Ok, two silly questions:
1) How do you store your parts ? I like to buy them on-line, so they come in a bag with their sticker. Mouser sticker fades after few months, don't ask me why.
2) I did a full cycle of washing machine a tumble dryer to some resistors. Do you think I can still use them ?
Thanks,
D.
1) How do you store your parts ? I like to buy them on-line, so they come in a bag with their sticker. Mouser sticker fades after few months, don't ask me why.
2) I did a full cycle of washing machine a tumble dryer to some resistors. Do you think I can still use them ?
Thanks,
D.
1) I've noticed that too with any other vendor. I think it's because it's thermal paper, the stuff just bleaches out over time. I keep the parts in the ziplock bags they come in and simply mark the value with a pen. Sometimes the part number too if I later want to check for specs.
I have a box with the resistors stored in their bags, vertically, sorted by value so it's easy to dial through the values.
There's also a box for capacitors and one semiconductors. The rest - like small heatsinks, RCA connectors, fuses and so on - is stored in shoeboxes.
Tubes are stored in wooden boxes that came with cakes (Sacher for instance) or wine.
2) Depends, what type of resistor were they? I'd put them in the oven (lowest setting) for like half a day and measure a few before and after.
I have a box with the resistors stored in their bags, vertically, sorted by value so it's easy to dial through the values.
There's also a box for capacitors and one semiconductors. The rest - like small heatsinks, RCA connectors, fuses and so on - is stored in shoeboxes.
Tubes are stored in wooden boxes that came with cakes (Sacher for instance) or wine.
2) Depends, what type of resistor were they? I'd put them in the oven (lowest setting) for like half a day and measure a few before and after.
i'll take some pics, best way to explain, will send you an email in the next day or 2 mate.
with the resistors, it will depend on the type as mentioned above, but i would think most all will be fine, i second the recommendation for long slow oven, but also addiyionally i would recommend if you can source the, to put the resistors in a sealed plastic contained with some silica gel sachets
with the resistors, it will depend on the type as mentioned above, but i would think most all will be fine, i second the recommendation for long slow oven, but also addiyionally i would recommend if you can source the, to put the resistors in a sealed plastic contained with some silica gel sachets
I run a pro audio repair shop, so I may stock more parts than a hobbyist. I use the 60 drawer part bins a lot. I have one for small resistors - 1/8-1/4-1/2-1 watt, I have another for powr resistors. One for fuses, several for transistors, grouped by package, and several for ICs, separately grouped digital versus analog. Larger drawer bins for things like pots, larger e-caps.
But inevitably, the collection grows faster than my drawer count. I leave new parts with no drawers in their Mouser bags. Or wherever they came from. New labels seem to fade less than old ones, but often the print is small, so I draw the part type on the bag in large letters with a Sharpie.
All the loose bagged parts go on an inventory list on a legal pad. I have a box for them all, and inside the box are a few numbered large plastic bags. Loosely sorted. Bag 1 is MOSFETs. Bag 2 is diodes. Bag 3 is bipolar TO3P and TO247 and similar. Other bags for TO92, then TO220, and even odd value resistors, like to 1% stuff for some amps. (249 ohm, 11.3 ohm, etc) I can refer to the sheet rather than rifle through the bags.
After wave soldering, many boards are washed. They are sent through a thing not unlike the dishwasher machine in a restaurant. Water won't hurt the parts as a rule. And that is why you sometimes get a part like a small relay with a sticker on it that says something like remove after washing. And other parts like sealed pots thay say something like safe for washing.
But inevitably, the collection grows faster than my drawer count. I leave new parts with no drawers in their Mouser bags. Or wherever they came from. New labels seem to fade less than old ones, but often the print is small, so I draw the part type on the bag in large letters with a Sharpie.
All the loose bagged parts go on an inventory list on a legal pad. I have a box for them all, and inside the box are a few numbered large plastic bags. Loosely sorted. Bag 1 is MOSFETs. Bag 2 is diodes. Bag 3 is bipolar TO3P and TO247 and similar. Other bags for TO92, then TO220, and even odd value resistors, like to 1% stuff for some amps. (249 ohm, 11.3 ohm, etc) I can refer to the sheet rather than rifle through the bags.
After wave soldering, many boards are washed. They are sent through a thing not unlike the dishwasher machine in a restaurant. Water won't hurt the parts as a rule. And that is why you sometimes get a part like a small relay with a sticker on it that says something like remove after washing. And other parts like sealed pots thay say something like safe for washing.
Ziplock bags, stickers, Sharpie markers... yep, yep, and yep. I also use the plastic divided boxes you can get at the hobby store. Some of my capacitors I'll group together as a decade value - not hard to grab a "105" instead of "104" without a search and sort mission. For my home workbench, the parts drawers just take up too much space so I only have a few for switches, jacks, plugs, etc.
No, I just mean how do you put them in order. I have a mess, trying to keep them in ziplock, mostly how they come from the shops. But I am never sure what I have and what I don't. I have excel lists, but I cannot update them any time I pull a resistor.
I end up always having the wrong value or number of components. Maybe I did not reach yet critical mass of junk.
By the way, these wooden drawers are very nice !!!
Thanks,
Davide
Someone mentioned envelopes, and I have done that too, very simple and cheap.
You could use regular letter size envelopes or buy some small heavy paper ones, often called "coin" envelopes or what you might find keys in when a desk or something includes drawer keys. 2 x 4" or 2.5 x 4" or really whatever you want, as long as the envelope is longer than the component wire leads. COme to think of it, I have a few boxes of manilla envelopes used this way to store old surplus caps. 6x10" I think.
ANyway, parts in envelope, stack them standing on a short end in some box. Write what is in each along the top short edge. Then your box of envelopes can be searched like a file drawer.
You could use regular letter size envelopes or buy some small heavy paper ones, often called "coin" envelopes or what you might find keys in when a desk or something includes drawer keys. 2 x 4" or 2.5 x 4" or really whatever you want, as long as the envelope is longer than the component wire leads. COme to think of it, I have a few boxes of manilla envelopes used this way to store old surplus caps. 6x10" I think.
ANyway, parts in envelope, stack them standing on a short end in some box. Write what is in each along the top short edge. Then your box of envelopes can be searched like a file drawer.
Nikon:
I do love your expression: Crital Mass of Junk.
Been there and do that.
I use coin envelopes 3"x5" (use calculator to go metric). You can fit 20 or so envelopes of res or caps into a 4"x12" (use calculator to get metric) cardboard parts bin. I do that with all small parts.
I have seperate bins for audio ICs, digital (by series) ICs etc and several bins for specilty ICs in numerical (alpha ignored) order.
In our small production runs we use solder with water suluable flux. The assembled boards go into the dishwasher with the rest of our dinnerware. Than the boards get dried in a convection oven at 90 Deg. C for an hour. After that the parts that can not handle water (primarily potentiometers) get installed.
E
I do love your expression: Crital Mass of Junk.
Been there and do that.
I use coin envelopes 3"x5" (use calculator to go metric). You can fit 20 or so envelopes of res or caps into a 4"x12" (use calculator to get metric) cardboard parts bin. I do that with all small parts.
I have seperate bins for audio ICs, digital (by series) ICs etc and several bins for specilty ICs in numerical (alpha ignored) order.
In our small production runs we use solder with water suluable flux. The assembled boards go into the dishwasher with the rest of our dinnerware. Than the boards get dried in a convection oven at 90 Deg. C for an hour. After that the parts that can not handle water (primarily potentiometers) get installed.
E
Pile Of Stuff
Hello,
I use a pair of surplus library card file cabinets the kind you would see all the Dewey Decimal index cards in. In the drawers there are a lot of envelopes and small plastic deli take out containers. I use a brief case size and shape plastic storage thing with individual spaces for power supply stuff like diodes capacitors and resistors. For bigger things like tubes I use egg crate bins placed on a wire four shelf food storage rack on wheels.
I started to use a computer inventory system, that is a job in its’ self and took too much time.
Then there are one gallon ziplocks full of things I use to breadboard. Lots of cut wire, once used cathode resistors and bypass capacitors. Talk of a pile of stuff.
DT
All just for fun!
Hello,
I use a pair of surplus library card file cabinets the kind you would see all the Dewey Decimal index cards in. In the drawers there are a lot of envelopes and small plastic deli take out containers. I use a brief case size and shape plastic storage thing with individual spaces for power supply stuff like diodes capacitors and resistors. For bigger things like tubes I use egg crate bins placed on a wire four shelf food storage rack on wheels.
I started to use a computer inventory system, that is a job in its’ self and took too much time.
Then there are one gallon ziplocks full of things I use to breadboard. Lots of cut wire, once used cathode resistors and bypass capacitors. Talk of a pile of stuff.
DT
All just for fun!
I use the plastic shoebox sized containers. They stack quite nicely and are tranparent enough I can see what's inside. I also add a small label to the end to quickly tell me what's inside (small caps, large caps, 0-100 ohm resistors, heatsinks, etc.) I've bought surplus in the past (10 kilos of assorted resistors on tape!), so each value of those gets its own plastic bag with a piece of paper inside indicating value and/or part number. I'll also set aside an additional box for each project where I can "shop" for all the parts and keep them in one place while awaiting the next step in the project. So far for all the various projects, electronic parts, cables, computer parts, power cords, etc, I've got about 40-60 boxes in three sizes stacked on shelves.
I store mine in various plastic boxes. One box for Surface mount stuff, one for through hole, another for power sized components, one for wires/cables, and a few more with random stuff in that I've salvaged from old gear.
Besides that there are parts lying around over the place, a transformer here, a heat sink there etc.
Most of the stuff remains in the plastic bag they came in. I would say about half of the stuff uses the heat triggered ink stuff and this does fade, which is annoying and the other half use proper ink.
Besides that there are parts lying around over the place, a transformer here, a heat sink there etc.
Most of the stuff remains in the plastic bag they came in. I would say about half of the stuff uses the heat triggered ink stuff and this does fade, which is annoying and the other half use proper ink.
I'll put in a vote for keeping your inventory in a database. I resisted for a long time, but afterwards I was very glad I did it. You might not need to inventory all your 1k resistors, 0.1uF bypass caps, and 2N2222s, but having an inventory of semiconductors, switches, connectors, etc. can be very handy. As one example of many, when placing an order online you may want to add extra items to achieve a discount rate or offset shipping & handling fees. A couple of clicks and you'll have your inventory available to help choose those items, without having to "improvise" on the spot.
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