Oranizing components, help plase :)
Boris
Posts: 81
the amount of components seems to be growing exponentially. It is no longer convenient to keep them all in 1 box and go fishing every time I need something in there.
Similar to some of the other forum members, I bought 2 plastic drawer storage containers (from Lowes)
a 60 drawer cabinet (6 across x 10 down). Each drawer can be devided into 3 compartments
a 48 drawer cabinet (38 small ones and 10 big drawers).
Ok, enough with the details.
What method should i use in filling the compartments, organizing the drawers....
I am sure that I do not have all the possible values of resistors right now, but might ger more in the future. Should I make room for all possible values? or just fill in what I have now, and re-organize every time i get a new value ?
Same thing goes for all the other components.
How do you (guys who have these type of storage) have things sorted out ?
Thank you,
Boris.
Similar to some of the other forum members, I bought 2 plastic drawer storage containers (from Lowes)
a 60 drawer cabinet (6 across x 10 down). Each drawer can be devided into 3 compartments
a 48 drawer cabinet (38 small ones and 10 big drawers).
Ok, enough with the details.
What method should i use in filling the compartments, organizing the drawers....
I am sure that I do not have all the possible values of resistors right now, but might ger more in the future. Should I make room for all possible values? or just fill in what I have now, and re-organize every time i get a new value ?
Same thing goes for all the other components.
How do you (guys who have these type of storage) have things sorted out ?
Thank you,
Boris.
Comments
·· Trial and error!· LOL· You will have to find a method that you're comfortable with.· I've done it both ways...Made room for extras, and in some cases re-organized a cabinet each time I added something.· When all the cabinets match, or are the same brand, it's not too big of a deal.· When the drawers are different, that's when it gets interesting.
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
Now I keep them in a small box(which can be stowed away in a desk drawer and includes moisture absorbing packets). I purchased a bunch of small plastic baggies and keep most in those properly labeled. I then put comon components such as resistors together in a large baggie. I thrive in chaos!
My ICs are stored in those little containers samples from maxim come in with the plastic lids(they stack nicely). When searching for an IC I pull out the little boxes and search through them. This helps me browse the available ICs so I dont forget which ones I have. Instead of a database I simply keep a pdf file of every component I have in a folder.
In the past I would create a database in Access or MySql and make a small interface in VBA or VB to track inventory. The trick to avoid extensive inventory control with databases is to keep your inventory to the basics. I regularly flush parts on ebay to keep my clutter manageable.
Now that you know where I'm coming from, I admire your initiative to organise your parts. Keep most commonly used components in the drawers. So plan provisions for changing the layout regularly depending on the projects you work on. If you are a hobbyist or prototyper, this will change alot so commiting to one layout is restrictive. I doubt you will ever settle on one way of doing it
Post Edited (Jonb) : 4/3/2005 2:54:33 AM GMT
I then bought a box of standard size envelopes and put resistors of the same value in·their own·envelope.· I then obviously sorted the envelopes by value.· It is easy to find the correct value when I need it (it is like looking through a card catalog in a library).· It is also a nice system because I can easily add new values without having reorganize anything.
Hope this helps!
anyway good luck on the organizing if you bench looks like mine, your gonna need it.
Ray
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·*
I am going to follow KenM suggestion and have ranges of resistance values, same for capacitors.
I do want to make an Excel / VBA application to keep track of inventory, not necessarilyl because I have such a large inventory but I want to mess around with VBA [noparse]:)[/noparse]
Just 1 more question.
I bought an assortment of capacitors on e-bay. The smaller ones come attached to this paper tape (their legs are between two layers of paper tape glued together). Removing them is a pain in the.... I cant separate the two layers of paper tape. I can pull the resistors straight out of the tape, but im afraid that putting that much force on the legs of the capacitor can cause the legs to pull out of the body, or mess something up.... Am I being paranoid here ? Is there an easier way to remove the capacitors from this tape?
I know what you mean about seperating the paper, a pain !!
I don't think you are being paranoid about damaging the cap with the force required to pull the leads from the paper reel.
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
In any single drawer slot there we keep 3 sets of similar items...so, in the front of a drawer would be 1kohm resistors, in the middle 1.2kohm, in the end, 1.5k.· Then the next slot over would have 2k....and on and on!
Keep things in groups.· So...resistors close together....allow room to expand.
Keep your CMOS and other 'sensitive' ICs wrapped in tinfoil or in anti-static bags!
We keep little screws and hardware in the drawers too....
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Steve
http://ca.geocities.com/steve.brady@rogers.com/index.html
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
·· Someday I am going to have a dedicated workshop area, and I will finally have the room to have all the cabinets I need to store all of my parts as well.· <sigh>· You're so lucky that you can have that whole wall for parts cabinets.· As you'll see in my pics, I had to stack them all over, and that doesn't show two that are in another room.
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
I've seen those rotating cabinets too! GREAT for garages and heavy/bigger items...but I wouldn't use it for electroni components!
Even an old mapchart cabinet with the dividers in them!
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Steve
http://ca.geocities.com/steve.brady@rogers.com/index.html
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
You live in California now.......I would hate to see you need to seperate and organize all the stuff that falls out of the drawers when you experience your first California Earthquake !!
Post Edited (KenM) : 4/4/2005 1:44:57 AM GMT
but after an earthquake....hmmm
...No really, at least you can see the bottom of your work bench... I go through periods sometimes (err most of the time)
where my workbench is a complete wreck with about a bazillion different projects! perhaps I should take a picture, and start
a new thread "This Ole Junk Shop"
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Beau Schwabe - Mask Designer III
National Semiconductor Corporation
Latest Company News
(Communication Interface Division)
500 Pinnacle Court, Suite 525
Mail Stop GA1
Norcross,GA 30071
Chris's setup looks pretty sick....not enough clutter. Does he really do electronics? Remember though, he just moved recently, give it some time, ha ha.
From your description, your electronics workbench looks similar to mine.
·· Okay, okay...It's not broken in yet for one thing!· LOL· I had to give up 3 of the cabinets before I moved for lack of room.· Second, My wife's rule was that if I was going to take over the section of the apartment I did, I had to keep it somewhat tidy!·
·· As for earthquakes...I'm told that's farther south...But hey, ya never know!· I saw SNOW 2 weeks ago SOUTH of me...Like 2"!· I never even heard of that!· Besides, what would happen is Steve's cabinets fell for some reason?!?· Think about it!
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
This was in 1989.
http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/dds/dds-29/screens/016sr.jpeg
http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/dds/dds-29/screens/022sr.jpeg
http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/dds/dds-29/web_pages/oakland.html
http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/dds/dds-29/screens/007sr.jpeg
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=531927
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Beau Schwabe - Mask Designer III
National Semiconductor Corporation
Latest Company News
(Communication Interface Division)
500 Pinnacle Court, Suite 525
Mail Stop GA1
Norcross,GA 30071
If anything did happen, it'd be the tower coming down on us (see pic)!!
As nice as it is, having items at torso/eye level....anything with this many small parts floating in them scares me!!· I'd love a floor model...but oh well!
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Steve
http://ca.geocities.com/steve.brady@rogers.com/index.html
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
In addition, I have plastic shoe boxes for categories like motors, circuit board, and wire. My work bench is neat and tidy, unless I'm building.
What's that about 60-65 thousand cubic feet of water in that tower? That's a-lotta-watta!!
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Beau Schwabe - Mask Designer III
National Semiconductor Corporation
Latest Company News
(Communication Interface Division)
500 Pinnacle Court, Suite 525
Mail Stop GA1
Norcross,GA 30071
We just had a snow storm and you can hear the snow impacting our roof as it falls off the dome.
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Steve
http://ca.geocities.com/steve.brady@rogers.com/index.html
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
i use a 38 drawer cabinet to store my things. my passives are grouped by value and my descrete semi's are grouped by type, but my ic's are grouped by necessity, that is the ic's i use most have their own drawers, but the things i seldom use are in packing tubes cut to fit in the drawers. that keeps them seperate by name but grouped by function.
also if i have a large project going i'll organize the parts in storage totes (in "far left bench.jpg" the red totes on the shelf and the yellow totes just to the right) that way when the tech's assemble my designs everything is in one place
rox on
nickB
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" Hey! Why is there silicone on my hemostats?"
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Steve
http://ca.geocities.com/steve.brady@rogers.com/index.html
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
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" Hey! Why is there silicone on my hemostats?"
Therefore, now all my drawers ar simply labelled with ascending numbers. I use an Excel folder with separate sheets for resistors, capacitors, ICs, etc. On each sheet there is one column listing the various components and another column containing the drawer numbers where the specific components are stored. "Inserting" a new value is an easy task: I just add the new value at the bottom of the table in the components column, locate the next empty drawer, put its number in the corresponding drawers column and then do a re-sort of the table.
This is what some people call a "chaos organization" but it helped me a lot to reduce chaos here
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Greetings from Germany,
G
·· I do have to go through that when I add something...But re-sorting all the drawers once in awhile seemed like less work to me than having to look them up on a sheet (Which I too had considered once).· Besides, I thought ahead last time.· I bought a HUGE collection of a lot of values, and therefore it's very rare with resistors and capacitors to have to go through that.· On ICs it happens monthly!· Sometimes I have to add a new cabinet.· One day it'll look like Steveb's setup!·
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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com
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" Hey! Why is there silicone on my hemostats?"
Post Edited (nick bernard) : 4/5/2005 6:36:21 PM GMT
Those yellow boxes look fantastic. Based upon the photo it looks like the individual trays just lift out. How good is the lid at keeping components from migrating from one tray to another when it is carried by the handle? Where did you get them from?
Jim
they are made by stanley and cost ten bucks at lowes, i think they're sold at walmart too. they are much better than the tackle boxes with adjustable dividers because nothing slides between partitions... they are definately worth a try.
i think these are the ones i have
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=101953-82673-14325&lpage=none
ZAG®
Professional Organizer
Item #: 101953 Model: 14325
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" Hey! Why is there silicone on my hemostats?"
in most cases, I'm using my stock of components for series production of PCBs, and I have prepared assembly instructions for the various PCBs that do not only contain the component values but also the drawer numbers. Therefore, I don't need to look them up in the sheet most of the time - I just pull out the drawers listed in the assembly instructions.
Besides this, I was surprised how fast I learned which drawer number containes the most frequently required components, like the SX28, the 50 MHz resonators, the 100nF caps, etc.
So, I'm happy with my "chaos storage".
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Greetings from Germany,
G