Same as you.... probably worse....

With this system I know exactly what cabinet, row, column or bin, or shelf they are in. Painful to do- but every f'n day I'm glad I did it...

Just knowing exactly what I have, and where it is..... I sleep better at night

Yes, painful to do... but you only have to do it once, and incrementally as stock comes in.
Once it is set up it is a pleasure to use.

 

many times i was thinking about creating storage system that would assist with this. sort of robotic unit tied to a database. it should link part number, location, quantity etc. and when fed new parts it would fund space automatically to store them and on demand retrieve them, like a vending machine. so much to do and so little time...

 

many times i was thinking about creating storage system that would assist with this. sort of robotic unit tied to a database. it should link part number, location, quantity etc. and when fed new parts it would fund space automatically to store them and on demand retrieve them, like a vending machine. so much to do and so little time...

You mean like Amazon or Digikey fulfillment centre?

 

I discovered I'd purchased some components in say 2013, and then did it again 6 years later because I couldn't find, or forgot I had the components.

Ah! The number one reason why I seem to have at least two of everything. Tools included.

 

If I had small children (ages 10 to 14, possibly) I'd pay them a few bucks to help me sort out those components and put things in order...

 

If I had small children (ages 10 to 14, possibly) I'd pay them a few bucks to help me sort out those components and put things in order...

Sounds like child labor!!!
Unless you pay MXN$200/day

 

Sounds like child labor!!!
Unless you pay MXN$200/day

Unless I pay about $10.00 USD a day, you're saying? ... that's exploitation qualifying borderline into slavery!

 

Hey, I got my info off the web, a trusted source of reliable data.
https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/p...se-general-minimum-wage-by-15-percent-in-2021

 

I use, among other things, plastic boxes, bags, and weighing trays. When something gets disorganized enough, I sort them.


The boxes on the bottom are my breadboarding parts. From left to right, headers/shorting blocks, parts for breadboarding discrete gates (a past project), resistors 10k and higher, resistors less than 10k. I just use a pair of tweezers to grab what I'm looking for.

I have an antistatic box (about 4"x8") with antistatic foam it in to hold IC's I use frequently; even the ones that aren't static sensitive.

The axial ceramic caps in the picture are 1uF, 0.1uF, and 0.01uF. I chose parts with different physical sizes so I could identify them by size.

I bought hundreds of the boxes and 2x3" bags on eBay 15+ years ago. The weighing trays were from a company liquidation; I have hundreds of those (three are stacked in the picture) plus a larger size.

 

many times i was thinking about creating storage system that would assist with this. sort of robotic unit tied to a database. it should link part number, location, quantity etc. and when fed new parts it would fund space automatically to store them and on demand retrieve them, like a vending machine. so much to do and so little time...

I remember when a company I later worked at did this- it was one of the first examples of automating 'picking' in a warehouse. This was done back in the 80's and you would submit a BOM and it would go get the parts from the racks and bring them and deposit them in a bin.

I'm actually making a system to do this with my parametric system I developed for my company. Sort of a bucket-list item I always wanted to do. Love robotics.

 

Back in the '90s Walmart had plastic parts cabinets at a good price, so I got enough to give every 5% resistor and 10% capacitor value (within reason) a home. Loose parts eventually find their way back where they belong. I usually save hardware and small components, because Murphy's Law says I'll be short one resistor or bolt otherwise. Fasteners, crimp connectors and heat shrink mostly live in a Plano model 3620 "ProLatch StowAway Utility Box" from the fishing department. Keeping fasteners organized avoids a lot of time wasted searching through buckets and bins when you need just one 6-32 screw (or worse, four of the same size).
Harbor Freight has a good price on this cabinet:
https://www.harborfreight.com/tool-...-organizer-with-full-length-drawer-94375.html

 

I use a combination of 60 drawer, 18 drawer, and 39 drawer part cabinets and coin envelopes in cardboard bins. I have 55 of the drawer units and many of the cardboard bins. One shortcut is to have an envelope for every part value. The parts that are in the drawer units have the part value underlined with nothing in the envelope. This makes lookups quick as I only need to check the envelopes for a value. See pictures below.

Dan

 

Best collection I have seen. Beats mine and Logwell's.
http://logwell.com/capabilities/lab_pics.html

 

My system is not the most efficient, nor do I recommend it for anyone. But it works for me.

As I buy parts, I keep them in their plastic bags that they came in. I stored those first bags in the box they came in. As I get more parts and hence more bags, I throw them into the original shipping box and discard the new boxes. As I need them for future projects, I dump the box on my bed and search for the parts I need. Then, all unused parts get put back into the box until the next project.

I’m not proud.

 

I use a combination of 60 drawer, 18 drawer, and 39 drawer part cabinets and coin envelopes in cardboard bins. I have 55 of the drawer units and many of the cardboard bins. One shortcut is to have an envelope for every part value. The parts that are in the drawer units have the part value underlined with nothing in the envelope. This makes lookups quick as I only need to check the envelopes for a value. See pictures below.

Dan

WOW... now I know where I'm heading. Also, I recently bought a few of these- and they are working very well for things that don't go in multi-drawer cabinets, and yet are too small to justify space on a shelf (like a boxed item):

 

A lot of these storage options are usually driven by what you are attempting. For me, I was providing repair services for a number of music stores. Not having a lot of spare space, I concentrated on having replacement parts available as they took up much less space than multiple units waiting for parts to arrive. What you see in the photos has grown over 30 years into what you see. Bulk purchases of "assortments" added to this as well.

The key for me was to acquire parts as low cost as possible (quality figuring into this too, not just price). This meant that I spent $200+ on resistors by buying values at 1000 per value. This reduced the cost to $4.75 per value or less then 1/2 cent each. Each resistor drawer holds 200 easily with the rest in a bulk storage box. Since most repair efforts charge $1 for a part, it didn't take long to cover the total cost of these. Note that "normal" purchasing would cost $1.20 for 20 parts plus shipping so the savings by buying in bulk paid the difference quite quickly. Similar purchases of the most common semiconductors saves similar amounts. I have 80 common transistors in stock and probably 20-30 common ICs (4558,4570, etc.).

Do what works for you based upon what you intend.

Dan

 

I have several projects in Completed Projects Index dealing with just those issues, look at the Storage/Inventory Control category (#33). I use snack bags because they are cheap. ESD is not a consideration for resistors or caps. I also made labels for the 1/4 W, 5% resistors, It has been a fantastic resource over the years.