Now, WHERE did I put my bag full of Cliff phone jacks???!

[nevetslab]

Maybe I'm just having one of those 'senior' moments, knowing full well I have a bag full of various Cliff phone jacks to support Ampeg, Marshall, Vox and many others that use them in a variety of styles. Went to fetch the bag from the shelf, where it always sits above the middle resistor cabinet. Nothing there. Nothing on the test bench where it travels to for fetching the one needed, then goes back. Now, nowhere to be found.

As happens with steel shelving, where the floor molding prevents pushing the shelving flush up against the wall, I've had items fall off down the back, which was what I was fearing. When it goes all the way down, then I enter into the boneyard of cast-off speaker pulls. I had to sort thru those pulls yesterday to try and find a working 12" spkr to replace the blown one from my church's Fender Blues Deluxe that I donated a few years ago. I did at least find a suitable replacement, and cleared out six dead spkrs that I finally hauled off to the dumpster to end the thought of sending them out to be re-coned. BUT, no bag of connectors found having slipped down the back of the shelves.

The downside of insufficient funding for full parts cabinets from small to large size, so everything has a place to be stored and found. Instead of growing piles of boxes and bags to sort thru, relying on aging memory. Arrrggghhhhh! Sure none of you all have these problems, eh?

[xtian]

I don't know where your parts are. But I'm happy to come search for them. If you don't mind me wearing my very baggy cargo pants with lots and lots of pockets...

[drewl]

I know the feeling

I know I have Peavey mixer pots around here somewhere that I harvested from a dead unit but could not find them last week.

Made do with Crate pots and wires.

[The Dude]

A couple of days ago, my shelf of connectors broke away from the wall......CRASH!!!!! There were connectors strewn everywhere. I'll probably be discovering more for months.

[Randall]

Happens to me all the time. I have a black hole under my bench where screws and such always fall into never to be seen again. Last week I fetched a bag with new Fender mounting straps and bolts for a build I'm working on. Could only find two bolts. I searched round and around, because I KNOW I have four bolts, not two. After an exhaustive search of my small shop, I decided it would be more fun to spend time searching through every CED order for the last year and a half. When I finally found the order with the Fender hardware, it had two straps alright, and two bolts. DOH.

[The Dude]

I'm sure nobody here has ever done this.

You drop a part. Look all over for it. Say the hell with it. Dig through your bins and find another "whatever". Send the completed repair out. A couple days later you find it somewhere.

[Leo_Gnardo]

You gots to get organized nevets!

I'm not a whole lot better. But, came a time a couple years ago when I couldn't stand flailing around looking for connectors and other bits crammed into a drawer or slung into an old milk crate. So - a sturdy shelf and coffee cans was my solution. Cans clearly marked with labels big enough for me to read even with glasses off. BIG improvement, but not perfect.

I also have a junk room, about 8x8 feet, crammed with other stuff. Looks a lot like your pictures.

You gots to get organized, Leo!

[g1]

Gotta try out this 'separate boxes' idea.

[galaxiex]

My semi organized work bench...

Tons of parts in stock... never the right one...

[olddawg]

I downsized in January. I felt VERY guilty about putting hole organizer drawer bins in the dumpster full of obsolete transistors and ICs and everything else. Gave pro benches I got from Qualcomm 20 years ago to charities as well as test equipment. But people still bring me stuff of course and I do it on top of a dresser or on the kitchen counter. And of course the part I need I clearly remember throwing out.. and the tools I need are in storage.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I downsized in January. I felt VERY guilty about putting hole organizer drawer bins in the dumpster full of obsolete transistors and ICs and everything else. Gave pro benches I got from Qualcomm 20 years ago to charities as well as test equipment. But people still bring me stuff of course and I do it on top of a dresser or on the kitchen counter. And of course the part I need I clearly remember throwing out.. and the tools I need are in storage.

OW! Not to heap on any more guilt... but a mention in MEF Flea Market would have helped redistribute parts & test gear I'm sure. Next time...

Meanwhile Enzo is slowly dispersing his lifetime accumulation. I s'pose we'll all have to eventually. Not much looking forward to it.

[nevetslab]

I'm sure nobody here has ever done this.

You drop a part. Look all over for it. Say the hell with it. Dig through your bins and find another "whatever". Send the completed repair out. A couple days later you find it somewhere.

It's even worse when the part is the one you KNOW you don't have backup or similar. You're now left with that infamous N-1 number. I don't think a day goes by when SOMETHING hits the floor from the bench, and always takes a foot-ball bounce.

I did pick up two 64-drawer Parts cabinets some time ago....like maybe 4 yrs ago? I think I only paid $10 ea for them at a swap meet. Have I emptied them of what was contained? Well, uh..........only the bottom row of drawers, to take on ceramic caps. One of those many shop projects that only gets done when there's no work. YUP.....GOTTA get organized.

[nevetslab]

My semi organized work bench...

Tons of parts in stock... never the right one...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]53529[/ATTACH]

Are those cabinets mounted to the wall, or just there by virtue of gravity? Of course, up in Edmonton, I don't think the earth moves like it does in Southern California. Helps to be tall if you gotta get to those top few rows of drawers. I dread the day LA suffers from another long major quake like the one that dropped part of the Santa Monica Fwy down onto Fairfax Ave. That one partially rotated my friends 2-story house in North Hollywood.

[galaxiex]

Are those cabinets mounted to the wall, or just there by virtue of gravity? Of course, up in Edmonton, I don't think the earth moves like it does in Southern California. Helps to be tall if you gotta get to those top few rows of drawers. I dread the day LA suffers from another long major quake like the one that dropped part of the Santa Monica Fwy down onto Fairfax Ave. That one partially rotated my friends 2-story house in North Hollywood.

Gravity.... and I stand on the chair to reach the top rows.

[olddawg]

OW! Not to heap on any more guilt... but a mention in MEF Flea Market would have helped redistribute parts & test gear I'm sure. Next time...

Meanwhile Enzo is slowly dispersing his lifetime accumulation. I s'pose we'll all have to eventually. Not much looking forward to it.

I didn’t have that kind of patience. It’s amazing how stress affects your health. I didn’t have a lot of time and was freaking out about it was ramping my BP to the danger zone, lol. Hearses don’t have trailers. I scaled down from a 3400sqft house with a 3 car garage (one stall was my shop).. to a 1400sqft apartment. It’s hard when you hit that wall. But there is also something liberating about it. But it’s weird throwing out stuff you have held on to since your twenties when you are in your 60s. The charities must love me at least.. lol!