My workbench often becomes a royal mess of wire laying all around, and my rolls of wire often become all tangled from being stored all together in a bag or otherwise bunched up.
I’m curious to see your (DIY) solutions to this issue!
I’ve had a look at the very nicely built caddy by Marty Weiser, mirroring what Ryan uses in his live-streams, but my workplace does not really allow for a solution of that size, however nice it is.
I’m considering having a go at building something like ‘this roller-box’ but I am curious to see your solutions and hear some pros and cons of what ever you’ve got experience with.
That roller box is cool. A bit too elaborate for my skills. I’m gonna build one out of 2x4’s, pvc and a hole cutter. Build a basic frame with a vertical piece of wood that has pvc in it mounted horizontally. Easy peasy. For now I have a box I lug around lol.
I bought a PVC version of the roller box and it’s incredibly annoying. Nice idea, but it just doesn’t allow for free wire flow like it looks like it would. And the wire rolls are inevitably too big to fit well on the small rollers.
You’re right, thats one thing to consider too - all the rolls I’m using these days are pretty large in their rolled up diameter. How do you store your stuff then?
Here is one I made for aluminum wire before I built the stand inspired by the one Mirai sells. It is a fairly simple box with shelves and a sliding panel to close it. I would use it more if I had an enclosed space to both store my stuff and work since the plywood won’t hold up to the weather very well. That is in the future plans. I cut the parts for a pair of similar boxes to hold copper wire, but they were going to be very heavy even when splitting the entire range into two. The future may hold a single box on wheels for storing the copper wire that is not being used.
oh yes! This i really nice. It actually makes a lot of sense storing them vertically, as the rolls are pretty flat. I wonder if a version like this, with a hole for each wire to come out of would work. Nicely done!
Thanks for the feedback. I don’t think it would work that well to pull the wire out through a hole. The problem I have encountered is that wire does not always come off the outside of the spool and tangles. This will even happen when there is a axel through the coil that is smaller than the inside of the coil. Take a look at the picture below for why. Even an axel that is the same size as the coil can tangle if it is not very free to spin. If using a fixed axel (easiest for the large central holes in our wire coils) then it should be very smooth so the wire can slide over it, slightly smaller than the wire, and easily accessible for untangling.
my assumption would be that this anyway only works for the smaller gauges. The force to “spool off” a heavier gauge will be too much for any (sensible) holding construction.
Look like those could work actually. That is if they are big enough to fit the larger holes in the big spools as @MartyWeiser describes above. I hadn’t thought of the issue of how easily the wire gets tangled. This is especially true for the smaller gauges, where the end you’re pulling can easily be layered beneath it self.
About 30 years ago I saw this guy at the Bonsai Convention, selling these wooden 8 aluminum wire carriers. In 1999 a friend of mind had one and wanted to know if I could make them. Well it took me about 4 weeks and I ended up making 10 carriers that year. 10 years later I was asked to make a couple more carriers for some friends in my club. This time I made 4 wire carriers. Because most people only used 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 wire. Here is what my 4 and 8 wire carrier looks like.!!
