Drill bit organizers?

[1Bad55Chevy]

Those on here with a lot of drill bits how are yall organizing and and storing them? I am sick and tired of having all my duplicates thrown together where I cant find them!

I found these online..

2" x 8" x 1" Red Plastic Box (Actual Dimensions: 1.95” x 7.8” x 1” )

divider is perfect for sorting tools, hardware, and components

www.schallercorporation.com

I am thinking of buying a bunch of these and laying them out in my Vidmar, but that dosen't seem like a very efficient use of space!

I would love to see what you guys are doing to organize your bits!

 

[LXCam]

My collection has gotten a little lazy n sloppy. But my really good bits are all in metal cases. Still this makes grabbing what I need real easy.

Number and letter



Fractional to 1/2”

 

[drokihazan]

I have a Huot 13175, the "Master Drill Cabinet" that holds between 12 and 24 of every drill size from A-Z, 1-60, and 1/16-1/2. There's a fourth drawer in the bottom and I designed and 3d printed trays to hold some silver & deming drills, step drills, end mills, and annular cutters down there.
I'm still debating either getting a Huot master S&D cabinet or 3D printing an S&D tray to go in one of my large size Durham Mfg drawers, I have a lot of those - I can't fit all my S&Ds in this cabinet right now and I kind of want to store more annular cutters in there instead.

 

[drmarkr]

I have these in fractional, letter and numerical. Vevor, of course, lol. About $65 for the set.

I set them up horizontal instead of stacked.

 

[1Bad55Chevy]

My collection has gotten a little lazy n sloppy. But my really good bits are all in metal cases. Still this makes grabbing what I need real easy.

Number and letter



Fractional to 1/2”

Thats a lot of bits! I have nowhere near that many!

What cabinet is that?

 

[four.cycle]

I never was able to get the drawers out of this thing. After inverting it with the drawers opened, I managed to shake out the remaining twist drill bits that were hidden inside under the drawers. All those bits went to another member here.
I picked this up crazy cheap. They're out there in the second-hand market but others I've seen are pretty spendy.
YMMV

 

[finn]

Best I can do is keep most of them, especially partial sets, in a clear plastic shoe box.

I’ve given up sorting them.

Keep a cheap micrometer or even a vernier caliper nearby.

Life’s too short to sort drill bits.

Edit: That said, I do have a metal box that has slots for perhaps twenty or more drill bits that’s sort of handy. Not the best bits I have, though.

My good bits are in an index and are from some outfit in Minnesota that was tagged here as having good bits. I never use them, though, because I’m afraid I will mix them with utility bits in the heat of battle. Guess maybe I don’t deserve nice things.

 

[danielbuck]

metal drawers, don't know what brand, but they look similar to the vevor ones posted earlier. can easily fit a dozen or more drill bits per 1/64" size in each compartment. Same for number and letter drills.

 

[LXCam]

Thats a lot of bits! I have nowhere near that many!

What cabinet is that?

Lista

 

[Firebrick43]

If you have a 3D printer you can print customized and stackable gridfinity organizers. The Schaller organizers were pretty standard in all the machine shops I have been in (or Hout drill cabinets) but they are only single layer.

Gridfinity solved that. There are models all ready made up and generators that you enter length width height and how many bins, even labels, and the model is generated with having to do it in cad.

If you have space on a bench/counter top the hout draws are nice and don’t fall apart like cheap one do after a while.

https://www.huot.com/product/letter-size-drill-dispenser-cabinet/

 

[RTM]

I just grabbed a pair of the smaller Huot, one for number, one for letter, to help clean up the mess if drill bits I own.

2026 Garage Sale Thread (15th Annual)

Today’s $15 find.

www.garagejournal.com

 

[whateg01]

If you have space on a bench/counter top the hout draws are nice and don’t fall apart like cheap one do after a while.

https://www.huot.com/product/letter-size-drill-dispenser-cabinet/

I wish they made a 26" version to stack with my toolbox next to the mill

 

[Firebrick43]

I wish they made a 26" version to stack with my toolbox next to the mill

I can’t tell you if they fit exactly but their master series is 26” wide, more money however

Master Drill Dispenser U.S. Sizes - Huot Manufacturing

for jobbers length drills, fractional, letter and wire gauge sizes plus extra drawer

www.huot.com

 

[Murby]

Over the past 40 years, I have tried various methods to organize my drills and all have failed.

I have resorted to keeping my general use drill bits in three Acro Bins labeled Large (bigger than 1/2 inch), Medium (3/16 to 1/2) and Small (smaller than 3/16)
Specialty drills get their own organizers.

Seems to me, when I'm making things, having to put a drill back into a specific slot is too much effort.. most times, I don't need a number or letter drill, I just need something big enough for the bolt or rod to slide through.

My taps and dies are organized with the proper drill sizes included with the specific thread size so I don't have to hunt or look up what size I need.

 

[Etchase]

My first Vevor purchase was this index cabinet. I store it under the drill press table. Fractional, letter, and metric stay in the Durham box below in their own small indexes. Works pretty well. The Vevor has held up well. I think I bought it about 5 years ago. It would be a pain if I had to lower the table a lot, but that seems to be a rare occurrence. I do need to blow off the top surface after every use, but I do that to the table anyway.

 

[Whitworth]

I really like these Hout cabinets, and think they are a good "made in usa" value.

 

[KnurledNut]

@Grant Gunderson has a nice setup with the Huot boxes.
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...if-money-were-no-object.550831/#post-11352801

 

[1Bad55Chevy]

Lista

Did you make the dividers out of 16g sheetmetal? If so how flimsy are they in the drawer?

 

[1Bad55Chevy]

I really like these Hout cabinets, and think they are a good "made in usa" value.

I see lots of these on Bidspotter. This might be my long term solution once I find some local. Until then I am probably going to set up my vidmar like @LXCam.

 

[LXCam]

Did you make the dividers out of 16g sheetmetal? If so how flimsy are they in the drawer?

Lengthwise are the Lista dividers and all those others were either 18 or 16ga aluminum that my harbor freight 36” three in one would shear. Most likely 18ga

Put a little end tweek to them and they’ve lasted a bit over 25yrs without issue.