How i store my nuts and bolts

[jJon G]

Anyways i tried all sorts of solutions to sort my nuts and bolts

Bulk nuts of every size in one plastic bin
Spread out in a drawer in tool box
Cut off 1L plastic oil cans
Industrial bolt bin
Plastic food containers
Metal index card cabinet

It all worked but for some reason was not the solution for ME

This is what i came up with, i have a used industrial Stanley vidmar floor cabinet that i wanted to use for more then just a catch all.

I measured the drawers, found a shipping crate at work and went to work with my table saw ....

Cut the base the size of the drawer
made strips to box it in
made strips to run across
then cut dividers

this was all glued and nailed

put it in clamps while the glue did its job

 

[930dreamer]

Nice work, part of the garage lot I bought has many buckets of fasteners, not sure I could sort them properly.

 

[tvtaurus]

Nice job on those home made wood bins. All I use currently are these from HF.

 

[Cue]

Nice! I too started with a metal index card cabinet, it wasn't big enough.
I did the same thing as you only I used the Plastic Akro-mils bins.
Here is a picture of one drawer out of 7 I have like this, as you know it takes a long time to sort them but once you have it done it is so easy to find anything that you need and definitely worth it.

 

[astroracer]

I use an old file card cabinet. The gray bins from HF work perfectly in the drawers.

This cabinet has everything from #8-24 up thru 1/2" with room for more.
Mark

 

[tjdux]

Thats brilliant. Really nice

Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703

 

[TNBurban]

Whatever happened to the old Maxwell House empty coffee can storage method? I remember way back when my grandpa had a shed with at least a dozen or so coffee cans filled up with nuts, bolts, screws, nails, washers, etc...they were at least semi organized, at least in his mind. He knew where to find what he was hunting for.

 

[dbabicky]

Whatever happened to the old Maxwell House empty coffee can storage method? I remember way back when my grandpa had a shed with at least a dozen or so coffee cans filled up with nuts, bolts, screws, nails, washers, etc...they were at least semi organized, at least in his mind. He knew where to find what he was hunting for.

That's the method I grew up with except they were "Folgers" 3lb coffee cans !! LOL !!!

 

[jJon G]

I tried the coffee cans, but i found where they were round I lost a lot of space between the cans as i wanted to store them in a drawer.

 

[softailgarage]

I always found the baby food jar with the lid screwed under a cabinet to be quite creative...

 

[astrohip]

Nice job on those home made wood bins. All I use currently are these from HF.

Question about those: I was thinking of getting some. Are they easy to use? Do they (the individual bins) come on & off the rack easily, or do you tend to leave them on the rack, even to search thru them?

Thanks.

 

[tvtaurus]

Question about those: I was thinking of getting some. Are they easy to use? Do they (the individual bins) come on & off the rack easily, or do you tend to leave them on the rack, even to search thru them?

Thanks.

It does take up wall space, but these are cheap. Two of them properly stocked will give you a good amount of hardware on hand. I don't sort by length, I just put all the same thread pitch in the same bin. The bins come on and off of the holder pretty easily.

 

[GoFast300zx]

Schaller bins in a modified Neumade Slide Cabinet

View media item 68910
View media item 69063

 

[astroracer]

Question about those: I was thinking of getting some. Are they easy to use? Do they (the individual bins) come on & off the rack easily, or do you tend to leave them on the rack, even to search thru them?

Thanks.

The bins go on and off easy enough. If you want to use this type Of setup I would suggest building a cabinet for them. The issue with the open bins is they catch a lot of dust and dirt. If you do any kind of grinding, cutting or painting in your shop the bins will get pretty grungy really fast. Put them in a cabinet and you eliminate 99% of that.
Mark

 

[rharman]

I always found the baby food jar with the lid screwed under a cabinet to be quite creative...

Boy, that takes me back to the way my grandfather and my dad kept stuff.....

 

[bgarrett]

Whatever happened to the old Maxwell House empty coffee can storage method?

A young woman came over today and drooled over my metal coffee cans of bolts and nuts. Said she had never seen a metal one. I must be old

 

[bgarrett]

These cabinets are full. I dont know where I will put the rest

 

[Corndoggeh]

I use an old file card cabinet. The gray bins from HF work perfectly in the drawers.

This cabinet has everything from #8-24 up thru 1/2" with room for more.
Mark

Neat cabinet! What was it for?

 

[csp]

File cards, aka card catalog, were stored in a cabinet like that. I have one with the same gray HF bins in it for hardware storage.

 

[moneypit_k5]

These cabinets are full. I dont know where I will put the rest

I have those same bins, but mine are three wide. interesting.

 

[padroo]

I don't have a problem with bulk storage but what do you do if you only have one or two items. How do you store them so you can find them two years down the road..
I always wanted some of those Stanley Videar cabinets, we used a lot of them at work.