Improve your Hobby Storage

A while ago not only my pile of shame exceeded the space in my hobby room but also my finished projects took a big amount of storage space. Packed in delivery cardboard boxes and plastic boxes it was all very inefficient use of the space dedicated to  storage.

One big problem was that the boxes were always a lot deeper than the minis were tall therefore needing too much space for storage.

Last year I bought some decent storage boxes and magnetized my minis but had the same height issue. So I came up with the idea of an easy way to store twice the amount of minis in one box by applying a metal sheet on the lid.

This is where we start from – a decent high durability plastic box with a metal sheet inlay for magnetized minis. The metal sheet is kept in place by doublesided tape. This one is my Afrikakorps box full to the brim:

I purchased some metal sheets cut to the right size from a nearby company. They were metal steel sheets with a thickness of 0,5mm. You could use galvanized steel but be sure to purchase magnetic steel! Be aware that rustfree steel can coontain zinc which decreases the magnetic feature of steele.

First thing to do is to put on some heavy duty gloves to avoid cutting yourself with the edges of the thin sheets. Next thing to use is a pair of safety goggles and a respirator mask.

Second thing to do was to clean the sheets from all the dust and oily grime. I used ballistol as it not only cleans the metal but also prevents rusting.

Now  that the sheets are clean I drilled a hole in every corner about 1,5 cm inwards of each corner. Use a smaller drill to first get a small hole and then widen it with the bigger one to get the right size. Use clamps to secure the sheet on your working surface. I use screws with 6mm diameter so i predrilled with a 3mm drill head and the widend it with a 6mm one.
REMEMBER TO WEAR SAFTEY GOGGLES!!!!

After that I flipped the sheet and used a side cutter to get rid of the metal burr which are a result of the drilling.

Remeber to empty the storage box before continuing!

Next thing to do is to drill a hole in the center of the lid. After that is done and the plastic burr is clipped away screw the metal sheet on the inside of the lid. Then mark the four holes on the corners on the inside of the lid and drill through them. I recommend to put one screw in place after drilling the first hole as this prevents the metal sheet from spinning if it is not an exact fit. Remove the remaining blurr on the top of the lid and put the remaining screws in place.

The box is now ready to be filled but here is a tip: WASH YOUR HANDS before filling the box with minis again to not stain them with oily grime or ballistol.

I’m very pleased with the result! The bond is a lot stronger than using sticky iron foil and the steel sheets are also a lot cheaper.

I used magnetic foil to magnetize my bolt action minis and used a hole cutter punch with a diameter of 25mm which exactly fits the small inifantry bases.

One last advice: Only put plastic minis on the inside of the lid and keep your heavier or metal ones on the bottom just in case as the bond of the plastic ones is a lot stronger due to their lesser weight.

Thanks for reading and until next time!