Adam Savage Builds His Dream Hardware Storage System! 

Savage Industries Sortimo: adamsavage.com/products/savage-industries-sortimo-t-boxx Adam's One Day Builds: Savage Sortimo Storage Cabinet: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nNHDs3qlYIg.html Adam's Dream Storage System Prototype: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QjIvuFLn_xY.html

Explaining at the beginning how critical it is to have have the drawers identical and telling us the importance of creating jig/template...and then NOT creating a jig at the end for the critical part of installing the drawer arm receivers exactly parallel....that's peak Adam Savage right there.

Adam has an entire shop full of hardware that he exclusively use to build more storage for more hardware. Its an endless circle of hardware.

I genuinely love how Tested has become basically Adam's personal channel where he just shares what he's doing in a day. It's genuinely perfect.

Thank you so much Adam for making me feel like I'm not the only person in the world who sees the value in spending 18 hours of labour to make a way to do a 10 minute task in 8 minutes.

2010s Adam: “Can’t deal with drawers, drawers are where things go to die” 2020s Adam: “Let’s build hundreds of expensive drawers”

Adam is such a relatable builder. He fails to follow his own rules, his builds often have nagging flaws. He’s really excited to begin a build and really loves having the thing at the end…. We’re all that guy….

I have to tell you that I have a ten week old baby & in the early days of her life we watched two seasons of Mythbusters in a tired blur & my daughter has a real appreciation of your voice. My husband will put on one of your videos & she will calm right down & watch you build absolutely anything with as much joy as a ten week old can muster. Thought this might make your day! We'll be working through your back catalogue of videos bit by bit for a good long while. 😂

Man discovers drawers, 2024. Colorized

Having worked in an industrial facility that produced utility bodies for trucks out of sheet metal, for something like this we would nest each piece in a 4’x12’ sheet and punch them out on a cnc turret punch table. Notches and holes would be done and each part would be ready for the cnc press break. 70 of these would take about 4 sheets of aluminum, processing each sheet of parts on the turret punch table would take about 10 minutes and breaking them another hour. We made thousands of similar drawer units this way only ours had rolled edges for rigidity and were made from 16ga galvanized steel. It’s a testament to the power of automation and modern processes how fast we would pump these out. It’s humbling when you have to design a process done manually and makes you appreciate the planning stage all the more.

As a hobby tinkerer I cannot express how much of a pleasure it is to be building or fixing something, and being able to know exactly where you need to look to find the part or piece you require. This is on a whole other level. Very cool.

"I just want to stop and tell you I don't want to clean up right now, and yet I'm cleaning up. " Atta boy! Great attitude. Thinking forward to tomorrow-you walking in to a clean shop. What I like is that you can totally clean up while in a bad mood, but it's hard to be inspired during a bad mood. So going ahead and doing what you're fit for means that your best can be used to do your best.

I love how his shop looks so disorganized and organized at the same time

If you're still looking to add additional complications to your sorting method, you could have alexa/echo recall which draws contain what items when asked. This could also be useful when guest builders are using the space too. " alexa, where are my RCA connectors?" answer: drawer 45.

One of the things I really love about Adam is that he almost always provides Metric measurements as well as Imperial. As a Metric user this is so nice!! Thank you Adam!

Blessed is the person that inherits this workshop.

I love the sound of the "creaking" as Adam adjusts the camera on the loc-line mount. It adds to the personal 1-to-1 feel that he has so well cultivated.

This build was Adam in a nutshell. A brilliant plan, squirreliness during the build, and perfection at the end. I love it.

"15 minutes, that's 4 per hour. That means I would get 60 done in .... 3 hours......hold on" LMFAO I died laughing cause for a quarter second I was like 'yea that makes sense.'

I've heard more people quote Adam Savage than ANY OTHER PERSON that "drawers are where stuff goes to die". I disagreed then and I disagree now. The trick it to make sure the drawer has a specific place for each thing in it. RANDOM drawers can be bad. Purposeful drawers are awesome! Welcome back Adam! :)

Every year Adam is getting closer and closer to Doc Brown!

A friend converted his garage to a shop, but he needed a lot of space for equipment that just didn't fit. SO, he utilized the ceiling and attic to make draw-down storage for almost all his hardware, making space for his equipment that used the walls and floors. They each sit on a hydraulic piston. There are 4 large platforms that drop down. They only became useable once enough weight was put on the platform. He put racks for bolts/nuts/bearings/electrical/hinges.... etc...onto the platforms along with a section for storing portable tool boxes for traveling. All he has to do is pull on the cord that hangs from the platform and the hydraulics slowly bleed the fluid out, lowering the heavy platform toward the ground. It stops at waist height and the bottom stores away at just over 7 feet. You can't do jumping jacks inside but he now has a fully equipped shop. He's an excellent wood worker. To put them away, you start lifting it and the hydraulics kick in and start the heavy lifting.

Nice honest video. I did the same 12 years ago here in the UK with my 20 sortimo cases . I dont have any metal working kit so used angle iron and ply and they are still going strong it is a shame that you tube does not allow pictures in the coments section . Not having to take each case fully out each time is a massive time saver over a week of working .

Adam saying the solution that failed doesn't matter, only the one that works matters. ONLY to the customer. To the builder it is ALL the knowledge, ALL the learning, the solutions that didn't work that hold the value.

I envy you the whole space, the fact that you have time to do what you love and just have a blast doing it..Man. you have won in life. Just amazing.

at first I was like: WOW! Someone can do slides one by one, with no story stick/spacer! That's almost impossible! And then I was: Alright, at least I'm not going mad here. A very interesting roller coaster of emotions. And thank you for sharing this! It's pretty educational

Anytime I do stuff like this my friend group calls it *Fake Productivity* but if you asked me where anything I own is... I know exactly where to find it.

Awesome !! You just gave me the idea on how to enhance my Steelcase filing cabinet to better support organization and storage of small parts! I'll remove one (or more) of the large drawers and fabricate a pair of low profile slide-outs in its place. Thanks Adam!

I think this may have been one of my favourite videos I’ve watched on tested, it’s so simple when u say it but the whole adding 1 min to a job across 70 items is over an hour of work throughout the day, is so true and mind blowing 🤯, it would be interesting experimenting to see what the diminishing returns are have a build off with one of the team and see how much time building the templates and such takes vs just smashing out the work 1 at time

This is why I love this channel. Seeing into the mind of another person's style and thought process.

Working in a shop on a cutter and printer, printing and cutting all day I am 100% with you on efficiency. Any place I can shave off minutes or even sometimes 30 seconds is a bonus without sacrificing quality. Especially if I'm making many parts, a streamlined process makes that workflow super easy!

Somebody once said to me that 'batching and botching are only one letter apart' in the sense that repeated tasks lead to complacency. Well done in your diligence through this task!

@29:22 The way to keep the drawer slides parallel by laying two rack walls aside and using a common distancing block - pure genius. I admire it. Respect. :) Cheers.

I truly love seeing someone else obsessed with organization, I feel a lot less insane.

Quicker and cheaper solution for the actual problem: Make one sheet metal drawer for each of the case columns, that you can draw out and use as the “table space” for every single occasion. 😊

seriously adam, i procrastinate all the time, so i live through your projects. So much thank you for sharing them with us, and thank you for entertaining me when i can't get anything done.

Hi Adam! Love it! Recommend making an extra empty rack system for your work area. That way when your working on a project you can pull the Sortimos you need and have them right next to you and not have to go back and forth to the “store” in the back every time you need a small piece. Also this will keep all small pieces you need in a place where they won’t clutter your work area and roll away. The thought came to me from my son who you continue to inspire after visiting a patient shop he may work for.

Always enjoy your organizational projects. When I built my sortmaster rack, I built in 2 swing out shelves in the middle to set the cases on. Much cheaper than all those drawers slides. Having hardware organized is a complete game changer though. Lots of ways to skin the cat. Your original build is what inspired me to build mine.

We make little 10" x 3" pine boxes for a lady here that sells jam in small jars. We've made up to 200 per batch at times and (you're right) the tedium of that is a "particular type of tiring". I refer to it as "brain stiffness"...similar to the stiffness you get from sitting in one position for too long.

I am always in awe of your problem-solving abilities. Putting the drawer slides end-to-end to make sure they matched up 🤯 I know you have years of experience in problem-solving but just... wow. Such a satisfying watch.

Re: mounting the slides, that's why those of us who have worked in cabinetry know that you mount the bottom one and always use a story stick / spacer to mount the others. No need for measurements, no way to mess it up. Get the bottom one right and you can mount the rest with your eyes closed and high, if that's your thing. It will come out perfect every time.

Next time... A faster path for drilling and cutting 1. stack the sheets and clamp them together with edges very carefully aligned. 2. TIG weld the corners together so the stack now acts as just one piece of metal, probably at the corners. 3. Do almost everything on the mill, drilling, cutting... all on that one big slab. All your drawers will match. 4. Last operation is cutting off the corner weld.

I'm inspired and overwhelmed at the same time. There is only one Adam Savage for sure. Genius for sure.

I was genuinely smiling when you showed the first complete rack! 😊 Great job 👍

I am so happy for Adam. This has been such an amazing journey. I am way late to the party but I am starting my own space. Thanks for all the inspiration Adam, and all makers.

If the frames that held the draw slides were kept small but had the capability to be connected together, you'd have a modular system that you could reconfigure over the years. You'd have many small cabinets, each holding two or three sortimos on rails, stacked-up into whatever height you had available over a given floor footprint.

The music during the time-lapse was very nice. Ambient repetitive tasks in space station vibe. Perfect for the not-drawer drawers of the future!

Ambient music with Adam sped up making stuff is just mesmerizing. What a trip :)

i love watching your videos adam, and seeing you work with metal is always my favorite. as a sheet metal worker its something i have always loved, turning a sheet of metal into something functional is so enjoyable.

It’s shocking to me that you’ll drop probably north of 7500 (retail) on the sortimos, sheet metal, slides, bcx, and casters. Not to mention labor. But the extra 150 for quality sheet goods is where you saved. I do appreciate the honesty regarding this. Great system, great effort, and great result none the less. Also, the quality of certain materials has become shocking in the past 10 to 15 years. As a finish carpenter and cabinet maker the last three years has been a wild ride in the paneling and hardwoods market. Love the content from the entire tested crew.

i love just watching you talk to yourself and figure things out as you go, i love that you kinda leave it unedited in that sense.

I absolutely love this. I am myself learning excel, at the age of 56. Adam you have so profoundly increased my organization skills. Thank You. Hope all is well with everyone with the Tested Family.

You are a wonderful teacher been watching you for years thank you for all the information and encouragement and wonderful work

I'm still surprised Adam hasn't done an episode of Gridfinity. I think it would fit his mindset, and his love of knolling.

Can't help feeling that there is an association of organisation nerds who reach out and recognise one another every so often, before retreating to the safety of their own little (neatly organised) shed, cave, workshop etc. Enjoyed this build. Did occur to me in the preamble where the lack of available horizontal space is identified and bemoaned, that the new cabinets offered a possible solution to this. Each cabinet features 13 T-Boxses mounted on drawer runners. Starting from the bottom, every 3/4 boxes add an additional intermediate set of drawer runners. These runners simply hold a plywood shelf that can be extended outwards. This would give an additional 10-15 horizontal spaces. If you had to retrieve multiple items from multiple Sortimos a shelf can be pulled out and the items gathered there prior to transferring everything to the workbench. Keep up the interesting work.

I LOVE your projects and your no-nonsense attitude towards problem-solving - a man after my heart. btw, Adam, you're looking and SOUNDING more and more like Richard Dreyfuss these days. Has anyone ever told you that? It's a compliment, Adam. Dreyfuss is one of my all-time favourite actors - although he has become somewhat weird in the last few years, but I digress. Your shop is to die for and I SO enjoy your breaking down the thought-processes involved in fabrication. I really like how you construct jigs to make repetitive tasks perfectly identical. I TOTALLY believe in making templates to ease production and accuracy. fyi, your segment on the large Curta calculator that a fan sent you ages ago was my inspiration to purchase a set of Curtas off of the Internet. They are now an integral part of MY collection of interesting and innovative artifacts in my own little man-cave - not anywhere NEAR the complexity, authenticity and historical significance of many of YOUR items, but valuable to ME and my life experiences. Carry on fabricating!

Goals!! (my electronics with it's work station are in a different shed, along with all my construction tools & a few other things) my gardening gear, oils & fuels are in another shed. My main workshop has most other things but.... I also have a 20' shipping container with mixed stuff & over the highway a few blocks away, I have a 40' container with the workshop equipment I've yet found room for in my 3 bay workshop! One day I hope to have it all in the one place. I absolutely HATE not being able to find things that I know I have!! I think listing everything is a great idea!!

A fun project, I really appreciate the fatigue that can set in. Also, when I first saw the backs of the cabinets, I shouted out loud "diagonal bracing!" and then, lo, you added it subsequently.

the most organized chaotic personality that truly defines smart and fun energy. always loved adam savage. always will, truly honored i got to meet this man

Your a very unique man with a very special cave , Your life time of tool foraging is sooo admirable. Thank you for being you.

As shop hermit who almost never works elsewhere, a set of regular old drawers with small containers works just fine. When I do actually emerge from my cave (the light! my eyes! 🙀) I have a hardware tote that I populate for the job. Anyway, for those of us who dont already have a wall of sortimo it's a good option.

Harbor Freight (or Adam) needs to mass produce these frames with drawer slides for the Harbor Freight, Stanley, and Sortimo cases. Make them easily adjustable to mix and match tall and short cases. Make sections 2 to 3 ft tall that are designed to stack together as well as joining side by side columns together. Have an optional kit for the front to slide over and prevent drawers from sliding out in mobile applications. Great design Adam. With over 100 cases I've been working on this idea for many years. Have seen all the RU-vid videos, this is the best.

28:30 About 20 years ago, I made a 4-drawer cabinet, like what you were doing here. What I did, due to making a mistake the first time like you did here. I put the pieces of wood together, placed the rails on each wood, and screwed them in, and this way, as long as they aligned up while laying flat together, they would be aligned when across from one another. It worked for me. So, the next time you do a job like this, or anyone else doing a job like this, Make sure you do the following. #1: Lay the two pieces of wood on a flat surface. #2: Butt the fronts together. #3: Make your lines all the way across both pieces of wood. #4: Lay your rails down on your lines, making certain they are perfectly lined up. #5: Next, screw in your rails. #6: Put the two pieces of wood where you are going to install them. #7: Slide the drawers in. #8: (This is my favorite number, so I had to add in something. :) )

28:22 I fell this from the bottom of my heart. Ive done this enough to know when to raise a flag between steps of an assembly process. Saves a lot of time when you know your procedure works and prevents you from having to undo everything you just did. Good use of a jig btw.

As he's talking about punching all the holes: Use the mill! Use the mill! You have them all stacked up anyway for the corner holes. :)

Acquaintance had a similar problem. He weaseled 3 inches between his shelves and rigged a hinged table on a slider. He pulls the table out of its 3 inch cubby and the gravity pulls the legs down from the table top…think a more sturdy version of a TV tray with a hinge. Very time and cost effective alternative to 60 custom aluminum shelves.

when projects multiply themselves, love it.

There's a hardware store in town that has a whole aisle full of those small hardware drawers on roller slides. Walking down that aisle and seeing all the weird little bits and bobs they have there will bring a tear to your eye. I think the place will stay around for awhile too, the company that owns it got their start in the hardware business and they have a strong interest in keeping that store as a tribute to their past.

A spreadsheet with an accompanied binder of hi resolution images that lived in that empty space between the 3rd and 4th upright might prove useful if you are on the other side of the shop and want to “pre shop” your hardware store. Then you could quickly look through the drawers without physically pulling and then realizing maybe the other connector is what you really needed. Also seems like a fun Tested coffee table book.

If anyone ever asks me what my ADHD hyperfocus looks like I’m going to send them this video from now on. It’s easier than trying to explain.

Thanks for sharing your overwhelming desire to go home before cleaning up! Dedication to some basic principles keeps us grounded and human. I dig the system, which could be modified for different sizes and brand storage boxes. 👍👍

I always get an ASMR feeling when watching Adam build something. It’s very peaceful.

Sometimes it feels like you spend 6 hours trying to turn an 8 hour job into a 2 hour job.

Interesting that you have a Sortimo spreadsheet. In my lab I printed out a sticker sheet of QR codes, and stuck them on all the bins that we have. That way you can scan a code, and it will link you to a row in a spreadsheet that has a list of everything in that bin. Might not be worth it for the sortimos, but it works well for big bins on shelves that are a pain to take down and rummage around in

I'm just impressed that you were able to get 6061 to bend so nicely - It loves to crack. I used to run a CNC press brake and once in a while a piece of 6061 would accidentally get mixed in with our 5051. Fun fact, when you're bending a long piece of thick 6061 in a 60 ton press brake and it cracks, it sounds like a gun going off.

This is the most mad scientist I've seen Adam be in a long time. This matches my experience building any kind of cabinet too!

This level of organization just inspires me.

make just one draw (without a sortimo box) at the lower- or lowest shelf of the sortimo cabinet. Put the draw out, put a sortimo box on that flat surface....done!!

Very therapeutic video Adam. You're a major inspiration. Keep being you.

So true, any project however small can fill the entire available workspace.

5:57 - I love Adam using a broad enough vocabulary that when he uses a word like "Cogitating" it sounds like he misspoke or is making up new words, when that's not the case.

Adam, you should have made a "story pole" to layout the drawer slides on the plywood. Take a scrap length of wood, plywood, whatever you have, long enough to cover the entire height of the cabinet and just wide enough to mark, ie tall and skinny, and carefully measure and mark the location of the slides. The you just position the story pole carefully on you cabinet side, transfer the marks, repeat for each side, and you'll know they are identical. I've seen story poles used for siding, louvers, etc. Anything that requires many marks where accuracy is paramount. They are a great tool of opportunity as my Dad would call them. A tool you can make onsite when needed and even discard or recycle after you're done. Otherwise, GREAT idea and a perfect solution for your storage issues. Maximizing efficiency and space!

Es increible como te contagia esa energia y entusiasmo por lo que explica, me encanta!!! Y ese taller es el lugar soñado de todo hombre.... greetings from Argentina!!

I really enjoy your videos. They are intuitive and don't give the usual feeling of someone reading of a script. I can appreciate someone having enough funds, suffering from ocd and being a perfectionist wanting to create all those drawers. Me, lacking funds and ocd (though being a perfectionist), I would just insert one retractable metal tray at a convenient height in each (or, in every second) cabinet column(s), and every time I need something I would pull out the tray, take our the needed Sortimo box, lay it on the tray, take whatever I need and put the thing back. Making cabinets with fixed shelves would be much cheaper and much faster to make than this system. Less fancy though. 😀 Also, if you still wanted to go ahead with your system, instead of drilling those big corner holes plus doing 2 cuts, I would just do one cut, and then, when folding the sides and the back, would fold and rivet the "flaps" to the back "wall" of the tray (obviously after having punched the relevant holes for the rivets on the side and the back before bending the sheet). I am no engineer or anything of the sort but in my mind, this looks ok. 😀On that note, if I had to do it the way you do it, I would bend the triangle "flaps" to the exterior and to the back of the "walls" where they will not interfere with the slides and will not be visible even with the drawer pulled out. This way, there is no risk that they may scratch the boxes when moving the drawers in and out or when putting the boxes in or taking them out (me being a perfectionist and all). 😁

I can't help wondering if you could have drilled the holes for the draw slides same as you did to help with the corner cuts? Seems that would have been so much faster. As impressive as it is the mixing of colours in the double cabinet would cause me sleepless nights.

R2D2 *lurking*

You are so much fun to watch figuring out your process.

Adam. Well done - Some things to consider for the future- and the 1 sad thing that you're going to run into; 1st. You have enough gap and space between those that tightening them up would have given you atleast an additional 4 or 5 Sortimo boxes per Column. 2nd. Always level on sight with a laser level to ensure that even if the ground isn't level, your shelves are going to be. 3rd. Drop the rear around 1/4 of an inch campared to the front for a 3 or 4 degree incline, The weight levels them to 0 when they're out, but the incline back helps them go back in a little easier. The sad - The slides you're using are fatally flawed, the metal catch pin on the drawer side is going to break the plastic catches on the cabinet side. More weight and force the quicker it happens. Upgrade to the KV GS4270's and you'll never have to replace them or see them fail. Ever.

Because my budget is limited, I think I would build one drawer slide table, and leave it empty. Then when I needed the horizontal space just pull out the one drawer at a perfect height to set it on. Yes, I am a cheapskate!

For the price of these boxes, they should come with their own drawer slides

yeahh.. i feel ya. went through that when i first started doing wrought iron fencing. 1: saw stops and templates. 2: blocks and jigs.

Its amazing how organized everything is.

Another quality view into the place where Professor Farnsworth keeps his various lengths of wire.

Great system! But did you think about a pull out shelf at table height in your shelf system, So when you need a part you can grab the box of parts and pull out the shelf for your ready flat surface? You can have one for each stack.

An excellent video on the perils of over-thinking - you let your thoughts eat up the momentum and no preparation, when there is repetitiveness - create a jig and iron out the bugs, then proceed.

Thanks mm9773, I remember Adam saying he didn't like drawers back in the before time. However I understand his love for the Sortimo-T-Box. They are expensive at $50-85 each but IMHO worth it. Nothing else comes close. I have 10 of them and the only thing that has migrated out of its own bin is 1mm stainless washers. I have 2 of the 2 layer type ($85) which has been perfect for small hardware, 1-5mm and 2-56-12 something. Adam must get a large discount.

I was inspired by Adam's original Sortimo video from a number of years ago, so don't take this as negativity. However, if the "common man" wants to duplicate the same basic functionality for far cheaper, you can use Harbor Freight 20 bin storage cases, white block zip-close bags, and a label maker. I use the same system in my shop (I'm a gunsmith) to organize hardware, spare parts, and customer builds. I made 4 station shelves out of formed sheet metal that can be bolted and stacked on top of each other or mounted under a shelf. No expensive sliders required. One of the advantages to the system IMO is to be able to take the organizer to the work and not have to walk back and forth, so I didn't bother with hard mounting or slides. However, I understand why Adam would want this in his application.

Hey Adam, I made an open source pick to light system called M.I.M.O.S.A, Basically a web interface where you can very quickly locate things in your drawers. I have a video on it. It's super easy to install, And it makes retrieving things much faster than indexing an Excel sheet. I would love to help you set this up!

Adam and the Tested Team, your cinematography made a huge leap in this video. I enjoyed it. The camera mount's "creaking" acts as a ratifying audio swell like a continuous roll with sly scene changes. The cue with a crunchy sensation that kept me engaged. It wasn't over done and I appreciate it. 10/10 review from a random farm boy in Missouri.

Storage and organization of space make a room functional. This is a strong part of my architectural thesis currently. Glad you are finding your peace with the new system haha