Help With Small Parts Storage

[cdub260]

Originally Posted by blademaster

How about building your own. you can usually find some small bins that'll fit what u need and build the frame out of wood or weld aluminum or steel tubing together. not incredibly expensive i don't think it should be too expensive certainly less than $550

The problem with building my own is time. Right now I don't have any and won't for several months. There is also the question of what my time is worth. It's been my experience that with projects such as this, the combined costs of materials and my labor end up costing the company more than if I had simply gone out and purchased what I needed. Now, with all that said, odds are I'll end up building something, but not until September at the earliest. Given that this is a fairly complex piece of furniture that I need combined with the fact that my carpentry skills are extremely rusty, it will probably take the better part of a week to build it which will bring labor costs alone well above that $550.00 figure I presented to my boss.

[blademaster]

Originally Posted by cdub260

The problem with building my own is time. Right now I don't have any and won't for several months. There is also the question of what my time is worth. It's been my experience that with projects such as this, the combined costs of materials and my labor end up costing the company more than if I had simply gone out and purchased what I needed. Now, with all that said, odds are I'll end up building something, but not until September at the earliest. Given that this is a fairly complex piece of furniture that I need combined with the fact that my carpentry skills are extremely rusty, it will probably take the better part of a week to build it which will bring labor costs alone well above that $550.00 figure I presented to my boss.

I've seen it where bosses are willing to pay out for the labor than for the item, but every boss is different.

[ptero]

We went with low-buck 'cardboard parts bins' (google it). They come flat and when folded, "fold along this line", become fairly stout. They provide storage for pin plugs, edison and 220v plugs, outlets, switches, soldering stuff, conduit fittings, tape, tyraps, small spools of hookup wire and more. Mine have been in service in the elec shop for more than 20 years. Ours are on simple ply shelves. We have 4 on each shelf, and the shelves are floor to ceiling in our case. Yeah, it's a narrow unit, not much footprint, and we have 44 drawers or so. These are open top, maybe 3" wide by 4" tall and 12" deep. There are a variety of dimensions available to fit your space.

A simple shell with shelves w/maybe one vertical up the middle would do it. And did I say, cheap? I see a bin 4x18x4.5 hi at one site at $36. for a bundle of 50 bins. Looks like your space could fit 40 or so.

or, are you resolved on this? in that case...

never mind.

[mstaylor]

We did an easy fix in our shop. We built frame out of PVC pipe. YOu build it fairly quickly and inexpensively. You go simple and put fixed shelves on it and use boxes or bins, or you can go higher tech and make the shelves slide.

[BDS0111]

Hi cdub!

Do you have an IKEA near you? I was in my local store the other day and came across some pretty awesome wood storage drawers. The were super cheap and easy to put together. I wanted to buy them just because they looked so cool. Because they are wood, you can paint the drawers what ever color you want for easy identification! Check them out:

IKEA | Boxes & baskets | Paper & media boxes | FIRA | Mini chest with 3 drawers
IKEA | Boxes & baskets | Paper & media boxes | FIRA | Mini chest with 5 drawers
IKEA | Boxes & baskets | Paper & media boxes | FIRA | Mini chest with 9 drawers

Have you looked at Grainger, Lab Safety, Uline and the others for the little plastic bins? They are pretty cheap!

[ScaredOfHeightsLD]

We have those in our lighting workroom and they are fantastic. Really good for keeping connectors, fuses, screws etc... in

[Studio]

Ikea has many storage solutions and shelves for cheep.

[jstroming]

I use Akro-Mills bins from Markertek (Model AKR-10124). I have about 40 of these bins mounted on a wall, holding everything from nuts/bolts, to electrical connectors, to vga connectors, olflex strain reliefs, etc. Generally all my parts under about 5". Link:

Akro-Mils Akro-Mils Storage Cabinets Storage & Parts Bins at Markertek.com

For everything over 5" (S-Pin Edison Turnarounds, ratchet straps, generally bigger stuff) I use Uline's parts storage system. I have too many of these to count (at least 70 in each of 3 sizes I always buy). Link:

Uline Plastic Stackable Bins