Shallow drawers on top for hand tools, gauges and inserts; mid-height in the middle for power tools and fixtures; tall drawers at the bottom for heavy and bulky items. Here is what each Vidmar drawer height actually holds, and three layouts you can order today.
Shop/Modular Cabinets/Drawer heights guide
Put the shallowest drawers at the top of the cabinet for hand tools, gauges and inserts; mid-height drawers in the middle for power tools and fixtures; and the tallest drawers at the bottom for heavy or bulky items. Two reasons. Weight belongs low, so the cabinet stays planted when a 400 lb drawer is fully extended. And you look down into a tall drawer at floor level, so its contents stay visible, while a tall drawer at eye level is a bin you cannot see into. Every factory-preconfigured Vidmar cabinet follows this hierarchy, and it is the layout the configurator assumes.
Vidmar names drawers by a model number that is also their height in points: the drawer models in a cabinet must add up to the housing height code, so a Model 340 housing (59 inches tall) holds 340 points of drawers, a Model 245 holds 245, and so on. Usable interior height is what matters for what fits.
| Drawer model | Usable height | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Model 20 | 2¼″ | Hand tools laid flat, gauge blocks, inserts, drill bits, taps, small precision parts. The densest drawer and the one that fills a crib fastest. |
| Model 25 | 3″ | Micrometers and calipers in their cases, end mills, reamers, small fixtures, electrical components. |
| Model 30 | 3⅞″ | Collets, boring bars, small hand power tools, fasteners in bins, most MRO consumables. |
| Model 35 | 4⅝″ | Tool holders, bearings, hydraulic fittings, cordless drills laid flat. |
| Model 40 | 5⅜″ | Larger power tools, vise jaws, small pumps and motors, boxed spares. |
| Model 50 | 7″ | Chucks, dies, gearboxes, bulk fasteners, anything with a carrying handle on top. |
| Model 60 | 8½″ | Heavy fixtures, angle plates, filters and belts stood on edge. |
| Model 70 | 10⅛″ | Motors, valves, coils of hose or cable, tall bottles and cans. |
| Model 100 | 14⅞″ | Bulky and heavy items that live on the floor of a drawer: jacks, torque multipliers, large molds and tooling. |
Every drawer is full extension and rated for 400 lb, whatever its height. The catalog runs to taller drawers than Model 100; Echo stocks these nine because they cover nearly every real layout, and the rest are quotable.
Top to bottom: 6 × Model 20 (2¼″ usable), 4 × Model 25 (3″ usable), 2 × Model 30 (3⅞″ usable), 1 × Model 60 (8½″ usable). Drawer models sum to 340.
A crib issues small things all day: cutters, inserts, gauges, hand tools. The value is in how many part numbers one attendant can reach without walking, so the stack is mostly 2¼ and 3 inch drawers, with one 8½ inch drawer at the bottom for the few heavy items every crib ends up owning.
Closest stocked cabinet: Vidmar RP3039A, 13 drawers, 256 compartments, 30″ W × 27¾″ D, $4,146.16 delivered, Quick Ship, within 10 days. Want this exact stack instead? Build it in the configurator; it prices the same housing with your own drawer models.
Top to bottom: 2 × Model 25 (3″ usable), 2 × Model 30 (3⅞″ usable), 1 × Model 35 (4⅝″ usable), 2 × Model 50 (7″ usable). Drawer models sum to 245.
Maintenance stock is mixed: fittings and electrical parts up top, bearings and belts in the middle, filters and small pumps low. A counter-height housing puts a worksurface on top, so the cabinet is also the place the work order gets kitted.
Closest stocked cabinet: Vidmar RP2102A, 7 drawers, 114 compartments, 30″ W × 27¾″ D, $3,048.08 delivered, Quick Ship, within 10 days. Want this exact stack instead? Build it in the configurator; it prices the same housing with your own drawer models.
Top to bottom: 2 × Model 30 (3⅞″ usable), 2 × Model 40 (5⅜″ usable), 2 × Model 100 (14⅞″ usable). Drawer models sum to 340.
Dies, chucks, fixtures, and jacks. Two 14⅞ inch drawers at the bottom carry the weight where you lift it least and where a tall drawer is easiest to look down into. The shallow drawers up top hold the wrenches and shims that go with the tooling.
Closest stocked cabinet: Vidmar SCU3398A, 6 drawers, 72 compartments, 30″ W × 27¾″ D, $3,043.29 delivered, made to order, 2 to 3 weeks. Want this exact stack instead? Build it in the configurator; it prices the same housing with your own drawer models.
The preconfigured RP, SCU and SEP cabinets are the layouts Vidmar has sold most for decades, and they all run shallow to tall from top to bottom. The densest stocked eye-level cabinet, the SCU3014A, packs 15 drawers and 360 compartments into one 30 inch housing by stacking 2¼ and 3 inch drawers up top. The bench-height Model 175 cabinets carry 4 to 7 drawers because a 33 inch housing has fewer points to spend. Pick the housing by how you work (the four heights are explained on the cabinet dimensions page), then pick the stocked model whose drawer count is closest to your stack, and re-map the inside of any drawer with dividers and partitions after it lands.
Build your own stack and see the delivered price in the configurator, or start from a stocked cabinet on the eye-level, counter-height, stand-up or bench-height pages. Questions on a layout: hello@echoindustrialsource.com or 512.363.2178.
Open the configuratorWith the drawer models Echo stocks, as few as 4 (three Model 100 and one Model 40) and as many as 17 (all Model 20). Real layouts mix heights: the stocked Model 340 cabinets run from 6 drawers to 15 drawers in the SCU3014A.
Yes, and you should. Every preconfigured cabinet mixes heights, shallow drawers at the top and tall drawers at the bottom. The only rule is that the drawer models add up to the housing height code: 175, 200, 245 or 340.
It is the height of the drawer in points, and it adds toward the housing code. A Model 50 drawer has 7 inches of usable interior height; a Model 100 has 14⅞ inches. The nine drawer models Echo stocks run from Model 20 at 2¼ inches to Model 100 at 14⅞ inches.
A taller drawer costs more than a shallow one, but a cabinet with fewer tall drawers usually costs less than the same housing packed with many shallow ones, because each drawer carries its own slides and front. The configurator shows the price of any stack before you ask for a quote.
The drawers themselves are fixed at the factory, but the inside of every drawer is re-mapped with dividers and partitions, and that is how most layout changes are handled. If you need different drawer heights, a second cabinet is usually the better answer than reworking the first.
Evenly distributed load per drawer, at full extension, on the drawer slides. It is not a point load on the drawer front and it is not the whole cabinet. Every Vidmar drawer height carries the same 400 lb rating.
Model 20 and Model 25 drawers, 2¼ and 3 inches of usable height. Hand tools laid flat, gauges and inserts fill a shallow drawer edge to edge with everything visible, which is why the top of nearly every Vidmar cabinet is shallow drawers.
Last updated September 18, 2026 by the Echo team.