Pen kit storage

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foneman

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Apr 16, 2008
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Location
Salina, Kansas
I am looking for ideas on what would work best for storing all the pen kits/barrels/bushings/etc. One of the options I have been looking at is a Plano 777 tackle box. Does anyone have a single storage case that works well for them?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

John
 
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I use a hardware bin that I got from Lowe's to hold all of my bushings and tubes...it's about 5" deep with pretty much 1" square drawers...about 30 of them. It works great for me, especially for holding the tubes.

As far as pen kits, I have near 500 kits that I store at any one time, so I had to build my own storage after a number of failed commercial purchases. I built a rough-looking unit that's basically a 4 drawer chest with a whole bunch of compartments in it to store the different kits I have. I know my office is a mess in the picture, but give me a break, it's "harvest" season....I'm out in the shop!
 

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I am still very new at this as well, but I quickly found out that a tackle box has its drawbacks. First off, you will quickly run out of space. This is a very addictive hobby and unless your tackle box is the size of a rolling toolbox, you will quickly outgrow it. Secondly, if you accidently dump the contents, you're in trouble. This is especially true if you only store your bushings in the trays of the tackle box. I copied an idea from one of the folks from this site for my bearings. I purchased a set of thin wire shower curtain rings. I slip the bushings on a ring that has a lable on it for the bushing set. I then made a 18x24 inch hanging board with small cup hooks mounted on it. Above each cup hook is a plastic adhesive business card holder sleeve. The card inside the business card sleeve includes the bearing set number and the names of the pens that use that set of bearings. For my kits I have a "cubby hole" slot arrangement that I picked up a the local Goodwill for a couple of bucks. My next "project" is a lazy susan to hold all the drill bits I bought from Daniel in his drill bit group buy. Whoever said that pen making is a slippery slope towards poverty was not far from the truth, but it sure is fun:)

Jim Smith
 
I don't know the # but I use the clear Plano tackle boxes that I got at Wal Mart for around $5. They have a big compartment on the right side and 4 (I think) smaller ones on the left. I have one for every style pen I make and they're GREAT.
 
I use something like this (that I bought from Walmart for $15.00) but with all drawer sizes the same as the large ones at the bottom. It is wall mounted and very convenient to use.

http://www.organize-it-online.com/itm_multidrawer.html

multidrawer.jpg


Each bushing set is stored on a drawer with a couple of kits (if I have more, I store them all in a separate box). I also have a card with pen info like drill bit sizes, tube length, final OD (outer diameter) of the pen at 4 areas, etc. All these info helps me from selecting a blank up until I am done. I do use a caliper while turning but having the rough dimensions helps me.

I pull the drawer when I am working with a particular kit and I have everything I need. It is also big enough to hold the blank (or drilled, tubed blank). Once done, it goes back to the wall.
 
My wife is the consumate thrift store shopper so a couple of years ago she brought in a rotating 3 sided display about 6ft tall. It's backed with standard pegboard so I bought a bunch of hooks at Lowes. It's wide enough to hold 4 kit bags side by side so I hang all my kits with each style and plating on it's own peg. Makes inventorying my kits a lot easier since I keep about 100 to 150 kits at any one time.
 
hewunch said:
I do the same thing.
Click to expand...

I'm with Scott and Hans on this one. I also bought some 3x3 inch ziplock plastic bags and printed labels on them for bushings. They also hang on the peg board. For my drills, I drilled several holes in the 2" side of a 2x4 and screwed it to the wall. My trusty Sharpie labeled the holes for each drill I use.
 
I use the small Plano plastic containers,not sure about the model # but it measures about 5 or 5 1/2 inches by 9 inches. Holds 10 kits pretty good. Built a wooden compartment cabinet to hold all 50( no pics messy shop.) If I recall they cost about 2.00 at Wally World. Fits my needs very well.
 
thanks

Thanks to all of you for the good advice! I am glad I asked before buying the tackle box. Now to decide which way I want to go.

John
 
I've tried a lot of different ways but what works best for me is keeping the kits in the bags the come in and then sorted into larger zip lock bags and then into a drawer. I also use the small Plano plastic containers for drill bits and other small tools. I put Bushings into those plastic pen tubes. I have cut down to about 2.5". Each tube is labeled with the kit name and then I put them into the Plano box. I had been putting bushings in the Plano box loose until it got knocked off the bench.
 
No matter what you do, you should definitely keep your stuff in the bags. Thankfully I haven't knocked anything off of the table or whatever, but I know that if I did, I would only have to look at the little bags of bushings to sort them out rather than trying to separate wall street bushings from navigator bushings.....I shudder at the thought....
 
I stole several of my wife's Glad storage containers. The come in several sizes and stack great. I write on the outside with a felt marker the type of kits contained in each holder. Bushings and parts got into a holder like Dario showed that I got onsale at HF. Works for me.
 
In our shop, pen kits go into stackable boxes like these and are labeled and organized on shelves. These came from Dollar General, I think.
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Bushings go into these little boxes that all go into the bigger box. The type of bushing is written in sharpie on each tiny box. These came from HF:
24large.jpg


In my FIL's shop,
Kits and bushings are stored in boxes similar to these that we picked up cheaply at Big Lots:
port_qstore_div_box.jpg


This method requires the unpackaging and reorganizing of the pen kits, which I am not fond of.
 
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I use the Plano plastic tacle boxes from Wal-Mart. Cheap. I usually keep 1 kit complete in the bag with the kit number on it. Then I take the rest and put each part in its own individual compartment. I also leave a copy of the instructions with each kit.
 
I use shoe box sized plastic boxes I get from Lowe's. I then label the box ends with the kit names. Boxes are stacked on shelves. Plastic boxes I get about $1.50 each.
 
My kit answer is not really repeatable. I found a bunch of little plastic boxes that hold about three kits each. I use one for each kit style I have and they stack at the back of my bench. bushings go in the small parts drawers but I do need to get a larger one. my cabinet only has 36 drawers and I ran out about 12 sets of bushings ago.
 
Blind_Squirrel said:
I keep each kit in the bag it came in. I keep the bags arranged by type of kit on a peg board.
Click to expand...

My system also...

for the bushings, I have 3 plastic boxes from CSUSA with the little dividers.. each bushing set is labeled and dropped into a slot... more or less divided by pen kit vendor... PSI's in one box, CSUSA in another and others in third.
 
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