Any Bolts, nuts and washers storage ideas?

When I was in high school I worked for a neighboring farmer who utilized a storage system similar to Bob's, but on a larger scale. He made use of coffee cans too, but also employed five gallon buckets, which were a bit harder to sort through. Yes, the system worked, we never headed into town for nuts or bolts.

The timing of this post is amazing, as I am just getting the items together that I need for my hardware storage. I really prefer to be able to go to a bin and grab the bolt, screw, nut, or washer that I need in a quick fashion. When you work 60 hours per week and volunteer for two different organizations, you tend to try and use time wisely.

Yesterday I purchased four sets of these from Harbor Freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/tool-storage/part-storage/20-piece-poly-bins-and-rails-41949.html
They are stackable bins but also come with mounting rails so that they can be hung on a wall. I have a large cabinet in the garage that has a nice large open space on the side. I plan to mount the rails to the cabinet, then hang the bins there. If they are spaced appropriately, one can always get his hand into a bin to grab one or two items, but can also take the whole bin to the workbench if desired.

I created labels for the bins, printed on heavy paper, which should help with identifying just what I have in each bin.
 
i have the small nuts and screw "warehouses"- the small racks with the slide out plastic bins.
i also use the inexpensive clear divided containers with the flip top locking lid
i have the larger metal compartment flip top slide in drawer type too
i use the plastic bins for separating metric and USS/SAE fasteners, then into the other bins after visual identification
 
One consideration for throwing everything together in one box is that there is always hope of finding the item you're looking for. When everything is neatly sorted, there isn't much hope left when you've looked in the bin the item is supposed to be in.

Without hope, what have you got?:eek 2:
 
I have seen the glass jars with the lids screwed below shelves before. My shop still has lids under shelves from the PO. They are a pretty good idea with one exception. If one falls and breaks, and they will, not completely screwed tight, then you have a real mess, a mix of screws or whatever mixed with glass shards, all over the shelf and floor. Sorry, no thanks...
 
I use the old pop corn tins for large amount, And to keep big items in, once sorted out, Smaller stuff gets put in the bins jars etc. My father was one of those who took everything apart, then you kept all the old bolts, nuts, screws and washers etc. So we had buckets of the stuff sitting around. We had a hardware store, but dis not have that much, The farm stores had more but often expensive so so everyone did what they could to keep from going there.
 
Bob Korves said:
... If one falls ...... then you have a real mess, a mix of screws.....on the floor...
Click to expand...

We had beautifully organized trays of SS hardware, metric and SAE, aboard our sailboat. Any fastener, of any size, we could need for the boat or our research could be found in an instant. A real source of pride. Then came the day we were heeled over with a rail in the water beating upwind to crawl off the western coast of southern Isabela against a 3 knot current.... Bam goes the bow off the back side of a large wave, all windward cabinets spring open as the hull flexes nicely, all those trays fall across the cabin and break open. The cabin sole is an inch deep in hundreds of washers, nuts, screws and spade connectors. That night we get an anchor down, sweep up all those shiny trinkets and dump them in a bucket. After that we used Bob's system for 6 more years!
 
Howard70 said:
We had beautifully organized trays of SS hardware, metric and SAE, aboard our sailboat. Any fastener, of any size, we could need for the boat or our research could be found in an instant. A real source of pride. Then came the day we were heeled over with a rail in the water beating upwind to crawl off the western coast of southern Isabela against a 3 knot current.... Bam goes the bow off the back side of a large wave, all windward cabinets spring open as the hull flexes nicely, all those trays fall across the cabin and break open. The cabin sole is an inch deep in hundreds of washers, nuts, screws and spade connectors. That night we get an anchor down, sweep up all those shiny trinkets and dump them in a bucket. After that we used Bob's system for 6 more years!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the support and for sharing what must have been an awful cleanup. Just walking on all of the loose fasteners in a heeled and pitching sailboat would have been dicey, not to mention a PITA to pick them all up.
 
I currently have couple of drawers like this, new food cans full with bolts and nuts but every time i slam the drawer close they spill out so i need a more space friendly diy solution.
DSC_0005.JPG
 
Well, I guess my bins will not all fit on one side of the cabinet. I also need to get two more sets of those bins, for a total of 120 bins. Half of them on one side of the cabinet, half on the other.

I have labels for the items and sizes that I commonly use. Each label is 2.94" x 0.630"

I typically purchase most of my hardware at our local farm store, getting them in bulk which helps keep the cost down compared to purchasing them at the hardware store. The number sized machine screws and the like will probably be purchased in quantity from an online supplier. If I buy them in bags of 50 or 100 I should be able to save some cost over the long haul.
 
Stuff I use all the time stays in the boxes it came in. Other stuff goes in clear plastic nut jars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top