Show me your hardware organizers

[Phil Thien]

Got enough vises there, Darrin?

Yeah, we're going to need an answer on that.

[Darrin Davis]

Got enough vises there, Darrin?

It's a high school woodshop.

[Kent A Bathurst]

It's a high school woodshop.

OK, then - that would be a "no".

[Rob Damon]

I made two shelf units one for the larger bins and a second for the smaller bins.

110497d1419658609-show-us-your-shop-img05712.jpg110465d1419658401-show-us-your-shop-img05707.jpg.

[Frederick Skelly]

I use the second one in your set of 4. I have multiple copies. They work just fine for bulk stuff.

[Jim Matthews]

I keep two of the clear containers popularized by Lee Valley with the hardware
that is difficult to find (square cut nails, for example).

I consider Amazon and the local ACE Hardware to be my stores
for everything else. Too many of my 'bargain finds' have rusted
to the point of being useless in my damp basement shop.

There's a reason estate sales always have so many loose nuts and bolts to sell.
Most of us gather more than needed for multiple lifetimes.

Amazon can deliver most any screw, bolt or nail in two days.
Why keep so much clutter?

[Jim Becker]

Phil, I use a couple of wall mounted bin cabinets like you picture for specialty fasteners and other hardware that I like to keep handy and sorted. I also have another unit with much larger bins for the most common fasteners I use in the shop for projects. Because the bins are closed, less dust and dirt gets in with the stuff and it's easy to stay organized.

[Bill Huber]

I have basically 3 different types of storage.

I have some fiberglass bins that are about 12"x12"x18" that are full of just different stuff that I keep, bolts, nuts screws and other type of things that I don't have a lot of but just don't want to dump them.
I then have 3 Stanley boxes which I really like, the little bins in the boxes can be taken out to the work area and the rest of the bins will stay in place. I have 2 smaller ones and one large one that I keep larger items in.
My third place in a drawer cabinet I got out of the trash a few year ago, not sure what it was used for but it is really nice for hard ware and I also keep some tools in it.

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[Jim Finn]

Open drawers.jpgMade three of these. Work fine for me.

[Phil Thien]

I keep two of the clear containers popularized by Lee Valley with the hardware
that is difficult to find (square cut nails, for example).

I consider Amazon and the local ACE Hardware to be my stores
for everything else. Too many of my 'bargain finds' have rusted
to the point of being useless in my damp basement shop.

There's a reason estate sales always have so many loose nuts and bolts to sell.
Most of us gather more than needed for multiple lifetimes.

Amazon can deliver most any screw, bolt or nail in two days.
Why keep so much clutter?

I hear ya, it is a constant battle between clutter, impatience, pricing.

I'm not going to add a ton more stuff but I'm absolutely getting more organized so I don't buy anything I don't absolutely need.

[ian maybury]

Late in. Specialist fixings and fittings (beyond metric bolts/nuts/screws and spax type csrews) are available locally here Phil, but not very reliably - so having a decent stock is essential. Trouble is it's always the one you want that's not in your stock.

I've had cabinets with plastic drawers similar to what you showed at the start, but found that the drawers started to get brittle after a year or so. The problem with cheap plastics (especially Eastern polyethylene) is often that unless it's well loaded with a UV inhibitor (which the cheap guys leave out/don't use enough of/are anyway environmentally nasty) the sunlight unzips the polymer and it gets very brittle very quickly.

I use wooden wine boxes (below) for this reason for storage of larger stuff like power tools, tapes, adhesives etc - they work great, but are hard to get as only the very expensive French Bordeaux etc come in them now. High end wine shops will sometimes give them away, or they can be bought. The shelf unit is Ikea Expedit - works well. I have several in various storage jobs. The plastic storage boxes sold by the box stores tend to suffer from the UV embrittlement problem too, and are bloody expensive.

Re-sealable plastic freezer bags amrked with a pen (Ikea do heavy duty ones) are very useful, especially for odds and sods of fasteners too unusual/small in quantity to justify setting up a dedicated storage location. I bag my leftovers, and drop them in the relevant one of two wine boxes labelled 'metric' and 'imperial'. Ditto into another box for stuff like electrical consumables.

I had a load of what looked like good quality storage boxes of a name brand I can't remember) very like those Bill H shows for engineering fasteners etc bought about the same time, except that the sections were divided by drop in plates. They have actually held up well, and it's very handy to be able to lift them out to search for stuff. The problem is that the drop in plates are very easily lifted by accident, allowing the contents of adjacent sections to mix. Next up is a major session with silicone to glue them in.

I also have several of these all metal 36 drawer wall cabinets made by Clarke which are probably available in the US, and use them for wood fasteners. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clarke-CTB10.../dp/B007JC9NA0 They seem cheap and basic at first sight, but so far are are the best i've had - dead simple and solid, and hence reliable. Think i'll be buying more once i figure out where to fit them. (my wall space is tight) They come in several different sizes. The one downside is that you can't look into them, and so have to rely on labelling them well.

Not a fan of open rack mounted plastic storage bins in the workshop. I have some in the separate sharpening area.

Not strictly on topic, but I tend to buy kitchen cabinets of one sort or another from Ikea for cost effective quickie wall storage. (there's a big range of sizes and types) Best to reinforce the joints using long Spax screws of large (5 or 6mm) dis, but so far they have held up well mounted using french cleats.

wine box storage 7-7-14.jpg

[Brian Peters]

I do the stanley bins as well but use the harbor freight knockoff. They are a lot cheaper and basically the same exact container. I'm not a fan of open containers for hardware as they collect dust easily in a woodshop. The containers are really versatile too because they can be pulled out and brought to your work or to a job site very easily.