I need a compartmentalized tray to store tiny electronic components.

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been getting into doing small electronic projects lately, and I have a ton of resistors, transistors, capacitors, etc. in plastic bags. I’ve found that digging through resistors in particular eats up a ton of time, so I want to get something to organize them.

I’m thinking that I need a tray with tiny compartments - maybe 50 in total or so - where I can label each compartment and organize them for easy access.

What do I get? Where can I get it?

2

The other thing I was thinking of was maybe a little stand-up unit with drawers where I could store resistors in groups of decades or something like that. Would this be a better solution?

3

I think there are Michaels craft stores in Chicagoland. Craft kits like this are most excellent. They’re portable, durable and fairly cheap. Durable is the key.

4

Here are links to what type of parts cabinet you might want to use.
http://www.acehardware.com/sm-parts-cabinet-bins--fi-1259421_cp-1813507.html

You can find cabinets like those in department stores for around $20.

Or try a tackle box to make it portable.
There are some plastic compartment boxes you can find in fishing or hardware sections, that are clear and have compartments in stackable lidded boxes.

http://www.sortprice.com/search-CQ-Organization_and_Storage-Compartment_Box

I store resisters sorted by the multiplier band.

5

Thanks, guys! I totally didn’t think about craft stores with containers for storing beads and stuff like that. I’ll check it out later today.

6

By the way, thanks for this killer tip. It should have been a no-brainer, but it never even occurred to me. :smack: I was planning on giving each resistor value its own compartment. This way, sorting just by the multiplier band, I can cut it down to like 20 compartments total for all components.