I have a bunch of mis-matched plastic snap-shut containers but I need some new ones. I'm wondering if anyone has anything they can recommend or tell me to stay away from. Ones that stack together would be nice. I have a bunch of nuts/bolts and electrical parts that need a new home. I'm thinking of containers that are like this... Any recommendations?
My preference is for containers like you show but with individually removable, and relocatable, bins. It makes sorting way easier, you can take just the bin you want to where you need it, and you can actually dump the contents of a single bin without having to empty the whole thing. They cost more but... I have 16 now. They come in thick and thin models, the thin having many more but much smaller bins. I really like them. I hacked together some racks to hold them... pictures are in the man castle thread. David...
Because I have such a large inventory of parts and supply's accumulated from 30 years of turning wrenches. I have always plastic butter/sour cream/cream cheese containers, spice and seasoning containers, those clear 1 quart plastic containers that Chinese carry outs use for soup work great too. You would be surprised how many plastic containers pass thru your hands that are perfect out in the garage for storage. These type of containers can be easily stacked on a shelf. I just label the container with a piece of masking tape and a sharpie. They have nice label makers these days too. You can use old medicine vials for smaller parts. Sometimes when I'm in Harbor Freight and I see the assortment of plastic storage bins/boxes I get tempted to buy some....but to tell the truth it would just make things harder to find. For me it's easier to read a label than to look into a muti bin box to locate something. All the assorted nut's bolt's and washers I've accumulated would never fit into limited space of those multi bin boxes anyway. Most have these containers around the house and throw them away...I'd rather spend that money on tools or specialty fastener assortments. The shelving unit in the corner is filled with hardware stored this way. Tech23
I stumbled across this the other day at an Alco store: http://www.drillspot.com/products/602239/stanley_bostitch_014725r_professional_parts_organizer?s=1 The yellow plastic bins are removable, making it handy to take the parts to where you're doing the work.
Fishing boxes are cheap, and the bin sizes are adjustable, so when you use a bunch of 12 gauge spade terminals, and seldom use the 18 gauge bullets, you can just adjust the box to fit. Also fishing boxes let you remove sections to provide a tool, for instance, if you have a crimping tool, you put that in with the crimp on terminals. If you have a bunch of 10-32 nuts and machine screws, you put the tap and die in with those tools. Then the best way to store is to build some shelves that are the depth of your boxes, with slots sot that you don't have to remove mulitple boxes to get the one you want.
I use something similar to this: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Stack-On-39-Drawer-Parts-Organizer-Blue/14958200
Not cheap, but I got a great deal on 4 cabinets of lightly used drawers. http://www.mcmaster.com/#drawer-storage-cabinets/=h491j9 Each drawer slides out on steel rails, and can be easily removed and has a latching lid. These are fantastic, and will last forever.
Thanks guys. Over the years I'vecollected so many different types of containers. I have a new pile of electrical stuff I need to organize and for some reason I got the urge to try to get some standardization going. OaklandStrom...those mcmaster ones look pretty nice. They don't seem too expensive really.
These are great, they also do one twice the depth with removable dividers (here in the UK). One word of advice, always ALWAYS make sure the catches are locked. A box full of screws takes ages to pick up and another age to sort out! Everyone on site will blame you for every single puncture for at least a year. -Simon
Mine are the heavy duty ones, so it ends up being about $250 for 4 drawers and a cabinet, and I have 4 cabinets. I got them used for $250, rather than the $1,000 retail. I like that I have them organized by application, so I can grab a drawer, latch it and take it with me. If I go help a friend hand a shelf, I can just grab the "wall anchors" drawer and throw it in the truck. There's a drawer for 1/4-so stainless fasteners. Hoseclamps & hardware. Small metric fasteners, etc... I love 'em. But at $250 for 4 drawers, I don't think I would have spent full retail.
I got a couple of sets like this but in plastic & cheap, Stanley brand maybe? Can be stacked, fixed to the wall etc. They were a similar cost to buying 4 of the same size plastic tackle box type trays that are the drawers. They have been really useful & I think I might get another couple for my expanding collection of fasteners & widgets. Cheers Clint
The voice of experience! Me too! I had originated a thread about cleaning, sorting and storing a wide array of nuts & bolts: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=555600 I used these Cabelas Utility Boxes (like tackle trays) made by Plano: http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/prod...er%3BSearch-All+Products&WTz_l=YMAL;IK-016832 I used these wall mounted organizers to keep THEM organized: http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/prod...s&WTz_l=YMAL%3BIK-016832&WTz_l=YMAL;IK-129756 It's worked out pretty well - you can remove dividers for longer items, but progress has been (predictably)sloooow...
+1 Successfully keeping track of all my little stuff since my brother gave me one for Christmas back in 1978. Finally cracked the plastic cover last year but it is still going strong. But the writing is on the wall so I am moving to those new tackle trays.
+2 I used them daily for finish carpentry and cabinet work. Along with the tackle boxes they have a lot of other individual containers. Great interchangeability and hold up well.
Those clear Rubbermaid or Sterelite containers about the size of a shoe box (severral sizes to chose from, for about 1-3 dollars each). Get a bunch the same size and build some shelves sized to fit them. By using the same size, they all stack tight and neat. I have a set up with 36 containers (4 high and 9 wide) I have been using for 15-20 years. Holds a buch of stuff.
I realize this is many moons later. But I wanted to document the solution I created using Stanley Storage Containers. Each one slides out by itself and the double deep ones just take out two slots. I built this using cut 2x4's and some scrap masonite. It works surprisingly well. I decided on the Stanley boxes after testing out many of the other brands. They aren't perfect, but work well for my needs. I have a huge pile of mish-mash containers my kids are using now for Lego's/etc.
I second or third stack on products, high quality and inexpensive. http://www.amazon.com/SBR-18-Compar...d=1410835126&sr=8-4&keywords=stack+on+storage
