Good source for parts storage bins

I bought several metal parts bins from a bankrupt engine rebuilder at auction - stands about 4' tall and has pull out slides with parts boxes on them. Same as the ones you see in auto parts stores with studs, fasteners, washers, clevis and pins and so forth. Cost about $50.00 but sold unneeded contents on eBay and pretty much recovered the cost.

Coffee cans. Label them and they are more useful. Don't label them, frustrating. Organize shelves of them, more useful. Stack them randomly, less useful. I've used baby food jars for very small parts, but have had some trouble with the lids sticking, so I'm moving to other sorts of small glass jars with more reliable lids for those. If you're prone to dropping them, stick to plastic jars. The tiny plastic drawer bins are too cheesy to spend money on, and useless for bolts worth calling bolts. The fancy parts drawers cost real money that I can put to better use, though I would not hesitate to pull a set from going out with the trash, or pick them up cheap, at yardsale or auction.

Large quantities (50 lbs of nails, etc) end up in plastic pails. These can be gotten for free from your local recycling center or anyone who generates the darn things. Cardboard nail boxes give up the ghost eventually; the pails last much longer, and keep things dry if the lid is on. Ammo cans would also work, but they have not been cheap for years.

Frugally yours,

I get mine from Northern Tools, formerly Northern Hydraulic. Kind of a local Harbor Freight. They will have sales on some pretty decent bins that can be held in a 4-unit drawer case. I like them a lot. The bins are usually about $13, which isn't bad for real live steel. The cases are a bit more spendy - usually about $50-ish.

Also, they have those wall mount acro-bins on sale - I think I paid $1.25. I'm sure there are better deals to be had, but they usually have a decent selection.

Small stuff: I like the stackable, tight-closing plastic boxes with dividers. Good for hardware up to 1/4". Have a couple dozen of them for pop rivets, 1 or 2 each for each size of cap screw etc., wire connectors, roll pins, dowel pins, small pipe fittings. Rounded tray bottoms so it's easy to dig out a single 1/16" dowel pin with a finger.

Saved this link from the last time I bought a case (2 cases get free shipping I think):

Bigger stuff i.e. real bolts: ex-library card files (the metal drawer kind), computer punch card files, $1 filing cabinets from school auctions.

Bob

Which in turn can be stored in the plastic shipping holders for 2-liter soda bottles, and then stacked. Guy I bought my lathe from swears by this set-up, haven't got around to trying it myself, yet. I don't remember where he said ho got the soda bottle cases, though. --Glenn Lyford

IBM punch card cabinets

Gunner

"Gun Control, the theory that a 110lb grandmother should fist fight a 250lb 19yr old criminal"

You would think a guy like me could find some of those. Nope. I suspect they're still in use here!!

:)

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

?dept=1 Best value I've found. All usual disclaimers apply.

Boeing Surplus has a steady supply of the 20 drawer cabinets, $50 to $150 depending on how many they need to get rid of that week.

Some come with loose cards ... real IBM cards but with a 35mm frame cut out and a microfilm slide glued in.

I wait until Enco has a free shipping sale then I buy decent metal drawer sets. It's amazing how shop clutter can disappear into good drawers. It is much less useful if you don't label the drawers, though. - GWE

If I could afford it I'd have several of these:

Since I can't I use these:

and these:

I have bins and bin cups but I picked up a couple of cases of them at auctions so I have very little money in them.

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

Stanley Vidmar.......

Fairly expensive, but they will last a lifetime under quite harsh usage.

Often can pick them up more cheaply at government or other auctions--a fresh coat of quality paint and a re-lube of the roller bearings and they are good as new.

Pay no attention to that ugly ole troll in the photo--that is NOT me...........

Yeah, I got one of those and put it in the base of my Clausing 8520 and then filled the drawers with end mills. Took some doing, getting it in the base but it is *very* nice to have a bunch of endmills, endmill holders and stuff right there, in the mill. Well worth the bucks..

Well, like I said, I got endmills and stuff stored in mine. I keep my money in the Credit Union. ;->

money in the Credit Union. ;->

I have a bunch of Rubbermaid polyethylene boxes from Walmart. Most are shoe box size, some bigger.

Dick Morris Anchorage, Alaska