How do you guys organize your components?

[vanhansen]

Paul M, that's the cleanest work area I've ever seen.  Mine was a mess (very small area at the moment) but just cleaned it up the other night.  Our house is going on the market at the end of the month so I need to keep things tidy.  I like your setup.  Gives me some good ideas for the new house.  One room will be mine (along with the garage)..office, music gear, DIY bench.

[Paul Marossy]

Those pictures were taken immediately after I created a workbench area. My "workbench" used to be the floor for about 2 years. Anyhow, I keep my bench very neat. I can't stand a mess, not for the sake of the mess, but because I can't find anything. Which in turn aggravates me...  :x

So, all that to say it's for my own mental health.  :wink:

[Mark Hammer]

I use a combination of things:
- the standard matrix-type vertical parts bins (resistors, caps, diodes optical, hardware)
- large (2L) plastic storage bins full of resealable sandwich bags (pots, jacks, plugs, motors, weird stuff, junk)
- flat plastic storage boxes for sewing supplied from the crafts store (transistors and chips).
- small tackle/hobby boxes (IC sockets and some pots)
- old baby-wipe containers (weird old pots like bigass switching pots and very long slider pots)

For the flat sewing-supply boxes, I cut out little squares of conductive foam to fit the bottom of each compartment.  You can then push the tranny pins into the foam and have all your "little soldiers" standing up in rows, making it easy to count heads and have multiple trannies in each compartment (e.g., several types of FET).

But like anyone else, I also have "hellboxes" where I throw everything in when company is coming over and I don't have time to classify before storage.

The resealable bags are nice for sticking all the components for a given project, whether assembling or dissassembling.  For instance, ig the finish on something gets too chipped or scratched or I finally see it in proper light and realize how lousy the finish is and need to strip it, all the washers and nuts and knobs go in the bag with the board and pots, while the chassis gets refinished.

[scratch]

I use 'add-a-drawer' , stackable/expandle bin system with various sized drawers that join together and interlock ... user the really small drawer for small components, LED's, transistors, diodes, etc...  medium sized for capacitors, panel mount connectors and the like, "large" drawers (8" wide) for perfboard, pots, knobs, tubes of IC's ...

Cardboard boxes for wire, cable, various cable connectors ...

I've got an old Ikea chest of drawers (dresser) for enclosures, a pile of wallwarts, and projects underway (breadboard)

[PB Wilson]

I use the ziplock bags I get in every Smallbear and Mouser order. Many of them are labeled with a sharpie and thrown together in a big metal box. I put different values of caps, resistors, transistors, etc. in their own bags all inside a larger bag. I've got to do a bit of fishing around, but it's not too bad.

The only problem is that with all the baggies around, it looks like I'm pedalling illegal substances. :wink:

[rogerinIowa]

yeah, I'm working the tiny-ziplock- bags-from-the-craft-store system. Label them with a sharpie, then store them in plastic bins according to type (caps, resistors, etc).

Recently, though, I had an epiphany: I had been modding a number of crybabys and am always using the same values of resistors, and having to dig for thoses specific values over and over again. I now have a bin for just those commonly used parts in the wah wah mods. Cuts down on "Diggin time".

[ErikMiller]

I came up with a way of organizing 1/4W resistors that I have never seen anywhere else, and it works great for prototyping (production pedals each get their own separate organized parts bins).

Start with a 25-drawer plastic bin cabinet, available many places; Akro-Mills is my preferred brand.

Label the front of the drawers as follows:

10    11    12    13    15    16    18    20    22    24    27    30
33    36    39    43    47    51    56    62    68    75    82    91

You may notice that these are the standard 5% values.

The way the resistors go in is that 2.2 Ohms, 22 Ohms, 220 Ohms, 2.2K, 22K, 220K and 2.2M all go in the drawer marked "22" and so on with the others. I got fancy and used the appropriate color codes for the labels as well, so that the numerals on the front of that bin are red "2's."

So all ya gotta do is look for the 3rd band when you're pulling the parts (and double check as always once you have them in front of you).

For other things, I kind of wait until I see what I accumulate. If I wind up with lots of cement resistors, say, I make a separate bin for them. Or transistors, or germanium transistors.

My big issue is tool storage, because I have so dang many (there are worse problems to have, I guess).

But try my 1/4W resistor method. It brought peace to my search for resistors.

[NaBo]

wow, that is a pretty neat way of organizing them... do you find the extra-common numbers' drawers get overstuffed like the 10 22 and 47 though?

[ErikMiller]

wow, that is a pretty neat way of organizing them... do you find the extra-common numbers' drawers get overstuffed like the 10 22 and 47 though?

Nah, each bin can hold hundreds of resistors, and for my proto inventory, I don't keep more than about 10 or 20 of a value. Obviously, as I notice certain values' popularity, I'll stock those a little deeper, but it's for protos.

For my production pedals, each product gets the parts that go into it put in separate bins.

It's gotten so that I don't spend much time hunting for parts. I know where to find most things when it comes time to build something.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

If you only have a few of each value resistor, one method I have seen is to make a matrix (like a honeycomb) of pill tubes.
But for production quantities, resistors come in a handy box of 1000, and you can store those endwise in a bookcase real neat. Plus if you don't cut them off the bandolier before you use them, they can't get mixed.
I've seen people use two vertical strips of chicken wire to put chip tubes in, I've also seen a honeycomb of plastic pipes wiht tubes in each, but I found the best was just a bunch of shelves a few inches above each other, and put the tubes in endwise.

[DiyFreaque]

Johan's method, for the most part.

If organization is a sign of a sick mind, then I must have the healthiest brain in the world....

I go through half-assed organization cycles, where I get nearly everything in its nice little labeled bag/drawer.  Then I go through much longer experimentation/breadboard phases, where all of the little drawers get pulled open, parts pulled, drawers left here and there, parts laid here and there all over the house.  Then the build cycle, which scatters all of the above to the four winds.  Then a 1/4-ass organization cycle kicks in again.

It's a downward spiral until my wife intervenes.....

Cheers,
Scott

[ESPguitar]

Johan's method, for the most part.

If organization is a sign of a sick mind, then I must have the healthiest brain in the world....

I go through half-assed organization cycles, where I get nearly everything in its nice little labeled bag/drawer.  Then I go through much longer experimentation/breadboard phases, where all of the little drawers get pulled open, parts pulled, drawers left here and there, parts laid here and there all over the house.  Then the build cycle, which scatters all of the above to the four winds.  Then a 1/4-ass organization cycle kicks in again.

It's a downward spiral until my wife intervenes.....

Cheers,
Scott

I liked that one :wink:

Just like me:P