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Endmill storage / organizer Pictures please.....i hate guessing what they look like.

I will try to add some photos later, but I keep my endmills in their original boxes. When I use one I write used on the box and store them in a drawer. I keep them in order smallest to largest and grouped by type, ball, extended, roughers ect.

I have a few stands that I keep around for holding tools in-between jobs. That is where you know you need to use it again but dont need it for the current job. That way I dont have to go to the storage bin 5 times a day.

Charles
 
How diverse is your work & volume? If you just use a few standard sizes, then something like you've shown in the pic will work, but I'm betting that it will get old, fast. We keep 2 large-ish Lista cabinets at work. One for new, the other for used. Like Charles said, they're kept in their factory sleeves in the box & separated by type with marked dividers in each drawer. If you're a one-man show, I'd buy a 6 or 7 drawer roll-around box (any brand) & keep all of the mill cutting tools in it that I could. Just mark on the sleeves if they are used. Keep it simple.
 
i hate those sleeves, its dangerous just opening them with a new mill inside. im a small one car garage shop with not much room . i do have around 100 new cutters and 45 reamers i would like to find when needed. i did email the seller and asked if he could make a larger size that would hold 3/4" mills . he might even be a forum member??..
lets see those endmill racks!!!
 
Think opening storage sleeves is dangerous, try out one of the exposed vertical racks you show in the OP. Sharp endmills are just that: razor sharp. It would be bloodstained proto. :eek:

The time will come when such a device will seem silly. Contemplate the inevitable drop on the floor with all your precious endmills "stored" for instance. Or even having to move the prickly thing with pounds of endmills stabbed into it.

I have at least a thousand end mills in a small shop and they are in drawers. Hundreds of small ones (.020 to .500) do fine in cheap plastic multidrawer units sold everywhere for peanuts. Larger ones live in larger drawers. Harbor Freight works if funds are limited.
 
Since most libraries have gone over to computerized cataloging, the old card files (catalogs) don't bring much these days. You'll need to cut a section of thin panel, I use melamine, for the bottom and some strips of melamine on grid for seperation. One last thing, I had to remove the rod in each drawer that originally kept the cards from being removed...simple press fit that released with a little elbow grease. The photo of the card file shows it soon after installation down at the shop...hadn't had a chance yet to clean up the previous owner's drawer tags.
 

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I've ended up with quite a few endmills over the years, many without sleeves. A good share of them have 3/8" and 1/2" shanks, that fit well in MTM cases for. 223 (for 3/8" shanks) and the larger for. 308 (that fit 1/2" shanks). These hold 20 each.
MTM also has a larger case that holds 100 that fit the 1/2". Loading blocks for reloaders also work well. All of these products I was able to find at the local sporting goods.

The System 3R orange blocks for storing 20mm electrode holders work well for 3/4 shank tools. I have found those to be very inexpensive off ebay.

My goal is to have a cabinet as shown above, just have not seen the right one to fit my limited space.
 
My goal is to have a cabinet as shown above, just have not seen the right one to fit my limited space.

Cougarmountain,
I work cheap! Probably get out to Oregon once a year...4 out of the last 5 years for 10 days to two weeks at a Yachats beach rental we like. I built this unit below for lathe tooling, but don't see any reason that a similar unit couldn't be repurposed for your needs...(different drawer count, height, hardware, etc.) Midway through a steel bench for my old South Bend lathe so I can have a nice toasty fire using the rough lumber bench that came with it. I suppose the real reason for building the steel bench would be a better fitting footprint for the lathe in relation to the other machines as well as a place to store all my lathe chucks and reamers for both lathes. Also including a final shot of a 5C collet cabinet base for one of my machinist chests... (it is in the background of the photo of the lathe cabinet) I'll admit they are never perfect, but serve my needs well enough.
 

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While it wouldn't be the ideal storage for endmills without some strenuous rework, the drill cabinet I built fits in about the same footprint as the lathe cabinet (needs more elbow room due to the two swing out doors). All the open spaces could easily be converted to drawers or have cabinet doors installed as well. With a bit of imagination it would be easy enough to have an amatuer built wooden Lista "style" cabinet along the same lines.

Finally, I've also included a shot of the lathe cabinet top mill tooling storage tray. Probably should have used the cutting board sourced top on the 5C cabinet as it would have provided a nicer more durable surface and been easier to do a less ragged bit of drilling. The storage tray in this shot doesn't show the oak button plugs I used to conceal the screwholes for the lift handles...ran out of 'em when I was doing the 5C machinist chest base.
 

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vidmar, lista, that is the way to do it. they hold the weight and have all the little drawers and pockets for anything you can imagine. I have at least a 1000lbs of endmills in a 10 drawer and maybe a ton of horizontal cutters in 2 other vidmars. Once you get one you will never go with anything else.
 
Here's some I bought from Enco 10/15 years ago. Made of plastic with ¼ through 7/8 holes. They were cheap enough, and work great, but they apparently went out of business a few years ago. Should have bought a few more. I store all my carbide EM's in a Huot cabinet.
Seems like someone with a plastic injection company could make these pretty cheap. Guess not.

other stuff :: endmillhldr2.jpg picture by rbehner - Photobucket
 
I, like a lot of you others, used a block of wood with holes drilled to accept the mill shank. I, like DaveE, find this way somewhat dangerous because of the sharp ends sticking up. Reaching for that one in the middle was a band-aid chore. I am looking forward to a good solution to this problem.

Tom
 
I also used a block fo wood with holes in it, and the sharp end up. Wondering why they couldn't be shank up to save finger tips? In my new shop everythings going into a Matco roller unit, have to figure out how to get easy and cheap dividers for the drawers.

Ray Behner, what is that device in the last 2 photos at your link? I got one of those at an auction 30 years ago because it looked cool, but I've always wondered what it was for.

gizmo.jpg
 
Richard,
A good friend gave that to me. I posted it before, asking what it was. For the life of me, I can't remember what was said. Patternmaking? Inspection? It's pretty neat anyhow. Very well built.
 
Imagine four drawers in a Lista cabinet, each filled with three different types of endmills, all of them in the plastic packaging. No dividers.

That's the extent of my endmill storage.
 
Ray Behner, what is that device in the last 2 photos at your link? I got one of those at an auction 30 years ago because it looked cool, but I've always wondered what it was for.

View attachment 57143

Old school metrology tilting rotary table. They work bitchin on a sinker EDM instead of farting around with heavy sine plates and gage blocks for smallish parts (no tool pressure).
 
Since most libraries have gone over to computerized cataloging, the old card files (catalogs) don't bring much these days. You'll need to cut a section of thin panel, I use melamine, for the bottom and some strips of melamine on grid for seperation. One last thing, I had to remove the rod in each drawer that originally kept the cards from being removed...simple press fit that released with a little elbow grease. The photo of the card file shows it soon after installation down at the shop...hadn't had a chance yet to clean up the previous owner's drawer tags.

That is pretty clever and I have no doubt they are surplusing those things if they haven't already the only question is where do you track them down, I checked ebay and nothing much. Where do you find those I think I may need to get a few sets if they are cheap enough.
 








 
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