Storage for tools and hobby stuff, & why does IKEA have to discontinue everything cool?!

 I'd rather use my closets for other things. Like clothes!

Cozy?

    When I got a new (from IKEA) table, I also got two Ivar closets (also from IKEA.) I think it’s discontinued now, which is a shame because it looks really cool. The quality of the construction isn’t really that great –what IKEA product is anyway– but it doesn’t really matter to me. It looks cool, and it’s also a convenient place to store my more often-used tools.

They have a way better setup now. This is just the photo I saw in the beginning.

    I initially saw someone do something like this on the r/Airsoft subreddit. They’d also used the Ivar locker to store their airsoft stuff, and they’d stuffed one of the Skadis pegboards behind the shelving. I DMed them about it, and they’d used the feet for it as well as some clamps to secure it to the bottom, and for the top they’d just sandwiched it in between the back of the closet and the modular coat hanger rack that comes with the Ivar locker.

These were the photos /u/Elzziwelzzif sent me

    It was a pretty good set up, and I was inspired. I wanted to do that, but I wanted to fill the entire rear of it with a pegboard. My 100% original idea was to have it sit on the rear end of the closet, and use the pegboard to attach dividing hooks or whatnot so as to more efficiently store handguns, long guns and magazines in their respective shelf. 

    Spoiler alert, the hooks that IKEA sells for the SKADIS are too short –or maybe guns nowadays are too tall– to confidently hold a modern layout rifle stored vertically and parallel to the hook. Like, it does hold it, but I’d rather it be longer and maybe less wobbly. Not my problem right now though, we’ll touch on that later.

    I received my new order for the Skadis pegboards two weeks or so ago (alongside a new desk chair.) I saw on the IKEA website that the width of the pegboards were around 14 inches or so. I measured the void in the rear of the cabinet, it was also 14 inches or so. Seemed alright, and I thought that any difference would be small enough that I could just push it into the void and get it to snug-fit.

    That wasn’t the case though. The difference in width was enough that I couldn’t just push it in, and I didn’t want to file it down on the sides as I’d risk not lining up the pegs from one board to another (like that mattered.) The bigger problem though was that the height of the boards did not easily subdivide the height of the locker. That part I understood getting into it. I figured that just as I did for my table I could simply cut one of the pegboards to fit. Which I did.

Chopped, fridays at 9

    I marked the line with a pink pen on one side and cut from there. I still have those clamps with the rubber teeth from when I cut the table to form-fit around a pillar in the corner of my room, so I just used that to clamp a meter stick to guide the shitty box cutter I used for the pegboard. Relatively clean cuts, it wasn’t very visible from the other side anyway. These pieces went on the bottom. They’re less visible and I have more usable space up top, where I’m more likely using the pegs for things.

    The most complicated part of the whole affair was trying to get that bottom piece attached and then into the position I wanted. I had already attached two pairs of the untarnished pegboards together, using the adapter plate that they sell. That part was easy, because I could just attach them outside of the closet and then place them in the rear.

Attaching that last part was hard because I’d have to:

1. Somehow suspend the untarnished boards up, so I’d have space to slot in the cut piece
2. Somehow hold it in place against the rear of the locker while I’m busy in the bottom
3. Attach the plate to the untarnished board (easy) to the cut board (hard)
4. Push it up (fairly easy) 

 

You can't really see the cracked finish, I promise

    I got lucky on the first part; I bought these hook things with the pegboards under the assumption that I’d need it to act as standoffs, pressing against either the wall or ideally the shelves. Because it was too wide to fit in the void, I didn’t end up using it for that. But since the shelves are not an exact form fit (to aid in the closet’s modular design, being able to place the shelves on any level I wanted,) there was enough space to sandwich the board in-between the shelf and the corner pillars of the closet.

    What I did was place two “hooks” on the left and right side of the board. I placed them in a position in which it’d hold it up sufficiently, but also give some space for it to move upwards. I then placed an additional hook somewhere above that. This was for me to grab on. I held the entire 2 pegboard combo upwards, moved and set the topmost shelf onto its supports –pressing the board against the wall in the process– and then let the board suspend itself using the hooks. It worked pretty well. I had it pinned upwards and against the wall so it wouldn’t fall onto me, but there was still enough play that I could force it upwards when it came to installing the bottom piece. 

LEGO manuals but (also) for (more responsible) adults

    I could not simply connect the cut board and the untarnished board together easily. I had it hanging now, which made it easier. But I couldn’t easily screw in the board to the plate. The way the connecting plate works is that it interfaces with a screw and a nut included with the pegboard. It holds the nut in place on the rear end, which you screw in from the front end. The problem is, the nut doesn’t get held to the plate via friction or anything, it’s just kinda there. Normally, you’d be assembling this before mounting it to your wall or whatever. That way, you could actually reach around and hold both the nut and the screw as you’re screwing it together. I couldn’t do that here.

    I just ended up using electrical tape to hold the nut to the plate. It’s really dumb, and I don’t like it cause I feel like it’s going to attract dust and dirt and it’s going to be nasty when I disassemble the thing in like, never. But whatever, it held it in place, and I got the cut board attached to the untarnished ones. After that, it was simply pushing it into place and removing the hooks I placed to hold it up.

1/2 of Spades

    Finishing this thing actually took longer than it should have, mostly because I lacked a couple of things. The connecting plates that the pegboard comes with states that I should use the hardware (the nut and the screw) that comes with the pegboard. It doesn’t come with any of the screw and nut hardware of its own. The problem though is that 1 pegboard only comes with 2 nuts for 4 screws. It might be because they assume that you’d only be connecting two boards together, and that that amount of nuts would be enough for the two plates to connect two boards? I don’t know, but I only had enough to connect the two pairs of untarnished boards to each other, and just a little bit left over to attach one of the modified boards to one pair. I had to order and wait for IKEA to ship extra nuts over, which thankfully was free.

KnowYourMeme/spiderman_holding_back_a_bus.jpeg

    My only problem now is the pegs/divider thingies for the handguns and long guns. I want to store the long guns vertically so I could use as much space as I can (not like I’m buying a lot of airsoft guns anyway,) but the longest hooks that IKEA sells are too short. They do touch and stop the rifle from falling from side to side, but it’s not long enough to make me confident enough in its ability to stop it from falling. Most of the problem is that the optic and pistol grip I have on there stops it from getting too close to the wall. It kinda sucks, and I’ve just got an elastic band on top of the existing hooks for peace of mind.

    What would really be nice is to have solid wall dividers attached to the boards itself, as opposed to the bent steel rods that IKEA sells. I went on Cults3D to look for custom 3D printed hooks that were longer than normal. While there were a bunch that existed on there, I think they also might have had a problem in which it’d wobble side-to-side. Every single attachment in that style I’ve seen were all flat on one plane. I think the ideal design would be to have wings that would stabilize it against the board when mounted. That’d probably complicate printing since you can’t just print everything flat against the surface, but that’s easily solved by designing it in two pieces. You have the wings as a separate piece and then you have the main hook as its own piece. Then you can have the wings be sandwiched and locked in by the hook.

?Maybe something like this? Too much material, though.

    I’m happy where this thing is at right now, but I really think those dividers would be the last thing I’d need to do. I just am not sure exactly how it should be designed in a way that’s effective at dividing but also is not literally a flat board with hooks attached to it. Would be too much filament, and I don’t own a 3D printer. 

 

 

 

    i think this might or might not be enough space actually for future stuff. like, rifles and handguns probably won't be a huge problem. but if i ever give a shit enough to, like, buy actual kit/vest/helmets or whatever, it might be a space concern. not like i give a shit about buying larp plate carriers or helmets or whatnot anymore tbh; i really don't care about the super sof death trooper aesthetic that much anymore. bigger concern might be machine gun boxes.  the IKEA IVAR seems to be being discontinued across Europe and America, and i think it's starting to be discontinued soon here too. if i ever decide to get one more "locker" for more storage it will probably have to be a different one that doesn't match. oh well.
    also like, i rotated my bed and moved it so it takes less space towards the closets itself. i had the head facing towards the center of the room with the foot right at the A/C because i was tossing and turning in bed and i couldn't sleep bc it was very hot. i moved it with the side facing the AC instead and with a mattress set on its side blocking the cold air from escaping my bed. kind of like a crib LMAO but i do not care it is very cold now. more space for like vr shit too I GUESS, and another closet or other storage thing if I feel it is necessary

    also i hope ppl have noticed me doing a section like this for every post where i post like real not-too-well-formatted twitter type shit where i talk about other stuff relevant to the post that i don't want to write too well. i hope u dont care if i go off-topic for a bit.
    despite this being like, my blog and all and where i probably open up a little more than i do on twit/discord/etc, this is still like kinda too public for me to be super confident in baring my whole soul out to the internet lol. sure, who is going to check some post from a long dead and still decaying website whose format lost its charm 10 or 20 years ago. but i'm like, really paranoid about the silliest things. maybe that's a result of my upbringing, but i don't care too much for self psycho-analysis.
    its like, there's some things i don't think I should confide to some people because i don't think it'd be good for them to hear it. there's some things i don't think i should reveal to others because i know or i think i know what they'd do about it. it's also like mostly early 2000s internet safety teachings (which aren't, like, bad, yknow) coupled with some other stuff
    i have about 1 or 2 posts i want to write and publish. one of them was meant to be the new year's blog post, and it's a little bit of me baring my soul out to people. but i haven't done it, cause i don't know how i'd convey it properly