builing a little stockpile of parts at home - which ones?

[therealfindo]

So far I've just been ordering parts \ visiting my local electronics store for parts each time I want to build something, but I'm thinking that it's probably cheaper to get a bunch of stuff in bulk to have at home.. e.g. a multi bag of resistors.
What are the most common caps and transistors for effect circuits? I.e. What do you try and keep a handful of at home?

[Perrow]

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/BuyingParts/index.htm

[therealfindo]

http://www.beavisaudio.com/techpages/BuyingParts/index.htm

Thanks!

[musiclikscreams]

Try getting parts like caps and resistors off eBay. You can get huge bulk packs of varieties for cheap. Last pack of resistors I got cost less than a penny per and I've got more resistors than Ill ever use

[Perrow]

Forgot to mention this, didn't remember that Dano excluded it from his page.

http://www.taydaelectronics.com/

[armdnrdy]

but I'm thinking that it's probably cheaper to get a bunch of stuff in bulk to have at home..

It's not only cheaper...there is an advantage to having parts on hand so you can try different values on the fly for changes or fixes.

You'll see by looking at BOMs and schematics, that there are values common to many builds. For example 10K resistors, 100K resistors, .1µf caps, 1µf caps. You'll find varying amounts of those values in almost every build.

I used to buy the exact amount of components for a build....now I buy larger amounts. When I plan a new build I go through my stock and then order odd values that I do not have....and order extra of those.

[Jopn]

Also, do yourself a favor and grab one of those huge packs of 1/4w metal film resistors from eBay.  Get as many different values as you can in one pack.  Then buffer your stock with common values on a Tayda order.

Futurlec, while probably my least favorite store to order from, does have handy value packs:
http://www.futurlec.com/ValuePacks.shtml

I picked up a bunch of those packs and they've been a good way to make sure I've got plenty of standard components on hand for a good price.

The biggest pain is going to be pots.  It always is.  I usually buy double whatever I need for foreseeable projects.  Even at that, I never seem to have the right ones on hand.

[LucifersTrip]

didn't someone make a chart or graph showing the most commonly used resistor values?

[posmaster]

http://diy-fever.com/misc/value-statistics/

[therealfindo]

Thanks everyone, helpful tips!

[Liquitone]

I stockpiled all the common values for resistors and noticed I run out of 1k,10k,100k and 4k7, 47k really fast. Uni-Vibe projects eat up a lot of 4k7's. I usually wait with ordering less common values until I run into them in a project and then buy a 100 pieces. stuff like 820k or 15k. The most common are in the range of 1,22,33,47,68. after that maybe 12,15,18,27,39,56,82.
With capacitors I run into the 1, 22 and 47 variants the most. so stocked up on 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 100uf, 0.0022, 0.0047 etc. I found stuff like 0.015, 0.033, 0.56 less common, and stuff like 0.12 or 0,18 even less commmon.
Anything in the pf range seems hugely variable, 47pf, 150pf, 220pf, 330pf, 470pf, 1000pf and 2200pf are the ones I tend to use most in that range.
A bunch of general purpose diodes and transistors like 1n914, 1n4148 and 1n4001, 2n3904, mpsa13, 2n7000 is good to have in stock.
And of course jacks (perhaps twice as many mono as stereo), footswitches, spdt and dpdt toggle-switches, dc or battery snaps, wire, knobs etc.
With pots I run into the same problem as Jopn, my drawer is filled with 1kB pots, probably bought during fuzz projects, but hardly needed them in my latest projects. You will probably run into a lot of 100kA and 500kA's for volume knobs and in a lot of distortion circuits you will find 1mA's

[musiclikscreams]

After you've got ur stockpile and there's an individual part that you need, check out taydas eBay store. It's slightly more expensive per part but the shipping is free so it balanced out

[LucifersTrip]

http://diy-fever.com/misc/value-statistics/

thanx!

[garcho]

If you peruse this forum for threads about sourcing parts, you'll find millions. Most of them go like this, "hey, _______ is selling _______ online for super cheap! anyone have any problems with them before?" Invariably a few people say "I've never had problems" and a few people will go on rants about how awful their experience was. I'm talking about Tayda, Futurlec, Mammoth, etc. Usually the conclusion is that you take a risk buying from those suppliers, not because they're con artists, but because 9 out 10 times, the reason that stuff is so cheap is because it's lower in quality. The only supplier you won't hear anything negative about is Small Bear. Occassionally people gripe that it's "expensive" . That's not true, it isn't expensive, it's just not uber-cheap. Also, the shipping is standard USPS prices, which of course, some people grumble about, too. If you think it's really "free" to ship something, even light, like electronics components, across a gigantic ocean and to your front door, you might want to recalibrate your sense of fairness in pricing.

[DIMstompboxes]

Dang I can't or hardly read those (blue) metal resistor  how bout you guys?

[Thecomedian]

Also, do yourself a favor and grab one of those huge packs of 1/4w metal film resistors from eBay.  Get as many different values as you can in one pack.  Then buffer your stock with common values on a Tayda order.

Futurlec, while probably my least favorite store to order from, does have handy value packs:
http://www.futurlec.com/ValuePacks.shtml

I picked up a bunch of those packs and they've been a good way to make sure I've got plenty of standard components on hand for a good price.

The biggest pain is going to be pots.  It always is.  I usually buy double whatever I need for foreseeable projects.  Even at that, I never seem to have the right ones on hand.

The only thing I dont like about tayda resistors is that their leads are soooo flimsy. Radio shack resistor leads are heftier, yet far more expensive per unit. Tayda's advantages are price, direct shipping, and high contrast color bands for telling things apart.

[Buzz]

Dang I can't or hardly read those (blue) metal resistor  how bout you guys?

After  pulling my hair out over why a stratoblaster wouldn't work, and deciding to start over, I thought I'd test my resistors with a DMM before installing. A strip of resistors I had marked 100k were 100R.

Now I just put them on the DMM instead of trying to read them. It's bloody hard to tell what colours are what on those little blue beasties.

[Buzz]

Back on the subject matter, I have to give a plus one to Small Bear. The parts are always the best quality, the range is fantastic, and they get posted asap.

Secondly get a stash of some common op-amps, TL071, TL072, LM741 and RC4558 spring to mind.

[Liquitone]

Dang I can't or hardly read those (blue) metal resistor  how bout you guys?

After  pulling my hair out over why a stratoblaster wouldn't work, and deciding to start over, I thought I'd test my resistors with a DMM before installing. A strip of resistors I had marked 100k were 100R.

Now I just put them on the DMM instead of trying to read them. It's bloody hard to tell what colours are what on those little blue beasties.

I had the same experience with cheap blue metal films. On some the gold band looked as brown as the 1st brown band on 1k, 10k, so a quickly switched to better to read metal films. A local supplier (10min walk from where I live) sell these; http://www.okaphone.com/artikel.asp?id=466850 , they are 0,6W metal films resistors that look like normal CF's and have a 4 band color code which makes it so much easier to read. I don't think 1,90 euro's (2 dollar 58 ) for a hundred pieces isn't bad at all either.

[tubegeek]

The only supplier you won't hear anything negative about is Small Bear.

Seconded again. I had the good fortune to meet the Small Bear himself, along with Mama Bear, last week. Beautiful people, and Steve is a very humble and thoughtful businessman. I was pleased to hear that the sleuth has grown from a bedroom sideline to a small business of seven or eight cubs and adults. It's a nice example of "doing well by doing good."