Those cabinets you have are real nice & HD. I worked at a machine shop during college that used those exact ones and had a room full of them wall to wall w/ their hardware.
The plastic drawers are OK, but only for a certain amount. If you have too few fasteners it's a waste of space, too many and you can't fit into those little drawers.
In an ideal world, I would see something large that had lots of pull-out drawers, and then within each of those drawers I could sub-divide as many times as I want. Kind of a mix between the little plastic drawers and the dividing capability of the Plano bins. That way, I could have one or two drawers w/ "#8 flathead woodscrews" and subdivide for the 6 or 7 different lengths that I carry.
I enjoy woodworking, and find myself more often than not building something for my shop, so I'd be willing to invest time/materials into something homemade. Does anyone have ideas?
Thanks,
Adam
Adam
whatever you choose today... will be too small tomorrow. Your accumulation of hardware will grow exponentially to your storage capacity.
I started out years ago with the plastic drawer storage... probably have 20 or so hanging around the shop and sitting on the back side of the bench
But as my needs grew so did the bulk and size of my accumulation. I tried using storage boxes from Wall Mart and they worked fine for bulky stuff but didn't give me the flexibility I needed or a way to divide containers easily without other containers in those containers
I finally lucked up on some parts bins/cabinets and that filled my needs... they are now all labeled and divided by size and type.
later I found a couple of the multi tray organizers and use them for stainless and brass hardware as well as brass fittings and a little metric hardware I've accumulated
I'd recommend a larger capacity than you think you'll ever need and buy more. It's so much easier to have it all organized than to dump a 5 gallon bucket on the floor and search for a single piece. (although I still have buckets that need to be sorted !!) I've got everything from #8 machine screws (in the plastic drawers) to 3/4" . bolts in one set of drawers, nuts and washers in others.. there are also drawers for electrical crimp on connectors to copper and pvc fittings...
don't know your space limitations, but when you're in a 24'x24' with a dismantled truck and all the stuff... you need organization and the ability to go vertical.. see pics below..
later
John
