What did you do today?

[754]

Nah, I work with those sizes all the time. I can tell an #8-32 from a #10-24 on sight. Same for the others. A lot of my taps are loose in a draw. I can pick those out too.

Added: That metric stuff in another story though.

Me too.. it's the EYEcrometer thing going on..

[754]

3 ph that is very disorganized. Sort it hetter, take an afternoon.
The white plastic washers, do you use them often, and what for ?
Some stuff unless weekly is better left in bags or boxes imo.

[old mart]

I did some chuck jaw grinding with a difference. Obviously, chucks with serrated jaws have their jaws bored to fit the work exactly. Our 6 1/2" Pratt has come in useful a few times, and I even made bolt on tee pieces in aluminium to hold a thinwall tube.
Hard jaws do exist for these chucks and there was a set in a job lot of jaws that I bought on ebay. They were for a larger 8" model, but the 1/16" x 90 degree serrations were common and a little narrowing at the interface and a custom tee nut did the trick.
I tried them out doing some parting off and the work moved and destroyed one end of a new Kennametal 1.6mm, 1/16" blade. My fault entirely, the jaws were slightly bellmouthed, and I couldn't be bothered to use a four jaw.
What is different about these jaws is they have concave ends about 1" wide, quite unlike ordinary jaws. The diameters for the internal ends (2) are about 2 1/4" and the single external end is about 6", so I decided to grind as near to these sizes as I could.
After grinding the minimum off, the jaws run zero tir next to the jaws and less than 0.001" at 3". I think they are intended for holding soft material for roughing rather than precision work, but they certainly feel better even gripping lightly now.
That job lot of jaws included a set of hard serrated jaws for a 12" chuck with flat gripping faces, they will end up on ebay one of these days.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Today I opened around ~200 more bags of hardware and put them in three 64 bin storage units. I also put lots of the bigger items into some of the poly bins. Was a very productive day.

Here is a large panoramic view of the bins after filling them up:

Panoramic view link: ---> http://www.bbssystem.com/pictures/bags4.jpg <---

[Bob Engelhardt]

Today I opened around ~200 more bags of hardware and put them in three 64 bin storage units. ...

Men, what we have here is a hardware store.

[vpt]

Just random things grouped with other random things?

[754]

That why its hard to find stuff. It's not even all bolts, machine screws, nuts and washers, ( each In their own group ) then on the far end woodworking, and an electrical section.. it's just all mixed together., would drive me nuts..

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Just random things grouped with other random things?

For now it's completely random. I just want to get everything into drawers/bins. I don't want to start organizing the bins/drawers until everything is in a drawer/bin. I still have maybe 50-100 hardware bags that I need to put into a bin or drawer then I'll organize all of them. All of the bolts will go together, all of the washers will go together, all of the nuts will go together, all of the lock washers, etc.

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

That why its hard to find stuff. It's not even all bolts, machine screws, nuts and washers, ( each In their own group ) then on the far end woodworking, and an electrical section.. it's just all mixed together., would drive me nuts..

You're about 10 posts behind....

[3 Phase Lightbulb]

Just wait until I finish putting everything into bins/drawers, then I'll take pictures of them organized. It's not organized right now

[vpt]

First you need main separation, brass, steel, stainless, plastics, etc. Then machine hardware, wood hardware, arts and crafts etc. Then you work on washers, nuts, bolts, sizes, etc.

[danlb]

I have used the "take a picture" concept for bin organization before. I much prefer labeling and sorting the bins by the most important specification. For related items I arrange the bins so that they are related vertically. An example is the common #10 screws and bolts. There is a whole row of bins with #10 screws in various TPI and length. Under that row is a row with the appropriate washers (flat and lock) and finally the nuts. It works pretty well if you have a lot of space.

[754]

That can work till you pull 4 or so bins and take them close to where you work, then put them back in the wrong spot.
That's what I dislike about smaller bins. My green military style can have 6 or 8 dividers in each drawer maybe more.
The way those hang, if something bumped them or knocked them off you got half z day of sorting.
That is why plants sweep the up and scrap the product when it happens.

[fixerdave]

...

...

That's the kind of storage I got fed up with and threw/gave away. I got tired of hunting through endless drawer cabinets... and the bins just fill up with whatever I'm working in the shop... sawdust or swarf. Yeah, compressed air can blow it out if the stuff that's suppose to be in the bin is heavy, but it gets old. Really old, actually, as most of the stuff I was using was bought near 3 decades ago. It dawned on me that, hey... I'l likely die with whatever storage system I keep using. It's not temporary; it lasts more than most shop things. So, I decided to spend some money on it, for a change.



I went with these things... a couple of sizes and a couple of manufacturers, but the basic idea is that each bin is removable, so they're easy to dump out. I can grab one bin, or the whole set (which is organised around some category of thing). Portable, doesn't dump unless the lid's open. Doesn't fill up with crud. About $20 per... and I've got near 20 of them built into custom racks. So nice to pick up the one marked 1/2" NC 13, or another marked machine screws, open the lid, and see the whole range at a glace. No opening drawer after drawer, or trying to read little labels. I'd never go back to drawer cabinets.

I've still got drawer cabinets at home, and some bins (mostly 20" deep ones I bought and built a custom cabinet for... 25 years ago). But.... you'll learn.. might take a few decades...

I went to one cabinetmaker's shop as he was doing a forced renoviction type move/retirement. He had a wall of these bins, floor to 14' ceiling. Must have been 100 at least. No idea what was in them, and I didn't need any more at that point, but I knew exactly why he bought them.

So... as a hint, think about making cabinets. Make them deep enough that you can mount those little bins on the inside of the doors, so they don't fill up with crud. That's the best way to use those bins.

edit: On the doors so you don't have to pull them out to see what's inside them (like if they're on cabinet shelves). On hangers such that they can be easily removed, and on the inside of the door so that they don't fill up with debris or get knocked over and spill their contents. All lessons learned the hard way.

The drawer cabinets... they're a curse. The more you have... the bigger the curse. And, ohhhhh, you're going to learn this the hard way. That is obvious.

David...

[PStechPaul]

Perhaps you can use a part number code that can be entered into a database that you can search. For my electronic parts, I use a prefix based on standard reference designations, such as R for resistors and C for capacitors. Then I add the parametric attributes. The same thing can be done for hardware. Some examples:

C_47p0_100V_10%_0805

R_30k1_1/8W_1%_1208

Some ideas for hardware:

FW_SAE_250_SS (SAE flat washer 1/4" stainless steel)

SHCS_375_16_3500_G5S (Socket head cap screw 3/8"-16x3.5", Grade 5 steel)

The actual database can have fields for specific attributes, for easier searching for specific items. Of course the devil is in the details, and you need to have accurate counts that need to be updated when you remove or replace items. There may also be a problem when there are major differences in size, that have different storage requirements. There can be a field in the database that describes where the item is stored, perhaps as a set of coordinates from a reference point in the shop.