Redesigned Storage

This project was a collaboration with a local mineral collector.

He has a museum-quality collection with thousands of specimens that are stored and displayed in a dedicated room in his home
Each specimen is mounted in a jewel box and the ideal storage configuration is to have them arrayed in drawers or trays one layer deep, so that when a drawer is pulled out, every specimen is visible
This project focused on two sizes of jewel boxes: the larger boxes are 1-1/4" cubed and the smaller are 3/4" cubed.

The problem we were trying to solve is that the 3 IKEA cases he was using had a lot of wasted space.

In their original form, they did not have the capacity to store/display all of the collection
The cases each had drawers that were too tall and that wasted a lot of potential capacity
There were still thousands of specimens that were stored in cardboard boxes because they did not fit in the existing drawers

Our goal was to work within the existing envelope of each case and maximize its storage capacity, with the jewel boxes being stored one-level deep, so that all could be stored and displayed.

Storage for the Larger Boxes

The case in photographs 1 and 2 holds specimens in the larger jewel boxes that measure 1-1/2" on each side.

Originally, the drawers had an inside depth of 3" and were stored on 3/4" thick fiberboard shelves
We cut the drawers down to an inside depth of 1-1/2" and reinforced them with brads in the corners
We replaced the original shelves with 5mm (approx. 1/4") plywood and mounted them on shelf clips on 2" centers
The client had enough extra drawers to fill the case
All of the changes increased the capacity of this chest 2x

Storage for the Smaller Boxes

The two cabinets shown in photographs 3-5 hold specimens in the smaller jewel boxes that measure 3/4" on each side.

Each case had a vertical divider with masonite-like panels with slides for 8 drawers, 4" tall, in each column
We removed the panels with the drawer slides in order to create two empty boxes in each case
Photograph (3) shows the pieces milled for 20 drawers, waiting to be assembled
Photograph (4) shows the 3/4" x 3/4" solid angles made of 1/16"-thick aluminum that we used for drawer supports, mounted with double-faced tape and reinforced with epoxy
We constructed new drawers with an inside depth of 1" to display the jewel boxes (the bottom drawers are about 3/4" taller than the others)
An interesting feature of the drawers is that the sides extend 2" beyond the back of each drawer, so that when each drawer is pulled out to display the jewel boxes, it is supported by the extensions and the track above - see photograph (5)
The redesign accommodated 20 drawers in each column, the changes resulted in increasing the capacity of the two chests by 4x

(3) Parts for 20 drawers

(4) Case for the smaller boxes

(5) Specimens on display