John Polgar gives us a tour:

This unit caught my eye at the local Costco! $79.95. Very versatile! Work on multiple
Flat panels drawers, table legs or whatever! Put them here in storage at intake, wheel to
Work station. Work on them one at a time and No clutter. Wheel them off to spray room.
Spray on turn table and put back on shelf for Drying rack, move off to staging for delivery
Or back to work station for installation back Into the furniture. The table legs with the
Lag bolts in the side I just attach vertical To the SIDES of this thing and still have the
Shelves clear for other items. I tell you, I can’t MAKE anything close to this for $79!
These type wheels alone would be $25-$30 A set of 4. Probably more as two of them are
locking.
Now THESE two pics display both sides of a
cool CHEAP thing I picked up
at a Local auction. A bridal shop went out of
business. I bought
Their slatwall displays for about $10 each.
The others are in my
Showroom. This one I turned into a clamp
rack. It’s metal, metal
Slats and troughs and can hold a lot of
weight. It’s also on 4
Swivel casters so I can move it around to any
work station if I’m going
To be needing a lot of clamps. Instead of
walking back and forth to
A fixed clamp rack just take it to the job.
For a couple clamps it
Stays put and I just get what I need. If I
see any more of these come
Up at auction I’ll pick them up too. I find
that things like this
Are not wanted by many so I can offen get them
for less than
Suggested opening bid. No one bids on
something and after a couple
Calls I’ll shout out $5 or $10 and it ends up
mine
J. Below are the other
Display units I put in my showroom.
This next one is some displays I picked up
from auction that were
In a Lord & Taylor store. I got them for $50
for all three of them.
I’ll use them for some long fabric samples or
leather hide or... ?
Now here’s one of our storage areas we keep
“transport” equipment in. 4 types are visible.
The
standard Hand truck and moving dolly on the left.
Straight Back center is a free table
top from some job
we Did with some 2x4 supports and 4 casters
added. Good for 2 chairs
or a long item. Back and to The right, next to the heater, is a triangle
dolly With 3 beefy casters.
This thing weighs 50
lbs With nothing on it. Don’t know what it’s made
of Or how I even acquired it.
Somehow it managed
to Get into my shop. It’s great for odd items or Super heavy items.
I’ve had over 1,000 lbs Resting on this beast at times AND it still
moved!
On “loan” from Lowe’s
J
We move sheetstock, lumber,
Rails, moldings, and some panels around on it
from
Time to time. We don’t “keep” it here. It
really is
On loan. Lowe’s is across the street from
me. We go over,
Buy some stuff, wheel it in, use it a day or
two, go back
And return it OR buy more stuff and use it
again.
Another use for the moving dolly. Furniture
comes in,
Goes on it at the intake door, rolls back into
storage
And stays there until I’m ready to roll it to
a station
To work on the unit. Then the dolly gets put
back in
The main “transport” storage area shown above
until needed again.
The above are Groopster idea units. Modified
with the middle shelf so it can flip
Up, back, and out of the way to house a taller
item inside. These are on 6 wheels
And work GREAT! I can wheel them to the front
intake, load them up, and wheel them
Back to storage. I can stock up a number of
chairs or items on them from storage
And wheel them out to the work stations and
load up the stations with work in one
Trip. I can keep them full in storage like a
lateral file right on each other and pull
Out one at a time to access contents. They
fit through a standard doorway but when
Used for transport you can’t put anything on
the top shelf and if you do use them for
Transport you have to remember to check the
top shelf before using
(Learned the hardway using my “head” the wrong way
hahahaha
J)
The “Groopster” racks in use in our
intake/delivery staging storage area.
These were made by our own LoL when he was
down here on “sabatical”
J!
Hey Frank! You wanna come back for a spell
you’re welcome to! I still have a back
Log and the place is huge & twice as nice
J.
An early incarnation of a shop cart for big
items. It’s about
6 years old. I would use a composite wheel
and larger if I made
Another one. These are steel and small so it
does roll a little rough.
Just some 2bys on their side and a piece of
particle board on casters.
I made it narrow for just such jobs. We’ll
actually do the work on an
Item while it’s on this cart most of the
time. Easy to wedge in between
Workbenchs when needed. Plus you can set it
here once at intake and move
It through every stage of the operation until
delivered so it lessens labor
Time/costs. I think all the stuff was scrap
left over from other jobs.
I wouldn’t buy material to make something. I
wouldn’t spend much time
Making something either if I can buy it
usually. That’s because if I figure
My time I can make more money working on a job
than building a cart.
If I have “free time” that’s different. But
what the heck is “free time”?
This is another left over from the previous
tennant. Too big for anything
But a shop misc. duty cart. Like the other
“push type” carts I have
I will go to the tool/supplies storage, load
up, take to the various work
Stations and restock or supply tools as
needed. Instead of making multiple
Trips around to get what’s needed, load up
once, make one circuitous run,
Then park the empty cart back where it’s
kept. Eventually I’ll cut this
Down in height and width maybe but at least in
width so it fits through
At least the wide door to the spray area.
Right now it only fits through
Intake door and second showroom (currently
storage) area. It’s real beefy
Too and can handle any item including a piano
if we could put it on here.
It held chopper motors, hvac units and
components for testing at one time.
This one is one taken from a Combination of Groopster pics,
Steve’s E-zine pics, the Haefele website and some trade rags.
I gave my tech the specs on what I wanted and He proceeded to create a travesty.
My
original Idea was to have these dowels removable and
stored On the unit in a
tube between the uprights.
That Way it was adjustable for different items.
They were
Also supposed to be on a slight uphill slant
coming out from the uprights and uniform.
He got those wrong and glued them
in. I won’t tell you the abortion he created on
the base, I had him tear it apart and redo it the way I drew it and he still go it wrong.
It’s better
than it was but only close to the design. It works okay but it’s pretty
much
limited to cabinet doors or small panels that aren’t too heavy. Some
longer trim moldings
too work well. It’s a drying rack only and kept in the
spray room staging area
outside the spray booth proper.
Oh yeah! The rack is still here, the tech is
gone
J.
Don’t know where we got this one either. It
showed up one day is all
I can remember
J.
We use it mostly to move items around the shop.
Equipment, tools, supplies, etc... When we go
onsite I take this.
We load up lots of stuff on it to get it from
van into the job. Then
I set up my tool boxes and stuff on it like a
rolling mini workstation.
I go from spot to spot onsite and just wheel
my stuff along. Saves from setting
Up and breaking down in each work section.
We’ll load it up from around the
Shop the night before too and put it by the
door. In the morning just stick all
The stuff in the van and off we go. If we get
back late that day we just load
The stuff from the van on it and leave it in
the intake section until the next
Morning then wheel it around putting stuff
back. Doing it this way one person can
Do the work of 4 in about the same amount of
time. I take it out on the dock
When I’m working on a yacht. I can setup
everything on it instead of
Walking all the way back to the van if I need
something. Then I just bring in the
Couple things I think I need for the job. If
I need something else it’s right
Off the boat side then. I screwed a couple
brackets to the side. Sometimes they
Hold a wrapped extension cord, sometimes a
ladder hangs on the side.
This is my newest addition to the “transport”
lineup.
This was $45 at Costco. It’s wider and taller
than the
Regular “shop carts”. I like the open shelf
for no dust
Collecting. It too can hold quite a bit of
weight and is
Highly manuverable to get around tight spots
and even into
Them to store something. Picture how easy it
would be to
Parallel park your car if all 4 of your wheels
just turned
To the curb. Park in any tight spot and not
worry about
Someone blocking you in! We also use it for
materials handling,
Shuffling, restocking, and storage besides
transport of work objects.
Hope you enjoyed the pics!!!!
Would LOVE to see more ideas from others sent
in here!
John Polgar
Clearwater, FL