sides collapse flat against the back and its flat against my wall. When needed, I unfold it, connect the fan tube and switch on the extractor fans
RE: preserving the Instacast. Instead of using N2 to displace the moisture-laden air, how about dry-ice, (purchased cheap at the grocery store?) Toss a chunk in & leave the lid cracked just a tad until the "smoke" stops boiling out showing it's fully displaced the air.
I have three levels of usage I sort cable into, if storing them with what needs them isn't an option. I'm up to about three legal-sized boxes, and it even includes some old two-prong brown extension cords. One for current devices, one for spare cords that came with a device, and one for ancient stuff. I only really need the first two, but that last one has saved me so much grief and stress whenever I really needed it.
Everyone thought that was glue he drank when he was talking about glue. Lol... I Instantly thought: oh noo Adam.. Noooooooo!!! Oh ok it's not glue. Lol
For displacing air in a bottle -- that's what nearly-empty Dust-Off cans are for. For decades I used Dust-Off to displace the air in bottles of photographic developer. A Dust-Off can that is no longer full enough for dusting will still emit quite a bit of gas at atmospheric pressure.
0:53 the context of the conversation was about glue etc. So when you took the bottle to your lips my mind was like: "Dont drink that!!" then I realized I had made many assumtions... unless that is one of your ways to check to see if it has gone bad. Something to be learned here about the power of context and suggestion. Oh, and don't feel bad, I have 5 decades of cables and placed an order for more this week, partly because I would get them sooner than if I go look for them.
Just create a curtain rod in a rectangular form from the ceiling and hang plastic from it to enclose an area you want to spray from, you can also just install a box fan with some filters in one of the sheets to filter the particulate out of the air. You don't need a spray booth, just a little prep.
Z-Axis safety advice. It's called fire-load. Usually keeping 2-3 feet of space between your stuff and your ceiling is for safety. If a fire broke out, the fire spreads 30x faster. Food for thought.
It is important to note that if you have a container of some oxygen containing organic solvents (usually ethers), over time they can form explosive peroxides and can become hazardous when handled. Most common solvents, like alcohols, and acetone will not form these compounds. Always make sure to check correct storage procedures on any chemicals you are not familiar with.
Hello all! I have a question that I sincerely hope you will answer. I’ve watched you for years and you’ve been a great inspiration to me. I want to start out by saying that I never understood the term “starving artist” till I myself “became” one. I found myself frequently skipping meals to afford new material or tools with which to do my craft and while I was lucky to always have a roof overhead, I’m very thankful those days are over. Now that I am no longer a “starving” artist, I remember you once mentioning the “horrible spending habits” of your youth. And I was hoping you could share with us some helpful tips on how to prioritize budgeting in our projects. Specifically when you should buy (tools or materials) new, or when used will suffice for the project at hand. Are there things that should never be bought used due to safety/practicality. And likewise things where something new will never be used because it’s expensive and you’re scared of breaking it vs something old that is “sacrificial” or for learning purposes to be upgraded later? Again I greatly appreciate all you have done throughout your career, and helping us all stay sane this past calendar year. Regards -Tucker
The best way I found to organize cables for deep storage such as for the old school Christmas lights is to coil them up individually then put them in a Walmart bag then tie it up, label it and throw them all into a bin. That way when you go to use them the following year they aren’t all one tangled mess.
A correction! The dry gas blanket resin-preservative spray is NOT nitrogen. In the UK at least, it's the same as "canned air", which is actually Tetrafluoroethane, AKA r134a refridgerant gas. Check your MSDS doc for confirmation. Buying as canned air is much cheaper than buying the same stuff as dry gas blanket spray. It's cheaper still to buy a large bottle of r134a, but you need a mess of inadvisable adaptors to hook it up to a stainless regulator and a spray gun. (in the UK you need a licence to buy r134a for servicing refridgeration systems. But if you declare that's not what you're using it for, you don't.)
Have an opened 10 year old cyanoacrylate glue in the fridge and it still works! We have it as a fun experiment with our other CA glues cause at this point we don't want to use it up. Fridge works like a charm cause it draws out moisture.
Hey Adam, polyurethane resins for foam use water as a catalyst for the polyurethane foam reaction. What you are using are MDI and TDI isocyanates in your reactive system that you pour....hence the poor quality!. But all you have to do is get another isocyante component called "HDI", an aliphatic molecule that is less reactive (more time to set), but give you beautiful tough parts... HDI is usually sold by providers of cast urethane systems. Hope this helps.
The shelves methodology is like an unspoken rule of 5S I have which I employ at work. I employ it going to the floor too where the frequency of use goes cold again. The ergonomic waist area is that sweet spot
I've found in my current job that sometimes it's just best to make your own cables. Now, that's tough for things like USB (micro and type C that isn't fragile), but it's super easy for Ethernet and IDC ribbon cables like for Raspberry Pis.
If you have a tig welder with argon you can use argon to protect paints and other things that go off on contact with air. It is heavier than air so you can fill the container easily.
The best thing I've done for cable storage is clear stackable bins with dividers. So each bin is a different type of cable and it is subdivided by length. Example bin is USB Micro, split in two sides. short and long.
a collapsible spray tent, doesn't have to have venting, and a lazy susan is great for quick jobs. stage set fly systems (pulley systems for sets on a stage) are great for verticalizing things that are light but bulky, like extruded foam stock, etc.
So real suggestion for clear boxes to organize things, it's a company called Really Useful Box and they have really good, strong, and nestable/stackable boxes in a massive range of sizes. I found them randomly at staples and they are a company out of the UK (So unfortunately not as widely available in the US currently as I would like,) but like, they are a gem if you can get ahold of them to try and then order from them directly. I keep all my telescope making supplies in them.
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Can i send a drawing of a design of something I would like you to test?
Could you make a simple potato cannon that is easy to make...for like a beginner. Also, just put bc if you wanna put it in a Q&A
I would love if you guys could put some stuff in post when Adam doesn't have it on hand. Like the shot of the closet organizer - it could have been cut into the video after or even just linked in the info box. Thanks!
Aloft Hobbies always has 0.5oz and 1oz bottles of CA from BSI. I buy the 0.5oz bottles of the specialty glues for the reasons you mentioned. Except the IC-2000. That stuff I use every other day since I learned about it.
buy your glue from Australia most are the little bottles
The law of cable management: the long unused cable you trash today, is the immensely important cable you will need tomorrow. And it will cost $30 to replace it.
Amen
At least $30, if you are lucky. It might be unobtanium in your country, now then comes the postage fees sometimes doubling the price if you need that cable fast.
This is the way.
Well I'm waiting for my 100ft phone/dial up cable to be useful again...
It's been a minute.
"Cables I know I will never need" famous last words.
Sup with the raptor vids tho
No such thing. At the very least you should keep one of any cable.
"Oh no, thank you, I have plenty of zip ties"....
My wife made me get rid of my cable storage box when we moved a few years ago.
Literally a week later we needed some USB and computer power cords and I was like "sure do wish we had a box of spare cables!"
Then we spend 200$ and my wife was mad at me for 3 days.
Go figure.
"Oh no, I don't think I need any more tape, or soap, or ice"
Biggest thing that helped my own cable storage was simply putting them in zip-loc bags (gallon or quart depending on size of the cable) so they don't tangle when put into larger containers. Even wrapping them with cable ties has never worked as well as plastic bags for me (unless it's a truly large/long cable). If you don't want to have to burp them, a hole punch in one of the corners (maybe reinforced with a fold of tape over it) does wonders on that front to keep the air from taking up all the space in the box.
This. Ziploc bags.
Came here to speak for the ziploc bags, was not disappointed.
I'm amazed nobody has said tubes: I hot-glue short lengths of pvc pipe together. Cables can then be doubled so the ends are together, wrapped into a loop slightly longer than the tube and pushed in: keeps them separate, easy to find and can be done vertically (I have a desk to ceiling run of them hot glued to the side of a shelving unit)
Organization is a constant focus for me.
Cords - Reusable zip ties for me, rolled around the hand and then organized by type into storage bins.
Storage bins - I use the 7, 17, & 27 gallon black bins with yellow lids that are common at big box hardware stores.
Labeling - I spray paint the lids by category of contents. I use "chalk" markers to write the specific contents. The chalk markers are eraseble with a little water.
I used to use clear bins but reliably finding the same types and in various sizes was a problem. Also, they seem to break somewhat easily. I used to print labels but that was a waste of time and money and I often didn't get around to it.
If I use zipper bags, I use 4mil or thicker. Sandwich bags are too weak, especially after a year or two in storage.
Shelving - I get the ones that look like heavy duty warehouse types. Adjustable shelf height and you can connect the shelves by using a shared middle leg.
0:31 Oh, I totally thought he picked up a bottle of glue to show us, then he took a swig out of it!
I was fooled too!
Bundaberg ginger beer.
@@dangerouslytalented was about to comment that, i love Bundaberg. Their blood orange and lemon is great for mixing alcohol
Maybe it isn't ginger beer. MAYBE Adam is reusing his empties to hide his glue drinking addiction.
@@52Ford Well at least he ain't sniffin it ;(
"If you put something behind something else on a shelf, you are effectively throwing it away."
Exactly! And yet my wife still does not understand why I forget about food in the back of the refrigerator.
Yes! Infrequent archeological expeditions towards the back of my fridge ususlly yields a surprise or two of:
Huh! Didn't realize that was still around, thought I'd run out of that.
If I could afford to by a side by side, I would and that would cut down on those discoveries.
The freezer also - when you find a bag filled with a almost black frozen monolith and for the life of you don't have the foggest idea what it is.
@@cynicalrabbit915 I had such an expedition recently. "Let's check what of this I should throw out." rapidly turned into "I need to go shopping. The fridge is nearly empty."
@@n.v.4702
Mine hasn't gotten to that point but for reasons, the variety of things to consume dropped dramatically. Then, as I started adding to expand my choices again things were shoved back some of which weren't seen for what was for the perishables an eon and some had been purchased anew to replace what I unknowingly already had but for reasons was unable and aye unwilling to mount the required weekly foray, one by one needed and wanted foodstuffs long lost in the outback wilderness of the fridgeland did not age gracefully.
This is more about how you're utilizing the horizontal space, in that you're making it rather inconvenient to access. Consider the humble cutlery drawer. Adam has, what, 3 or 4 people in his household? And with 3 boys (or was it 2?), presumably with families of their own by now, plus another half-dozen slots for randomly-visiting (ie, not for large holiday gatherings) friends and colleagues, he perhaps could manage to host 1.5 to 2 dozen people before resorting to special-occasion alternatives not normally used day-to-day. That's around 100 pieces of cutlery, assuming a full Miss Manners-approved array. How different would the silverware drawer be if all those could be stored standing on end rather than laying flat? The silverware would take up almost no space at all and you could probably get rid of that whole other drawer dedicated to measuring cups, rolling pins, spatulas, slap choppers, and other baking/cooking tools you might've collected.
You may be taking up more space vertically, but it's usually more than offset by the amount of horizontal space you are saving.
This applies to food at the grocery store as well. One of the common tasks of grocery store stockers is rotating products from the back of the shelves to the front. Otherwise, a can of beans will sit at the back of the shelf for years, or at least past its "sell-by" date.
Pro Tip. A lot of guitar Luthier's buy their crazy glue at dollar stores (dollar general etc).
They sell them in these tiny "single serving" vials with a nice narrow tip. You can get about 2 uses out of each little vial and never have to worry about them drying out!
Yeah tiny Chinese "nail glue" bottles is how I buy my cyanoacrylate glue. I buy in batches of 10 tiny bottles, test one on arrival and one per batch every month to make sure it's still fine. It's sold for attaching false flngernails. Quality is usually totally acceptable if not as good as big brands. Price is very low.
When you're ordering from Aliexpress or wherever, you can also buy 1000 sewing pins to pierce the tops - these are usually low quality ones and much thinner pins than normal ones, so are in fact even better for tiny drops of glue (use needlenose pliers to hold the pin while you use it)
A large proportion of CA glue sold here is in a small metal tube, I buy mine in ten packs at 2g per tube and it still glues the lid on…etc.
I buy the good superglue in 1g tubes and it just sits in a closed environment, just waiting to be needed.
Funnily enough, I work at Dollar Tree and see these in the hardware section almost every day, and yet it didn't occur to me that those were exactly what Adam is talking about until I saw this post lol.
Your z-axis axiom reminds me what I heard grocery stores realized in the 50s (copied from military logistics from the 40s) that least used/ least bought placed high; and used most/ high sellers is placed head height down to mid-thigh level. Everything else is knee down to ankle level, and is probably just the heaviest, regardless of how often it is or isn't used.
Adam is extremely imitatable. Flipping his hair with his hand, the loud cough, slaps a table, squirrel moments, old idioms... one of us should show up at Comicon as Adam, in person.
You forgot the most important one
Deleting raptor videos.
Go as Adam incognito in costume and you win if someone asks if you're him.
Stop whining about the goddamn raptor videos, nobody owes you shit.
@@maverick-_-hunter Or Chris Barron from Spin Doctors.
@@csn583 you have me intrigued.. what are the raptor videos
You're right!
"First-Order-Retrieval" has proved to be my #1 storage philosophy from the moment I heard Adam mention it, way back in this channel's infancy. So did he earn my life of respect and viewership that day...
Ditto
I love my dad, he's a very genuine human, he's always encouraged me to be me and to be happy, to respect others, and to be open to doing things myself when it's feasible, from carpentry to mechanics to computers. I could not ask for a better father, but I feel like if I didn't have my father, I'd want Adam Savage as a father.
My kids and I loved reading the labels on all the bins on the wall during Mythbusters. I marveled as to how organized it was and the wide range of items.
There’s something extremely awesome about watching Adam run around his shop with excitement looking for something. 🤷🏼🔥
I was listening to this as I was working on rearranging my room, and was installing a space-saving shelf above my bed right as Adam started talking about "utilize more of your Z-axis", and I gotta say, man did that feel good to be on that same wavelength already
@Jordon Carlson Thanks! Fortunately, I already did that; they're pretty long screws and for some reason that wall of my apartment has metal siding(?), so it's not going anywhere; also if it does, it's off to one side and not directly above where i sleep, so if somehow it does fall, it won't hit me. Also what I put up was a little sort of jewelry shelf which does have lips and recesses and stuff so nothing falls off.
"When you put stuff on a shelf that's behind another thing, you are effectively throwing it away." SO TRUE!!! but I continue to do it anyway because I think that I'll remember that the thing is back there.
This principle applies to refrigerators as well.
So is putting it someplace where you will not lose it.
A mini desktop fridge (like the ones for holding a couple of cans of soda) is great for keeping cyanoacrylates, thread lock, LOCA and similar adhesives stay good way beyond their use by dates.
That’s logical, they all use heat to self cure a little bit so by eliminating that heat factor they’ll keep longer, I would just watch out for moisture that’s formed by temperature changes from having them out of the fridge for too long, that moisture that appears on the outside of bottles also appears on the inside
By changing its Temps?
Because otherwise unless you can fill it.. quite a waste of money/energy when most have extra space in their fridge
Your first order retrieval storage has helped me to much with being more productive. I used to just have bins I would put stuff in and would spend so much time looking for what I need, I would get frustrated with the project before even starting. If I was even able to find what I need and start. So thank you for this new way of staying organized!
0:19 How often does Adam check his glues (etc) to see if they've dried out?
4:45 Doesn't paint overspray get all over EVERYTHING in his shop?
6:40 When setting up a small workshop, how should one use vertical space more effectively?
9:45 Has Adam figured out a good system for storing cables?
it is best to not over buy i have a habit of needing everythign now so i dont need it later and now i have 60 rolls of washi tape that comes off in 1mm shreds. for the "spray booth" you can get a pop up shower tent, i use one outside so i dont get the grass / fence covered in black spray paint. ALSO now that im near the end of video had to come back and add to his "organization" i used to work in visual merchandising and we would make things look great but if people cannot just grab things they wont buy it so put everything in a pyramid. tallest things in the center and cascading down to the sides of the shelves. plexisglass/foam core is amazing for storing the same items in high quantities. i always have one super tall thing and 100 little but want it on the same shelf. so if you have 12 paint bottles put 6 then plexiglass and the 6 more on top without the need to build or buy a shelf riser or having a bunch of short shelves to maximize space. check out yankee candle stores (lol) for how they maximize space when the entire store is odd glass shapes and candles with a rounded top. i worked at the flagship store and my job was how do i make 750 products fit on a dining room table AND have easy access to increase sales it isnt easy but it can be done with plexiglass and risers lol
Thank you for making these Q+A videos, this advice is absolutely game changing for people who want to get started doing what you do
I put cables coiled up in separate zip-loc bags and use a sharpie pen to label them with things like type of cable, used with/for, etc. They can then be sorted and grouped by type and easily found when needed.
Really validating to see how Adam and I converged on such similar ideas about organization!
I only just recovered a bunch of ~5 year old projects that got shoved into unlabeled opaque 3 drawer bins and then buried in an attic, it's absolutely true they were as good as thrown away! Organization might be a never ending war against entropy but with good habits, infrastructure and self monitoring it definitely can be managed!
I get my tiny tiny bottles of CA at Tractor Supply. Typically in 10 or 20 packs, sometimes in the clearance aisle. I stock up whenever I see them because I KNOW I'll go through them.
I have a very small shop but this has caused me to notice; I ha e nearly 85% more space in the top 50% between eye-height and the ceiling! Awesome!
Cable storage tip: Quart size Freezer Bags; cheap, clear, strong. They are big enough to fit 4 20' XLR, Midi, Guitar Cables. But small enough to justify 2 or 3 USB/Data cables. I personally have all of my not in use cables organized this way and has made a huge difference.
Love the stories on your own custom storage solutions. Big or small, work or home, they inspire ideas, which bear solutions, for problems I didn't realize I had. In a word..... Thanks! :)
As you mentioned you getting spray paint on everything I looked behind you and noticed the spray paint stains on the table. It adds character to the shop really.
Can i just say i love how you listened to the complaints about the free cam and returned to the stationary camera, you guys are great!
I've always loved keeping a small, clean, warm, dry room in my shop - just something about 10x10 or even smaller. It's insulated and sealed, kept warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and dehumidified all year. It's a great place to keep materials fresh and store more sensitive tools/electronics.
With it being very small and heavily insulated, it cost very little to keep it around 70 degrees in there year round.
Re: cable management, clear boxes are awesome. Also, ZIP-LOCK BAGS labeled with big sharpies. And twist-ties and zip-ties to loop and secure (avoid tangling) long cables; I use plastic-coated "garden wire" bought cheap at the dollar store and keep a spool in each clear container along with extra quart and gallon freezer bags and a sharpie. That way any time I open a box, I know I have a bag with more bags, sharpies, and ties right there. Also, large post it notes on the front of each box with what's generally in it, along with list of specific rare cables.
It's worked for me for decades.
Source: Life as an IT Pro since 1995.
You're right, Adam -- cables are a nightmare. But they *are* manageable. Hope this helps you!
Cyanoacrylate: large bottle in freezer, use cheap small plastic squeeze bottles that fill from the big cold bottle.
Nitrogen: buy a refillable compressed welding gas bottle and use that to replace the air in your cans.
Special tip: magnetic base hooks clipped to a wall mounted sheet of steel is a great way to organize loose cables. Why mag? So that it can easily be reorganized.
Love the content team! Keep it up Adam! Super awesome to watch you reflect and talk. Learned more from this channel than school recently lol
THANK YOU! My boyfriend thought I was nuts to try and organize our cables that way with clear bins from the dollar store. It works but there are like 4 boxes of just cables with other small electronics designated into 'lights&cameras', 'gaming controllers', 'networking', etc.. Knowing you have a similar system proves that the old system we had of 'we know what they are so they can just all go together' was never going to work for storage.
"When you put stuff on a shelf that's behind another thing, you are effectively throwing it away."
Deep rolling shelves are handy for that - like the ones they make for food pantries. They're as deep as you want, but each is only a few inches wide and they pull out to access things from BOTH sides. The front face of each "shelf" is a good spot for labels.
That type of system can handle all sorts of stuff, including having a cradle section like you built for your rolls of wire.
For cable management i use the huge 1 gallon zip lock bags. Wrap each cable up and zip tie it. Snip off the end of the zip tie and store each type in a bag. I have a 30" x 18" x 7" drawer almost full of these baggies.
That's way too much work; Rummaging through the box is faster if your boxes are categorized like Adam's
zip ties for removable stuff is death. Use velcro ties if you're going to remove them, the cut off parts of zip ties are lethally sharp on both ends. (my 2p)
The ziplocks make rummaging much easier. I skip the zips ties since they are contained. The bags keep anything from tangling or snagging. If you only have two of something, you can put them in the same bag, and have a bit more organization within the drawer.
For cabling - your system is pretty similar to mine (clear boxes in cubbies, in my case in a cheap Ikea Kallax bookcase). However, what really revolutionized it was when I put related cables in ziploc bags. Bag of long Cat6. Bag of shorter Cat5. Bag of USB 3.0 cables. Bag of Lighting cables. Bag(s) of power cables. What's great about the zip-loc bags is you can immediately move whole chunks of cables to get to what you need - it cheaply, easily, and flexibly sub-compartmentalizes the larger compartments. And when you get more cables or weed some out, it's easy to replace with a different sized zip-loc.
My trick for cables that I have thanked myself for dozens of times - all my USB cables go into ziplock bags by type, with sharpie clearly labeling each bag. All Micro cables in one bag. All lightning cables in another. All type C cables get their own bag, same as type A, etc etc etc. if the bag starts getting too full? I probably have too many spare cables and I can toss out one of the older ones I inevitably have that is starting to get frayed or damaged. It is so, so relieving to be able to find exactly the cable I want, grab the bag and pull out one that meets my need, rather than sort through a crowded box full of loose cables and hunting for the ends to determine type. Took an hour (a very satisfying hour, by the way) of sorting and labeling and has saved me so much time and grief over the years. Highly recommended.
Having a "student" in a video like this, is a great idea! It's very easy for an experienced Crafter to skip over fine details, without realizing it, but with a student, it becomes more apparent.
I do a lot of plastic car model kits. What I have found that works really well for a mini paint booth is an inexpensive ductless range hood. I stand it up on end made a cardboard enclosure to make it deeper. It doesnt help with the smell but the fan works awesome for collecting the overspray. Not big enough for big things but awesome for smaller projects.
Adam talking about him being bad at molding and casting reminds me of his casting of a dummy with tape during mythbusters. Hahaha
Peeing on the third rail! That was a bit of a situation 😅
It's a funny moment forgetting you asked a question and suddenly hearing your name in a video hehe
Suuurreee
For me it is the woodstuff, because rain used to leak into my workshop. I had a bunch of really good wooden isolation and plywood go bad because rain leaked into my workshop.
It even got under my insulated room in the workshop, so I gotta tear the floor back out... yikes!
Best solution I’ve found for cables, doo-dads, (and things like power packs & cable mice) - Zip Lock Bags.
Come in multiple sizes, easy to label, COMPLETELY ELIMINATES TANGLING.
Once bagged, cables can be knolled into categories. (Do I really need 13 Spare PC Power Cables)
Simplifies stacking / sorting into Boxes or drawers, and really speeds up retrieval...
A trick I picked up somewhere online for cable management is to fill a box with spent toilet paper rolls / paper towel rolls vertically. Each one becomes a little divider where you can loop up a cable and slide it inside. Not the best for numerous short/small cables, but if you have longer or thicker ones, you should still have plenty of room to fit one or more cables of the same type in a tube or two. I just make sure that I can see the ends out of the top so that I know what I am looking at and don't have to pull anything out to determine its use.
I use plastic shoe organizers on the back of doors for cables. Lots of pockets, cheap, and you can get transparent ones.
How to deal with moisture, either in storage or during processes
1) Silica balls and grit
2) Molecular sieves (buy them by the bulk, use, dry, reuse - search up Tech Ingredient's Solar-powered A/C system video, he goes into detail how that works)
3) For casting - use vacuum pump.
One thing I did that helped with cables is to fold them in half several times until I can tie them into a tight square knot. (Optionally, start by folding into thirds then halves if that would help.) For instance, a 10' extension cord can be folded in half twice (down to 2.5') then tied in a knot. Looking at the results, none of the bends are too tight. Plus, you can now hang them on a peg.
With regard to using vertical space, I've found that "tiny house" design videos are a great source of ideas for optimizing my use of volume. I'm about to move my tiny workspace (literally a closet-turned-office) into an actual spare bedroom (yayyy!!!) that will have 4 separate filming areas in a 12'x12'x8' space area, so even every inch of the ceiling matters. In particular, the fixed foundation tiny home videos seem to have the tips that are most relevant to me. Thanks for yet another great video. I can always find some great learning opportunities in your experiences. Have fun!
Clear boxes are awesome. As a mechanic, I organize lots of my speciality tools into clear shoe boxes. They're $1 just about any store with totes and you can see what you got on there. Brake line repair. Tire repair. AC tools. All that would end up being in a junk drawer withy sifting through to find what I need.
Adam, thank you for sharing your work on YT. IMO it’s a continuation of Myth-busters (In a behind the scenes sense). You rock
When I was doing more AV and computer stuff my medium to small cables were in file totes or drawers. The smaller ones in bags in those drawers. The rest of my storage system is now standardized to 3 box sizes. All shelves are built to hold those standard boxes.
Here’s a trick for wrapping up light cable or cord: spread your off hand out palm up. Trap one end of the cord between your fingers.
Now wrap it in a figure 8 around your thumb and pinky. The crisscross on your palm makes a nice tight place to tie around it to keep it secure.
I really love hearing how you process everything you work with and do. Methodical problem solving all the way.
Awesome.
I see a Bundaberg brewed drink 👀
I didn’t know my hometowns drinks were sold in the US
He actually has an episode about the Ginger Beer. They send him a custom bottle.
If you're curious, we get them here in the Netherlands as well. It's one of my faves. :D
Actually, Amazon sells some of their products. Sorta pricey, and watch out for shipping costs
John
I live in Oregon, and I can buy them in Safeway, Fred Meyer's, Albertson's, or WinCo.
You can get them in the UK too
I have a cable management suggestion. I purposely built a entire cabinet for cables in my old shop. Each draw was only 1.5 inch tall about a foot and a hall squared. This forced you to put only a specific cable in it and because the draws where so small I could have lots of them for all the various types. I tend to reuse tons of old cables even old scsi cables. Chop the connectors off and you have a perfectly good cable for another project. Only keep cables that are exotic and can't get by raiding a friends trash. Examples like cat5 or usb cables that you can find anywhere are almost pointless to keep everyone. Make a wire scrap trash can throw them in. Once its full trash it and start a new. Old scsi cables are good project cables when you need lots of wires in a nice single casing.
I love that when you describe your ideal storage i get this picture of a giant library with floating bookshelfs filled with stuff.
I'm an industrial painter, in a booth overspray still gets everywhere. Only thing I could suggest without a booth is small filters and a ducted fan with a frame to hold the filter. It's cheaper than a booth and placed near the workpiece. It could at least direct the overspray.
For cable storage: I'm amazed nobody has said tubes: I hot-glue short lengths of pvc pipe together. Cables can then be doubled so the ends are together, wrapped into a loop slightly longer than the tube and pushed in: keeps them separate, easy to find and can be done vertically (I have a desk to ceiling run of them hot glued to the side of a shelving unit).
Different sized tubes can be used for different sized cables, and that itself helps with grouping of cables.
I thought the bottle he drank from was one of the things he had to check to see if it went bad.
@Jordon Carlson 😂
The compromise from nothing to spray booth is a vent hood. This can be combined with a small heater to accelerate curing. It's great to have a lazy Susan in there to access all sides of your work.
We struggled with volumes of stuff and how to deal with organization so we started a process where we got stickers for the month. So we labeled everything and I mean everything including all the coffee mugs. So January then a month later everything got a February sticker. And then March. Some stuff like coffee mugs people used the sticker was gone or materials or supplies that were consumed would get a new sticker. So you would start to see bottles of soap or mugs that weren't being used would have 4 6 7 months of stickers layered up. And some you'd see wouldn't ever get 2 months.
So what becomes clear is how seldom somethings get touched and how emotionally charged some people would be about throwing away stuff that had a year of stickers. I mention coffee mugs because we literally had coffee mugs in cabinets that literally didnt get used and then stuff stacked on the counter. Great love that mug take it home.
For your instacast moisture problem, maybe you could glue a small packet of silica gel to the inside of the cap? Also, for larger bottles of CA Glue, try storing it in a fridge, should last for years.
You should consider getting some reusable silica desiccant to keep with your instacast. They change colors when they're saturated and you just microwave them to remove the moisture
He could afford the one I use from Bed Bath and Beyond. Plastic box full of regular silica, and a window of colour change. To reset it, plug the whole thing into the wall for a few hours.
How are you going to put a desiccant in a bottle?
@@DevinGates Those are cool, but I like the microwave ones since they're easier to split between different containers. But that's just a preference
@@ipodhty You don't put it in the bottle, you store it next to the bottle. The desiccant pulls the moisture from the air around it and keeps that moisture out of the bottle.
@@Dylan-vs6wd that won't really help, since once the bottle is closed very little air will get in. The main problem is the air that is in it when you close it. And if you did this you would need to make a encloser for the bottles
yoooooooooooooooooooo, bundaburg ginger beer is so good. It makes me happy to see adam enjoys it too.
Did you see that they sent him a personal bottle with his face on it! As you can imagine with Adam he was really really pleased. Like 5 years old pleased... 😅
His Australian crew would have put him onto that!
I was very pleased to see that too. I'm very glad to hear it's made its way out of Australia
As Adam was introducing the concept of glues and paints going bad, he reached for a brown glass bottle which I at first assumed was going to be a part of a demonstration. I didn't realize it was kombucha until he took a sip
that's ginger beer
@@MyOtherCarIsAPlane which is to say it isn't a bottle of old contact cement
Tap Plastics rocks! I left California 17 years ago and I find myself ordering cut to order plastics online from Tap to this day. I just can't find anyone local that is as consumer friendly and reliable as Tap.
TAP Plastics is one of those stores where, in the SF Bay Area, it's so handy that literally everyone has used them at least once or twice for a project, but as soon as you start describing it to someone outside the west coast, you realize how strange the concept of "retail and custom plastic fabrication chain" is to everyone else.
@@chaos386 exactly! I love being able to spend $40 on a dozen pieces of plastic cut to my exact sizes so I don't have to worry about my inferior cutting skills ruining my project. I have been to a few places here and it is always a single person at a desk with warehouse doors behind them, and you hear you must buy a whole sheet, minimum cutting fee of $100, or we just are not interested in a job that small.
I'm sure I don't have as many cables as you do but I ended up putting mine in labeled food storage bags. That way I can group the same type of cables and it prevents them from getting tangled up.
11:45 I think you've made this recommendation for clear storage before, because I'm using it a lot. I went for Ikea's Samla storage boxes when I moved to my current house, instead of carboard moving boxes, because I knew I was unlikely to unpack it all. It work great.
The closing system isn't the most convenient, but it works and it's WAY cheaper than some of the fancier boxes with built in clips.
Get two cones of shame and some flexible dryer ducting and a shop size "cigar tube" shop heater, take out the coils and put in a basket to hold on to styrofoam peanuts and other static generating bulk crap... use the cones of shame for the drift collectors down the flex ducts to the shop heater.
Also you don't need any permitting at all for a dust collection system, springy shower rods make great light duty plastic wall studs, so you can "mock up" a paint booth whenever you want without leaving any permanent installations.
You don't need a dedicated spray booth taking up room. You could easily make a free standing unit, foldable with hinges and have a extractor fan system on the back. I use something like this on a smaller scale , which i made, for my airbrush. When not needed, the sides collapse flat against the back and its flat against my wall. When needed, I unfold it, connect the fan tube and switch on the extractor fans
thank you Adam, you are inspiring and awesome to follow along this year. keep it up!
RE: preserving the Instacast. Instead of using N2 to displace the moisture-laden air, how about dry-ice, (purchased cheap at the grocery store?) Toss a chunk in & leave the lid cracked just a tad until the "smoke" stops boiling out showing it's fully displaced the air.
Door mounted shoe organizers are great for cables, batteries, chargers... I even mounted one on the back of my driver's side RV seat.
I have three levels of usage I sort cable into, if storing them with what needs them isn't an option. I'm up to about three legal-sized boxes, and it even includes some old two-prong brown extension cords. One for current devices, one for spare cords that came with a device, and one for ancient stuff. I only really need the first two, but that last one has saved me so much grief and stress whenever I really needed it.
For cables I've had good success with hat rack (as a musician I needed alot of cables ) keeps them relatively organized and easily accessible
Seeing Adam drink a bundaberg ginger beer thank you for supporting Australian workers much appreciated 👍🏻
Everyone thought that was glue he drank when he was talking about glue. Lol... I Instantly thought: oh noo Adam.. Noooooooo!!! Oh ok it's not glue. Lol
WOOO more q/a. Love the videos Adam!
For displacing air in a bottle -- that's what nearly-empty Dust-Off cans are for. For decades I used Dust-Off to displace the air in bottles of photographic developer. A Dust-Off can that is no longer full enough for dusting will still emit quite a bit of gas at atmospheric pressure.
Dude the prices of materials have gone through the roof like a water heater in Mythbusters
Holy shit lmao! Also it’s absolutely true.
0:53 the context of the conversation was about glue etc. So when you took the bottle to your lips my mind was like: "Dont drink that!!" then I realized I had made many assumtions... unless that is one of your ways to check to see if it has gone bad. Something to be learned here about the power of context and suggestion. Oh, and don't feel bad, I have 5 decades of cables and placed an order for more this week, partly because I would get them sooner than if I go look for them.
I love to hear that the guy who *could make anything* still subs out (even for his own uses)
cable storage tip: put each cable in a zip lock food storage bag, you can chuck them all in a draw and you don't get a Gordian knot
Just create a curtain rod in a rectangular form from the ceiling and hang plastic from it to enclose an area you want to spray from, you can also just install a box fan with some filters in one of the sheets to filter the particulate out of the air. You don't need a spray booth, just a little prep.
Z-Axis safety advice. It's called fire-load. Usually keeping 2-3 feet of space between your stuff and your ceiling is for safety. If a fire broke out, the fire spreads 30x faster. Food for thought.
It is important to note that if you have a container of some oxygen containing organic solvents (usually ethers), over time they can form explosive peroxides and can become hazardous when handled. Most common solvents, like alcohols, and acetone will not form these compounds. Always make sure to check correct storage procedures on any chemicals you are not familiar with.
Just realized, from his head-on shot, that Adam could dress up as Col Sanders. Anyone able to not see it now?
Damn you. I'll never unsee it.
Hello all! I have a question that I sincerely hope you will answer.
I’ve watched you for years and you’ve been a great inspiration to me. I want to start out by saying that I never understood the term “starving artist” till I myself “became” one. I found myself frequently skipping meals to afford new material or tools with which to do my craft and while I was lucky to always have a roof overhead, I’m very thankful those days are over. Now that I am no longer a “starving” artist, I remember you once mentioning the “horrible spending habits” of your youth. And I was hoping you could share with us some helpful tips on how to prioritize budgeting in our projects. Specifically when you should buy (tools or materials) new, or when used will suffice for the project at hand. Are there things that should never be bought used due to safety/practicality. And likewise things where something new will never be used because it’s expensive and you’re scared of breaking it vs something old that is “sacrificial” or for learning purposes to be upgraded later?
Again I greatly appreciate all you have done throughout your career, and helping us all stay sane this past calendar year.
Regards
-Tucker
As someone who's had his CA dry out on him... wow, I never thought I'd relate this much to Adam because I just don't make that much stuff.
The best way I found to organize cables for deep storage such as for the old school Christmas lights is to coil them up individually then put them in a Walmart bag then tie it up, label it and throw them all into a bin. That way when you go to use them the following year they aren’t all one tangled mess.
A correction! The dry gas blanket resin-preservative spray is NOT nitrogen. In the UK at least, it's the same as "canned air", which is actually Tetrafluoroethane, AKA r134a refridgerant gas. Check your MSDS doc for confirmation.
Buying as canned air is much cheaper than buying the same stuff as dry gas blanket spray. It's cheaper still to buy a large bottle of r134a, but you need a mess of inadvisable adaptors to hook it up to a stainless regulator and a spray gun. (in the UK you need a licence to buy r134a for servicing refridgeration systems. But if you declare that's not what you're using it for, you don't.)
Have an opened 10 year old cyanoacrylate glue in the fridge and it still works! We have it as a fun experiment with our other CA glues cause at this point we don't want to use it up. Fridge works like a charm cause it draws out moisture.
Hey Adam, polyurethane resins for foam use water as a catalyst for the polyurethane foam reaction. What you are using are MDI and TDI isocyanates in your reactive system that you pour....hence the poor quality!. But all you have to do is get another isocyante component called "HDI", an aliphatic molecule that is less reactive (more time to set), but give you beautiful tough parts... HDI is usually sold by providers of cast urethane systems.
Hope this helps.
The shelves methodology is like an unspoken rule of 5S I have which I employ at work. I employ it going to the floor too where the frequency of use goes cold again. The ergonomic waist area is that sweet spot
I've found in my current job that sometimes it's just best to make your own cables. Now, that's tough for things like USB (micro and type C that isn't fragile), but it's super easy for Ethernet and IDC ribbon cables like for Raspberry Pis.
SCSI, made me laugh! Just last year I threw out two full, large boxes of cables SCSI, II and3. 40 years of working for Bell & Howell, then Kodak.
If you have a tig welder with argon you can use argon to protect paints and other things that go off on contact with air. It is heavier than air so you can fill the container easily.
The best thing I've done for cable storage is clear stackable bins with dividers.
So each bin is a different type of cable and it is subdivided by length.
Example bin is USB Micro, split in two sides. short and long.
a collapsible spray tent, doesn't have to have venting, and a lazy susan is great for quick jobs.
stage set fly systems (pulley systems for sets on a stage) are great for verticalizing things that are light but bulky, like extruded foam stock, etc.
So real suggestion for clear boxes to organize things, it's a company called Really Useful Box and they have really good, strong, and nestable/stackable boxes in a massive range of sizes. I found them randomly at staples and they are a company out of the UK (So unfortunately not as widely available in the US currently as I would like,) but like, they are a gem if you can get ahold of them to try and then order from them directly. I keep all my telescope making supplies in them.