I decided not to derail another thread on fasteners (And even get this one into the right forum...), and got to wondering how others managed the "collection". I'm doing pretty well, but am always interested in improving the situation.
Keeping old bolts is a family tradition around here, starting with glass peanut butter jars my dad had (replaced with a coffee can or three after about the third one broke...) Remember seeing jar lids screwed to the underside of a shelf, and the jar, screwed on? Then some smart boy took a 2x2 and made a horizontal "rotary screw organizer" and probably retired soon after...
I finally got sick of having to dump out the can of nuts, bolts and washers onto the garage floor, and had my mom start bringing home coffee cans from work. that and a couple of milk crates and I dumped out the two of three cans I had and the wood box, and spent some time sorting the damn things out into fraction sizes, then into the coarse and fine thread fasteners. each can got filled with ONE size and this was a huge improvement!
Years later I bought a floor chest "tool box" that was an old navy thing from either a hospital ship or from an infirmary. I took most of one side and put the bolts so each drawer has a size, with fine on one side and coarse on the other. Nuts and washers went into one of those larger Accro bins with plastic drawers. later I picked up a "Pick-A-Nut" rack at a yard sale (All mixed up of course) and I sorted them out and properly racked them. I restocked out of my "supply" and it all worked well. the plastic bin setup a year ago got replaced with a metal box with aluminum "Accro" like bins which are larger and much more durable...
I recently rearranged in the garage, and got them all together, and more recently (last week) added a shelf on top for my wall mount bins. After the first rearrangement, my Son christened the area "Dad's Hardware store", and he's not far off. With a couple of roller acquisitions and more reorganization that floor chest lost almost every tool it had, and got re-purposed to bulk fasteners, nails, pipe fittings, you name it, with a little room to spare on top of everything else!
So this is where I am, Screws, nuts, Bolts washers, nails plumbing paint... it's all easy to get to now, and in one place.
The floor chest is part way through it's second refurb. When I first got it, I painted it "tool gray". a couple of years ago I was between jobs and had some hammer tone gray, and some black lacquer, and started wire wheeling it clean, and doing it up right. I had to stop when the hammer tone paint ran out (I would not justify ANY extra curricular spending..) and got frustrated with the drawer fronts, as for some reason they keep wanting to leave orange peel spots like there are spots of oil or wax on the surface...
I'll get back to it someday, maybe this winter...
The clutter on top includes my heated ultrasonic cleaner ($5 at a yard sale...) and my 120V spot welder, ($20 IIR)
EDIT: I forgot to mention, the red tray standing on end and leaning against the Ultrasonic cleaner, is my meager metric fastener selection. I just recently moved into that larger tray from a smaller clear plastic version.
The Pick-A-Nut selector. It has 1/4, 5/16, and 3/8 fine and coarse nuts,bolts and washers, and a bunch of other common automotive fasteners for battery clamps license plates, and even Zerk fittings. Above it is the "Paint department" mostly spray paint but some glues as well.
And the large "Accro" bin. Mostly numbered screws from #2 to #10, and the flat and lock washers, and nuts larger than 3/8, plus nylock nuts of all sizes, as well as other odd bits and pieces.
So, what do the rest of you do? I know at least a few of you also collect old fasteners for future use...
