Storing Bushings-Pill Bottles

Randy_ · Dec 23, 2008

Not the first time this subject has been visited; but I thought the following may be useful to someone. Until now, I have just stored my bushings in the original plastic bag that they came in and put all of the little baggies in an empty plastic butter tub. Kind of outgrowing that system, however, so I am going to make up a little box that holds plastic pill bottles and keep one set of bushings per bottle.

I found a gal on eBay who is selling pill bottles for 7¢ a piece including postage; but you have to buy a case of 380 bottles. Very good price; but way more than I need. I suppose I could buy the case and resell what I don't need; but I don't want to be bothered.

I visited the local drug store and talked to the pharmacist and he sold me 25 bottles and caps for $7.....quite a bit more per unit; but with a lot less hassle.

If someone is interested in a big lot of pill bottles, check out eBay auction #380089525900. They have 10 or 12 cases available and the ad runs for another 20 days.

VisExp · Dec 23, 2008

Hey Randy

Another option is to go to the photo department in your local Walmart and ask if you can have some empty 35mm film canisters.

Used to be they would hand you a huge stack right there. With the amount of digital photography there is at the moment, when I asked the lady she only had a couple. She said she would save them for me, I went back a week later and she gave me a couple dozen.

penmanship · Dec 23, 2008

I also use film containers........another fellow I know found a spice rack at a garage sale. It had about a dozen little jars, in an upright holder that roatated. Then he labelled the lids, and could easily & neatly find what he needed.

Skye · Dec 23, 2008

The right sized pill bottles could also be used for bottle stopper molds.

Daniel · Dec 23, 2008

We used to use baby food jars for storing small items int he shop. you nail the lid to a board then hang this on the wall. the jars screw onto the lid for storing. you might be able to do this with the pill bottle as well. sort of keeps it in it's place when not being used.

GoodTurns · Dec 23, 2008

Skye said:
The right sized pill bottles could also be used for bottle stopper molds.

as can vicks or robitussin dosing caps!

Woodlvr · Dec 23, 2008

Thanks Randy. I had to reread the auction specs and saw that there are 380 bottles in the bunch, I do not know what I would do with that many. :')

Randy_ · Dec 23, 2008

VisExp said:
.....Another option is to go to the photo department in your local Walmart and ask if you can have some empty 35mm film canisters......

Keith: Being somewhat of a dinosaur, I have user film cans for a multitude of storage applications in past years; but as you point out, they are not so easy to come by now.

Other point is, labeling is an issue. I wanted to put labels on the cap of the container and that is a problem with the film canisters as they are not flat like the pill bottle caps are.

Randy_ · Dec 23, 2008

Daniel said:
.....you nail the lid to a board then hang this on the wall. the jars screw onto the lid for storing......

Daniel: I learned that trick from my Grandfather and have used it many times......it works very well although I have managed to drop one or two of those glass jars which does make a mess!!

In my current shop (garage) arrangement, that storage method won't be so convenient. I plan to make a little Masonite box with dividers that can be put away in an old dresser with the rest of my pencrafting stores when not in use. The dresser is not pretty; but it was free........I liberated it from a pile of stuff that was by the curb for pick-up. I believe in recycling!!:wink:

BRobbins629 · Dec 23, 2008

Shower curtain hooks (thanks Don Ward) with a laminated label. Haven't lost one since!

OKLAHOMAN · Dec 23, 2008

:biggrin:Ditto!!!

BRobbins629;[COLOR=red said:
776781[/color]]Shower curtain hooks (thanks Don Ward) with a laminated label. Haven't lost one since!

Randy_ · Dec 24, 2008

Don's system is a good one; but it doesn't work for me. My lathe is in the center of the room rather than against a wall so there is no convenient place closeby to hang the SC hooks.

dogcatcher · Dec 24, 2008

I have one of the grade school pencil boxes for each type of pen. In these boxes I keep all the bushings, the drill bit, a few of the kits and the extra parts from creating original "mistakes". Each box is labeled as to the type of pen, if I want to make a certain pen everything is in the pencil box except the blank. And in some cases I have the blanks that are pre drilled and ready to glue in the box.

You have to check around, some of the boxes are poorly made and cheap, the latches and hinges are not very good and if you drop them everything is scattered. I make game calls I use the same system to keep track of all the pieces and parts of the game calls. Even have special mandrel adapter on each box of reach type of call, save a lot of time looking for the mandrel for each call.

Marvin

intillzah · Dec 25, 2008

My wife is on meds, so I have an ample supply of medicine bottles.

TellicoTurning · Dec 25, 2008

Randy_ said:
I visited the local drug store and talked to the pharmacist and he sold me 25 bottles and caps for $7.....quite a bit more per unit; but with a lot less hassle.

With my wife's and my own list of medications, it only takes about a month or so to come up with the 25 pill bottles, just costs a little more than $7.

I bought 3 of those little boxes from CSUSA that has the movable dividers and store all my bushing in them. Only drawback is there are not enough dividers in each box and I have one box with no dividers since I used them in the other two.

jaylopez · Dec 30, 2008

I use small boxes from Container Store

I use these boxes from Container Store. They are $.99 each. I cut off the label from the bushing bag and tape it to the box. As I add more bushings to my collection, I just rearrange the order of the boxes to keep them in alphabetical order.

www · Dec 30, 2008

I keep my bushing and drill bits in a tackle box. I keep both in the original bags

sbell111 · Dec 30, 2008

I have a couple of these containers from HF.

Each container holds 24 small boxes that are easily labeled. I think they cost about 4 bucks.

woody350ep · Dec 30, 2008

I like that box Steve, my HF doesn't carry them of course

JWS Penworks · Dec 30, 2008

woody350ep said:
I like that box Steve, my HF doesn't carry them of course

Here you go Woody....http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=90243

Thanks for the ideas guys.

John

Mudder · Dec 30, 2008

Randy_ said:
Don's system is a good one; but it doesn't work for me. My lathe is in the center of the room rather than against a wall so there is no convenient place closeby to hang the SC hooks.

uhhh, Look up.

Do you have a ceiling over your head? Wooden joists perhaps? Hang a wooden dowel from some chain.

My solution was to buy 2 of these from Woodcraft:

http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=147055&FamilyID=5822

attached them to the ceiling right by the lathe and the problem was solved.

keithkarl2007 · Dec 30, 2008

how about these, they keep all bushings together http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=366112&name=cases&user_search=1&sfile=1&jump=44

woody350ep · Dec 30, 2008

Yeah, thanks for that link john. I just can't see spending the money on shipping for a $4 item lol. Any free shipping coupons out there?

Randy_ · Dec 30, 2008

Mudder said:
uhhh, Look up.

Do you have a ceiling over your head? Wooden joists perhaps? Hang a wooden dowel from some chain.

My solution was to buy 2 of these from Woodcraft:

http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=147055&FamilyID=5822

attached them to the ceiling right by the lathe and the problem was solved.

When I look up, I see the overhead garage door so that isn't really a convenient option for me.

Had the ceiling been available, "two of those things" would have cost me $42 + another $6 or $7 for shipping while my pill bottles set me back $7.28.

Maybe my frugal ways explain why I don't need a bailout from the government??

Raymond · Jan 3, 2009

I use a 7-day pill organizer I found near the pharmacy at WalMart. It has two compartments per day (AM and PM) so it holds 14 sets of bushings. They come in several sizes. Mine's the larger size. I used my Brother P-Touch labeler to label each flip-up lid. That then fits into a clear plastic fishing tackle box from the sporting goods department. I think it's a Plano 3750. The front half of the box is big enough to hold the pill box. I then store all of my spare tubes in the remaining adjustable compartments of the Plano box. If I run out of compartments for bushings, I can duplicate the setup.

W3DRM · Jan 3, 2009

woody350ep said:
Yeah, thanks for that link john. I just can't see spending the money on shipping for a $4 item lol. Any free shipping coupons out there?

I was told by a person at my local HF (Carson City, NV) that if they don't have an item that is in their catalog or on-line, they will order it for me and let me know when it comes in - thus saving any shipping costs. Delivery may be a couple of weeks though...

Rangertrek · Jan 7, 2009

Storage Tubes

I had seen this post while on vacation and just now had a chance to add to the thread. I happen to have access to centrifuge tubes and use these to store my bushings and trimmer sleeves. Very durable and you can write on the cap to number the bushing set.

If interested, I may be able get some of these. These come in boxes of 500! I can probably buy some from my company and resell. They cost about $0.25 each. I can probably get 15-20 in a box or envelope. PM if interested.

If there is enough interest, I can place a post on the individual classified page.

Storing Bushings-Pill Bottles

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