Project: Resistor Parts Storage

BoyntonStu

Joined Apr 18, 2009
52
First, bags are not necessary.

Second, Why buy anything?

OK Here is what I would do.

Use a piece of plywood, cardboard, Masonite etc, as your mounting board.

Say 14 x 20.

For each row, take a sheet of thin cardboard or thick paper the width of the board and fold it to make a slot pocket. One fold up and one fold down. This will leave part of it as the back.

Sort of like a Kangaroo pouch.

Scotch tape, staples, or glue as size separators to form individual pockets.

Slip the resistors into each pocket and label with a felt pen.

Cheap, fast, no opening Zip Lock bags, quick to place in or take out resistors.

Portable.

You can eve use both sides of the board.

FWIW

BoyntonStu
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
First, bags are not necessary.

Second, Why buy anything?

OK Here is what I would do.

Use a piece of plywood, cardboard, Masonite etc, as your mounting board.

Say 14 x 20.

For each row, take a sheet of thin cardboard or thick paper the width of the board and fold it to make a slot pocket. One fold up and one fold down. This will leave part of it as the back.

Sort of like a Kangaroo pouch.

Scotch tape, staples, or glue as size separators to form individual pockets.

Slip the resistors into each pocket and label with a felt pen.

Cheap, fast, no opening Zip Lock bags, quick to place in or take out resistors.

Portable.

You can eve use both sides of the board.

FWIW

BoyntonStu
Pictures? Or is this hypothetical?

Either way, you're talking what kind of materials to buy. Some purchases required.

One of the reasons I like bags is they fold up small and are somewhat maliable. I store mine in boxes. They also don't need a "This End Up" sign.
 

KL7AJ

Joined Nov 4, 2008
2,229
My next door neighbor is a cross between Redd Foxx and Red Green. He's a retired blaster (still keeps his license up to date "just in case I need to blast something") His post-retirement career is professional dumpster diving...and he's GOOD at it. He found this marvelous steel chest-of-drawers with gillions of little compartments at a DRMO sale. I was more than happy to take it off his hands. It's olive drab, so it fits my dreary hamshack decor perfectly. :)

eric
 

someonesdad

Joined Jul 7, 2009
1,583
My wife came up with a simple method for storing resistors -- let's me find any value in a matter of seconds and it fits in a small box. There's nothing to make. Read about it here -- it's coupled with a simple program to make a voltage divider from the resistors you have on hand.

note: the link has expired
 
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Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
My wife came up with a simple method for storing resistors -- let's me find any value in a matter of seconds and it fits in a small box. There's nothing to make. Read about it here -- it's coupled with a simple program to make a voltage divider from the resistors you have on hand.
You miss the point, I have every resistor of the 5% ¼W variety, and I can achieve much higher precision by paralleling them. This method I show is a way to keep track of large numbers of resistors, a real godsend to anyone who does a lot of breadboarding. By buying them in bulk, my cost was 2¢ each, each small bag holds around 20-50 parts (some of the more common values a lot more). 24 small bags per plastic folder, which is rolled up and put in a sandwich bag, 8 sandwich bags per gallon bag (the type with the zipper is handy too).

I've recently added a new twist, by making a set of disks using this template on an inkjet...



I get this result...



I'm thinking my capacitors and zener diodes could use some similar organization.
 

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someonesdad

Joined Jul 7, 2009
1,583
You miss the point, I have every resistor of the 5% ¼W variety, and I can achieve much higher precision by paralleling them. This method I show is a way to keep track of large numbers of resistors, a real godsend to anyone who does a lot of breadboarding.
Well, Bill, it sounds to me like you've come up with a nice way to store your stuff. I didn't miss the point -- I was just commenting on another storage method that I use to store about 130 different resistor values that works well for me.

If you have the E24 series for each power of 10 from 1 to 6 or so, that's a little less than 150 resistors -- not significantly different than the number I have on hand. Thus, hopefully, we've given folks two ideas to start with; maybe there's a hybrid that's even better.
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Tsk, Tsk, two boxes, and you have to keep em upright. :D

Just kidding though, whatever works for you. I keep all my parts in large bankers boxes when I'm not using them. Being upright is a real issue.

Like the knife, looks a lot like mine, complete with pliers. Hard to find nowdays, somewhere the manufacturer got the impression people don't mind 2 inches wide or bigger.
 

KL7AJ

Joined Nov 4, 2008
2,229
....in which every conceivable issue pertinent to electronics is addressed. :D


..........
Well, we’re almost halfway there. We now come to Method Six of self-destruction: choking on small parts. This is actually more of a hazard than it was in days of yore, because——well——radios are smaller nowadays.
Actually, the only time I really came close to choking to death on a small part (other than, perhaps, some forgotten experiences in my infancy), was when a transistor (I believe) had fallen, unbeknownst, into my coffee from an overhead shelf. (See how all these safety issues can be related?) I think I actually swallowed the item in question. In any case, it was a most unpleasant, and best unrepeated, experience.
Now, as unlikely as you are to suffer a similar incident, you may (in fact, you should, if you are a ham worthy of the name) occasionally entertain young visitors in your ham shack. Young people, up to the age of around nineteen or so, have a penchant for inserting small foreign objects into their mouths and other orifices not intended for such. Be ever on the alert for this eventuality. Keep easily swallowed parts in appropriate bins until ready for use. In fact, you might even entertain the notion of labeling said bins, so as to more readily find the parts in question. This is a wonderful, innovative idea, though I have yet to encounter any ham who’s actually implemented it.



Eric
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
I just got some more SMD capacitors and my old system of organization is being overwhelmed. On re-reading this thread, I was reminded of the sheets we used in the pre-PowerPoint era to store 2X2 projection slides. Each sheet held up to 20 slides, and they were easily stored in a three-ring binder.



They might work well for storing the sub-packets of SMDs. Fortunately, I have dozens of them, as my slides became outdated, but the holders did not. :D

John
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
.
Actually, the only time I really came close to choking to death on a small part (other than, perhaps, some forgotten experiences in my infancy), was when a transistor (I believe) had fallen, unbeknownst, into my coffee from an overhead shelf. (See how all these safety issues can be related?) I think I actually swallowed the item in question. In any case, it was a most unpleasant, and best unrepeated, experience.
Eric
To me the more important question is, did you use it afterwards, say in a couple of days... never mind.

I just got some more SMD capacitors and my old system of organization is being overwhelmed. On re-reading this thread, I was reminded of the sheets we used in the pre-PowerPoint era to store 2X2 projection slides. Each sheet held up to 20 slides, and they were easily stored in a three-ring binder.

<snip>

They might work well for storing the sub-packets of SMDs. Fortunately, I have dozens of them, as my slides became outdated, but the holders did not. :D

John
They do kinda resemble. I originally bought the impulse sealer to make the small bags, the rest came later. Looks like you could use on too.
 
When I organized my electronics stuff, I used baseball card pages with a piece of electrical tape folded over the top in a giant 3-ring binder. That got a little expensive, but it's done now.

 
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