Organizing your shop - Fastener Storage Racks\Bins, etc.

[downtowncb]

Do you guys have any recommendations for good quality racks or bins to hold a large variety of fasteners? I've got so many different varieties of every size fastener, washer, nut, etc and I'm looking for something to organize them all in. I looked at a couple of the offerings at Lowes but they just look like cheapo plastic pieces of shit.

I just moved into a new rental house this last weekend and moving the garage was a nightmare. We're planning on buying a house in 6 months and if I have to make the move again, I want to be much more organized and slightly less of a cluster.

Any other suggestions for organizing a shop are also welcome.

Thanks in advance.

[ajmorell]

Right now I'm using plastic sterilite drawers of varying sizes. They work ok, but when you load them full of shit the plastic bows and it makes opening and closing them a PITA. Eventually I'd like to upgrade to something like this: http://www.listaintl.com/cabinets-st...inets/overview but they are pricey.

[ATL ZJ]

Good thread and hopefully it's one to stay alive for years.

I have been using the cheap HF plastic drawer sets for some of my hardware. They are relatively cheap (less than $20) and they fit a decent amount of hardware. The downside is they are flimsy and the drawers are on the small side particularly for larger bolts. I do like how they are covered (as opposed to open bins) to keep out grinding dust etc.

I am also running out of space in it and I have a lot of used hardware that I would like to clean and organize as well.



I would really like to find a library card cabinet that's been retired from its service to the dewey decimal system. I've seen other people use those and I think they tend to be sturdier with larger drawers and a lot more storage volume.



Lista cabinets are sweet but they won't be in my budget for a WHILE.

[downtowncb]

All the tool cabinets at my work are Lista. They are sweet! but expensive. I'm ballin on a budget

I found these Akro Mils cabinets online. They look like a pretty good setup but they're still plastic...
http://www.akro-mils.com/industrial/...play.asp?id=99
They're on Amazon for pretty good prices.

[SirFuego]

I didn't realize how expensive it was, but when my company switched from a Flavia coffee machine to a Green Mountain coffee machine, I tried to schmooze one of the organizing bins off of them. Unfortunately, they needed to return the bin when they stopped using the Flavia machine.
http://us.myflavia.com/product/index...ductId=3406090

I like the library card rack idea, but I'd imagine they are pretty tough to come by unless you frequent a library, know exactly when they are getting rid of them, and react fast enough to actually get one.

[Pearce]

I have become a fan of Plano boxes. Had always used them for saltwater fishing and they are a durable plastic with good fasteners. I have three right now. One for drill bits, one for electrical connections and one for nuts and bolts that I just started using. They come in a variety of sizes and you can change up the compartments to suit your needs. For the drills box and electrical box it's great to just grab them and go when needed on trips. You can get them at Walmart or Home Depot.



Oh yeah, as you might notice I keep empty peanut butter jars too.

[TN_WJ]

I would really like to find a library card cabinet that's been retired from its service to the dewey decimal system. I've seen other people use those and I think they tend to be sturdier with larger drawers and a lot more storage volume.

I thought I'd post this up since its sort of along the lines of the library card cabinet.
My family has had this large chest forever and I use it for just about everything. It has the look of the library card deal mentioned before but it's nice that it has different sized drawers, and lots of them. Im not sure of its age but I know it originally belonged to my great grandfather and it's still going strong. Even has a few old labels on the drawers that we're typed on a typewriter.

[ajmorell]

Bumping this back up. I got motivated to clean my mess of a garage and when I was at Lowes this morning I stumbled across this. A little overpriced IMO but surprisingly holds a lot of shit!

http://www.lowes.com/pd_8189-84396-1...rchQueryType=1

[ATL ZJ]

Bumping this back up. I didn't have any luck finding library card catalogs so I expanded my hardware storage by adding a second plastic drawer set. To maximize bench and floor space and protect it all from grinding dust I built a cabinet for them this weekend. All of the wood and materials I had laying around so it was an entirely free project.

I've also been cleaning and organizing the 3 Costco size peanut jars full of hardware I've collected over the years. All of it either had trail dirt on it or a little grime from the day it was removed and tossed in. It's a decade worth of random nuts, bolts, washers and miscellaneous stuff I've collected. Surprisingly a lot of the OEM fasteners cleaned up great and are are very high quality- high grade fasteners with their coatings and threads intact. It also helps that the majority are metric. My nut and bolt collection has been biased toward SAE because it's the standard (no pun intended) for the wheeling aftermarket. Now with a LS based motor in my rig and a Japanese brand tow rig metric is worth stocking.

Hopefully I won't outgrow this for a while. The drawers on the left are pretty big. For scale those are 1" nuts at bottom right.

[zjeepin]

good idea on reusing leftovers...still got garage envy

[ATL ZJ]

Thanks dude. Hopefully this stuff will help during builds when things tend to get way out of order...

[AgitatedPancake]

I'm having my cousin get me some bolt bins from the Fastenal he works at, cant fawking wait!