Organizing Small Parts

I've finally started organizing my small parts into the plastic bins I bought for this purpose years ago. Progress so far:

A difficult photo to read. Do all the drawer labels really say MISC?

George

Nice looking set of drawers. The rule of thumb that I've found to be invariably true is that no matter how many drawers you have, you'll have 15 or 20 parts left over that have no appropriate drawer. Said parts will sit in various places on your workbench until the sun flames out!

Problem with those is 2 fold.
Drawer fronts are too small to label clearly sometimes.
And you still have to open the drawer to see the contents.

(I think) better idea is the Harbor Fright organizers:
http://www.harborfreight.com/19-bin-portable-parts-storage-case-93928.html

Item 93928

You can see into the top of them and that helps a lot to visually locate what you're looking for......less or NO labels needed.

I still label all slots used on the clear tackle box style organizers. That way I know exactly what I'm out of and forgot to reorder.

Georgineer said:

A difficult photo to read. Do all the drawer labels really say MISC?

George

Click to expand...

Yes.

That will eventually be corrected.

I have a whole lot of these from Harbor Freight:



24 Compartment Large Storage Container

I have a shelf unit that is just wide enough for these. I label the end, and if needed, the individual compartments. I have three on each shelf, so I never have to more more than two to get the one I need. I have another shelf unit that can hold two or three on a shelf, and has about 8-10 levels and three compartments on each level, so I could use that for a LOT of these.

I use them for taps, dies, dowel pins, parallels, mill clamps, reamers, small milling cutters, countersinks, burrs, and just about anything small.

They had these on sale a while back for $1.99.

For nuts, bolts and screws, I use the cabinets with the drawers. I just need to get around to labeling them.

Steve

My first post was intended to be a joke, with all the drawers labeled "Misc," because that's how they seem to end up.

But I have an idea of how to correct this problem.

Years ago, when I was employed as a software engineer, I subscribed to many trade magazines. Almost every issue had one or more articles that interested me, and that I wanted to save.

After I accumulated a couple dozen articles, neatly stored in my file cabinet, I started forgetting what I had. The problem was I couldn't simply file them by subject, because there were too many subjects that interested me, and many articles touched on more than one subject.

I came up with a scheme that worked very well for me. It was to number each article and file it by number, usually several articles to a folder. I created a text file that listed the article's title, several keywords to remind me of its content, and the article's number. It was then easy to have a computer sort the list by whatever keyword I wanted and give me the article number.

I recently thought of applying this system to the storage of small parts. This idea really only applies to parts I use infrequently -- and for me that's most of them.

Take machine screws, for an example. I love button head cap screws, and I'd have all the sets McMaster-Carr offers if I could afford them. But as it is, I have a dozen or so different sizes.

My inclination has always been to organize screws by size and length. In one of my 36 drawer plastic racks, I'd have #2, #4, #6, #8, #10, and 1/4" across the top and 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 3/4", and 1" top to bottom. Great, except I don't have anywhere near 30 different sizes, so most of the drawers would be empty. And I don't have enough quantity of each size to justify dedicating a drawer for each of them.

So I dump them all in the same drawer and label it button head cap screws. Then the drawer gets put in a random slot somewhere. The problem is, days or weeks later, when I want one of the screws, I have to search for where I put the drawer. And they're always in the last drawer I check. I could dedicate one rack to machine screws, and I've done that, but I always end up with many unused drawers. And I have WAY too many categories of parts to have a 36 drawer cabinet for each of them.

Here's my solution: designate each cabinet by letter and number the drawers in each cabinet. So I have A1 through A36 in the first cabinet, B1 through B36 in the second cabinet, etc., then make a spreadsheet that lists the description and location of every part.

Now when I want a 6-32 x 1/2" stainless steel button head cap screw, I can have Excel search the spreadsheet and show me its location, C13, in seconds.

This scheme allows me to use all my storage drawers and add or remove parts easily. Another advantage to this system is it can accommodate any type or size of storage container. For example, I have lots of 3" gold screws. They are in a separate location from the 3/4, 1, 1 1-4, 1 1-2 and 2 inch similar screws, which fit in the small drawers I showed above.

We will see how it goes.

Why didn't my last post in this thread get listed in "New Posts" I wonder.

The Harbor Freight clear organizers shown above work good. So does the bin systems.

Menards occasionally has the same containers on sale for $2.00/ea.

And for drawers, although a little more expensive, I like the Craftsman drawer organizers. Sears.com

I dislike the large multi-unit "misc" drawer system shown above. I've found that those hard plastic drawers become brittle over the years, especially if what is inside of them has oil or any other chemical on it.

Yan Wo said:

Here's my solution: designate each cabinet by letter and number the drawers in each cabinet. So I have A1 through A36 in the first cabinet, B1 through B36 in the second cabinet, etc., then make a spreadsheet that lists the description and location of every part.

Now when I want a 6-32 x 1/2" stainless steel button head cap screw, I can have Excel search the spreadsheet and show me its location, C13, in seconds.

This scheme allows me to use all my storage drawers and add or remove parts easily. Another advantage to this system is it can accommodate any type or size of storage container. For example, I have lots of 3" gold screws. They are in a separate location from the 3/4, 1, 1 1-4, 1 1-2 and 2 inch similar screws, which fit in the small drawers I showed above.

We will see how it goes.

Click to expand...

You could also do what a lot of parts stores do and put several different things in one drawer/bin. Your spreadsheet will tell you which to look in and it saves a lot of space compared to dedicated one of drawers/bins.

Ken.

Yan,

How has your inventory system been working? I ask because I'm considering doing something very similar.

-Ryan

Grey Rider said:

Yan,

How has your inventory system been working? I ask because I'm considering doing something very similar.

-Ryan

Click to expand...

Yes! It works great.

Grey Rider said:

Yan,

How has your inventory system been working? I ask because I'm considering doing something very similar.

-Ryan

Click to expand...

Ryan,
We have parts cabinet's labeled such as A,B,C,D ect
each cabinet has 4 drawers or more, labeled 1,2,3,4 ect
each drawer has bin rows labeled A,B,C,D ect
each bin row compartments labeled 1,2,3,4, ect also contains a part number ID label after the compartment label
the parts inventory sheet starts in excel with sort on bin label as:
A = Cabinet, 1 = top drawer, A = first row closest to you, 1 = first bin.

So the location numbers on the first drawer are:
A1-A1
A1-A2
A1-A3
A1-A4
A1-B1
A1-B2
A1-B3
A1-B4
A1-C1
A1-C2
A1-C3
A1-C4
A1-D1
A1-D2
A1-D3
A1-D4
NEXT DRAWER DOWN
A2-A1
A2-A2
A2-A3
A2-A4
and so on...
to find a part, the sort is changed to part number, then read bin location. the sort can be changed to description for ordered
sort as "bolt .250 x 1", dowel pin .125 x .250
the bin location follows the sort.

If the cabinets are in parts shelf rows the shelf storage location and row numbers are added to the front of the cabinet letter,

two parts racks back to back would be isle location, Isle A1, A2, B1, B2

As in the part is in Isle A, left side (1), 1st rack, row(shelf) 2, cabinet A, drawer 1, row B, bin 3
A1-R1-S2-A1-B3


Easy...lol


Steve