How do your organize all the tiny stuff?

T

Travis Fry

Well-Known Member
I've got a proliferation of drill bits, taps, reamers, Torx drivers, and pinstock odds and ends that are getting out of control. I'm very soon going to add detent balls, hundreds of screws, thumbstuds, standoffs, pivots, stop pins, even more taps and bits, etc. How in the world does anyone keep track of what is what and where it is? I've got no natural gift for organization, so any help would be appreciated. Pictures would be great.
 
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Don't laugh...well, at least cover your mouth when you snicker. My small stuff goes into a box in a plastic bag on the top of a work desk. If not there, in a tin box I made back in Junior High on the counter or maybe one of the drawers in the desk. My hand tools go into an old tool box that my dad carried as a carpenter for years. I can usually find what I'm looking for, eventually, after my eyes focus on what's in front of me. I guess I'm not the right guy to ask.:steve:

Doug
 
USA Knifemaker used to sell small plastic divided boxes that are great for small parts. Take a look at Les George forum shop pix (and several others) and you will see these boxes everywhere. I draw a grid on the inside of the lid to match the dividers and write with a Sharpie whats in each cubicle. As this changes, you can erase with laquer thinner and change it.

Go to your local Ace hardware and go to the aisle with the little pullout drawers and bins and set yourself up that way. I keep an old cigar box on my bench and throw small parts in it as I go and put it all away after each project.

At Tracy's hammer-in, Keith had a small plastic turntable with a piece of wood with several small holes drilled in it for small screwdrivers and tools to stand up in. A chunk of styro foam in the center will handle sharp stuff and keep it handy.

Steve
 
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In my shop it's mostly those little plastic "drawer things" from walmart, Ace hardware, etc. I also have a bunch of the divided plastic boxes like Steve mentioned.....the one's I have came from Walmart and are nothing more than small tackle boxes that I picked up for a couple of bucks each at the end of fishing season.
 
I have some things in the "plastic drawer" things. the other thing that I use the fishing tackle box thing. I got one of those Plano ones that has about 4 or 5 pull out drawers. I've also picked up some of the clear plastic boxes that they sell for storing fishing lures.

Used Altoid tins also work well. You can repaint them and color code them if you want to.

I have also used plastic test tubes with screw on caps to store small screws.

ric
 
I use a few divided plastic storage bins for small bits and such, even tried fixing one down to the back corner of my bench so it stays put (losing one bit is bad enough, try losing 75 or so at a time).
Probably the biggest organizational boost I have had was building a rotating tool shelf/tree on my workbench. My workbench is habitually covered with tools, and it used to take a bit of time to clear it of to start a project right. Now it takes 10 minutes at most and I rarely have to step away from the bench.
 
Go to your favorite Chinese restaurant and get the plastic "to-go" trays with lids. Label the top with a Sharpie. Each knife and its parts stays in one of these until it's finished. Also great for snacks in the shop...hehe.
 
I have four tall all small drawer boxes made by Rubbermade. They work super. Each unite has about 60 drawers. Frank
 
I gotta say, I'm the last one who should be giving advice about being organized, but...

I'm using those little plastic pill containers that drug stores sell, the ones that let you store 7 days or 14 days worth of pills. They're great for organizing little screws, bolts, detent balls (if you're building folders), etc. The individual compartments each have a lid that snaps tightly closed.

Those pill holders in turn go into my fishermans tackle box with the removable plastic shelves (and which has absolutely no fishing gear in it) that can also hold longer peices of steel bars used for bolsters, blade blanks, lengths of mosaic pins, stabilized wood slabs for handle material, clamps, and all that other stuff. It's nice and portable if you happen to be moving from work station to another or from your place to another knifemakers place.

Just my two cents....


Jim
 
I have a couple of the plastic drawer things and like them a lot. Fishing tackle boxes are also pretty handy, and available in more sizes and styles than you can shake a stick at. From the size of a deck of cards up to 3 cubic foot suitcases with a bunch of trays/compartments. (The small ones work great for survival/first aid kits, too.)
 
Not a maker (yet), but years ago, I collected empty baby food jars, got about 60, then built a rack out of soft pine for the frame and then routed it out to hold masonite shelves just a 1/4'' higher than the jars, I painted all the lids one color and now if I need something, it is clearly visible and easy to get to and use on bench. Much better than trying to see what is in the pull out plastic drawers. (Which, I also have). I am building another one now using empty instant coffee jars for larger items. The clear glass just makes it so much easier to see. After all, I am an old man with poor vision.
Jim
 
Thanks guys for all the ideas. I'm thinking a combination of Tracy's trays with individually lidded compartments and a few of the many wonderful things from the Harbor Freight organization link that someone put up will do the trick, for now anyway. More than anything, i think I'll have to resign myself to "wasting" some shop time to get everything put in ordedr. Getting it done right once is much harder for me than maintaining a good system that is already in place.
 
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