Old Fastener Storage: Do you indulge or refrain?

[01-7700]

There is a surplus and salvage retailer in my area that sells hardware by the pound. The other Mainiacs here will recognize the name "Mardens". They have an industrial section with tons of hardware - I went in and grabbed a handful of this and that to start my collection and I have added to it a few times over the years. It's great not having to stop in the middle of something to go get raped at the hardware store for a nut or bolt.

 

[4x4_G30_Sportvan]

I am partly organized, but really do still have a long way to go.

Of course, living about 65 miles from a fully stocked hardware / building supply store makes it reasonable to keep LOTS of parts handy at home. Making a 130 mile r/t excursion to get some PVC fittings back in the day was not a good thing.

 

[Outlawmws]

I too am a fastener hoarder. One of the biggest problems I have is sorting especially when there are metric fasteners involved. Most of the big box stores have sorting devices in their fastener area that make it easy to sort, but they are not for sale.
Has anyone found a reasonably priced sorter?

Make one out of one each size bolt and one each size nut. Epoxy onto/into a piece of thin wood or metal and done.

One for SAE, one for metric...

 

[Cue]

I keep every bolt that isnt damaged or rusty, I just went thru and organized all my small stuff in plastic organizers, took a while but is worth it when I need to find the exact bolt I need instead of searching. the larger stuff was much easier. I use these thread checkers.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003FJW0GK/?tag=atomicindus08-20

And these for the smaller stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006NFUK6/?tag=atomicindus08-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006NFUJW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I also have one of these hanging in my Garage

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BOH69NY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[wasfuzz]

I store all my old used fasteners in the dumpster! When the local big box's have them for $1.59 a pound I stock up. I do keep a few old ball used fasteners, but not many.

 

[Lelandwelds]

I have piles of bolts, nuts, washers and much more that are not separated. How would you guys go about separating and sizing them?

Get several metal round oil drain pans or the equivalent. Sort by rough type first. (Nails in one. Lag bolts in another. Etc.) When one type gets large, sort it by size. If you only have a single item in a size, lump those together in a coffee can.

Washers of all mixed sizes get threaded on big wire loops hung over a nail.

A large part of my childhood was spent sorting bolts, picking up rocks, and digging cactus. Dad has 30ft of six ft tall bolt storage shelving and a large rotabin. The damn things have been moved twice.

I try to keep my packrat urges under control. I do keep a few Durham divided PE boxes with Brother labels. One day at a time, you know.

 

[Lelandwelds]

Has anyone found a reasonably priced sorter?

If you can measure your collection in fractions of a ton, look for a local company who black annodizes SS fasteners. They often mix dramatically different sizes together for efficient processing. They have a machine to sort.

Think truck load quantities or forget it.

A small scale sorter would be a fantastic engineering project. The machine I saw reminded me of a cement truck. Or, a case polisher.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I have 2 one gallon mayonnaise jars for take off sheet metal screws and machine screws. A half dozen HF divided cases for other take off stuff. And one big old cubic foot box for heavy **** that you never know. I also have about 100 plastic bins for fist sized quantities of specific, constantly used fasteners.
I probably go to the take off containers about 3 days or more a week for repairs around the property. And, the big box of **** at least weekly.

 

[BDT/NWMN]

I use a 27 drawer letter cabinet; with salvaged fasteners sorted by diameter. Much of what I have saved are special length or studded-head bolts that would require a trip to a salvage yard or dealership.
Two roller cabinet/top chest combinations hold new fasteners. I do not favor mixing used and new, so My system works ok for Me.

 

[bwringer]

I mostly work on Japanese motorcycles and cars, so I keep a large selection of metric fasteners on hand in several drawer bins. I don't save very much used stuff, unless it's something both odd and useful.

Any inch sized **** goes into a small drawer on the other wall or into the trash. I rarely work on anything that might need it, and there's plenty of inch **** at the bLowe's five minutes down the road.

I've never figured out why pretty much every vehicle and most machinery for the last 40 years has been metric, yet the selection of metric fasteners is so poor at hardware stores. They have endless shining rows of untouched inch ****, and the metric section is a desperately picked-over mess. You'd think they'd notice where the real demand is.

It's quite entertaining to watch the owner's face when I start taking apart something on their old motorcycle and the crappy old JIS phillips screws start flying directly into the trash (to be replaced with new socket head hardware from my inventory).

Most of my fasteners came from McMaster-Carr -- if I need something, I order up a box or two so I'll have extras for inventory. Over a few years, I've built up a nice collection without a lot of financial pain.

 

[Gerald O]

I keep every bolt that isnt damaged or rusty, I just went thru and organized all my small stuff in plastic organizers, took a while but is worth it when I need to find the exact bolt I need instead of searching. the larger stuff was much easier. I use these thread checkers.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003FJW0GK/?tag=atomicindus08-20

And these for the smaller stuff.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006NFUK6/?tag=atomicindus08-20

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006NFUJW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

I also have one of these hanging in my Garage

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BOH69NY/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Nice! What drawer cabinets did you use?
You appear to have far too much time on your hands however...

 

[01-7700]

When I was a kid I remember watching my father go down to the basement and sort odd nuts and bolts for hours when he and my mother were having problems with each other. He would just stand there, sorting one at a time. I remember looking at him like there was something wrong with him at the time. Now I understand...

 

[PT Doc]

I have screws in various bags. Somewhat organized. Years ago, someone posted the blue metal Fastenal cabinet/drawers that we're getting clearanced out. I bought a bunch and have some sort of vision of organizing screws, nuts, washers into those. I guess it comes down to how much time is it going to take and how well organized are you going to be and how likely are you to use some random leftover screw/bolt from a project. I have Ace, HD and Murdochs very close to me so getting sae, metric, stainless, grade 5 and 8 hardware, washers, nuts...I Mitch spend a whole bunch of time organizing these bags and really not use them much. Oh well

 

[ssdave]

It didn't occur to me that people were saving USED fasteners. I throw those in the metal recycle, except for specific automotive takeoff bolts that are hard to find new. I have a hard enough time sorting and storing all the NEW fasteners that come my way!

 

[PT Doc]

I have the standard and metric threads detectives on a biner and use them to check threads. So much metric stuff out there. These are very handy compared to the ones that mount on a wall since you can obviously take it to the threads and figure it out. I'd be lost without these.

 

[PT Doc]

It didn't occur to me that people were saving USED fasteners. I throw those in the metal recycle, except for specific automotive takeoff bolts that are hard to find new. I have a hard enough time sorting and storing all the NEW fasteners that come my way!

I agree on used fasteners. Why risk a failure. I keep all the leftover hardware from various equipment, lights and projects. Even that I don't know that it's worth trying to keep track of everything. But I'm a homeowner and not a shop so that might be a difference in opinion. Mismatched hardware on my projects irks me though.

 

[engineer2]

No matter how you store them, those old nuts and bolts are lifesavers!
In 8th grade a Western Auto store was closing an I bought their stock of brass fittings. That started my hoarding. In the 70's I stipped down a large mechanical calculator. The coffee can full of miniature nuts and bolts still serves me today.

 

[01-7700]

No matter how you store them, those old nuts and bolts are lifesavers!
In 8th grade a Western Auto store was closing an I bould their stock of brass fittings. That started my hoarding. In the 70's I stipped down a large mechanical calculator. The coffee can full of miniature nuts and bolts still serves me today.

And it was no surprise to anyone when you decided to become an engineer.

 

[Cue]

Nice! What drawer cabinets did you use?
You appear to have far too much time on your hands however...

Stanley Vidmars

 

[MikeF2316]

It didn't occur to me that people were saving USED fasteners. I throw those in the metal recycle, except for specific automotive takeoff bolts that are hard to find new. I have a hard enough time sorting and storing all the NEW fasteners that come my way!

I find that used fasteners coming from certain expensive European cars have much better anti-corrosion coatings and are made of more rust resistant steels. Often a used original bolt will look better in 2 years than a brand new big box store bolt when they're mounted side by side.

And I hate putting in a 8mm bolt with a 13mm hex head in something beside a 12mm flange bolt...

 

[MikeF2316]

No matter how you store them, those old nuts and bolts are lifesavers!
In 8th grade a Western Auto store was closing an I bought their stock of brass fittings. That started my hoarding. In the 70's I stipped down a large mechanical calculator. The coffee can full of miniature nuts and bolts still serves me today.

I had a job one summer putting up garden sheds for a company that was under contract to insurance companies. These were to replace ones that had blown down in bad weather. This was back in the 80s, the sheds were those really thin metal ones that were really flimsy. They had some Robertson machine screws with nuts, and some self tappers. I still have a few of them today.

 

[-Brent-]

I've purchased a lot of fasteners from folks who collected them in jars and cans and such. Regular folks scoff at it but anyone that purchases any type of fastener already knows how expensive it can be.

I'm getting low on some sizes because I don't have the type of stock (nor space) that some folks on the GJ do. But, what I keep around has usually kept me from running back and forth to the hardware store on most occasions.

For the most part, this is my hardware storage:

 

[Rag Roc]

This is a sore subject for me, and I could go on for an hour. We have company supplied tools and toolboxes (Mac, Matco, Snap-on). We have a couple of pack rats that have filled drawers with fasteners, O-rings, dull drill bits, etc
and have shrunk tool storage to a disorganized mess. These are toolboxes, not **** storage.
At home my new fasteners are organized and stored in labeled bolt cabinets. Yes; I save some old used stuff that isn't worth sorting out in a five gallon bucket. When the need arises (last resort), I dump the bucket out on a sheet of cardboard to look for what I need. When done I grab both sides of the cardboard, pick it up, and "sled" the stuff back into the bucket.

 

[bwringer]

And I hate putting in a 8mm bolt with a 13mm hex head in something beside a 12mm flange bolt...

Oh, this annoys the hell out of me, too... glad I'm not the only one. Toyota and Honda have been in the US for around 50 years, yet it's still very difficult to buy a JIS flange bolt.

My 1983 Suzuki GS850G came to me with several 1/4" and 5/16" bolts and nuts from Grandpa's coffee can stuffed into inappropriate places. Some still had the Briggs & Stratton brown or white paint.


And yeah, I've never figured out why so many people have such vast collections of small dull drill bits. Sure, sharpen the large ones, but it's just not worth farting around with dull bits 1/2" or below. And dull bits are a lovely way to injure yourself, damage your work, and generally screw things up.



I don't know exactly how, but I can tell whether a bolt is metric or inch at a glance. Even if the thread pitch is close (like on a 5/16" bolt vs. 8mm), the threads just look different somehow.

 

[don long]

I have a large assortment of nuts, bolts and screws some brass ans some stainless. And then there are the pop rivits cotter keys electrical connectors

Here is my hardware supply wall and cabinets

14 by don long, on Flickr

 

[lis2323]

Sometimes I'm tempted to just put up a big MISCELLANEOUS sign....

 

[bwringer]

The sailfish is a nice touch.

Around here, things run more toward deer heads in shops.

There's a motorcycle parts shop and boneyard downtown with a stuffed raccoon wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette. Really classes the place up.

I have a large assortment of nuts, bolts and screws some brass ans some stainless. And then there are the pop rivits cotter keys electrical connectors

Here is my hardware supply wall and cabinets

14 by don long, on Flickr

 

[hemifalcon]

This is my favorite form or parts storage.. Equipto drawers.. bought cheap-filled cheap with all sorts of stuff. There are two other 18drawer units in the garage with categorized items in them. Although the drawers aren’t labeled-I’ve become adjusted to where certain types of items are at.




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[rayra]

I strip hardware off of anything we're tossing or replacing. That goes for automotive stuff too. But at most my organization breaks down into tupperware containers for Bolts, washers, machine screws, nuts, oddball hardware and larger coffee and tea containers full of automotive hardware.
And that reminds me I have to go find my box full of lag bolts and anchors, helpign my neighbor build a replacement back fence.

 

[sberry]

I replace a lot, throw a lot away.
It's got to be good or special to save it. I dumped a few buckets a while back, cherry picked the good, scrap the rest. I am not cleaning used dirty bolts that are not used for imediate replacement.

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

I have a small assortment of common sizes that are mostly new.
I have plenty of used in boxes or coffee cans. Sort out what I need as I need it and possibly clean up at that time. Why spend a lot of time cleaning rust off a bolt that's going to rust in a few days anyway?

 

[harley jim]

Ok outlaw here is where I will catalog it.
My plan is that I built an addition on the left side of my shop to put my hardware store in. I am 61 and have been collecting since about 14 so about 47 years at 43 I moved from chicago to cleveland Tn and left a lot of my collection behind, I could have easily filled another 27 ft. Semi trailer with what I left behind. Right now the stuff is scattered all over my property there is a car parked in the addition as well as stacks of insulation foam board, construction supplies, and part of my hoard. The space is 14' wide and 36' deep and full. I am trying to put pencil to paper and measure what I have and come up with a solid plan and a drawing. Enough talk for now but here are some pics and I'll add plenty more as I go. Thanks, Jim

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[JZG85]

The old guy that lived in my place before me had tons left behind. It was really interesting seeing the old designs on boxes from the 50's and 60's and just how many of them were made in San Francisco or California back then.

 

[harley jim]

A lot of my stuff was made around Aurora Il. That is where I lived and several metal factory's are there. I actually made some of the tan shelving when I worked at Aurora steel products. Me and my wife are surfing the net right now looking for more shelving.

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[Outlawmws]

Looking forward to your Progress HJ!

 

[albaran]

I find that this comes in handy when sorting nuts and bolts:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003FJW0GK/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Dumber than lumber]

Do you indulge or refrain? Actually, I sort of cringe. And that was after I read the title , but before I looked at the pictures.
God bless you for being a librarian of sorts.

 

[rieferman]

Yikes... I definitely like having a collection of fasteners on hand (my friends call my shop "the hardware store") but that's another level.

Not trying to be a jerk here in any way... But, while I appreciate that collection in some regards, it mostly caused me to wonder "why?"

To have that much stuff on hand means that most of it is never getting used for long periods of time. It's a storage warehouse scenario.

Personally, I clean out my shop about every 6 months where I ask myself this question about everything contained within the space: Is there a feasible use for XYZ item within a 5 year window? If yes, keep. If no, liquidate.

In the past 20 years, following this rule, it has been extremely rare that I needed an item that I once had but had since discarded.

 

[nadogail]

Being a child of survivors of the great depression, I consider my collection of fasteners to be worth "Money in the Bank".

 

[Pitalplace]

Being a child of survivors of the great depression, I consider my collection of fasteners to be worth "Money in the Bank".

Yes this and being 20 miles from town requires a large hardware supply.