Bolt / hardware bin storage solution.

[fxdb96]

With a new tractor on the way I figured it wise to organize the garage a little better to make some room. One project will be to eliminate my 6 different places i store nuts bolts and hardware and consolidate. Anyone have any slick ideas? I am leaning towards this cart in the pic

 

[bcp]

I just know if I had that, I would someday bump it and knock it over.

My storage is all fastened to a wall.

Bruce

 

[fxdb96]

I just know if I had that, I would someday bump it and knock it over.

My storage is all fastened to a wall.

Bruce

Hahahah. What i really want is the 1600 dollar cabinet thay holds the akro bins

 

[DFB]

Years ago before all these fancy things were available I made up a portable station from a few pieces of 3/4 particleboard to hold HF bins.





I designed it to hold 48 of the 41949 bins but can easily go wider. Only takes up 6 inches out from the wall on my workbench top.

If you have wall space mount osb or plywood. I didn't have that option at the time and this was easier to move. Of course there are steel mounting plates available too. Someone gave me one of the 19 x36 slotted steel backing plates recently. I haven't mounted it yet but did just paint it.

Search results for: 'tool bins'

I think Akro bins are more rigid than the HF variety but cost more too.

 

[murphy1244]

I bought a Harbor fright unit and was not happy with it. Too flimsy and its just junk.

 

[Howling]

I have a shelf full of storage bins

Labeled on end. Just grab the size or type needed

 

[flyerdan]

I've got several sets of the small HF bins on a plywood wall panel, that let me sort out nuts according to size and thread and washers. Bolts are mixed length but all the same thread so that isn't too bad. Beats dumping out several coffee cans of stuff and searching every time. Got a few of the small multi-drawer cabinets for wire terminals, and small machine screws.

 

[skyhook]

With a new tractor on the way I figured it wise to organize the garage a little better to make some room. One project will be to eliminate my 6 different places i store nuts bolts and hardware and consolidate. Anyone have any slick ideas? I am leaning towards this cart in the picView attachment 457501

Looks good, I suggest you get 2 of them. Things pile up fast, at least in my case.

 

[LD1]

I like the actual "bolt bins".

I have a couple of the 72 hole versions McMaster-Carr

I also have a bunch of the plastic bins like shown in post #6. Use them for small items.
One is full of taps
One is left handed drills and extractors
One is full of sheet metal screws and lags
One for anything smaller than 1/4" bolts, like all the machine screw nuts and bolts
One full of electrical crimp on stuff, like forks, eyelets, blades, butt connectors, etc
One full of brass fittings. Compression fittings and barbs

I got them at HF, cheap and effective. If you get some of those, get more than one. You can interchange the bins inside to better organize stuff if needed. I have one that is full of all the really small bins. Thats for the electrical stuff, since you can get alot of them in each small container. The one with taps is mostly the larger containers. But its nice they are customizable

 

[Blaneypark]

I went through the same thing. For $50.00 bought a 48 hole metal bolt storage bins. Wall mounted works great. Also use for smaller "stuff", pint mason jars with the lid screw to the bottom of a few shevles. I can see what I want and easy access.

 

[ustmd]

I bought that unit from HF for my shop. It is okay. As someone else mentioned, it is a little flimsy.

Ultimately, I decided this was not the solution for me. I do a lot of wood working and dust ended up collecting in the bins (even with my 3HP dust collector). Also, the bins on the bottom are difficult to access.

I ended up converting to the storage bins like Howling has (bought at HF).

 

[DJ54]

There are some businesses that have the 72 hole cabinet like LD1 mentioned, and come with a stocked assortment price. Fastenal may have something like this, but pretty pricey. I'm pretty fortunate to have a couple small independent businesses that can provide the same thing for about 1/2 to 2/3 the price of Fastenal. One is Phoenix Rose, near Newark, Ohio. Request Rejected This guy is great to deal with. His business/warehouse is right on the property where he lives, so it's a low overhead operation, but carries quality stuff. I've bought specialty bolts from him, like 1" X 12" Gr. 8 bolts for my beam trolley's. I ordered 1 at a time, at separate times. Not charge for shipping, and bolt was like $3.00 ea/ at the time. He gets shipment daily, so no long waits. Fastenal required me to buy a box of 25 of those bolts, to get 1.

Another is Calandra Industrial Supply in Lancaster, Ohio. Just about any bolt you can imagine, except automotive type fasteners. You might check in your area, and see if there is a similar business.

I know Phoenix Rose has a stocked cabinet suited to fit about anyone. from the occasional handyman, to supplying a factory stock room with fasteners.

 

[Budweiser John]

I was given a bunch of decommissioned legal lateral files that work great as storage for bolt bins and other small tool storage.
Use a 4" cut off wheel to remove the partitions and add a horizontal plywood shelf so each tier accommodates two rows of bins. The drop down lids provide dust protection and when the lids are open provide a shelf to put stuff on or sort Fastners.

 

[Big Barn]

Your storage will depend on the amount /size of fasteners you will have on hand and plan on adding.

On the farm when I was a kid all we had was small boxes the size shown in my first picture stacked on a recycled grocery store gum and candy rack.



I kept adding a bit at a time. 50 years later, here's a few photos of where I'm at today:







Terry

 

[JRobyn]

I'm really cheap and old school, so empty, clear plastic pickle and peanut jars work terrific for me! Gentle application of the heat gun can usually remove the labels. One for countersunk screws, one for pan heads, one for small machine screws/nuts, one for larger cap screws/nuts. One each for large and small washers. The large cap screws one (1 gal jar) is currently getting too heavy, so it's going to be split somehow. Then, one really must have a couple of these - Easy Sorter Funnel Tray

 

[fidowanttobe]

I have to say that I am FINALLY happy with my bolt bin which is homemade from 1/2" plywood. The finally is because I put large doors on the cabinet to keep the sawdust and dust out of the bins. Also keeps me from jamming stuff in the bins where it doesn't belong. The bins aren't removable, which I wish they were, so I occasionally had to blow them out with air which wasn't fun.

 

[ultrarunner]

One of the best investments I ever made was to visit a local garage that was going out of business...

I bought the full size 6' tall Rockford nut and bolt cabinet with contents... all grade 5 and even some brass manifold nuts and cotter pins in the mix.

I was making $2 and hour and spent $250 for it....

They also had the same cabinet full of brass fittings... wanted $600 for it and it was way beyond what I could afford... it was full of just about any type of automotive fitting imaginable.

I try to shoot a picture...

 

[kthompson]

Dust can be a bigger issue than you will imagine over time. Need sturdy. Think carefully just how many different sizes of such you will have. It may be much larger or smaller selection than you think. You also will want a system where you can rearrange easy. Say you have 1" and 3" inch bolts and a year later you realize you need to add 2" and you don't want to have to spend a day moving items around.

 

[Bigkrank]

Years ago I bought a big bunch of the cheaper plastic hanging bins and mounted on a really nice cabinet. Today most of those bins have disintegrated. These were not even exposed to UV light. I then bought piles of AKRO plastic bins, not cheap, but still good as new today.

 

[ultrarunner]

I've had AKRO bins in my service truck 20+ years without issue... heat, cold not a problem so far.