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How do you store/organise SMD components? (or small components in general)

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Microdoser:
I seem to be gaining an ever-expanding range of tiny drawers for my components. None of which are the right size.

How do you manage your components, especially tiny SMD ones?

If I need so many I have a reel, then a deep, wide, short drawer would work, if I only need a handful then a drawer more suited to a pencil seems right to fit a strip or two, sometimes it is an amount in-between and then I end up cutting many individual bits of taped components to fit a drawer. Often this means components I would prefer to be grouped together are spaced all over the room in various places.

Currently, I have a cardboard box that has all the components I need for the next board I am building in silvered bags with Dymo labels on them. It just seems handier than finding random drawers.

I would be very interested to see any of your solutions

exe:
I keep them in smd book on tapes. Like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32254444661.html . I also have aidetek anti-esd boxes for components that are not on a tape.

ataradov:
For stuff like resistors and capacitors I just use compartment boxes like this https://amazon.com/gp/product/B008GDSGTK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and  https://amazon.com/gp/product/B01C3DGO7O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Unlike random stuff eBay (modular ones) those are excellent quality. They don't feel flimsy, don't have gaps big enough that components fall out. They are basically perfect.

coppercone2:
get the ESD safe version of the above, I just threw out around 1kg of plastic containers and bags after filling a single 144 component ESD safe SMD IC organizer last week with op amps and such. Basically an entire large office trash cans worth of plastic. I saved all the ESD foam from the boxes to line the inside of fishing lure divider boxes with TO-220, DIP12+, ETC.

You can fit 3 dip 8's in one of those box dividers, its a bit perilous and you need to align it before closing to ensure you don't bend a lead but it works.

It was beginning to get hard to use SMD components based on just finding them stored in plastic tubs, so I decided to get one of those containers.  Factor of 10+ storage space reduction.

Not sure if its the best choice for resistors because they fit in books, but for IC's it is a wise choice.

You can comfortably fit 2x sample dip 8 IC into one of those boxes, 3 = manual alignment First time I can find something in 5 years LOL

It's a bit pricey but anyway if you use quality op amps, ADC, DAC, etc.. totally worth it. That little box would easily cost a very sizable sum to fill with what I have in it.


Also I cleared out 3x 40 compartment adjustable divider organizers so I can have my relays, MCU, etc arranged into a nice formation rather then a digital death ball. So it actually paid for itself by freeing up 3x boxes worth 15$ each in addition to reducing Tupperware pressure from plastic overfill, I basically had fields of unsorted TO220, DIP8, DIP16, DIP40, TO-3, TO-5 filled to max density on stacked black foam in those boxes, now its single layer and properly divided up. I also freed and 'planted' around 10 tubes of DIP logic gates into the freed containers, they were basically just thrown on a shelf in random length plastic sleeve that was totally dilapidated from age (90's 7400/CD stuff).

jmelson:

--- Quote from: Microdoser on October 19, 2020, 05:46:41 pm ---I seem to be gaining an ever-expanding range of tiny drawers for my components. None of which are the right size.

How do you manage your components, especially tiny SMD ones?

--- End quote ---
For anything very cheap, like resistors, I almost always buy a whole reel.  I find a particular Digi-Key shipping box is designed exactly to fit 7" reels.
I have a cart by the pick and place machine with about 50 reels in those boxes.

I often unspool a reel and cut off the last foot or so and put that in an Akro-Mills drawer by the workbench.  I have most of the common values in there.
The tape can be looped up and put in the drawer.  These are never put on the P&P machine, only used for prototyping and repairs.
The front end of the tape can then be spun back onto the reel in a few seconds.  A sharpie marker is the perfect size to make a hub to spin the reel on.

Jon

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