storage of "little" stuff

[Mike Jones NM]

How do ya'll store little things (nails, small hinges, parts and pieces) in the shop? The new shop will have a full length shelf over the work bench and I'm thinking of a combination of baby food jars and canning jars with the lids attached to the underside of the shelf. You can see what is in it and have easy access.
Any other ideas?
Thanks

[Andrew Williams]

tea tins, plastic hummus containers

[Bill Huber]

I use small plastic bends and keep them in draws. I have not had good luck with jars, I always knock them off and brake them.
I was really lucky in finding a metal card file that has 8 drawers high and 3 drawers wide and is just great for this type of stuff.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
My wife is constantly in those dollar stores buying something.
I told her to keep an eye out for any small plastic containers and to pick up some when she sees a good price on them.

Also, she buys lunchmeat that comes in little plastic containers with a lid. The empties make good containers for small stuff.

Lastly, I always have small scraps of wood laying around. It's easy to fashion small bins from the scraps.

[Keith Outten]

Check out this thread for more ideas.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=44820

[joe greiner]

I consider myself a serious collector of tiny doodads. The baby food jars are totally inadequate, except for amateurs IMHO. I have several shelf racks made of welded wire fencing, bent to shape with free ends of the wires bent around their neighbors for assembly. They hang at various places on the walls.

For the containers, I use jars of frequently-used grocery products. Plastic (PETE) is best, but I don't eat enough peanut butter to provide for my needs; although I've recently begun saving PETE jars for jalapeno peppers (Casa Italica if you're interested). When I have to use glass jars, I tape the outside with transparent packing tape. They still shatter when they fall on the concrete floor, but at least they stay intact so I don't have to chase the parts all over, and cleanup is easier.

Joe

[Grady Cowardin]

I have a 3 tier high shelving setup above my work bench and I've found that you want to hang everything; jars or what not, on the 2nd shelf up. Gives you more room above the bench etc. Also I use a lot of those same size packages of nails and screws sold at borgs. They are about 2" high x 4" deep and 3" wide or so. I want to make a rack system that they can slide in and still have the front visible for the label. Probably a mini-shelf rack with slots/chambers 3" deep and match the boxes dimensions more or less otherwise. I have wall space but am running out of shelf space! Wrapping the jars in clear tape is a good idea Joe!

[Bart Leetch]

No glass the first time you drop one you'll understand why.

See my pic & all so add small plastic drawer cabinets you can buy at the Borg.

You'll notice I have no doors on this cabinet, in a small shop a cabinet of this size often gets plywood or other stock leaned against it then you have to lean it out to look in the cabinet it would be a constant struggle to get the plywood away from the doors to get them open.

[David DeCristoforo]

There is only one good way to store these things. Get a five gallon plastic paint bucket. Toss all of your misc. bits and pieces into the bucket. When you need something, dump the whole thing out on your bench (or your dining room table) and muck through it. After a while, you will realize that you can't find what you are looking for (or can't find enough matching items) at which point you can pop over to the hardware store and get what you need. When you are done, toss any leftovers into the bucket along with all the other stuff. BTW, the bucket makes a great door stop when you're not mucking through it. And, as it fills up, it makes a handy weight for that hard to clamp veneer panel...

[Richard Niemiec]

Go to the harbor Freight website, search storage bins, there's a few choices there, I got the bins toward the bottom that hang on rails you screw to the wall, the bins unhook easily. Best think I ever done with regard to storage.

RN

[Grady Cowardin]

There is only one good way to store these things. Get a five gallon plastic paint bucket. Toss all of your misc. bits and pieces into the bucket. When you need something, dump the whole thing out on your bench (or your dining room table) and muck through it. After a while, you will realize that you can't find what you are looking for (or can't find enough matching items) at which point you can pop over to the hardware store and get what you need. When you are done, toss any leftovers into the bucket along with all the other stuff. BTW, the bucket makes a great door stop when you're not mucking through it. And, as it fills up, it makes a handy weight for that hard to clamp veneer panel...

Hah, that will make a great insect sqaursher as well! I have only been woodworking long enough to have accumulated my misc. items in a coffee can but I aspire to one day have a 5 gallon bucket worth.

[Kent Fitzgerald]

To me, the more important question than "how do you store it" is "how are you going to find it when you need it?"

I'm reluctant to make labels for every single bit of hardware, so I prefer a WYSIWYG "visual index" system. For small quantities of commonly used pieces, I like multi-compartment organizers. For example, all my #10 wood screws in are in one organizer, separated by size, and I just flip open the lid and scan for the right size. 18 ga brads go in another organizer, 16 ga in another, wall anchors in another, etc, etc. Bulkier items go in open hanging bins. I get the ones at Harbor Freight for $6 / 20 on sale.

[Kim Spence]

I build cabinets with drawers to go in any open space I can find in the shop. Under the tablesaw outfeed, under the drum sander, under the router table. Up next - under the table saw extension, under the RAS.

I build shallow drawers (2"-4"deep) so stuff doesn't get buried. I store all sorts of stuff in them, including hardware. I just build dividers in the drawers for hardware.

I've built cabinets 14 drawers so far and I think the only thingI had to purchase was drawer slides, all the rest was scrap/leftover lumber and plywood or mdf.

I don't create labels for each hardware compartment, instead I just cut off the tag or label from the package that the hardware came in and toss it in the compartment with the hardware so there is no guessing.

[Kim Spence]

One other idea I've been tossing around is a cabinet with slide out trays that would hold the inexpensive plastic food storage containers available from the supermarket (Zip Loc Snap-n-seal is one brand, there are many others).

I would cut openings in the pull out tray so the storage container would drop into the opening and "hang" from the lip where the lid attaches. This would make it easy to just grab the container you want and take it with you.

[Bob Wingard]

For bulkier things .. biscuits, dowels, etc, I use those round containers that cd's & dvd's come in. They come in several sizes, and are usually readily available if you just ask around. Mount the lid, upside-down under a shelf, just like you would the baby-food jars .. just bigger, and more durable.

[Mark Ball]

I tried the baby food jars with tops screwed to the underside of a shelf. I found when I twisted the jar off the lid, the screw holding the lid ripped the lid. They aren't very strong.

Just my experience

[Bart Leetch]

You may or may not have noticed the bins I have on my shelves in the picture in the earlier post the tan colored ones were procured from Copland lumber a few months before they closed the red ones came from Ace when they traded out the used ones for new ones. I use Quick chocolate containers the oval yellow ones to store biscuits & dowels.

I also use rectangular cake pans to put the quick containers & glue bottles etc. Also cake pans work great to pour the parts from the plastic bins into to paw through & find what I need. Most of the bins are pre-sorted so it isn't hard to find what I want . BUT I have 2 bins that are labeled to be sorted. This is where I empty my pockets of the misc items when I come into the shop. Also metal bread pans are great to put in drawers to hold items & divide the drawer into compartments.

[Alfred Clem]

I use Skippy Peanut Butter (Super Chunk) plastic jars with screw-on blue plastic lids. Come in two sizes. Big and bigger. Dozens of them. I use a Magic Marker felt tip pen and write on them what's inside (as if any dope couldn't see what's in a plastic jar).

[glenn bradley]

I do use some jars but don't prefer them. I get these Plano boxes at Lowe's for about $4 each; racks built out of some old ply from a shipping crate. I also use four of these for router bits in my RT cabinet.

68886

HF has these on sale for about $6 a set on a regular basis for hinges and larger stuff (two sets shown).

68887

And the old hand-me-down standby for misc 'stuff'.

68888

[Darrin Davis]

Bet you'll never thought of this idea.

How about a card catalog from your local library? With computers doing all the book lookups these days they are probably in a library basement collecting dust. I have 4 - 15 drawer units in my shop and every draw is labeled with the pulls on the front. To make the long drawers better for multiple items I just make small boxes out of scrap wood and have 2 or 3 items per drawer.

68889

[Joe Jensen]

I put about 20 of these in my shop in AZ 18 years ago and they are like new. No small feat given our heat. Take a look. Here is the web link.
http://www.dandydrawers.com/Photos.htm

Here are some pics. These are from the website. I have about 20 of the medium size blue drawers, 4 high 5 wide, hanging under a shelf. I built a box like the one shown on top the bench and bolted it to the wall...joe

[glenn bradley]

I put about 20 of these in my shop in AZ 18 years ago and they are like new. No small feat given our heat. Take a look. Here is the web link.
http://www.dandydrawers.com/Photos.htm

Here are some pics. These are from the website. I have about 20 of the medium size blue drawers, 4 high 5 wide, hanging under a shelf. I built a box like the one shown on top the bench and bolted it to the wall...joe

Now those look like a great solution. I probably would have gone that way had I known about them.

[Dale Lesak]

I have been using the slider glad bags lately. when I have three of four of something I put them in a bag, label it if needed. with a sharpie pen and I have a box I throw it in to. When I need something its a lot easier to see what you have, and how many you have. I poke pin holes in the bags to let the air out so they lay flat and you can get a lot of things stored in a small storage box. being in the bag you don't have stuff falling all over. the slider closing system makes it easy to get in and out I have went the glass jar, baby food jar. plastic jar, jars fastened under the shelf, jars on the revolving wheel, jars on shelfs, jars in drawers, jars in boxes. and this system is one that I like the best.There cheap, easy to find. and don't take up any more room then needed Dale :o

[Brent Dowell]

I put about 20 of these in my shop in AZ 18 years ago and they are like new. No small feat given our heat. Take a look. Here is the web link.
http://www.dandydrawers.com/Photos.htm

Here are some pics. These are from the website. I have about 20 of the medium size blue drawers, 4 high 5 wide, hanging under a shelf. I built a box like the one shown on top the bench and bolted it to the wall...joe

How do you like the medium size? What do you think about it? I think I might order one of the samplers to see how they work to figure out what I might like.

I used to kind of standardize on the 6"x6"x6" and 6"x6"x12" cardboard boxes, but this seems like it would be way more useful

I'm really liking this. I just moved into a much smaller shop, and need a good way to store 'stuff'. Dang, been giving the ole credit card and ups guy a workout lately. Looks like I'm not done yet...

[Mike Jones NM]

Appreciate all the ideas. Now to sort through them all and decide what will work best for my situation.
Thanks again

[Joe Jensen]

How do you like the medium size? What do you think about it? I think I might order one of the samplers to see how they work to figure out what I might like.

I used to kind of standardize on the 6"x6"x6" and 6"x6"x12" cardboard boxes, but this seems like it would be way more useful

I'm really liking this. I just moved into a much smaller shop, and need a good way to store 'stuff'. Dang, been giving the ole credit card and ups guy a workout lately. Looks like I'm not done yet...

I'm very happy with the medium. I have most of them configured with six compartments, some with three, and some with no dividers. I also bought 3 or 4 of the large size and they hang below the cabinet for large items. I think the large size would hold 8.5" by 11" sheets, say for sandpaper. I looked again at the website and I don't think they sell the large size I have anymore. The drawers are VERY sturdy and well done. I am completely satisfied.

I think I started with a sample pack too...joe

[Joe Jensen]

I actually got up out of my chair and took a couple of pics. I guess my memory isn't that great, I actually build my rack to hold 40 drawers. 5 drawers high, and 8 columns wide. I originally built it 6 columns wide and then added 2 more later. Here are a couple pics. Again, these have been in service since 1988 or so...joe

[Al Willits]

I'm with Bart on this one, I bought assorted plastic cabinets from prob Menards and they are set up to hang from the walls, which I did, they come in several sizes, are cheap and hold a surprising lot of weight in them, did I say they were cheap?? :)

Remember though that the dividers do not always come with them and may be sold separately.

Al

[Ned Bulken]

I built hanging bins from an early issue of shop notes for my old shop. I'll put them back up again, but I think I'm going to go with some glad food tubs and a new shelf or two, once I finally have a roof to keep the rain off of the tools.

[greg king]

I use prescription bottles. I typically get 2 or 3 sizes with my meds: 1 large and 2 smaller.

The lables that Walgreens use just pull right off w/o leaving any goo or anything. I cut the tab off of the bottle part to disable the safety lock.

gk

[Kevin French]

There are some sweet looking systems here. Mine is a collection of anything I could find, the main thing is to be able to find it when you need it, anything beyond that is extra, nice but extra.

Here's mine

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g179/sweeper54/shop/Hardware1.jpg

The other half

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g179/sweeper54/shop/Hardware2.jpg

A little bit of everything.