How do you store components for a particular project?

[jadew]

Hey guys,

I'm having a little issue deciding on how to store project components. Until now, I kept them all in one box: PCB + components + any packaging items that also fit in there, but that's kinda messy and you also end up with components that you can use for other projects too - so where do you store those?

Then there's the fact that some stuff don't really mix well, mainly because they are used at different stages, so throwing them all in one box just makes it difficult to find what you're looking for at one stage of the assembly process.

I'm tempted to have general boxes (all resistors, all caps, etc), but then you have too many values to go through in order to find the one you're looking for.

How are you dealing with this?

[fabrizio_fabrice]

I'm having a little issue deciding on how to store project components. Until now, I kept them all in one box: PCB + components + any packaging items that also fit in there, but that's kinda messy and you also end up with components that you can use for other projects too - so where do you store those?

I've had this problem with electronics, car parts, filing cabinets, - you name it - without ever finding a "solution". 

Just a couple ideas:
   1) there is no perfect way
   2) if I re-organize often enough, I don't know where anything is!
   3) maybe "good enough" is sufficient.

Seriously, I'm listening to any ideas!

[Red Squirrel]

One thing I want to do once I turn my unfinished garage into a woodworking shop (hopefully next year) is to come up with a drawer and box system, something modular and standardized, like say, 5x5 boxes 5x10, 10x10 etc.  The system would consist of wood drawers that can be removed from their cabinet and they contain a bunch of organizer boxes, and each one can also be removed.  Would make it easy to reorganize/add/access that way.  Ex: one drawer would have all resistors, if I buy a new value I can just insert it in the right order by moving the boxes.   I saw some videos of woodworkers who did a similar system like that to organize shop parts like screws etc and I think it would be great for electronics too.

Would use it for more than just electronics too. The shop itself would probably be the first place to use it so I can organize different parts etc.  Or even misc stuff around the house, like say rubber bands or office stuff.   I know I bought a bag of those at some point, no idea where they are though...

[james_s]

For small projects I put all the parts into a ziplock freezer bag (semiconductors in ESD safe pouches within) and I file the whole freezer bag in a box with other projects.

[MagicSmoker]

The system I've found works best for me - given that I am woefully unorganized in general - is to put all the unique components for a particular *board* in a separate, labeled box (often a shipping box from Mouser, Digikey, etc.). Commonly used SMT resistors and capacitors in decade values and 0805 or 0603 sizes are on separate feeders for my manual pick-and-place setup and don't go into the above boxes (unless they are in a different package - eg, 1812 or 2220 capacitors, 2512 resistors, etc.). For example, 100R / 0805 resistors are on the feeders, but 330R / 0805 resistors - despite being used nearly as often - are packed with each box because they aren't a decade value.

I also include in the box the BOM spreadsheet along with the bare boards and stencil so I can easily pop out a board on demand with little fuss. The downside to this system is that I have lots of duplicate parts in each box (the aforementioned 330R / 0805 resistors, 1n4148 diodes, 2n3904/2n3906 transistors, etc.) but these tend to be inexpensive components, anyway, so not a big deal. Another downside is the sheer volume taken up by all the boxes for all the boards I've designed over the years (well, since I started using this system, which was about 15 years ago).

[jadew]

@MagicSmoker, I was thinking the same regarding keeping common components on feeders. As it happens, this re-organization thing was triggered when I decided I want to optimize my manual pick and place routine.

[thm_w]

If you want to re-use components in future projects, most organized you can be in the smallest volume: https://www.eevblog.com/product/usleeve/

Then for very common SMD values (10k, 0.1uF, etc.) I keep those loose in small containers for easy manual pick and place: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32958213751.html

This is also a great idea, and works well, but you'd want a vacuum pen which I don't have: https://hackaday.com/2019/11/07/3d-printed-magazines-tame-the-smd-tape-beast/

[MagicSmoker]

...
This is also a great idea, and works well, but you'd want a vacuum pen which I don't have: https://hackaday.com/2019/11/07/3d-printed-magazines-tame-the-smd-tape-beast/

Holy frijoles, that is ingenious! Finally something useful for the 3d printer I bought on a whim a few months ago to make! 

[shakalnokturn]

Yep, that is a neat idea!
It may be lacking a little rim around the hole to hold the "reel" in place. Thinking of clumsy people like myself playing with SMD...

 

[nctnico]

Basically you need 3 storages:
- one for project specific components (in a box which may have small boxes / containers inside)
- one for generic components you use for many projects
- one bin to throw away components you won't use again (storage costs money so throwing away is cheaper in the end).

[SiliconWizard]

It really depends on how many projects your work on in a year and how organized you are/you want to be (and how much time you want to dedicate to that).

After trying various options including maintaining a database of all stocked components with their respective location, nice boxes and cabinets, etc., I have been using a very simple way to do it for a while now, that works for me. I just stock all parts for a given project in a dedicated box, clearly marked with the project name, revision and date, and of course I keep the complete list of parts for each (from the orders themselves). Very simple, and effective enough. For parts reuse, for all the cheap parts, I will usually not bother, and will re-order them for each new project. The cost is not worth the trouble. For expensive parts, I will of course check whether I still have some from older projects.

I've found over time that getting more organized than this was usually not sustainable and not worth the trouble. Just don't underestimate the amount of work and discipline it will take to handle a fancy organized stock over years of work. Experience shows it eventually goes downhill. Your own work habits may of course be completely different, and you may be a lot more disciplined than I am (and many coworkers I've worked with...)

Of course this is strictly for lab/prototyping. For any kind of production, avoid doing this.

[rrinker]

 Being only a small-time hobbyist with only a few projects going, which also happen to have a lot of component overlap, I have enough storage drawers to organize the common components individually (no throwing in resistors like 100R, 1K, 10K, 100K, etc in one bin) for my projects, and then everything else, parts I've acquired, parts where I buy those big assortments of values, etc, DO get grouped like that. Though many of them are just stored in their original boxes as I do not yet have enough storage draws to do that. I keep track with Partsbox, some day I'll actually have everything in there and be able to make sure I always have enough parts on hand - but that day will probably come about the time I finish the last of the boards I need.

[tooki]

Hey guys,

I'm having a little issue deciding on how to store project components. Until now, I kept them all in one box: PCB + components + any packaging items that also fit in there, but that's kinda messy and you also end up with components that you can use for other projects too - so where do you store those?

Then there's the fact that some stuff don't really mix well, mainly because they are used at different stages, so throwing them all in one box just makes it difficult to find what you're looking for at one stage of the assembly process.

I'm tempted to have general boxes (all resistors, all caps, etc), but then you have too many values to go through in order to find the one you're looking for.

How are you dealing with this?

Standard components I don’t separate out for a project until actually needed. I have general components organized in plastic organizers and zip bags within shoeboxes (though I’ve already bought organizer drawers to change over to). But if I’ve ordered components specifically for a project, then those go in the project’s box. (Since I usually have some test circuits and stuff already going for a given project.) When the project is done (a rare occurrence for me, lol), surplus components then move into the general components storage.