fourjeepin
Well-known member
TLDR version - I acquired these bins (and many lifetimes of hardware) 19 years ago and it's time to reorganize.
I have shared pictures of these in the past but am in the middle of reconfiguring them and thought I would share the details. I know there are people that would rather purchase hardware as needed, but have always saved hardware. Initially because I was broke, but now because I am frugal and because I feel it saves me time.
So the story behind these is 20 years ago was doing lots of four wheeling and wanted a small selection of graded nuts/bolts for my CJ7. After looking at options for a few weeks, I really wanted what I saw often - the bins at HD. And since I worked for the company at the time, I knew that they didn't move any merch or fixtures from stores that close/relocate and that the store closest to me was relocating. It took a few visits to that store, but I learned who was in charge of the liquidation and found him. When he told me that he only wanted $50 per vertical stack, I could barely contain my excitement. So I agreed to buy 16 stacks ($800), then he threw in the kicker - all hardware was included. I was so anxious didn't sleep well the next few days while they removed the bolts holding the bins together horizontally.
Here's what a vertical stack looks like:
Each bin is 23.5W 15H 22deep and each drawer is 3" high. The closest thing I could find to these at the time was smaller (18x15x12) and cost $270 each. And they didn't include and hardware.
When I arrived, they had 4 pallets of 4 stacks each, all shrink wrapped together. And every bin was stuffed full of hardware! Besides the hardware that was usually in the bins, every one of those little bags of hardware that are normally hanging on the pegboard above the bins were now in my possession. After I unloaded them all into my garage, I started trying to sell off some of it. Remember, I only wanted a small assortment; one of the upper sections (4-drawers). But I decided I would keep 2 of the upper sections, bolt them together and add casters. This later doubled again to 4 bins (2 stacks) as I had so much good stuff!
I sold most of the bulk boxes of hardware and all of the excess bins to friends, except one vertical stack which ended up short a drawer from each bin due to damage. I cut these two bins down, then welded them back together and painted them black. Note there are 3 drawers each, but they should have 4.
I also sold and gave away a ton of miscellaneous hardware. Now I wish I had kept more, but at the time, I mostly worked on my CJ, and didn't see the need to keep more of the brass, stainless, or metric hardware.
So I decided the best way to manage this haul was to consolidate as much as possible. For the next week, I spent every waking hour I wasn't at work opening the little bags and sorting into my bins. Yes, I was single at the time. I tore open so many of those bags that my fingers got raw and I had to start cutting them open. I wish I had more pictures of the before and during, but didn't think to document it at the time. Anyway, I ended up with a great selection and for a total investment of less than $100. All four bins were well stocked, but with two largely empty drawers for future expansion. There were some holes which I had to fill, but there weren't many holes. More prevalent was an overabundance of some items. After I was happy with the arrangement, I removed the stickers from the dividers and added my own labels.
This leads to today. I don't use the graded hardware as much as I now spend less time on the Jeep and more time working on things around the house, DIY construction, etc. As such, I felt the need to reorganize. One thing I have done a few times over the years is remove the "flag" from the divider. These makes it easier to see the label, but they take up space.
So I removed the flag off of each divider (about 20 per drawer) and redid the labels. Here's drawer 1, bin 1 my stash of 1/4" nuts/bolts after this change. The bolts in the front are all graded. I didn't keep any non-graded bolts until the last few years. No before picture (I often forget to document my projects until afterwards), but here is the after.
Stay tuned as I work my way through the other drawers...
I have shared pictures of these in the past but am in the middle of reconfiguring them and thought I would share the details. I know there are people that would rather purchase hardware as needed, but have always saved hardware. Initially because I was broke, but now because I am frugal and because I feel it saves me time.
So the story behind these is 20 years ago was doing lots of four wheeling and wanted a small selection of graded nuts/bolts for my CJ7. After looking at options for a few weeks, I really wanted what I saw often - the bins at HD. And since I worked for the company at the time, I knew that they didn't move any merch or fixtures from stores that close/relocate and that the store closest to me was relocating. It took a few visits to that store, but I learned who was in charge of the liquidation and found him. When he told me that he only wanted $50 per vertical stack, I could barely contain my excitement. So I agreed to buy 16 stacks ($800), then he threw in the kicker - all hardware was included. I was so anxious didn't sleep well the next few days while they removed the bolts holding the bins together horizontally.
Here's what a vertical stack looks like:
Each bin is 23.5W 15H 22deep and each drawer is 3" high. The closest thing I could find to these at the time was smaller (18x15x12) and cost $270 each. And they didn't include and hardware.
When I arrived, they had 4 pallets of 4 stacks each, all shrink wrapped together. And every bin was stuffed full of hardware! Besides the hardware that was usually in the bins, every one of those little bags of hardware that are normally hanging on the pegboard above the bins were now in my possession. After I unloaded them all into my garage, I started trying to sell off some of it. Remember, I only wanted a small assortment; one of the upper sections (4-drawers). But I decided I would keep 2 of the upper sections, bolt them together and add casters. This later doubled again to 4 bins (2 stacks) as I had so much good stuff!
I sold most of the bulk boxes of hardware and all of the excess bins to friends, except one vertical stack which ended up short a drawer from each bin due to damage. I cut these two bins down, then welded them back together and painted them black. Note there are 3 drawers each, but they should have 4.
I also sold and gave away a ton of miscellaneous hardware. Now I wish I had kept more, but at the time, I mostly worked on my CJ, and didn't see the need to keep more of the brass, stainless, or metric hardware.
So I decided the best way to manage this haul was to consolidate as much as possible. For the next week, I spent every waking hour I wasn't at work opening the little bags and sorting into my bins. Yes, I was single at the time. I tore open so many of those bags that my fingers got raw and I had to start cutting them open. I wish I had more pictures of the before and during, but didn't think to document it at the time. Anyway, I ended up with a great selection and for a total investment of less than $100. All four bins were well stocked, but with two largely empty drawers for future expansion. There were some holes which I had to fill, but there weren't many holes. More prevalent was an overabundance of some items. After I was happy with the arrangement, I removed the stickers from the dividers and added my own labels.
This leads to today. I don't use the graded hardware as much as I now spend less time on the Jeep and more time working on things around the house, DIY construction, etc. As such, I felt the need to reorganize. One thing I have done a few times over the years is remove the "flag" from the divider. These makes it easier to see the label, but they take up space.
So I removed the flag off of each divider (about 20 per drawer) and redid the labels. Here's drawer 1, bin 1 my stash of 1/4" nuts/bolts after this change. The bolts in the front are all graded. I didn't keep any non-graded bolts until the last few years. No before picture (I often forget to document my projects until afterwards), but here is the after.
Stay tuned as I work my way through the other drawers...
