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ncpantherfan71

Organization and storage of screws and small bits

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I am cleaning and trying to organize my small screws and small bits again.  I can not find a method that works well for me.  When I I disassemble a kit I keep everything in a bin until I put it back together.

I am having issues with the extra assorted screws, hardware, and leftover bits from repairs.

Please show or describe how you combat the pile of assorted stuff consistently piling up. 

Thanks in advance.

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I have little boxes with dividers. All the generic leftovers from a kit build go in there like screws, ball ends etc.

I have a bigger version for pinions, spurs, bearings, springs etc as well

My biggest problem is mod .6 and 48p pinions look so similar...

This is like my bigger one

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/tactix-double-sided-storage-box-organiser-320mm_p2582531

The smaller ones you can probably find at a dollar store, or buy a bunch of screws from Banggood and you'll get them

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That's a problem I have not been able to solve. 

I'm a very messy person.  That was not a problem because I knew where things were (messy people always say that).  Now, I'm starting to not care where things are.  I think it's about time I learn to organize.  Generally, though, I put things in cardboard boxes, per car.  I didn't plan it.  I just happened to keep things in the box it came in.   

For temporary storage of screws when building, I use lids from tea tins.  With a magnet, metal screws and pins are not going anywhere even if you drop it on the floor. (If the magnet is too strong, I attach it on the underside)

7UzgUiT.jpg

Pinions are confusing. I try to store unused pinions in its packaging. 

Once I take it out of the bag, I try to carve 6 or 48 with a knife on the neck of the pinion itself.  I can't find a pinion with a carving.  But here is a motor mount with pinion teeth numbers carved on it.  This way, I know which hole is for which pinion.  

wHbgSlc.jpg

 

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47 minutes ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

I have little boxes with dividers. All the generic leftovers from a kit build go in there like screws, ball ends etc.

I have a bigger version for pinions, spurs, bearings, springs etc as well

My biggest problem is mod .6 and 48p pinions look so similar...

This is like my bigger one

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/tactix-double-sided-storage-box-organiser-320mm_p2582531

The smaller ones you can probably find at a dollar store, or buy a bunch of screws from Banggood and you'll get them

I tried that for a while,  but the problem I ran into is I have 30 of the bins all over the place.  I still use them for parts for a particular chassis.  It's all the extra junk.  I have a container of step screws and ball ends of different sizes I have no idea what and where they are used.  

I can't be the only one with the container of stuff and the 3 piles of screws on the bench?

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1 hour ago, Juggular said:

For temporary storage of screws when building, I use lids from tea tins.  With a magnet, metal screws and pins are not going anywhere even if you drop it on the floor. (If the magnet is too strong, I attach it on the underside)

7UzgUiT.jpg

Clever idea with the magnet 👍🏻
I use similar lids when building, I’ll have to find a magnet now. 

1 hour ago, ncpantherfan71 said:

I can't be the only one with the container of stuff and the 3 piles of screws on the bench?

No your not alone there. 
I got to the point of lots of little piles of screws and stuff dotted around which was becoming a pain. 

When I’m building now I just empty the whole screw bag out into a metal lid similar to Juggular’s above, then at the end the left overs get segregated into a few categories (Machine screw, Self Tapers, Drive pins/adaptors, Washers/ O-rings, Nuts etc) stored in round containers that then themselves screw together in a tower. You can still see what’s in them and have a small footprint on workspace. They were dirt cheap A$4 or A$5 for the lot I think it was. The only bits I keep separate now are Kyosho bits and SRB bits all the other gets put in one group.


I did keep small stuff in a container with movable dividers before but found that drive pins, split pins, washers and the like would find there way under the dividers and start mixing together. So I just keep bigger stuff in that one now. 

One tool box for Soldering stuff, another for taking spares/batteries/ Tx etc on days out, and the clear containers for the bits and pieces.

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The screw together towers have revolutionised small bits storage for me  

3CF5612B-FFEB-4611-9BE3-7F5C2E18E554.jpg
 

 


 

 

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Depends on the parts I guess.

I just have a plastic container from those stor=pak wall storage things, I chuck all of my extra screws, nuts, etc in that. It can be a pain to find things rustling around in it, but it's not a huge issue. Also in my stor-pak unit are boxes with servos/servohorns ect, motors, escs, shocks, and a bunch of other things separated out.

This makes things sound organised but.... it isn't really. There is still crap everywhere. I haven't put a recent picture of my workbench/work area as....it's a bit of a whorehouse at the moment.

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For organizing small parts I use 9L Really Useful boxes with the divider tray inserts, each tray insert has 15 compartments around 70mm x 70mm x 25mm deep.

4 divider trays fit in the 9L Really Useful box so that gives you 60 divided storage compartments.

The 9L boxes stack well and are very sturdy.

In the UK, Hobbycraft are a good place to get them.

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Another (UK-based) shout out for the really useful boxes. I have a 9l for storing tools and materials and use a 0.14 litre organiser set for individual parts.

http://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/uk/html/onlineshop/rub/b00_14litreOrg.php

I have struggled to find larger versions that fit cars well though. Instead, Clas Ohlson boxes are much cheaper and better sized (though not the indestructible construction of a Really Useful Box).

RUBs aren’t that cheap but are often on offer at Ryman’s / Robert Dyas.

EDIT: the best storage system I ever saw was is my Grandfather's garage. Along one wall was were shelves and stacks of tobacco tins (he never smoked), each with a plaster or masking tape label. That man had everything you could ever need (in terms of small nuts, screws, o rings, etc. 

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My day (and sometimes night and weekend) job is designing prototype lab equipment. A few years ago I started using Stanley compartment organizers (Amazon US link) to keep the parts and pieces for each machine. 

I like them because:

  • The modular design makes it easy to access. I just grab the small tray for the design step I'm on without carrying the whole container around.
  • The modular design makes it easy to organize on the fly as project needs change. Parts that didn't work just get swapped out to a 'storage' box.
  • The sections come in a variety of sizes, but the overall case dimensions stay the same - making it easy to stack all of the parts for a given project together.

The machine shop that builds out my components liked the idea so much they swapped over to the same concept. For bulk items they still have the traditional bins, but when a machinist is on a particular project they can keep all the live bits together.

So I kept using them last year when I got back in to RC'ing. Below is my 'GF-01 Dampers & Related' box. I use the same style but with smaller components for screws and related.

IMG_20200308_043426.jpg.d1dcf5b954f89fb8bc58f9ef56070ce5.jpg

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Yeah I use similar. Sometime ago a purchased a Dewalt drill/driver set that came in their Toughbox System. It’s rock solid, water tight and I use it as a step all the time.

Last year I saw a number of their organisers were on offer so snapped them up and have now moved over from Stanley organisers to Dewalt DS100s. I like them because as above, rock solid, water tight, they stack and are rack mountable.

So when I just got back in RC it was a natural fit to use them too.

PS how do you rotate images on here :lol:

 

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I'm in the midst of re-organising, as a side-project to our main task of clearing out 10 years of junk Marie Kondo-style. Handy hint for renters - don't rent a bigger space than you need, you'll just fill it up.

At the moment my tools are all mixed together - RC, model making, soldering, retro-computing, woodwork, plumbing bits all spread across the table, about 6 tool boxes, 4 multi-compartment boxes, 5 biscuit tins, and many cardboard boxes.

In an effort to try to bring peace and serenity to my tools I have bought a nice plywood desktop storage unit specifically for model making; the RC and modelmaking stuff will go in that (there's overlap of those parts). The tool boxes will be sorted into tasks and all biscuit tins / carboard boxes emptied. Screws and general small bits will go in the multi-compartment boxes, which will then get stored on my (theoretically) tidy shelves.

The biggest task is weeding out the multiples - eg, the two exactly the same crimp tools, one bought because I forgot I already had one - a nasty side effect of having everything in a disorganised mess. The excess tools I am considering donating to the local Men's Shed or to a nearby school, if they take such things. Hopefully they do with the focus on STEM these days.... hey they should run classes in building Tamiya cars - great life skills!

If youre in the Sydney area and know of any places that take tool donations, I'd love to know - I also have my father-in-law's old tools (he passed away last year, ex-RN diesel mechanic, so lots of heavy engineering tools) to donate to a good home. We just can't keep hold of so much stuff that we aren't likely to use.

And then there's the 3 cubic meters of lego to deal with... also mostly stored in tool boxes. Which of course I forgot to index with what sets are in each box. :rolleyes:

 

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My dad always said never get rid of tools. After he passed I had a load of his and my grandads old tools - they were both car mechanics. Kept hold of them for years until we moved and had a sort out. Now that I’m restoring an MGB GT I’ve had to buy a load secondhand or new. :wacko:
Sod’s law in action.

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I bought 4 plastic storage boxes and made a simple plywood storage box to house the storage boxes...

This houses 90% of my Tamiya spares. Then i have a tall plastic storage unit from b&q that has 6 pull out plastic draws in. These have all the plastic tree parts from the vehicles that i use. Any parts from vehicles that stay on the shelf get put in the original Tamiya kit box.

Seems to work well for me.

 

RQvo1n8.jpg

QE9Ik6S.jpg

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On 3/8/2020 at 8:18 AM, Tamiyabigstuff said:

For organizing small parts I use 9L Really Useful boxes with the divider tray inserts, each tray insert has 15 compartments around 70mm x 70mm x 25mm deep.

4 divider trays fit in the 9L Really Useful box so that gives you 60 divided storage compartments.

The 9L boxes stack well and are very sturdy.

In the UK, Hobbycraft are a good place to get them.

 

On 3/8/2020 at 8:38 AM, Badcrumble said:

Another (UK-based) shout out for the really useful boxes. I have a 9l for storing tools and materials and use a 0.14 litre organiser set for individual parts.

http://www.reallyusefulproducts.co.uk/uk/html/onlineshop/rub/b00_14litreOrg.php

I have struggled to find larger versions that fit cars well though. Instead, Clas Ohlson boxes are much cheaper and better sized (though not the indestructible construction of a Really Useful Box).

RUBs aren’t that cheap but are often on offer at Ryman’s / Robert Dyas.

EDIT: the best storage system I ever saw was is my Grandfather's garage. Along one wall was were shelves and stacks of tobacco tins (he never smoked), each with a plaster or masking tape label. That man had everything you could ever need (in terms of small nuts, screws, o rings, etc. 

A third shout for the Really Useful Storage Boxes - I've got the 45litre? ones to keep "project" vehicles in, another one for transmitters, one for spare wheels and parts trees, then several of the 9 litre ones with dividers for screws, servos, bearings, springs etc.

For stuff I'm taking apart and will soon be rebuilding (so none of my projects!) I find the little Mr Hobby paint trays perfect for keeping little screws from disappearing off my workbench and onto the floor never to be found again (not that that ever happens of course!)

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I simply can’t build in a mess - so my solution is admittedly a little purist 😂

Its also way easier + more satisfying knowing where every size + dimension is without hunting ?

Completely agree about pinions though ...

 

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I am also terribly untidy and disorganised so I recently got a few of these from Aldi which has helped massively:

TY1KQij.jpg

Before I got these, I was using those storage bin type boxes which helped but you still ended up with about 20 different things crammed in the same bin so you had to dig it all out to find what you needed etc.

These drawer units have helped me to separate stuff much better ie 3mm screws/4mm screws/5mm screws etc and then 3mm ball connectors, 4mm, 5mm and so on.

It's a pita to sort it all out initially but afterwards it saves a lot of time when you you can reach for stuff so easily. Just a matter of keeping on top of it.

Now I use the storage bins for bulkier stuff like I have one for brushed ESCs, one for brushless, 1 each for brushed and brushless motors, 1 for servos etc.

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On 3/9/2020 at 7:34 PM, toyolien said:

I bought 4 plastic storage boxes and made a simple plywood storage box to house the storage boxes...

RQvo1n8.jpg

 

Mate, that thing is huge! :lol:

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22 hours ago, Falcon#5 said:

Mate, that thing is huge! :lol:

Forget 1/10 scale, toyolien does 10/1 scale

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I have been using Futaba servo boxes forever. Each car has its own box. They stack nice as well. Only problem is that I have over twenty cars now so it's a little unwieldy. I should just combine all of the similar hardware that is shared between cars for easier access.

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23 hours ago, Falcon#5 said:

Mate, that thing is huge! :lol:

 

1 hour ago, Otis311 said:

Forget 1/10 scale, toyolien does 10/1 scale

 

Haha yes. I guess it does look big. I'm just so used to looking at pics on my scale garage that I miss the scale mis-matches sometimes...

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