[sdiy] organizing your parts

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Thursday 23 March 2006 12:47 am, amokan wrote:
> How do you guys organize your parts?
>
> I have some of the little "tackle box" type containers with little plastic
> seperators, but I'm realizing I have way too much stuff and its getting to
> the point where I need to come up with a system for those boxes. On top of
> that I found a HUGE tote full of parts I ordered years ago and never
> opened. Anyone need any ca3046s? (found a tube of those I didn't realize I
> even owned, among many other things... including more ssm2044s - if anyone
> is looking for one or two)

I wouldn't mind having one or two...   :-)

> I figure I'll have to take a trip to Home Depot or something, but wondered
> if anyone can recommend something? I don't really have a workshop anymore
> either, so I'm not really able to build parts holders on a workbench or
> anything. On top of that, I live in Arizona, so I neeed to get these parts
> all packed up in some sort of thing and brought in from the garage before
> the evil heat arrives. (which is probably only 1-2 months away)
>
> I feel like a moron for asking, but you folks always have clever answers.

I've gone with all sorts of different systems over the years.  At first I used 
little plastic drawers,  but now I find that those have only a limited 
usefulness.  At one point after that I was using cigarette boxes,  but those 
are kinda big for a lot of parts,  and you run out of room quick.  The most I 
did was in _tube_ boxes,  which you can buy blank white,  and in a number of 
different sizes -- I bought them 1000 at a time back when they were still 
relatively cheap,  and you can still get them at http://www.tubesandmore.com/ 
I noticed recently.  Storing these was a bit of a problem, I had a chest of 
drawers and currently have a lot of them in a couple of heavy-assed steel 
cabinets I acquired some years back that were originally made to store 
punched cards.

Currently I'm using little plastic bags,  the kind that have sealing 
capability.  For bunches of similar parts I put 'em on a shower curtain ring, 
in the "resistors" box for example.  I happened to acquire a box of 1000 or 
so of these,  and have made a significant dent in that box,  and have no idea 
where the guy I got them from managed to find them.  The neat thing about 
these is that there's a hole punched in the top of the bag.  And they only 
take up as much room as they need to,  and will flex to accomodate an 
assortment of stuff in a given box,  so I have a resistors box,  a capacitors 
box,  etc.

Oh yeah,  and I do have a tackle box as well,  with some stuff in it.  But 
that was mostly commonly-used parts that I went through a lot of when I was 
doing field service on organs,  and it lived in the trunk of my car and looks 
it.  :-)


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Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
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