Small Parts Storage

[Ptron]

I picked up one of these because I got tired of keeping my resistors, caps, and what not in 100 different ziplock bags. I figure it will be perfect for that if I can make some dividers for those skinny drawers. Like 1" x 3 or 4" compartments to keep values separate. I'm having a hard time figuring out a good way to make the dividers, though.

I know a bad way because I've tried this before on a similar but much smaller set of drawers. I bought a big plastic under-bed storage box, cut up the plastic into 1" strips, then cut them to length for the columns and then the little 3" pieces for the a row dividers, and glued them in. Let me tell you it sucked. There wasn't enough plastic to do the whole thing. Cutting turned out to be a pain and gluing it even more so. Keeping them upright while the glue set was sort of comical. I used 5 minute epoxy which was a mistake. It doesn't hold well to the plastic. Probably should have used silicone or something.

But anyways, got ideas on how to do this? And if anyone wants to chip in with their favored storage techniques, go right ahead.

[Enzo]

The Joann site is down or something at the moment, I can;t access it either through your link or just entering their URL, so i don;t know what you have found. I have a mental guess of something like an Iris drawer unit. My wife uses them for her rubber stamp stuff.



I use a number of tackle boxes - little plastic compartment boxes for fishing lures. Plano makes some good ones. I get them at Meijer, a regional chain like Target or WalMart. I see similar things at fabric stores like Joann for keeping assorted sewing machine bobbins in.

American Science and Surplus always has a ton of various small containers of all sorts.

The problem with resistors is there are so many values. I have a wall of those drawer units with the 60 small drawers each. But 4 or 5 of them for resistors for the hobbyist is probably overkill.

Ziplock bags are fine, but a serious pain in the ass. One very low tech approach is small manilla envelopes. They often call them coin envelopes or key envelopes because you might find the keys to something in one of them. Or your church offering might go into something like it. ANyway they come in sizes. A half watt resistor seems to be about 3.5 inches long, so one of those in 3.5" to maybe 5" long should work. They just fold over to close, no zipping, and they stack on end like in a filing cabinet easily. Write the value along the top of the flap on each and you can shuffle through them just like files. One envelope per value. A long narrow cardboard box will hold them.

Glueing in dividers to some larger box is a pain. Using a syringe to lay down glue might help make it easier. If you don;t like to cut plastic, you can always buy plastic strips at a hobby store. They come in useful widths like 1" or whatever you want. For that matter, sheets of styrene can be sheared off into strips with a heavy paper cutter - remember those from grade school?

If you use drawer bins, you can put several values in one drawer by using smaller containers inside the drawer. There are small plastic test tubes that would work. Some have screw caps, others have a stopper cork.

You may find that some values you use a lot of - 100k, 220k, whatever - might deserve a drawer of their own, while odder values like 12k and 18k could become subdivisions of a drawer.

Some advice - try to store resistors in something that doesn;t require bending the wire leads into a pretzel. In other words for the basic small drawer bin drawer, it would be better to put dividers lengthwise in the drawers than the standard crosswise. Crosswise you can get three sections, but none are long enough for a resistor, but lengthwise, they would be.

[Enzo]

Their site is back up now. My guess was pretty close.

My envelopes wouldn;t be great for the shallow drawers but would work in the deeper ones. The test tubes would work.

[Ptron]

The envelopes are a good idea. I kind of like the idea of being able to pull out a drawer and see what you're low on, though.

I just thought of an idea on how to make the dividers. Get a piece of that blue insulation foam or something of the like. Cut it to the shape of a drawer. Cut shallow slits in it where the dividers go. Insert the dividers (still have to cut up a ton of little plastic pieces). Apply silicon or some other flexable, strong glue (could you do this with a roller?). Put the drawer over it. Apply weight and wait. Viola.

Still pretty labor intensive but I'm one of those people who'll put in a ton of effort to accommodate my laziness.

[tubeswell]

... I'm one of those people who'll put in a ton of effort to accommodate my laziness.

Me too, up to a point where laziness rules. Its quite efficient really. Must be evolutionary

[Jag]

I have 3 of these drawer units. The drawers come with slide in dividers that can be used to partition each drawer into 3 separate compartments.

If I wasn't alwasy so busy trying to make my life easier, I'd have way more time on my hands!

[Ptron]

I have 3 of these drawer units. The drawers come with slide in dividers that can be used to partition each drawer into 3 separate compartments.

If I wasn't alwasy so busy trying to make my life easier, I'd have way more time on my hands!

Amen, brother.

Aren't compartments a little narrow for the length of a resistor? They always seem to be on the ones I see in hardware stores and such.