Looking for ideas - screw/fastener storage

[Ricc Havens]

I don't get to this side of the Creek world of flat/case work much as I do mostly turning. But, I'm tired of having misc. boxes screws, nuts, bolts, etc sitting on shelves in different parts of my small basement shop. Looking for ideas on what you guys use for storing/organizing different sizes of assorted hardware stuff.

Thanks
Ricc

[Jim Becker]

I have one more of these on the other side near my CNC control computer that houses my tooling at the top and guitar parts on the bottom few rows. Bulk storage of screws (I tend to buy larger boxes from McFeeley's when I order) is up high on a shelf out of the way.

[Paul F Franklin]

This pic shows the three main ways I store screws and other hardware:

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For items that I use fairly often in quantity and keep stocked, I use the little pasteboard boxes shown in a bin at the bottom. Bought a 100 of them years ago and still have some empty ones. I like them because they hold a 100 or more of most common fasteners I stock, and I can easily grab the box I need. I keep them organized by screw size, and then by head type and length.

For items that I have quite a few assorted types/sizes but are not as frequently used, I just toss the original package in a bin box" "metric" or "brass screws", that lets me find them quickly.

For things that I have only a few varieties and a few pieces of each variety, but are things that I want to be able to find, I use the Plano compartment boxes: "Stainless machine screw".

One thing I value in these is that they are easily portable in small graduations. Meaning I can grab a single box or two, or a plano box, or a bin box, and take it to a job site, or backyard, or wherever, and it is obvious that it is missing and obvious where it gets returned to.

Stuff that comes in reasonable original packages, like GRK or SPAX screws, get places in cardboard bin boxes according to size/type.

Finally, I have a "hell" box, which is a plastic storage bin where leftover bits and pieces of hardware get tossed. After all these years it now weighs about 15 lbs, but it has saved me a trip to the store quite a few times. A real pain to search through, but it's kind of last resort.

[Charlie Velasquez]

I use my Craftsman tool box from 1981.
The one pound box they come in fits under the tray ledge by 1/4” when on edge the tall way. Two rows, perpendicular to its length and one row parallel fits almost exactly. Specialty screws, machine screws, driving bits, and a couple of 4-1 tools go in the tray. Easy to grab and take to a job.

Another one for nails.


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[Keith Outten]

Pennzoil cans and the system is expandable at any time as long as you have an extra 2 by 4. These fit nicely in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket if you need to take them offsite. I store just about every kind of fasteners, wire, hooks, string, gears, electrical switches, latches, shelf brackets, leather punches, etc. I have two rows of Pennzoil cans in my shop and a third in another building. I have to use a ladder to get to a can but I can find what I am looking for quickly.

[Bruce Page]

If you have a salvage yard in your area you might try looking for a storage bin like this. I don’t remember what I paid, but it wasn’t a lot.
It’s all steel and holds all my misc. nuts & bolts + a lot more. I like that I can easily pull the drawer out to pick through it.

[Bill Carey]

When we bought the house it came with about 30 3x3 bookcases so I stacked some in the shop and mounted bypass door hardware so I could mount the storage racks and still get to the shelves. The tupperware tubs are handy cuz I can take them to the work area and slide them back in place easily. I found the steel storage drawer unit at a garage sale for 30 bucks as I recall. And, of course, lots of cigar boxes.

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[Mark Daily]

I have one more of these on the other side near my CNC control computer that houses my tooling at the top and guitar parts on the bottom few rows. Bulk storage of screws (I tend to buy larger boxes from McFeeley's when I order) is up high on a shelf out of the way.

+1 on these type of storage bins. They work best for me.

[roger wiegand]

A couple deawers like this have done wonders for my ability to find a screw!

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[Brian Tymchak]

I had the same problem so when I built the miter saw bench, I used the space under the tables for drawers to house hardware.

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For small items or quantities, I ganged 4 of those plastic bin cabinets together.


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[Mark Bolton]

If you can even remotely land on a reasonable fastener storage system for a shop with a wildly wide range of fasteners that can be categorized and kept efficient and compact,.. you will be a multimillionaire. There is simply no good all around solution for fastener storage and never has been. Its the bane of every shops existence.

If you can narrow your fastener palette to a small set of fixed fasteners thats your best bet but when you get into screws, nuts, bolts, washers, and many head and length variations, your talking about a fasterner wall that will dwarf the hardware store.

Its a horror show.

[Jim Becker]

If you can narrow your fastener palette to a small set of fixed fasteners thats your best bet but when you get into screws, nuts, bolts, washers, and many head and length variations, your talking about a fasterner wall that will dwarf the hardware store..

This is an important point...when I converted to the new bins this past year (shown in my photo up above) I got rid of a lot of odd-ball stuff that while nice to have for weird situations, just took up space and made organization a lot harder. With two exceptions, for example, there are no phillips head screws in those drawers...the exceptions are a small number of drywall screws I keep for actually repairing drywall and a few long deck type screws that occasionally come in handy...those were what held the pallet/crate together that my CNC machine shipped in and were too nice to throw out. I use square/Robertson drive and some Torx screws pretty much exclusively. Odd-ball machine screws in odd sizes and small quantities also left the building as did miscellaneous left over hardware items that likely would have continued to be forgotten anyway. I actually have empty bins available for any new fastener types that I find I must acquire in the future.

[Lisa Starr]

Mine items are in the little drawers like Jim posted, however, since I've accumulated them thru garage sales, flea markets etc all the actual units were different sizes and shapes. I just built a couple rows of shallow, closely spaced shelves the little drawer fit on behind my bench. I tend to by fasteners in larger quantities and the extras are in two large totes way up high. Periodically, I get the ladder out, refill the drawers, and take an inventory. When things are looking low, I place a largish order to restock.

[Jim Becker]

Lisa, I previously had a mish-mash of different bin-cabinets over the years and chose to "recycle" them for a more uniform approach last year when I was cleaning up some aspects of my shop. Standardizing did make it easier, although it also meant investing a few shekels to make it happen.

[Ben Helmich]

I had the same problem so when I built the miter saw bench, I used the space under the tables for drawers to house hardware.

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For small items or quantities, I ganged 4 of those plastic bin cabinets together.


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Brian, what do you call those red bins and where do you get them?