Bolt bins ..show me your creative cost effective solution

[niget2002]

There’s a middle ground. I have one of these for each of 1/4-20, 5/16-18, 3/8-16, 7/16-14, 1/2-13, and generally have what I need. If I’m doing a larger project, I’ll be obtaining materials anyway, and purchase the fasteners I need for that project.

Go one step further... Lately I've been buying bolts on Amazon. If you get the packs with multiple sizes they come in their own little container.

 

[tdkkart]

These guys keep tempting me on FaceBook, prices are quite reasonable it seems, just drop the $300 and solve the problem forever.
I also have a local hydraulic hose/hardware/tool store that does the assortments also.

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[liliysdad]

I hate running not having what I need when I need it. The nearest TSC is 20 minutes away, Lowe's is 45.

I keep a supply of 1/4-20, 5/16-18, and 3/8-16 on hand in 1" -2.5" lengths, along with nuts, lock nuts, and washers. I buy them by the pound at TSC, and replenish as needed.

I also keep various sizes of 7/16 and 1/2 hardware on hand, usually hanging onto extras from projects, disassembly, etc. Hose clamps, nails, screws, springs, throttle hardware, etc are all sorted in Akron bins and kept in a Standard Ignition cabinet I bought from a closed parts store. The drawer on that cabinet has tuneup and oil change supplies. The bottom cabinet has books, oil filters, etc.

The Fastenal Durham Drawers have all my specialty hardware. Small bolts and machine screws, rivets, bearings, etc. I picked these up various places. I need to build a freestanding rack for all them.

I have an additional 26" wide roller cabinet just for wiring supplies...heat shrink, zip ties, solders, crimp connectors, etc. and another for lathe and mill tooling.

 

[Lynden]

John Heisz (I Build It) built small drawers using the top/bottom track for steel wall studs.

 

[oldmachinenut]

I like to repurpose things so here is my 20 foot storage wall. The lower cabinets were pulled out of the dumpster at work, the uppers came from my brother that sold auto parts. The drawers under the upper cabinets and the bolt drawers on the top of the lowers are made from used metal shelving welded and riveted together. They all ride on full extension 16” ball bearing slides (3cases) that came from the thrift/resell store. I made the bolt bin drawers to fit the Harbor Freight grey plastic bins. The drawers were actually very easy to make.

 

[brownbagg]

i builld alot of huge metal building. I had thirty five gallon buckets of 1/2 bolts. then when I cull the warehouse down to two milwakee plastic cases. most of what i use are 3/8 1 inch long. so Ikeep about two pounds of them

 

[EarlyBroncoGuy]

I scored a blueprint drawer cabinet from an industrial supply salvage place, the drawers are shallow (2" tall, but wide and very deep, and ride on ball bearing sliders. Since it's so deep front to back, it wouldn't really fit under my workbench along the wall, but it fit well into the corner of my shop, so I built a stand for it and built the workbench around it. I use old kitchen drawer utensil (spoon, fork, etc) bins in the drawers and separate the hardware according to size. The drawers get pretty heavy with a bunch of 1/2" bolts in there.

 

[IMCA38]

My dad and I built this one for my shop many years ago.

 

[Jazz1]

Coffee cans are cheap and work well for me

Friend got his first garage,,,got him started with 2 coffee cans of metric

 

[FMB4]

My non-creative yet cost effective bolt/nut/washers/screws storage is a heavy duty steel drawer in my hd steel workbench. I use a cut down broom handle to dig around with. Have been thinking of organizing such for about the last 30 years...

 

[Prospecter]

My non-creative yet cost effective bolt/nut/washers/screws storage is a heavy duty steel drawer in my hd steel workbench. I use a cut down broom handle to dig around with. Have been thinking of organizing such for about the last 30 years...

My Dad always did similar with an old tool box. Always open on the bench. Any stray hardware was tossed in there. Worked pretty well. I am better organized, but still have a bin on the bench for misc. stray hardware. (I try not to save the beat up stuff though!)

 

[jrsavoie]

My Dad always did similar with an old tool box. Always open on the bench. Any stray hardware was tossed in there. Worked pretty well. I am better organized, but still have a bin on the bench for misc. stray hardware. (I try not to save the beat up stuff though!)

Some stuff I will clean the threads and save.

 

[slodat]

I bought used Vidmar cabinets, filled with Schaller bins. I’m 90 minutes from a store with much of a selection. I rarely don’t have what I need on hand at this point. I placed orders regularly for a long time to get to where I have what I need. When I realize I need something I often stop and order online right then.

 

[brownbagg]

the bolts that drive me crazy that i never have, electrical outlet, switches , plug, cover bolts. I need a small container of just those bolts, maybe a film canaster worth

 

[ArmyVW_GuyInTX]

"Obsolete" card cabinets are handy as posted before. The only issue when buying from an auction is - you must take everything in the 'lot' .....so I have a hella lotta extra cabinets I don't need.

 

[vrinner]

Variety of stuff but I got a bunch of those Husky small bins and then used some left over plywood...copied the idea from others here.

Also picked up a several blue bin racks from Fastenal.

 

[Rkcubed]

Through the years I’ve outgrown the small Akro Mills drawer units, they hold about one or two packages of hardware. For several years as companies moved toward less paper I picked up some Kardex drawer units. As of now I have 28 of them. Most don’t want them as the drawers are about an inch and half deep. I’ve made dividers in the drawers to keep stuff organize. I’ve also picked up several sets of these large drawer units through the years. I like them because they hold 15-20 pounds of nut, bolt, or washers. Our local farm store sells them by the pound. Saves running to the store when you need some hardware.

 

[Stillgottimefor1]

I’m shambling and shuffling towards organizing the Tack Shed in between doing repairs…figuring another fifty hours oughta put me pretty close…

 

[Poolshark314]

I'll be 3d printing a lot of bins once the garage is up and running

 

[reader2580]

Through the years I’ve outgrown the small Akro Mills drawer units, they hold about one or two packages of hardware. For several years as companies moved toward less paper I picked up some Kardex drawer

That is impressive. It looks like you have about one of everything a hardware store carries.

 

[Rkcubed]

That is impressive. It looks like you have about one of everything a hardware store carries.

I hate making a trip in the middle of a project. Through the years I’ve accumulated all this stuff, the wife thinks I’m a hoarder. Close to 60 years in the making.

 

[tarmy]

I hate making a trip in the middle of a project. Through the years I’ve accumulated all this stuff, the wife thinks I’m a hoarder. Close to 60 years in the making.

I with you on the trip to the store iffin’ I am in the middle of things…been stocking up two homes for decades (vacation home way up in the woods…)

 

[cannuck]

I had one of the 12" deep 9 rows high, 8 bins across for my US fasteners, and I put open 6 x 4 hangars in two rows along 20' of work bench on one side for metric and stainless with a portable rack to take stuff to the job when I was in production. Thing is, I stopped that 30 years ago and everything since are custom jobs that take a LOT more variety of fasteners. They ended up in boxes and bags on in and under work benches, corners, etc. to the extent I ran out of room and patience. I had to clean out the shop to work on the ceiling and loaded 2 4' x 4' folding side pallets with fasteners. Limit was what the brake on my overhead crane in shop would hold, so = 2,000 lbs. of fasteners. Needed a workable and affordable way out of it. We have a FANTASTIC racking system at client shop where I usually work that is 4' wide, 6' high and 2' deep. You pull bins out along wire racks and the hook at the end so you can't drop them. Allows very flexible bin dividers to be dropped in to configure the trays. Went to manufacturer and they said they discontinued those many years ago and no longer support that system. Broke down and went to local materials handling company and they had some used shelving to make similar 3' wide flat racks for their slide-out bin system (that hooks on the bottom of each shelf above). Not exactly what I wanted, but each one is about 4x my existing bin and I have 3 sets of that. Well, not going to to put them all in here as I don't have the room (building new shop on farm). I managed to buy a bit beat up, second used 9 x 8 bin to go with the first and made a stand for them under a window. I will use one of the 3' x 6' x 4' racks and had to order NEW plastic bins a bit over 6" wide (5 across). I mention that because all of my plastic smaller hangar bins, now 38 years old, have become extremely brittle and many have failed (looks like Akro will come to rescue as my back hooks are too thick for any other brand).

Morale of the story: look for used industrial stuff as it is DIRT cheap, but don't expect old plastic to be as good as new plastic.

 

[Stuart in MN]

"Obsolete" card cabinets are handy as posted before.

The thing is, card cabinets are pretty much obsolete in the used market as well. After all, they haven't been used in business to actually hold file cards for probably 30 or 40 years now. I rarely see them, and if I do the asking price is much more than I'm willing to spend.

 

[Rkcubed]

The thing is, card cabinets are pretty much obsolete in the used market as well. After all, they haven't been used in business to actually hold file cards for probably 30 or 40 years now. I rarely see them, and if I do the asking price is much more than I'm willing to spend.

They are obsolete, I did pick up two feebies over the summer. They was next to the business dumpster. Asked if I could have them and was told take them no charge.

 

[ArmyVW_GuyInTX]

The thing is, card cabinets are pretty much obsolete in the used market as well. After all, they haven't been used in business to actually hold file cards for probably 30 or 40 years now. I rarely see them, and if I do the asking price is much more than I'm willing to spend.

The ones I have came from city government auctions.
I've seen them priced out of orbit as "vintage" or the cliche " mid century" as well. I resell them, but I am reasonable.

 

[Kenstone1]

And not everybody has a Lowes "just up the road".

Lowes bolt selection ***** anyway

yeh, this^

I keep a 3ft piece of all-thread in popular sizes and a bunch off nuts in case I need a bolt I don't have.
Cut it to length and weld a nut on the end for what I need.
If it's not a strong enough material for the application, it becomes a mock-up to be replaced later.
That has saved me many trips to the hardware store and keeps my bolts on hand to a minimum.

Storage for me is HF flip top storage containers in a rack/cabinet/tower/shelves.

20-Bin Medium Portable Parts Storage Case

Amazing deals on this 20-Bin Medium Portable Storage Case at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

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You can pull out a single yellow bin or take the whole container to the job.
jmo,
.

 

[The Bean]

My wife (wait, am I allowed to mention her) thinks I'm crazy to keep all these sorted hardware bits in jars. My favorite salsa, BTW. Great because I can see what's in them. They're two deep on this old shelf unit in the garage.
What I really want is something like this cabinet...

 

[bigcreek]

I have somewhere around 1000 full and partial bins of all sorts of bolts, nuts, washers, and much, much more. Different grades etc. The entire shelf of yellow and blue bins is all stainless. Out of all those bins there is only I think two that are empty. I bought out one entire hardware store that went out of business around 10 years ago and bought part of the inventory of another hardware store later. I have saved so much money over the years on that initial investment. Time is money and having what I need on hand is worth its weight in gold so I am not having to make trips to town all the time for this or that. I have open and closed bins. I like both. I made the pipe fittings cubby a year or two ago which is 16" deep I think.

 

[Tbender78]

I found 4 bolt bins on C-List. They were cheap and pretty beat up. Couple of spot welds and a coat of paint. Almost good as new. Sold 2 and recouped most of my money.

 

[bdbecker]

I need to rethink how I store hardware and have been looking at different options. One system that caught my eye are these Dandy Drawers:

Account Suspended

I might order a few and play around with them.

 

[PhantomEB]

***** all my assortment came chrome plated, but I very well could get some in black when I need to.

 

[niget2002]

the bolts that drive me crazy that i never have, electrical outlet, switches , plug, cover bolts. I need a small container of just those bolts, maybe a film canaster worth

I bought a mixed container of them off of Amazon. Came with a few different lengths and a few different colored screw heads. All in their own container.

 

[zer01]

I am limited to a three-car garage at the moment. I don't like dust in my bins so I built a cabinet for my bins. It works for me for now. I added a pull-out shelf above the tool chests for a work surface as well.

 

[Lu-Max]

I built this rack.
I bought the MW Packout cases on sale, made the rack out of plywood and aluminum angle to hold the cases.

 

[Sumboodie]

I bought used Vidmar cabinets, filled with Schaller bins. I’m 90 minutes from a store with much of a selection. I rarely don’t have what I need on hand at this point. I placed orders regularly for a long time to get to where I have what I need. When I realize I need something I often stop and order online right then.

I have similar, just no bins.

Got the cabinets at a DRMO auction about 10 years ago.

 

[Nosferatu]

I only organize the stuff I use on a regular basis. Nothing fancy, just a few shelves, mostly in their original packaging.

I don't have the time, space or money to dedicate to some outlandish system to store a bunch of hardware that's probably worth less than the organization systems themselves.

One offs go into a bucket, which the larger stuff has mostly been used for blacksmithing practice. Everything else probably should just go to the recycling yard.

 

[jrsavoie]

I only organize the stuff I use on a regular basis. Nothing fancy, just a few shelves, mostly in their original packaging.

I don't have the time, space or money to dedicate to some outlandish system to store a bunch of hardware that's probably worth less than the organization systems themselves.

One offs go into a bucket, which the larger stuff has mostly been used for blacksmithing practice. Everything else probably should just go to the recycling yard.

I will give a little over scrap price for unused fasteners. Maybe even used fasteners

 

[Prospecter]

My wife (wait, am I allowed to mention her) thinks I'm crazy to keep all these sorted hardware bits in jars. My favorite salsa, BTW. Great because I can see what's in them. They're two deep on this old shelf unit in the garage.
What I really want is something like this cabinet...

This is my grandfather's solution! Worked well. He always had a mishmash of containers. Once you learned what kind of container held what hardware, it sped up finding something. The big downside for me was that the glass would break.

 

[The Bean]

I'm old enough to be a grandfather, and some of the stuff I'm holding onto was my grandfather's.