I have about four 5 gallon buckets of fasteners. Plus half empty boxes.
Plus coffee cans. Plus, plus, plus. I got fasteners coming out of the
woodwork like cockroaches.

I bought six very nice sized plastic drawer organizers at a yard sale over
the weekend for $50. I have seen them for about $30 per. Problem is, they
were FULL of fasteners. Every stinking drawer.

Thought I'd get ahead of the game, but stayed the same.

What do you use for fasteners storage?

I was thinking of making bins out of wood, and all sorts of things. Then, I
thought of various sized mason jars, with the lids screwed to the underside
of a shelf. Easy visibility. Graduated sized jars for small - medium -
large fasteners. Stick on labels.

Any other ideas for how to organize about two million fasteners?

Steve

"Steve B" fired this volley in news:kanndm$fhn$1
@speranza.aioe.org:

Any other ideas for how to organize about two million fasteners?

Steve


Steve, what you use to physically store them is less important than how
much it costs to sort them out.

Give a high school kid out of work a tapped thread gauge, and pay him/her
to do the sorting.

The best thing for them is little teensy cardboard boxes -- kind of like
small quantities of them come in to begin with. Store THEM in labeled
cubbies. It's that, or plastic bags.

Fastener control gets harder, the more you do, and the more leftover
fasteners you end up with.

LLoyd

Realistically you have two sensible choices:

1) Sell them cheap
2) Sort them somewhat (into big, medium and small) and use them, and
your relatives will sell the unused balance at your estate sale.

On 2012-12-17, Steve B wrote:
I have about four 5 gallon buckets of fasteners. Plus half empty boxes.
Plus coffee cans. Plus, plus, plus. I got fasteners coming out of the
woodwork like cockroaches.

I bought six very nice sized plastic drawer organizers at a yard sale over
the weekend for $50. I have seen them for about $30 per. Problem is, they
were FULL of fasteners. Every stinking drawer.

Thought I'd get ahead of the game, but stayed the same.

What do you use for fasteners storage?

I was thinking of making bins out of wood, and all sorts of things. Then, I
thought of various sized mason jars, with the lids screwed to the underside
of a shelf. Easy visibility. Graduated sized jars for small - medium -
large fasteners. Stick on labels.

Any other ideas for how to organize about two million fasteners?

Steve

On 12/17/2012 12:14 PM, Steve B wrote:
I have about four 5 gallon buckets of fasteners. Plus half empty boxes.
Plus coffee cans. Plus, plus, plus. I got fasteners coming out of the
woodwork like cockroaches.
....

What size ranges are we talking of here and how much are just
one-of-a-kind versus actual stock?

I have one sizable assortment rack that was bought as a supply that
covers from 1/4" to 3/4" up to 4" in length machine bolts, nuts and
washers w/ a couple rows along the bottom for plow bolts, etc.

Nail are organized on shelves in either 10-lb boxes or the occasional
50-lb box of certain things (fence staples, roofing 5d galvanized, 16d
common, etc.) or one of many of the old metal rectangular anti-freeze
cans w/ the top cut off. They're almost ideal for nails.

For square head and carriage bolts and machine screws of the smaller
sizes, years ago Dad bought a whole passel of bread pans from the local
bakery when they upgraded their ovens. These have four 1-lb loaf-size
drawers each w/ a metal band around them that fastened on a conveyor
belt. I have several racks of these in the barn that have the
aforementioned stuff as well as assorted lag screws, eyebolts, etc.,
etc. etc. They also work for the smaller amounts of pipe fittings up to
1" and nipples up to 12".

For the smaller stuff there are quite a few of the plastic cabinets and
I have built drawers as well w/ small dividers owing to what seems to me
to be the unconscionable prices for the plastic bins and storage
cabinets such as you mention.

I routinely troll the aisles of the local Ace and farm supply hardware
sections and when they've been restocking "borrow" the empty cardboard
boxes nails, bolts and screws, etc., come in and add to the collection
that way as well...

I just went through the shop and have been reorganizing (probably more
accurately w/o the 're' ) and added another group of the bread pans
and more cans and a dozen or so more larger wooden boxes fashioned after
the plastic ones for such things as the yard/lot spigots and similar
larger stuff...

The electronics and lab stuff is similar in smaller stuff but it's in an
area in the basement in the house I set up for it when moved back to the
farm...

--

On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:14:37 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I have about four 5 gallon buckets of fasteners. Plus half empty boxes.
Plus coffee cans. Plus, plus, plus. I got fasteners coming out of the
woodwork like cockroaches.

I bought six very nice sized plastic drawer organizers at a yard sale over
the weekend for $50. I have seen them for about $30 per. Problem is, they
were FULL of fasteners. Every stinking drawer.

Thought I'd get ahead of the game, but stayed the same.

What do you use for fasteners storage?

I was thinking of making bins out of wood, and all sorts of things. Then, I
thought of various sized mason jars, with the lids screwed to the underside
of a shelf. Easy visibility. Graduated sized jars for small - medium -
large fasteners. Stick on labels.

Any other ideas for how to organize about two million fasteners?

Steve


I bought proper small drawers in wooden and steel cabinets. Plastic
drawers are simply not "good enough" I have somewhere over 150 drawers
filled with fasteners. alone.

Im sure Iggy could find you cabinets to hold your fasteners. Such
things are often simply tossed during factory shutdowns and so forth.

If you look beyond the drill press at the background..you will see one
such wall of drawers I have here.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1040422...96324353593314

I also have some 15 or so IBM punch card cabinets...which are a
fileing cabinet type thingy, usually a double drawer stacked 12- 16
draws high and 2 wide

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/wp-c...rd_cabinet.jpg

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ib...g__591x470.jpg


Ball bearing drawer glides, very very strongly built, tough and able
to hold literally a half ton of fasteners. in each cabinet.. Each
drawer has (2) drawers on each level and they can be pulled out..or
removed individually. They can be sectioned off with a bit of plywood
dividers and 4 screws as well.

Look for them. They are still around in dark dusty warehouses and
basements and other similar places. They are quite deep and will hold
a ****load of just about anything. From fasteners to long drill
bits, to welding hardware to bullet molds. Electrical fixtures and
fuses to conduit hardware..

Really really Good ****, Maynard!!!

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

On 12/17/2012 4:59 PM, Gunner wrote:
On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:14:37 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I have about four 5 gallon buckets of fasteners. Plus half empty boxes.
Plus coffee cans. Plus, plus, plus. I got fasteners coming out of the
woodwork like cockroaches.

I bought six very nice sized plastic drawer organizers at a yard sale over
the weekend for $50. I have seen them for about $30 per. Problem is, they
were FULL of fasteners. Every stinking drawer.

Thought I'd get ahead of the game, but stayed the same.

What do you use for fasteners storage?

I was thinking of making bins out of wood, and all sorts of things. Then, I
thought of various sized mason jars, with the lids screwed to the underside
of a shelf. Easy visibility. Graduated sized jars for small - medium -
large fasteners. Stick on labels.

Any other ideas for how to organize about two million fasteners?

Steve


I bought proper small drawers in wooden and steel cabinets. Plastic
drawers are simply not "good enough" I have somewhere over 150 drawers
filled with fasteners. alone.

Im sure Iggy could find you cabinets to hold your fasteners. Such
things are often simply tossed during factory shutdowns and so forth.

If you look beyond the drill press at the background..you will see one
such wall of drawers I have here.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1040422...96324353593314

I also have some 15 or so IBM punch card cabinets...which are a
fileing cabinet type thingy, usually a double drawer stacked 12- 16
draws high and 2 wide

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/wp-c...rd_cabinet.jpg

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ib...g__591x470.jpg


Ball bearing drawer glides, very very strongly built, tough and able
to hold literally a half ton of fasteners. in each cabinet.. Each
drawer has (2) drawers on each level and they can be pulled out..or
removed individually. They can be sectioned off with a bit of plywood
dividers and 4 screws as well.

Look for them. They are still around in dark dusty warehouses and
basements and other similar places. They are quite deep and will hold
a ****load of just about anything. From fasteners to long drill
bits, to welding hardware to bullet molds. Electrical fixtures and
fuses to conduit hardware..

Really really Good ****, Maynard!!!

Gunner

It's amazing how loose fasteners reproduce? I have a pizza box on top
of a bench full of odds-n-ends fasteners and the fastener drawers are
right beneath under the bench. Anybody with a spare minute or three
sorts a handful into the drawers. It seems the pizza box never empties.
Most are SHCS's and there is some serious bucks involved.

On 2012-12-17, Gunner wrote:
On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:14:37 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I have about four 5 gallon buckets of fasteners. Plus half empty boxes.
Plus coffee cans. Plus, plus, plus. I got fasteners coming out of the
woodwork like cockroaches.

[ ... ]

What do you use for fasteners storage?

[ ... ]

Any other ideas for how to organize about two million fasteners?

Steve

[ ... ]

I also have some 15 or so IBM punch card cabinets...which are a
fileing cabinet type thingy, usually a double drawer stacked 12- 16
draws high and 2 wide

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/wp-c...rd_cabinet.jpg

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ib...g__591x470.jpg

Note that *some* of them have about a 1" wide slot down the
center of the bottom -- to guide a follower plate for less than a full
drawer of cards. You will need to pull the follower out and cut a sheet
of metal to fit the bottom of these, or the hardware will fall down into
the next layer and so on. Or at least jam against the frame of the
cabinet into which the drawers slide.

So -- look into the drawers before you commit to them -- unless
you want to be cutting a lot of sheet metal to fit.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 18 Dec 2012 02:55:23 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2012-12-17, Gunner wrote:
On Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:14:37 -0700, "Steve B"
wrote:

I have about four 5 gallon buckets of fasteners. Plus half empty boxes.
Plus coffee cans. Plus, plus, plus. I got fasteners coming out of the
woodwork like cockroaches.

[ ... ]

What do you use for fasteners storage?

[ ... ]

Any other ideas for how to organize about two million fasteners?

Steve

[ ... ]

I also have some 15 or so IBM punch card cabinets...which are a
fileing cabinet type thingy, usually a double drawer stacked 12- 16
draws high and 2 wide

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/wp-c...rd_cabinet.jpg

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ib...g__591x470.jpg

Note that *some* of them have about a 1" wide slot down the
center of the bottom -- to guide a follower plate for less than a full
drawer of cards. You will need to pull the follower out and cut a sheet
of metal to fit the bottom of these, or the hardware will fall down into
the next layer and so on. Or at least jam against the frame of the
cabinet into which the drawers slide.

So -- look into the drawers before you commit to them -- unless
you want to be cutting a lot of sheet metal to fit.

Enjoy,
DoN.

Masonite works nicely as well

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie