[sdiy] Storage

[Donald Tillman]

Here's an elegant solution I've posted in the past:

Go to any office supply store and buy lots of small manilla envelopes, 2.5 inches by 4.25 inches.  They're usually used to hold keys.  Use each envelope to store up to about 100 resistors of a given value.  Write the resistor value on the flap.

Also pick up a few of those fancy shoebox-sized storage boxes used for storing photographs, VHS tapes, or cancelled checks.

Glue three cardboard spacers into the showbox, and you have instant storage for an awful lot of resistors.  Here are pretty much all the E24 values of 1/4 watt resistors, plus a bunch of precision resistors, with plenty of room to spare:

  http://www.till.com/random/parts1.jpg

You can also use the same system for storing IC's.  Buy some conductive foam and slice it up into 2.5 inch by 4.25 inch rectangles, and glue on labels:

  http://www.till.com/random/parts2.jpg

Easy to build, inexpensive, easy access to the parts, well organized, and you can throw the boxes into a closet when you're not using them.

Use larger manilla envelopes for larger parts or larger quantities.

  -- Don

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Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California
don at till.com
http://www.till.com