Technical bolt storage or what do you do with your nuts

So we now know about small steel storage.
What do you do with nuts and bolts?
Like my metal scrap I have a bucket full of bolts and nuts. I would like a big spinning bolt bin and fill it up. I don't have the space.
I really don't need that many either.

 

40 yrs ago most answers would be Masson jars with the lids screwed to the bottom of wooden shelves !
Mine are the little plastic trays that are made for bolts and nuts that stack on each other...

..

 

My answer is about the same. They end up on the floor, get kicked around forever. Swept to the side, I pick them out the dirt pile when I finally get around to cleaning. Thinking I'm going to use them, they get thrown in a plastic tub off to the side. Then when I need some, I end up going out and over paying because I'll sit there forever sorting through a tub and never find what I need.

 

I store them in big tin cans. The cans are labeled as to the size of the various nuts and bolts but not according to length. The metric stuff isn't sorted that well.

 

The yellow cabinets are for mostly new hardware, I gave a 2 bucks for them 45 years ago . I finally get rid of the coffee cans and made this rack for used hardware.

 

I have a 64 (I think) plastic drawer storage thingie that I bought at a hardware store. I have bolts sorted in separate drawers from 1" to 5" in 1" increments and separate drawers for nuts, flat washers, and lock nuts in sizes 1/4" to 1/2". There's enough room for some storage of fine thread bolts and nuts too. Compared to dumping out a coffee can full of random bolts, nuts, washers and other things, it's one of the most time saving things I've put in the shop.

Mine is like this only wider, but no big drawer on the bottom. https://www.harborfreight.com/40-bi...4O1bSxPkr086udQ8IMJbVwHK5PmEDUVkaAoh8EALw_wcB

Looks like bill gruendeman beat me to it.

Lynn

 

Mine are sorted by size and kept in ice dream containers in a steel cabinet. as stated a great time saved.

All Imperial nuts and bolts are thrown out as I don't use them on anything and I'm tired of trying to use an Imperial nut on a Metric bolt.

Every so often I will collect all nuts and bolts that are lying around and sort them into the respective homes.

 

Shouldn't you be using Whitworth?
Metric shmetric.

 

Non- sorted life long collection, NON sorted in 3/4 full 5 gallon buckets, sitting along the wall in the garage. Then having the fun of dumping a bucket of bolts onto the floor and finding that just one correct bolt. Sometimes it does take multiple bucket dumps to get the required results.

 

Here's mine.... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachments/bolt-bin-2-jpg.4333608/

200+ plastic HF rail-mount bins in a home-made cabinet made from salvaged wood brought from work. Took forever to sort all the buckets of bolts I had along with hose clamps, rubber bumpers, etc, etc... but it's great to have now.

You could build this with four 2x6s and two sheets of 3/4" plywood along with some stout hinges (mine are salvaged door hinges). The bins can be found on sale.

 

Sorry, its mostly european cars in my shop!

 

I’ve got it all, buckets of bolts, bolt bins, cans, and jars of them. It’s a collection of 60+ years of building cars and and always saving the leftovers for “just in case” and a slew of new stuff just because it was there and “what’s a few more we might need it someday.”

 

Was old coffee cans, but got old dumping them out looking for a certain piece. Went to a garage sale and found a "stat" Emergency room rollaround. (Basically a roll around tool box, even has a slide up bracket for a IV) Anyway, filled the top drawers with hardware, now just open drawer, finger thru to find certain piece needed.

 

I got the rail-mounted bins that were being tossed at work, all I need is the rail now...

Mostly I store them in these heavy-duty cardboard boxes we had at work. They shipped things like PC boards in them with foam padding. They are like 7" x 10" x 2" high. I have them sorted by size, even fine and coarse thread. This is 1/4" through 1/2".

The #10 and smaller I use a couple of HF plastic boxes with the little compartments. One is hardware, the other is clips, springs, etc.

 

This is how I keep mine, coarse that is the business i'm in.

 

i also have a 3/4 full 5 gallon bucket i keep an old fender cover in it to dump the contents on then i just pick the cover up and funnel the nuts and bolts back in to the bucket

 

When I worked in the body shop I learned custom stuff in, the boss had a 5 gallon bucket. He'd send me back to search through it, when he needed hardware. After a while I hated it so much, I would walk to the local auto parts store and BUY them!
In my shop now, I have a big Lista cabinet with most of the hardware. Separate drawers with grade 5, grade 8, stainless, and fine thread, plumbing fittings, body bolts and misc fasteners. I also have those plastic divided organizers, each with a different item... 6-32, 8-32, 10-32, 10-24, hex head machine screws, countersunks, etc.And the bigger organizers with fender washers, phillips sheet metal screws, stop nuts, etc.
My bad experiences turned me into an OCD nut and bolt nut!

 

I make bird suet about every 3-4 weeks, which requires a four-pound plastic jar of peanut butter every time I make a double batch. Once cleaned, those containers are perfect for nut, bolt and washer storage. I also had been buying much larger plastic jars of pretzels, and those come in handy, too. Right now, though, I've got a lot more containers than I have of nuts, bolts, etc., so the four-pound empties fit inside the pretzel empties and just clutter up the garage. Occasionally I'll throw them away but often I'll use these jars to wash stuff in solvent, then throw the used jar and fluid on the burn pile when I'm done. I've given up hope to receive Environmentalist of the Year.

 

I'm working on it.



I'm going to do some "folk-artsy" cabinets for the boxes. Not sure how to use the coffee things. I've been in the same place 36+ years. I have a bunch of moving and sorting to do....
Mike

 

first pics are at my old garage, then i moved to a smaller one. last pic, bolt bins have quart oil jugs to hold bolts as I just pull one out and find what i need. file cabts hold tools and other stuff.

 

Generic coffee cans. "nuff said.

 

I scratch mine first then go lookin in the buckets I have them in

 

I used 5 gallon buckets that I had to pour out on the floor to find the one piece of hardware I needed for way too long…. I then graduated to an old dresser to better spread out the stuff. And, then I finally bought one of those things with shelves and little plastic bins that I ended up putting some “new” hardware in. I’m still mostly using the dresser for now since I haven’t taken time to sort stuff very good yet.

 

@Moriarity , OK Mark, I have to ask, what is the blow gun and the conglomeration of pipe and fittings ending with an air chuck used for?



One of my compulsions (and I have many) is looking at detail in photos and that caught my eye for sure!

 

None of these are mine; just pix I stole them from the web and saved, probably from GJ and hamb:

 

Here is a couple of shots of most of my hardware storage. The rest are scattered hither and yon. Bins are 1/2 gallon milk jugs cut down. These pix are several years old; I've increased the space for hardware and filled those. I need to convert another drawer to hardware now.

Jerry - come over and have a look-see sometime.

 

I use these Akro Mills brand organizers, which I buy second hand for $5 or so. They are efficient space-wise, hold enough of each fastener that I have what I regularly need on hand, and if you elect not to label every drawer specifically, the clear drawer gives you a decent look at the contents before you slide it open.

Being able to go to one specific drawer and find the 5/16-24 bolt you need saves not only time, but frustration, too. Well worth the small cost and convenience, IMHO.