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.