Parts Storage...

[bob123]

I got wood storage figured out, that was simple enough. Tool storage? piece of cake...

PARTS.

How do you guys store parts? I have parts from 50-60 gutted guitars (not exaggerating, accumulated over time and its getting out of hand), and Im quite unsure what to do with them lol. Organization and tasteful ness are key here. I was thinking some kind of fancy jewelry box converted to use for holding parts? I know a lot of you guys just buy em as you need em kinda thing, so Im hoping someone here has my same hording problem.

As usual, thanks in advance.

edit:

I don't want cheap plastic bins, although I may for screws.

I want a safe secure place for some of these things. I have about 30 relatively high value bridges that I dont want clanking around o each other, tuners I would like to keep as "sets" instead of in a drawer, etc etc. Painful I know...

Edited September 8, 2013 by bob123

[rhoads56]

I have plastic containers, that have eight sections to each one. They house my parts like screws, washers, jack plates, small stuff.

I then have large rectangular bins, on wheels, for bodies. Work on it, then put it back in the sealed bin. Five bodies per bin.

Then as it comes time to really work on stuff, each body and fretboard has a thin container. Large enough for a body blank, and around 3-4 inches high.

Then, I have small lunch box containers, for the parts for each guitar. Chuck all the bits in there when I get started on a guitar. That gets chucked on the shelf until I start a guitar, then it goes in the container with the body.

Same with pickups. Small container with 16 drawers for the small bits like screws, spacers, etc, and 4 x 6 drawer units (each drawer has three sections, giving me 72 compartments) for covers, bobbins, base plates, and then finished/wound bobbins for each model, etc.

Head down to the local $2 shop and check out what they have.

[Ripthorn]

I like Perry's idea, though I am less organized (only do this for the heck of it). I do the plastic bin thing, but I do have some very high value machinist tools. Those nice machinist toolboxes like Kennedy's and whatnot are amazing items. They are not cheap, but they are so much better than HF stuff. I also have a large roll-around 11 drawer HF set that gets used for tools, but could very well hold a lot of parts. They can usually be had for about $150 US with a coupon. One of their best bargains, if you ask me.

[demonx]

For guitars I'm building, I have large zip bags for each guitars parts. These are kept in drawers that I built and theyre around 1500mm wide.

For nuts, washers, screws etc, I have small boxes with lids, each labeled and stored in a drawer.

For parts in general, I have eight more smaller stackable drawers near my desk, each with its own theme.

Everything else is kept on shelves.

[sdshirtman]

I store my parts in tackle boxes. Both the flip out kind and and the flat storage box kind.

You can pick these up reasonably cheap and they make different sizes. The thing I like best is you can make the compartments different sizes to suite what ever your going to be storing in them. Personally I put all the parts that are going into an individual build in one box. Then they are all ways there when you need them.

[bob123]

Great ideas all around. I love yhat afjustable tackle box idea. I see those types of containers, but usually they are either too massive or too small to be usable lol.

Ill also check out those kennedy tool chests.

Any good ideas for storing floyds and other bridges? Open box design seems the bad way to go with these things lol

[demonx]

As I said before, drawers. All my bridges are kept in drawers. I buy tuners in bulk, they come individually wrapped in bags, all the washers in another bag, all the nuts in another bag, no shop packaging, so I leave them like that till I use them. There'll be one large bag of lefties and one large bag of righties.

The tackle box above wouldn't even store all my capacitors let alone anything else and I'm not a massive builder or anything, ormsby would be pumping out WAY more than me hense needing even larger storage solutions.

I use drawers and then everything in the drawers seperated by boxes or bags

[bob123]

I have a nice set of drawers for parts, just need good organizational separators as they just empty. I want a jewelry box simply for aesthetic purposes, maybe its time to build what i need

[ansil]

i use ziplock bags for stuff so it won't clang around. and i found a source on ebay for these tackle boxes made by spider? i think its fishing line maker. its decently big and with large removable dividers i keep pickups in one and tuning keys and bridges in another.

[bob123]

I have decided to use everyones suggestions!

So I am building a nice work bench. I don't have a good setup and work bench (usually just use kitchen table), so Im gonna be building a solid desk, with many coves for parts and setup equipment. By doing it myself, I can modify things to fit my use. I.e. I will be making a bridge drawer! Slots for floyds and strat style bridges mostly what I need. Also a tuner organization drawer, and a slide out pickup "library"

[demonx]

I forgot to mention, what I usually do if its a floyd/kahler guitar is when the bridges arrive, the boxes are big enough to keep all hardware and elec in, including the pickups etc if you.

So i'll rip out the packing inside the box and store each guitars parts like that in a drawer. Or because they are stackable you could shelve them if you wanted.

Its neat and compact. And you can just scribble a number at the end if each box so you know which guitar it belongs to without having to open half a dozen to find the right one.

[rhoads56]

And you can just scribble a number at the end if each box so you know which guitar it belongs to without having to open half a dozen to find the right one.

Its good to see you treat your customers as numbers. I use their names.

[demonx]

Its good to see you treat your customers as numbers. I use their names.

You've actually hit straight onto another storage issue.

Data storage.

I'm sure a builder such as yourself would have to be super organized. I know even a small build like myself has folders and folders of guitar data.

The way I organise this is a folder of builds. Each build has its own folder. In that folder are all the pics related to that build and a file containing the customer info.

Also, after the build is delivered, sometimes you get sent "thanks" pics or videos or sounds samples, I'll put those into the guitars folder as well as it's nice to get things like that. Makes you feel good. So I keep them!

Each guitar folder is titled as the following "### - Joe Bloggs SS7" or "### - John Jennys All Aussie SS6"

So the first three numbers are the build number, then the name of the customer or a brief description of the build.

This way I can search for builds quickly by the number, or I can search for the customers name. If the customer wants the build updates posted on facebook (not all of them do, not everyone is on facebook. A lot of my customers aren't.) then I'll post it as "John Jennys All Aussie timber SS6", the number is not needed, yet in the workshop, the box will have the build number so I'm not writing out a long sentence on every piece. It'll just say "123" and I can reference that easily.

Also I keep a file of the build specs, as much information on the build as well as the contact details of the customer and the payment details, so I can quick reference everything I need to know during the build or in the future long after the build.

[rhoads56]

Im a lot less organised. If in the far future anyone ever wanted to document my business and history, they'd be in for a tough time.

[Workingman]

So far all I have done is repairs and restore work, no builds. When working on a project, I use an old printers type tray to orginize parts (particularly electronics). That way they are available but orginized. Also that way I could justify buying the tray which I got because I thought it was cool.

[bob123]

I purchased a storage box for my screws and tuners and stuff like that. Its astounding how many little boxes and crap I was able to get rid of just by condensing into one spot.

I'll upload pics of my home made bench and shelf, its cleaning up real well!

[bob123]

Ok gents. Ive wracked my brain on this one. Short of putting them in a baggy and stuffing them in a box, does anyone have any ideas for clever organization and storage of these? This is about 2/3'rds of my collection of tuners, I have about 150 tuners lol. If anyone is looking for gotoh or grover tuners... let me know... I've posted em on ebay pretty cheap, but no nibbles on em for whatever reason.

Edited October 5, 2013 by bob123