# Retaining Ring Rassling



## gr8legs (Jan 28, 2018)

I found myself without a supply of various retaining rings and got tired of heading to the hardware store every time I needed one or two -

So I ventured to the mythical land of eBay and bough an assortment of assortments of C-Clips, E-Clips, internal and external snap/retaining rings in Metric and Imperial - you know, the XXX pieces for $Y bargain bin parts . . . .

And when they arrived, although the picture showed them nicely ensconced in a plastic box with dividers to keep the various sizes separated - the retaining rings had an independent streak and the various sizes migrated throughout the box due to poor tolerance in the slide-in divider pieces. 

Remind me to never do this again - I spent several hours sizing and sorting the parts so my $8 boxes of fasteners was no bargain at all - even at minimum wage. 

Worse still, I planned to re-situate the parts into the standard-sized multi-compartment stacking boxes I use for other parts - but even these 'good' boxes had 'leakage' of small, thin parts from compartment to compartment. . . . Ugh! 

So, how to keep these thin little buggers from migrating?

Maybe not a unique solution but I attached small high-power permanent magnets to the underside of the compartmented case, right in the middle of each compartment that was going to house the really thin parts. 

Worked like a charm! These tiny 3 and 4 mm snap rings stay put just fine and I think the problem is solved!


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## FOMOGO (Jan 28, 2018)

May also help when you go to install in hard to get to places, as it won't fall down into the gear case, etc, that you are working on. Mike


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## Ulma Doctor (Jan 28, 2018)

Hi Stu,
Nice use of magnetism! 
i use the same method for small screws and nuts


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## 4GSR (Jan 28, 2018)

I have a set of retaining rings I got off of eBay or HF, don't remember.  Each size was packed in small zip lock bags.  Made it nice.  The last assortment of roll pins, woodruff keys, small retaining rings, they all migrated into different places.  I'll have to keep the magnetic tape in mind, good idea.  Thanks for sharing.


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## eugene13 (Jan 29, 2018)

About 10 years ago the local Carquest store gave me a big box of assorted snap rings, wonderful, except it had been dropped and they were all mixed up.  I dumped them into a coffee can and set them on the shelf with the rest of my stuff in coffee cans, sometimes it takes a little perseverance to find what I need but I haven't bought a ring since.


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