[Shop-talk] Nuts and Bolts

[Wayne]

On 8/18/2013 5:46 PM, Jeff Scarbrough wrote:
> Here's a question for discussion...What do you do with all the old
> nuts and bolts you collect?

To me the trick is how do you keep them usable and accessible without 
blowing too much time micro managing them. Being able to find a precise 
size quickly in a pinch without making a 12 mile round trip to Lowes or 
the FLAPS (assuming they're open) is a BIG time and money saver.

I've bought maybe 8 of those plastic "mix" boxes of "Asian metric 
fasteners", "metric O-rings", stainless steel sheet metal screws, etc. 
'Cause you can get then at cheap places for $4 - $10 bucks, and if you 
use ONE piece out of the box in a pinch and it saves you a drive, it's 
paid for itself.

For all the dimensional stuff I buy from the box boxes in little bags 
for a particular job, I have a bunch of 3"x4" zip-locks from ULINE. Once 
of twice a year they all get re-bagged and a spreadsheet (available on 
request) prints out large easily readable standardized tags I cut up and 
drop in the bags. They are loosely grouped in bins like "large wood 
screws", "metric machine", "washers", etc. I have others that are just 
lose "misc SAE machine screws", "Nissan hardware", "Misc sheet metal 
screws". I can scrounge through quickly and find an exact fit if needed, 
or something close enough.

A lot of it is NOT worth keeping or sorting and just gets tossed in the 
scrap bin.

-Wayne