There is an interesting New Year conversation going on at the All About Circuits forum.
Members are knocking around getting their electronic resistor parts under control for the New Year. Guys have to get organized and it's not always about hunting gear you know?
If you're into tinkering with electronics this winter, you probably get tired of buying what you need each time, and choose to start a supply area or "kit" as some call it.
But as one reader says, "when you have over 150 different resistors, how do you store them? Shelves really do take too much space, and can be hard to maintain. Lord help you if you drop one and scatter the contents to the 4 winds." The parts can be very, very small.
About Resistors:
As All About Circuits points out to it's student and hobbyist readers, resistors "resist" the flow of electrical current and are common elements of electrical networks and electronic circuits. A resistor is coated with paint or enamel, and sometimes covered in molded plastic for protection. Because resistors are often too small to be written on (as evidenced by the main picture above), a standardized color-coding system is used to identify them. So once these students get beyond tooling aroung informally, they realize they need a system.
Resistors = Craft Supplies?
The challenges of "resistor organizing" are very similar to "craft and bead organizing!" (small, tiny parts = insanity). Does this picture below look familiar?
This is a photo sent in from a forum participant. Looks like he has his resistors under control.
The challenge:
"I've only really gotten interested in electrics over the last year and I already have wayyy too much stuff to keep organized. First I just spent days finding plastic organizing boxes with small enough cells to make it efficient. Soon after I found a solution I had too much for that to work so I started punching holes in the little ziplock bags that I get my parts in and put them on rings. Now I have too much for that. So how do you guys stay organized?"
The organization solutions submitted are electrifying:
"I don't. I have boxes, totes, trash bags, shelves, all with random crap, and you can't even set a beer down on my kitchen table."
"boxes for fishing tackle (they often have nice size compartments) and other boxes as size demand."
"I was using the small flip-top organizer trays you can buy for fishing gear and craft beads. This got cumbersome to work with as I added more stuff though - I ended up having tons of trays that took up half my desk and frequently got knocked over."
"I installed a peg-board and shelving behind the desk I use. On the peg-board I attached multi-drawer organizers (the kind you get at home improvement stores to store nuts, bolts, screws, etc.) I use these to hold all my components. Larger items go in a set vertical plastic drawers on the side of the desk (I bought these at Wal-Mart for like $8 each.)"
"I found a set of plastic ones where you can adjust the dividers. It works well on the go."
Joey, has the best comment:
"I have no idea...I let my technicians/engineers store the stuff. When I need something, I shout out, "I need a [fill in the blank]", and 2 minutes later its on my desk!"
This reader photo above uses large ziplock baggies to organize his resistors. He first takes a larger bag, creates smaller pockets using a "seal-a-meal" type of device, and hand-labels each bag. The result is magic but takes time to set the system up. How would you organize your resistors?
What do you think?
This is the part of our blog topic where we ask you to comment. What creative ideas do you have when organizing very tiny bits and pieces? Beads or resistors... we'd like to hear using our @johntrosko Twitter account or by posting a comment below.
By the way, there are a lot of different types of resistors, so our usage terms used in this piece may need some help. Feel free to lend your expertise, we'll appreciate it.
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