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Time for a spring clean? How's your workbench looking?

cstanton

Whether you're going for minimalism with a tiny desk , or you're deciding to finally get rid of that altoids tin of resistors, spring time can be an opportunity for a bit of a spruce up and a clean.

Are you perhaps considering a project to help keep your desk tidy? (Hmm, that sounds like a good idea)

Or are you looking to pick up some new equipment? I realised that I haven't checked out kickstarter for a while and that used to be a good place for something new and innovative.

What's your plan? Same old, same old? Or time for something new?

For me, I need an actual workbench!

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  • For long while I've put parts for a new job into a "Job box" which I then keep ( maybe for 10 years or more). I might raid the job boxes for left over parts but it can get very hard to remember where things are, especially when parts get moved to more recent boxes. Eventually I purge very old job boxes.

    In parallel I have always kept standard parts in little drawers or boxes.

    I'm moving towards a system where all parts go straight into common storage and the job boxes only contain very specific parts like pcbs  -  this is because I waste too much time looking for parts that I know I have somewhere.

    I've just added another 256 little drawers to the system (taking the total up to about 1750). The problem is finding wall space to put them. There is certainly no room for pictures in this space !

    image

    The latest 256 drawers. The labels were printed on a second hand Zebra TLP2824 printer which I paid about £30 for. Thanks to   for recommending them !

    The previous batch of 128 drawers were a little larger and filled up in about 3 months.

    image

    You can see the carousel thing of drawers in the background. Its quite good but about 3-4 x the price per drawer and takes up a lot of floor space - so I won't be getting any more of them.

    MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    I would be open to having some drawers like those as well... but I couldn't imagine having 1750... I would forget what drawer something was stashed away in and be forced to search through them one by one.

  • in reply to dang74

    I keep a spreadsheet to keep track of the parts !

    Most resistors are not in the drawer system - I keep approx 600 different types/values (5 decades, 1%, E24 in 5 different types). 0.1% and power parts are in drawers because I don't keep the full range of values.

    MK

  • in reply to dang74
    This reply was deleted.
  • in reply to anniel747

    And I suppose the spreadsheet method mentioned by Michael would be more effective than say the Dewey Decimal System... though app notes can logically be stored in the 800s (literature) and vacuum tubes in the 900s (history) Wink 

  • in reply to dang74

     You would nonetheless still need a powerful software to keep tab of the quantity, unit buying price in different qty, selling price, lots of electrical parameters, physical dimensions, alternate part numbers and substitutes etc.

  • in reply to anniel747

    No doubt.  I have to admire those that have the patience and organization skills to set something like that up.

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