I’m rather green with surface mount parts. I’ve been working on an Ultra Probe and I think I finally got it close to be working correctly. While doing this I purchased a bunch of extra parts and am wondering how to store them. I have a boat load of through hole parts that I keep in drawers, but these SM parts are so small. To date I have left them in the small bags they came in. My first idea was to make some drawers that are the same size as these bags and then file the bags by part type and value. Any other ideas or methods? Thanks, Mike
When MLC posted each new project on Patreon i was very busily employed so never had the time to dedicate to doing a fully completed build. I would instead buy up the required SMDs & parts for each project that appealed & stored them in what became a bit of a hoard! I’m now find myself almost a year now jobless so have chosen retirement as the new point in my life which means i have to time for each Project.
I certainly have a lot of SMD parts & storage is a problem, not to mention the minute you open sealed plastic pack at the bench during assembly, it’s very easy to miss-place the cut ribbon piece & the bench is soon awash of wee baggies!! I can’t access the containers that Brian Wood linked to on Amazon so i have chosen to try these ring binder leaves that will take a strip of ribbon piece & there’s a place to write down the device partcode. This should come somewhere closer to a better system i am certain. (Time will tell). the “uSleev” https://eevblog.store/collections/parts-storage
If you know someone with a 3d printer you could ask them (pay them) to make custom boxes and print them for you. 3D sites like Thangs, makerworld, and 3dcult have some already designed if you want an idea.
Brian, I like that container and will order one today. How do you label each individual parts bin?
Hi, I get the labels for them from Avery. Here’s the link. https://shorturl.at/peaSU At the bottom left of that page you will find a template, to either use on Avery or download a Microsoft Word template. I hope this halps you.
Woodb180
Thanks a million
While not visually appealing, I tend to keep small specific parts like that in their bags from mouser. I find it more valuable to keep them in their bag with all the info so there’s no doubt on the component and the data sheet can be pulled easily with a quick barcode scan along with reordering. I do try to sort them by type so it stays somewhat organized.
Radios + Tubes + Scopes + Cars= Nothing better!
Hello everyone.
New in here and honored to be among knowledgeable friends.
I have a question that hopefully someone out there can help me with. I know when replacing resistors in RF sections of a radio (American 5 or 6), You should avoid using the newer film type resistor due to the inner coil construction possibly effecting the front end circuits. I now save my older Allen-Bradly type resistors even if resistance has gone higher over time. My question is may I reuse them in another circuit place where the schematic requires that higher value? Does it slowly creep higher over many years to come or stay basically at its found higher resistance value?
I know this is a very odd question because resistors are cheap. But RF circuits could be affected by the coil inside these newly manufactured film resistors. I have many new and unused older Allen-Bradly resistors too. Since most vintage radios seem to have usually Silver 10%, or blank being 20% tolerance resistors in them, Should I just place it in my next size up parts replacement tray for the next size up where it will fall on the lower side of 10% or 20% tolerance? Example: An older Allen-Bradly carbon resistor is color coded to be 1K ohms. However it is now measuring out of circuit to be slightly over 1.1K ohms (Silver banded). A replacement was made to where it came from but I really don’t want to throw away an Allen-Bradly that could be placed in my 1.2K bin drawer. It then is within tolerance, and even over time will be creeping towards the correct value for its placement in the circuit. Does anyone out there do this? Once an old resistor starts to creep higher does it follow a linear rate of years to climb further, or now the higher value is usually set for many years to come by the new value it set itself?
Maybe someone out there is repurposing older stock resistors, and like me searching Ham Festivals, etc., and discarded old radios for those older Allen-Bradly types even if now showing higher ohmic values. If so please post your thoughts. And a big thanks to Mr. Carlson too if getting a chance to read this and adds a comment as well.
Thank you.
Michael in Florida
@michael-in-palm-beach
This is a really great question, but you should post it anew in the General area, rather than here in this thread, where it is tangent to the original post topic.