New Legos drawers!
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Rick Blake
Jul 31, 2026, 6:23:36 PM (10 days ago) Jul 31
to Heatsync Labs
The Lab has a new tower of drawers for Legos! The boxes and cart and stray bits can be organized and stored, and large items have another space to be swet on!
tl:dr - Another 14+ inches of space along the West Wall was made for an additional tower of drawers, intended for Legos storage. This will be left to Legos champions and advocates to be put to use.
The long version:
For too long it has been apparent that the Legos inventory had exceeded the space available to organize and store it. As of today, there is a utility cart carrying significant amounts of loose Legos, kits and collections, and other Legos-associated stuff. It's in the way, gets moved, and is not an adequate solution. Other Legos items have been on top of whatever was near the existing drawers.
The simplest solution seemed to be to install at least one more tower of drawers, a significant increase in capacity for organized storage. There seemed, however, no room.
The redesign of the 3D Printer Station was the impetus for this project.
I formed a plan, on my own, to find space next to the 3D Printer Station to shift the Art supplies cabinet, find a few inches next to the Industrial sewing machine, and squeeze in a set of drawers. 14 inches. It could work.
But, the 3D Printer Station was installed about 4 inches away from the limit of minimum open floor space in front of the South breaker panel. This could not be taken, it would be a code violation. And moving the 3D Printer Station is nontrivial, and risky.
I noticed the other day two things that changed my plans, and forced this to happen today:
- Where there were usually both a tall trashcan and a recycle bin next to the drink refrigerator, the recycle bin had been moved. I do not know why. This actually freed up space enough to install the new Lego drawers without moving the 3D Printer Station.
- I had found that there was significant inventory reductions of the Sterilite drawers used for Lego storage. It appeared these may be going out of stock. Adding in identical drawers was attractive, and would be preferable to adding in relatively random units. While different sized drawers may have been useful, in all my discussions with interested (and uninterested) parties, this never came up...
So I decided to work through doing this with the new condition - the single trash or recycle bin next to the drink refrigerator leaving room for all the other pieces to be shifted enough to add the new drawers in.
I measured twice.
I shifted the 'stuff'.
I measured again.
Space!
I relocated the recycle bin next to the drink refrigerator. It seems the best spot, being next to where so many recyclable containers start from. The tall trash bin is moved also. It could find a better home.
I acquired the drawers, put them in place, and it's all there. I have not started filling them, that I leave to the Legos community.
Why this boring writeup?
I had many clever ideas about how to accomplish this. All had flaws. This solution has flaws, but they are, IMHO, tolerable.
And while I've committed a few do-ocracy projects, I resist plunging in and just doing something for the sake of it. I prefer to do no harm greater or even equal to the good accomplished.
This is how I think some do-ocracy projects need to be done. Much thought and planning before execution.
After all this, I'm hopeful this is indeed helpful to the Legos community, and just makes the Lab a little better.
tl:dr - Another 14+ inches of space along the West Wall was made for an additional tower of drawers, intended for Legos storage. This will be left to Legos champions and advocates to be put to use.
The long version:
For too long it has been apparent that the Legos inventory had exceeded the space available to organize and store it. As of today, there is a utility cart carrying significant amounts of loose Legos, kits and collections, and other Legos-associated stuff. It's in the way, gets moved, and is not an adequate solution. Other Legos items have been on top of whatever was near the existing drawers.
The simplest solution seemed to be to install at least one more tower of drawers, a significant increase in capacity for organized storage. There seemed, however, no room.
The redesign of the 3D Printer Station was the impetus for this project.
I formed a plan, on my own, to find space next to the 3D Printer Station to shift the Art supplies cabinet, find a few inches next to the Industrial sewing machine, and squeeze in a set of drawers. 14 inches. It could work.
But, the 3D Printer Station was installed about 4 inches away from the limit of minimum open floor space in front of the South breaker panel. This could not be taken, it would be a code violation. And moving the 3D Printer Station is nontrivial, and risky.
I noticed the other day two things that changed my plans, and forced this to happen today:
- Where there were usually both a tall trashcan and a recycle bin next to the drink refrigerator, the recycle bin had been moved. I do not know why. This actually freed up space enough to install the new Lego drawers without moving the 3D Printer Station.
- I had found that there was significant inventory reductions of the Sterilite drawers used for Lego storage. It appeared these may be going out of stock. Adding in identical drawers was attractive, and would be preferable to adding in relatively random units. While different sized drawers may have been useful, in all my discussions with interested (and uninterested) parties, this never came up...
So I decided to work through doing this with the new condition - the single trash or recycle bin next to the drink refrigerator leaving room for all the other pieces to be shifted enough to add the new drawers in.
I measured twice.
I shifted the 'stuff'.
I measured again.
Space!
I relocated the recycle bin next to the drink refrigerator. It seems the best spot, being next to where so many recyclable containers start from. The tall trash bin is moved also. It could find a better home.
I acquired the drawers, put them in place, and it's all there. I have not started filling them, that I leave to the Legos community.
Why this boring writeup?
I had many clever ideas about how to accomplish this. All had flaws. This solution has flaws, but they are, IMHO, tolerable.
And while I've committed a few do-ocracy projects, I resist plunging in and just doing something for the sake of it. I prefer to do no harm greater or even equal to the good accomplished.
This is how I think some do-ocracy projects need to be done. Much thought and planning before execution.
After all this, I'm hopeful this is indeed helpful to the Legos community, and just makes the Lab a little better.
Linda Krecker
Jul 31, 2026, 6:26:31 PM (10 days ago) Jul 31
to heatsy...@googlegroups.com
Great solution. Everything you did helps all the stations in that area. Thank you so much!
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Rick Blake
Jul 31, 2026, 6:32:15 PM (10 days ago) Jul 31
to Heatsync Labs
Linda,I didn't have to impact the sewing station one inch. That was a big need.
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Cprossu
Aug 1, 2026, 3:03:42 AM (9 days ago) Aug 1
to HeatSync Labs
This is fantastic! Thanks for doing this and documenting your work!
Jay McGavren
Aug 1, 2026, 4:11:16 PM (9 days ago) Aug 1
to HeatSync Labs
The timing on this was perfect. It's Lego Day and I count 12 people here playing with Lego, more than the rest of the lab stations combined. Great work!
Rick Blake
Aug 1, 2026, 4:12:38 PM (9 days ago) Aug 1
to heatsy...@googlegroups.com
How great! I hope they go crazy with empty drawers!
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