Laser Cut Harbor Freight Bin Dividers

Harbor Freight, bazaar of wonders.  Purveyors of tools of all stripes, from the worthless to the sublime.  If you want a tool, they will have some version of it.  Some are inexpensive wonders, as good or better than their more expensive peers.  Others, worth exactly what you pay for them – which isn’t very much.  Every once in a while, though, you find a strange oversight.

We purchased these tool bins, along with a rack to hold them. Nothing terribly exotic about them. A little less durable than their much more expensive counterparts from Northern Tool, et al, but they are still sturdy and functional.

The problem comes when you have small quantities of things and want to store several per bin. Most other bins like this have dividers that you can purchase to meet this need. The Harbor Freight bins even have slots for just this purpose. Unfortunately, the dividers that would fit these cleverly molded slots do not seem to exist!  The store does not carry them, and the staff can find no record of such a product.  Lesser men would have cursed the store and accepted their fate.

However, we are steadfast hackers, and we own a laser cutter! A bit of measuring, some scrap PETG and a little time spent with Adobe Illustrator, and viola – custom fitted dividers!

The great thing is that it’s easily repeatable. I had tried to do this once before, in the dark days before the laser.  I cut pieces out using the band saw and while the first one fit ok, cutting them repeatably without a pattern proved – unreliable.  Now, we can whip them out in a matter of minutes.  Another testament to “the right tool for the job”.

If anyone needs the pattern for these, feel free to drop us a note.