Shop Fastener Storage

[jboswell11]

I am struggling with a good way to store the spare fasteners, washers, nuts, cotter pins ... etc that I have all around my shop. Right now I am bagging them up in small baggies and hanging them on peg board or they live in various coffee cans... so every time I "swear" I have something it ends up with crap dumped everywhere and lots of time spent digging.

I have been looking at the Durham parts / fastener bins and wondered if anyone has experience with them or maybe something similar that would work better instead.

Example of what I am looking at

Thanks guys.

 

[jgaz]

I think what you’re looking at would work well as a nut and bolt bin. I’m not sure if you’re thinking about buying more than one.
IMO, there may not be near enough bins to get a great deal of separation and therefore organization.

This is part of my storage. The red drawers on the left are old parts bin drawers. They and gray organizers were all either from industrial recycling places or flea market/garage sale finds. My std. nuts, bolts, washers etc. from 1/4” thru 1/2” are in the middle 3 drawer cabinet.

I don’t know how it is near you but it wasn’t too hard to find this stuff in the mid 80’s in Detroit at used equipment warehouses. (Thank you NAFTA)

This is a pic of my Plano organizers when I used to have them stored in a discarded parts bin. I think you’ll be able to read the labels and get an idea of how I’ve organized my storage.
Hint: It helps to be OCD, but then again Id rather be in the shop than watching TV.

I wanted the floor space for a bigger drill press so while COVID bored I built wall mounted cabinets to store the plano organizers and gave away the old parts bin.

I like the individual Plano bins for the way I work. When I have a project to do at my son’s place the bins needed for the job stack nicely in a milk crate.

 

[someguysjeep]

i have an ocean of folgers cans.............the plano boxes are good idea.

for a shop you may opt for a roll around with the larger hardware used most often, the small odds and end parts are fine tucked off to the side.

 

[jboswell11]

i have an ocean of folgers cans.............the plano boxes are good idea.

You and me both... coffee cans for days... I like the plano boxes too...

 

[Chris]

Let’s see what ya go @mrblaine. I know you’ve got fasteners galore.

 

[TJ4Jim]

For general hardware I have a couple sets of HF wall bins but for Jeep specific parts such as trim screws, sensors, switches and fasteners I use the portable bins as it's nice have it close by and handy.

Brings back memories of my Grandfather's hardware storage, he had one of these over his bench about 2' diameter 4' long, probably had 200 jars.

 

[tr21triton]

a friend of mine has a stairway in the back of his shop, takes and screws mason jar lids to the bottom of the steps, then just screw jars of screws on to the lids and they hang there out of the way and you have full view of whats in them ...

 

[Midtenn]

I use coffee cans. I've tried several different things and nothing seemed to work better. I do like the mason jar idea.

What the second poster has works great for people with lots of space.

 

[jgaz]

What the second poster has works great for people with lots of space.

My shop is 11ft x 16ft.
It was these tight quarters that lead me to use the walls and the 10 ft height as much as I could

 

[B00mb00m]

Here my attempts at harbor freight container adaptation to my French cleat wall. I like both containers. The black trays with swing open doors are nice for large quantities of know fasteners and the boxes are nice for grab and go random stuff.

 

[Gunnersmate]

Ok, I have a toolbox fetish

 

[Blackjack]

Those Durham bins are not too bad for bolts. I think the plastic bin racks are better for smaller screws and the like.

 

[Blackjack]

For general hardware I have a couple sets of HF wall bins but for Jeep specific parts such as trim screws, sensors, switches and fasteners I use the portable bins as it's nice have it close by and handy.

Brings back memories of my Grandfather's hardware storage, he had one of these over his bench about 2' diameter 4' long, probably had 200 jars.

View attachment 218232

Talenti jars fit the bill for this nicely

 

[MountaineerTom]

I use old prescription medicine bottles for things that I have just a handful or two of. They fit and stack nicely on one of my shelves. I have some old peanut butter and parmesan cheese jars for some bigger things. I've used plastic jars for all of this because my dad had some baby food jars, jelly jars, etc full of random hardware. When he passed away years ago, I got them when mom was cleaning out some stuff. After dropping a couple and cleaning up glass and hardware, I put them all in plastic jars. Some of those baby food jars were from when me and my brother were babies, according to mom.

Every time me and my son would work on his old 4Runner and have to get nut of bolt out of dads stash, I tell him Papaw Tom helped you fix it again. He really liked when I'd tell him that. : )

 

[PCO6]

I store hardware and supplies in a few different ways. At the end of my main bench I have a couple of old card file cabinets. These are very heavy duty and have full extension drawers. For most of it I cut up old plastic juice juice bottles which are easy to rearrange and take out as needed. Above the other end is a commercial bin system. It wasn't that expensive but I also came up with a cheap way of making my own that can be custom sized for what ever you need. It's basically store bought bins hung on 1"x3" pine with light duty drop ceiling angle iron screwed to the top of it.

Over my desk I have a metal cabinet (shown here without the doors) with numbered plastic boxes in it. I have a spread sheet on my computer that generally identifies what's in each box. Before that I had a lot of hardware stored in 5 small cabinets. I screwed 3 to the wall and built a rail system for 2 to roll in front of them. The system worked well but I needed the space for other things.

 

[Mike_H]

I picked up an old addressograph index cabinet today. 28 drawers, all steel. Very heavy duty. Curious what you guys have found for internal bins within the drawers.
A small sized acro bin almost fits... It's about a quarter inch too tall. Thinking on welding three dividers in. The drawers are about 4 inches wide, 2.75 tall, and 20" deep. I'd have a couple square sections for nuts and washers, then a longer section for bolts.

@PCO6 I like the juice container idea... But I don't drink much juice. Beer cans are too small....

@NashvilleTJ you have nuts and bolts in an index cabinet, right? How do you sub divide the drawers?

 

[PCO6]

I picked up an old addressograph index cabinet today. 28 drawers, all steel. Very heavy duty. Curious what you guys have found for internal bins within the drawers.
A small sized acro bin almost fits... It's about a quarter inch too tall. Thinking on welding three dividers in. The drawers are about 4 inches wide, 2.75 tall, and 20" deep. I'd have a couple square sections for nuts and washers, then a longer section for bolts.

@PCO6 I like the juice container idea... But I don't drink much juice. Beer cans are too small....

@NashvilleTJ you have nuts and bolts in an index cabinet, right? How do you sub divide the drawers?

Beer cans are small and being round they're also inefficient. It was tough but I managed to force down a lot of square bottled juice.

 

[WSS]

Recently went to the box type in two sizes. So far its good but need more. I have the bin type in my shop for bulk bolts and stuff but garage is the box bins.

 

[JMT]

Labeling is next for me. You guys have some good ideas. Mine are all over there on that one wall with some small bins for screws and stuff.

 

[flyinfish]

I made organizer caddies on casters with pull handles on each side from high ply count baltic birch. The caddies measure 17-1/2" x 13-1/2" x 42" tall. These are Stanley removable compartment organizers. 10 compartment (deep) and 25 compartment (shallow). They're waiting to be moved to shop when concrete floor is finished.
I also have about 30 of the heavy duty deep dewalt organizers that will get similar style rolling caddies.

Having your parts and supplies in organizers keeps you from over buying because you can actually find what you've bought. Also you know when inventory is low so you can buy only what you need. On Sunday when nobody is open, it nice knowing you're more than likely to already have it.