Show me your nuts.... and bolts.

[BowTied]

NO! no, not that!

 

 

I want to change how I store my nuts, bolts, washers, lock washers, and misc fasteners etc. Right now I have a varied assortment of those storage bin units that have a couple dozen little plastic drawers; you know, the ones all the hardware stores have. The little plastic drawers have little plastic dividers and so forth. These seem ok for 1/4" fasteners and smaller, but I like to have a variety of new fasteners on hand from machine screws through 1/2", and having a few lengths of 1/2" bolts don't work to well in these little plastic drawers. I can't stand working on my daily driver, lawn mower, snow blower etc. and re-using old beat up rusty hardware, so I keep a bunch of new ones on hand and I need a better storage system so I am not hunting for them, maybe increase my storage capacity a little.

 

I looked at some steel bins, but wow these get pricey (I think they were meant for commercial use) and didn't want to spend several hundred $ on just the bins. What do you guys have for this?? Pics would be great!! How do you organize your new (and still good used) spare fasteners??? TIA

[k9sar]

I have a few big coffee cans and throw everything in them.

[Precise1]

^ I hate that method!!

 

While I'm only partially organized, I use the plastic drawer units also. Seems to work well enough for me, but I have been looking at upgrading the unit for something that could handle longer bolts, u bolts, etc. Something like this...

 

http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXN...PMT4NO=54265558

 

B

[GrimGreg]

I have a case like that B. Most of what is in it isn't stuff I use a lot though(and no nuts or bolts). I have about every storage medium you can think of. I have 8 large yellow bins that get to be the catch alls. Then I have various compartmentalized boxes that have various hardware in those, I use the same storage type in my van, but am upgrading to a unit that holds all the compartment trays. Then some things got put in jars and some in plastic Gatorade mix containers or coffee "cans".

[Punkfinder]

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of this at the moment, but here's my system, cheap and easy to set up:

 

Take a bunch of old jars, cleaned out (I use peanut butter jars). After attaching a shelf over your work bench (or any existing shelf), take the lid off of one of the jars and fasten it with a couple screws to the bottom of the shelf (open thread-side facing down). Now throw some items into the bottom jar part and twist onto the lid part that you fastened to the bottom of shelf. Once you have it on tight, you can either label the jar or label the attached lid.

 

I like this system for several reasons:

1) You can take the bottom jar part with you out to the driveway, backyard, etc, and then return it when finished.

2) It uses up space on the underside of shelves that normally isn't used (provided there is enough room underneath).

3) You can still use the top of the shelf for storage.

 

Mike

[crazyhayseed]

^ I hate that method!!

 

While I'm only partially organized, I use the plastic drawer units also. Seems to work well enough for me, but I have been looking at upgrading the unit for something that could handle longer bolts, u bolts, etc. Something like this...

 

B

 

X2

 

Behind the truck are litterally 3 generations of spare parts, completely filling 2 metal shelf racks.

Most of the coffee cans are older than I am.

 

Everything about it sucks. I can never find what I need, they're a bitch to move, and they spill constantly.

 

Bins are the way to go.... If you've got the room. Or you could stop being a pack-rat.

[unccpathfinder]

right now I have a mail carrier box full of all the nuts and bolts off of wheelman's pathy i've slowly been trying to obtain jars to sort through them but the sorting part takes forever and i'd just rather dig to find what I need right now...but that will change someday and I will just buy assorted hardware and keep them separate from the get go...

[PDCCD]

I don't have pics, but lowe's sells a great bin for the job. I just bought a bunch of them.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...&lpage=none

Stanley makes them, and they sell them in two sizes, #3 and #5. Check em out.

 

Pete

Edited December 3, 2008 by PDCCD

[GrimGreg]

I don't have pics, but lowe's sells a great bin for the job. I just bought a bunch of them.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...&lpage=none

Stanley makes them, and they sell them in two sizes, #3 and #5. Check em out.

 

Pete

 

That is what my 8 bins are like, they stack on each other nicely. I said catch all, but they are more like first toss locations.

Old pic, much more crap in that shed these days.