TravisR100
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2006
- Location
- Houston, TX
First of all, I’m a home shop guy, not a professional. I buy lots of small parts for various projects and end up with them in whatever drawer is convenient at the time. If I had cabinets with drawers dedicated to taps, drill bits, end mills, etc. I’d be wasting a lot of space.
Here’s an example drawer...
I’ve been looking for a way to figure out where to put stuff, what I have on hand, and where it is. I saw an interesting article about using QR codes to pull up manuals. This got me wondering if there was some way to use these codes to identify and track my parts. Currently when I get something like a box of screws I pull the identifying part of the box off and put it in with the screws in the bin.
I came across an app called Sortly. It’s really designed for home storage. The ideal scenario for it is labeling boxes when moving or storing boxes in an attic or basement. After looking at it I found it had some shortcomings for what I wanted to use it for. With a little digging into how it worked I was able to bend it for my needs.
Granted, this takes some time to set up and time to add items to my collection as I buy things. I’ve gotten it proved out however and it seems to work.
I bought the map cabinet below off of Facebook Marketplace. 30 drawers capable of storing items up to 1” tall. Very shallow but very efficient use of space for items less that 1”.
The way it works is that the cabinet itself has a label with a code, each drawer has a label with a code, and each bin in the drawer has a label with a code. I can scan the cabinet code and see a list of everything in the cabinet, scan the drawer code and see a list of everything in the drawer, or scan a bin and see what that item is.
If I scan an item I get...
You’ll notice that on the item scan page it also has a link to click that will take me to the item page from the supplier for that particular item.
I have no association with Sortly and it has some shortcomings for sure. The biggest issue was how to get around being forced to use the labels they want you to use. The labels I’m using are from a label printer and are laminated to protect them.
I can also search for an item or browse items in the app and it will tell me what cabinet and drawer that item is in.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Here’s an example drawer...
I’ve been looking for a way to figure out where to put stuff, what I have on hand, and where it is. I saw an interesting article about using QR codes to pull up manuals. This got me wondering if there was some way to use these codes to identify and track my parts. Currently when I get something like a box of screws I pull the identifying part of the box off and put it in with the screws in the bin.
I came across an app called Sortly. It’s really designed for home storage. The ideal scenario for it is labeling boxes when moving or storing boxes in an attic or basement. After looking at it I found it had some shortcomings for what I wanted to use it for. With a little digging into how it worked I was able to bend it for my needs.
Granted, this takes some time to set up and time to add items to my collection as I buy things. I’ve gotten it proved out however and it seems to work.
I bought the map cabinet below off of Facebook Marketplace. 30 drawers capable of storing items up to 1” tall. Very shallow but very efficient use of space for items less that 1”.
The way it works is that the cabinet itself has a label with a code, each drawer has a label with a code, and each bin in the drawer has a label with a code. I can scan the cabinet code and see a list of everything in the cabinet, scan the drawer code and see a list of everything in the drawer, or scan a bin and see what that item is.
If I scan an item I get...
You’ll notice that on the item scan page it also has a link to click that will take me to the item page from the supplier for that particular item.
I have no association with Sortly and it has some shortcomings for sure. The biggest issue was how to get around being forced to use the labels they want you to use. The labels I’m using are from a label printer and are laminated to protect them.
I can also search for an item or browse items in the app and it will tell me what cabinet and drawer that item is in.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk