What do you use to store/carry fittings and large diameter nipples.

The Steam Whisperer

I have used a large cache of old plastic milk crates for many years, but there are starting to fail. I have used these for all fittings and the larger nipples, 2 inch and up. What are you guys using?

pecmsg

Last mechanical contractor I worked for had crates made by a carpenter!

Mad Dog_2

Milk crates..Mad Dog 🐕 

STEAM DOCTOR

Milk crates. Can be purchased online. 

JUGHNE

Milk crates with metal wire sides, but has plastic bottom that I cover with 1/2" plywood. These are the rectangular ones that stack.

The Steam Whisperer

So, milk crates it is. Which online suppliers have the best crates?

EdTheHeaterMan

5 gallon plastic pails at the shop. Those pails would go to the boiler install job site for 2 reasons. #1 Of course you can never anticipate every adapter, tee, elbow, and union for every job. That was a good source to find what you may have forgotten on the job and saved a trip to the supply house. #2 Was for easy cleanup of the job site. There was a good place to file the fittings in some order so someone didn't need to sort through all the miscellaneous fittings from a big pile of "Junk" back at the shop. The sorting took only a few extra minutes on the job site. I remember 12 buckets. 6 copper and 6 iron. (Galv. and Black were intermixed) 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1-1/4", 1-1/4", 2" and one wooden box of over 2-1/2" and larger. I remember one customer that was perplexed at the disorganization of putting all the elbows, unions, tees, and adaptors intermixed in the same container. Especially when I poured the bucket upside down on his basement floor to look for a certain fitting. I thought it was quite efficient. Only one bucket to look for a 1” street elbow. Fount it fast and put all the stuff back in the bucket in 1/50th of the time it would take to go to the supply house to get it.

The smaller fittings were truck stock for doing oil burner piping. They were in an 18 compartment drawer set mounted on the shelf behind the driver seat. That drawer set also held wire nuts and electrical fittings along with pump strainers, electrodes and burner and circulator couplings. That truck shelving and 18 drawer kit was something I grew up with.


These 1959 VW vans were fitted out with them, and every service van I ever had the privilege to drive.

STEAM DOCTOR

Uline.com carries milk crates. Or milkcratesdirect.com. Getting different colors will help with organization. 

Mad Dog_2

Picked up my milk crates along the way. NYC had numerous Milk Suppliers.  Have 60 yr old metal ones and thick plastic ones 30 yrs. They don't go bad!  Elmhurst Dairy (Queens)  Tuscan (Manhattan) , Elwood Dairy (East Northport), Doberts (Saratoga),
Byrne Dairy (Finger Lakes).  Mad Dog 🐕 

EdTheHeaterMan

Mad Dog_2 said:

Picked up my milk crates along the way. NYC had numerous Milk Suppliers.  Have 60 yr old metal ones and thick plastic ones 30 yrs. They don't go bad!  Elmhurst Dairy (Queens)  Tuscan (Manhattan) , Elwood Dairy (East Northport), Doberts (Saratoga),
Byrne Dairy (Finger Lakes).  Mad Dog 🐕 

So Matt is not adverse to unconventional procurement methods?!?
Watch your tool box if you are on a job with him!

EBEBRATT-Ed

Milk crate are the best. Even when full you can carry them and they stack and they last.

And they are a good step stool although not osha approved lol

I agree with @EdTheHeaterMan put the same size in each crate, do the sorting at the job. Don't bring a big box of crap back to the shop. Any expensive items not used should be returned to the supply house promptly easier said then done

Mad Dog_2

Ha ha I knew that was coming...They were all stolen by SOMEONE..many yrs before me.  Like the Keyfood shopping 🛍 carts I saw in your warehouse!   Mad Dog 🐕 

ChrisJ

Uhoh.

Time to put the waders on......

hot_rod

Just sitting in my shop these plastic buckets split when 1/2 full of black fittings?

Bad brand, radiant floor heat??

GGross

See it says right on it "paint bucket" only good for paint I guess .😂

mattmia2

I think you want to find the milk crates that were actually used by the dairy where them not breaking when they got thrown around is important, not the decorative knockoffs

JohnNY

Milk crates. About a hundred of them.

dko

https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/48-22-8440
for your overpriced packout milk crate

https://www.milwaukeetool.com/Products/48-22-8040
dividers for your overpriced milk crate

despite the price, people still buy tons of it

Mad Dog_2

Oooh Johnny..You could get A Double Life Sentence for all those milk crates!!  I might get 10 yrs for the amount I have, but all the Mattress tags I ripped off and all the pens I grab at the bank 🏦,  could tack on another 5-8...ha ha  😂 🤣 😆 Mad Dog 🐕 

mattmia2

those are more like this style of bins which are nice because you can put dividers in them and get lids for them:
https://www.quantumstorage.com/bins-and-systems/dividable-grid/containers

Mad Dog_2

I don't think they even make plastic crates today as durable as those old ones.  The ones I've seen and chintz and break quickly   Mad Dog 🐕 

EdTheHeaterMan

I liked it when the milk man delivered milk to your front door.

realliveplumber

I grew up in Bridesburg. I still have one of the galvanized tin boxes that sat on the porch.

EdTheHeaterMan

realliveplumber said:

I grew up in Bridesburg. I still have one of the galvanized tin boxes that sat on the porch.

I was from Olney until I was 6 YO, then we moved to Bustleton. At age 23 I moved to Cape May County NJ. My brothers ran Martin Fuel in Bridesburg for years, WOW... It's like we were neighbors. How 'bout that I-95 rebuild!!!

realliveplumber

Martin Fuel serviced my Dads auto repair shop in Frankford. A great company to deal with. They were always smiling. Literally. So it must have been one of your brothers that would back the truck down the skinny driveway to fill the tank in the 80's and 90's What a small world. The city aint what it used to be.

I still can't believe they got 95 back in service like that. I would have lost that bet.

realliveplumber

Sorry for derailing the thread with the reunion.

We use milk crates, the ones that are stamped with the disclaimer unauthorized users will be prosecuted

The Steam Whisperer

Welcome to the "Bouncing Off the Wall" comedy club! I really don't know where all my old milkcrates came from, I inherited them.

I am just old enough to remember Wanzer's milk delivering glass bottles of milk to our back door in the Beverly Hills neighborhood in Chicago (far, far Southside, known for the Southside Irish).
I'm back in Beverly, but I believe Wanzer's is now long gone.

I've got some of those "decorative" "milk" crates, and, yes, they are pretty much useless. That's why I was asking where I might get some good ones.

Good grief, I'm getting old.

Gsmith

You might try 14 or 18 gallon plastic recycling totes, from Rubbermaid Commercial, Uline, McMaster, and the big box stores like HD and Lowe’s. They’re pretty tough, stackable, and some can be bought with lids. They come in various colors with and without the recycling symbol

Mad Dog_2

I caught the tail-end of home milk delivery 1970s.  Those insulated galvanized boxes on the stoop (Does anyone outside of NYC call it a stoop?).  The families with a Few Bucks got the delivery once a week from Charles Chips ...anyone remember those big box trucks and the large tins the goodies came in?  Potato Chips, Pretzels,  all kinds of cookies 🍪...Mad Dog 🐕 😋 

EBEBRATT-Ed

We used to get milk delivered in the early 60s, I think that ran out mid to late 60s. At least around here.

We also used to get baked goods delivered by "Cushman's" don't know if that was a local bakery or not. There was also another company that delivered baked goods but their name escapes me right now.

ChrisJ

Mad Dog_2 said:

I caught the tail-end of home milk delivery 1970s.  Those insulated galvanized boxes on the stoop (Does anyone outside of NYC call it a stoop?).  The families with a Few Bucks got the delivery once a week from Charles Chips ...anyone remember those big box trucks and the large tins the goodies came in?  Potato Chips, Pretzels,  all kinds of cookies 🍪...Mad Dog 🐕 😋 

I have a early 40s short movie where the phrase "he was left on the Rich Stoop's stoop" is used and it's from Eindhoven Holland.  So probably many say it. 


We used to get Charlie's chips delivered.  They also had candy on the truck.

The Steam Whisperer

Mad Dog_2 said:

I caught the tail-end of home milk delivery 1970s.  Those insulated galvanized boxes on the stoop (Does anyone outside of NYC call it a stoop?).  The families with a Few Bucks got the delivery once a week from Charles Chips ...anyone remember those big box trucks and the large tins the goodies came in?  Potato Chips, Pretzels,  all kinds of cookies 🍪...Mad Dog 🐕 😋 

I grew up calling it that here on the southside of Chicago.

Mad Dog_2

Yes..I believe it us a Dutch name..Duggans was a Very big bakery Chain..mad Dog 🐕 

The Steam Whisperer

I'm half Dutch, so maybe that's why I've heard the term "stoop"

mattmia2

I know what stoop means but we would call it a porch