Picture 009

I really like making tools out of cheap odds and ends, and saving the real money to spend on more glass! This handy glass rod "storage system" is made out of lengths of 2.5in OD ABS pipe from the hardware store. The ends are cut off square (at least one end is on each section). The sections vary from 12in to 9in in length. They are made into a vertical bundle, rubberbanded together; then they are hot-glued to each other at all the interstices. The resulting stiff bundle (with rubberbands removed) is then hot-glued to a slice of pine black for a base. The sawing is done with an ordinary cheap mitre box and hand saw. It goes fast -- ABS is soft stuff.

This diameter of pipe works well for me, storing about as much of any one type or family of rods as I can afford at any given time. The vertical setup takes up very little space, and the rods are far more controlled than they would be in a larger jar. Also there is no temptation to rubberband the rods themselves into bundles -- after a while, those rubberbands will fuse onto the glass and require serious scraping and cleaning to remove.

The disadvantage of this setup is that short rod ends would disappear without a trace into the black drainpipes -- but that's what the test tube racks are for! Short ends either get cut up for logs, or they stay in the plastic test tubes until I use them up.