Storage solution for resistors needed

[blue_lateral]

For the space challenged, zippered plastic bags, arranged with a hierarchy by the multiplier band.

Well almost. I'm a bit old fashioned, and I use the multiplier band as it would have been with 5%-10%-20% resistors no matter how many bands were actually used. In other words, 1K is always red and 33K is always orange no matter how many bands are are actually used or what tolerance. This means modern 1% and 2% resistors are always shifted by one color. If you use primarily modern resistors, you might want to go the other way.

OK so each value is in a zipper type snack bag with a piece of paper, usually a folded over post it note. On that piece of paper is about a 3/4"(19mm) dot of the color, the name of the color written out, the value in Ohms, and the wattage. So for 1.2K 1/2W, the big red dot, "Red", "1.2K" , "1/2W". Markings can't get rubbed off the bags this way. Each ohmic value has it's own little bag.

All 1/2W "Red" bags go in a slightly larger bag marked "Red" although you can tell anyway from all those big red dots in the individual bags inside. Each 1/2W color gets it's own bag like this, silver through blue so far.

All the 1/2W bags go in a yet larger bag. Identical bag hierarchies exist for 1W, 2W, 3W, and 1/4W. All these bags go in a yet larger bag with a piece of paper inside listing the type of resistors, "carbon comp" in this case, and the wattages inside. By now this is all quite huge, and the top level bag is some enormous zipper bag meant to hold several pairs of shoes, or something like that.

I've also done this with my modern film resistors, in 1/2W, 1/4W, and 1/8W, although as mentioned earlier the colors are intentionally shifted by one.

Since all the bags are clear, it is incredibly fast to drill down and find the resistor you are looking for. It also makes it obvious when there is a value missing, and easy if you need to add a another value in-between. My Akro-Mills and similar cabinets were really getting out of hand. I've got rid of most of them. I just don't have the space.

[moffy]

@blue_lateral, fascinating, I agree the draw style cabinets can take up a lot of space.

[Zero999]

Here's how I store my resistors.
I have two cases: one for values of 3k3 and below and one for 3k6 and above.

There's one tube for each value, apart from 1R to 8.2R and 1.2M to 10M which only have E12 values and are sorted as 1R to 1R5, 1R8 to 2R7, 3R3 to 4R7 and 5R6 to 8R6 and 1M2 to 1M8, 2M2 to 3M3, 3M9 to 5M6, and 6M8 to 10M respectively. Then there's >10M which is is empty at the moment, as I don't have any resistors in >10M and <1R which is quite full. The short fat tube at the bottom right is filled with miscellaneous resistor values.

 
Resistor case outside

Resistor case inside 

[RAPo]

I have the same solution + a small box with used parts from old projects.

I've tried many methods, the best for me in the last 30 years was to use paper-mail envelopes.  First glue/seal the envelope then cut it in half, and put them all in a tray/box.

The envelopes in the picture were bought in bulk (1000 pcs, glued and cut in half to get 2000 pcs - good for small capacitors, and for low power transistor, too).  You can use as well envelopes from mailed paper invoices or other spam paper-letters in your mailbox, as long as the envelopes are the same size.


Image from https://hackaday.io/project/6261-new-a-free-lab-organizer

The merit is that it takes very little space, very easy to look for values (browse them like it were a Rolodex with addresses, the value of the resistor is written on the outside of the envelope).  Keep the envelopes sorted from the smallest value to the biggest.  Very practical for small amounts of TH resistors for prototyping or repairing something.  Not good for storing many hundreds or thousands of resistors of the same value, not for large quantities.


NOTE the 1k1 envelope is halfway-out of the tray.  That is not for the picture's esthetics.  That is a bookmark, because I've extracted the 1k envelope for use at the workbench (in the picture sited above the rest of the envelopes).  Later, the 1k1 bookmark is used to easily place back the 1k envelope right in front of the 1k1 bookmark, without wasting time to search between which envelopes should the 1k be placed back.

[moffy]

@Zero999, looks like some sort of biological samples case, clever.
@RaPo, thanks for the +1 for the envelopes.

[pcprogrammer]

I recently adapted something similar to organize my modules and other stuff.

I bought anti static zip lock bags on Aliexpress and labeled them with stickers I still had lying around.

The boxes I bought at the "Action" store and they fit perfectly on my shelves.

Very easy now to get something when doing a project. Before this I had a bunch of smaller containers stacked three deep and three high without labels. Was a nightmare to pick something from those.

[moffy]

@pcprogrammer, I am using similar boxes, but larger, one size for inside a cabinet and a larger size for under a piece of furniture. I use ziploc bags of various sizes to sort and separate the items stored inside the boxes.

[TizianoHV]

I found that mouser bags fit old floppy disk cases perfectly.

[moffy]

@TizianoHV, it's been ages since I've seen the old floppy disc cases, remember when Office came on something like 30 floppy discs. A modern repurposing.

P.S. MS Office 97 = 45 floppies, MS Office 97 Professional = 55 floppies.

[pcprogrammer]

I found that mouser bags fit old floppy disk cases perfectly.

Now there is an idea. I have a bunch of those floppy disk cases waiting to be repurposed. 

[Haenk]

Now there is an idea. I have a bunch of those floppy disk cases waiting to be repurposed. 

And I thought of myself being a hoarder
I think I tossed them all like 20 years ago, as I went with CD writers pretty early.

(Anyone remember the MacOS 7.x installation disks? I think I had a three digit number of installation disks for the various versions. Crazy. Solved everything by using the Developer CDs instead.)

[pcprogrammer]

Now there is an idea. I have a bunch of those floppy disk cases waiting to be repurposed. 

And I thought of myself being a hoarder
I think I tossed them all like 20 years ago, as I went with CD writers pretty early.

(Anyone remember the MacOS 7.x installation disks? I think I had a three digit number of installation disks for the various versions. Crazy. Solved everything by using the Developer CDs instead.)

I still have original floppies of Xilinx Xact, Orcad, Protel PCB, and who knows what lying around. Even have some 5 and a quarter inch floppies for a TRS-80, even though the TRS-80 is long gone. They don't take much space. 

A lot of the old stuff I had went to the dump. No longer working Aplle II's, TRS-80's, old PC's etc. My collection of old Mac's I donated to someone when we left for France, but for the rest of the stuff I thought it would be fun to play with once the house was finished. When I finally got round to playing with them a lot was broken down and I could, at the time, not be bothered to fix it and the wife convinced me to get rid off it. Do have some regret now.

[hli]

For bags (and other stuff where large boxes are not the best solution) I use a lot of these: https://www.auer-packaging.com/us/en/ESD-rack-boxes-and-material-flow-boxes/ESD-RK-3109.html . I selected ESD in a size fitting perfectly into these, and store nearly all ICs and discrete part in them. They are also quite inexpensive (although I have no idea how much shipping to the US would be, here in Germany its reasonable).

[moffy]

For bags (and other stuff where large boxes are not the best solution) I use a lot of these: https://www.auer-packaging.com/us/en/ESD-rack-boxes-and-material-flow-boxes/ESD-RK-3109.html . I selected ESD in a size fitting perfectly into these, and store nearly all ICs and discrete part in them. They are also quite inexpensive (although I have no idea how much shipping to the US would be, here in Germany its reasonable).

I bought a number of those with a wall mount from ALDI a while back, quite usefull for hardware etc.

[DavidKo]

I have mine in a storage solution bought long ago from the "Hema" a Dutch department store.

Still have to add the labels with the values though. Now it is counting to twelve to find the next decade. 

It holds the E12 range from 0 to 10M Ohm.

Looks like the ones from Mars Svratka that I have. I have created dividers for the drawers - you can put 4 different values of 0.25W resistors into one drawer. https://www.printables.com/model/588318-dividers-for-mars-svratka-storage-drawers

[Zero999]

@Zero999, looks like some sort of biological samples case, clever.

I got it for free from where I used to work. They were going to throw it out. It's branded RS, but the pictures don't show it, since the logo is on the other side.

I've had a quick look and couldn't find a simular thing, but I found this on instructables, using test tubes. You could buy some foam and an instrument case, to make a similar thing.
https://www.instructables.com/Resistor-Organizer-and-Storage/

[madires]

I'm using storage cabinets with small drawers, one drawer for each resistance value (E24). Works best for me since I often have more than the standard 0.25 W type in stock. 5W or 0603, doesn't matter, all in one drawer. And more rarely used E96 values go into small and cheap zip bags (in a large drawer). Similar setup for caps and any other components.

[pcprogrammer]

Looks like the ones from Mars Svratka that I have. I have created dividers for the drawers - you can put 4 different values of 0.25W resistors into one drawer. https://www.printables.com/model/588318-dividers-for-mars-svratka-storage-drawers

Yep, look the same. I have a bunch of dividers that came with the cabinets, but do not use them. Makes getting something from the drawer a bit more difficult and they tend to slide up allowing parts to mix. Sure I can use glue to fix them to over come this. Do not need it because I have plenty drawers that are still empty.

[shabaz]

Photo of a through-hole kit using the plastic bags method.. it would be an improvement if the resistor value was more prominent and larger on the label.
For SMD resistor DIY storage, I previously stored 0603 resistors in the little vials shown in the photo, but gave up on that because it's a lot of effort. Now I prefer to either use ready-made resistor books, or use the florist/coin envelopes. There are about 170 different values in the filing card box on the left in the photo, so it's very compact, and there's a lid for it although it mostly gets left open. For a dozen or so frequently-used capacitor values (1nF, 10nF, 100nF, 1uF, 2.2uF etc).,  I have those in a much smaller card filing box, in a few different sizes (e.g. 0402, 0603, etc.). Wurth and others make some great ready-made kits though, in a plastic box with little pots.

[moffy]

@madires, that's a nice way to do it but needs a lot of wall or shelf space. But if you have it, it's very convenient.
@shabaz, pictures really help, like the envelope method but transparent.

[Benta]

I use business card sleeves and store them in 4-ring A4 binders.
Like these:
https://www.amazon.com/Pockets-Business-Sleeves-Binder-Ultra-Clear/dp/B0B79X879B/
They have side entry for the pockets, so the resistors are pretty secure if the binder falls over.
Putting a sticker on each pouch is easy.
And expanding your selection is also easy: just buy another binder and more sleeves.

Downside is that they have 10 pockets per sleeve, which doesn't fit well with E12, E24 values.

Upside: the binders fit on any shelf.

Cheers.

[shabaz]

I use business card sleeves and store them in 4-ring A4 binders.
Like these:
https://www.amazon.com/Pockets-Business-Sleeves-Binder-Ultra-Clear/dp/B0B79X879B/
They have side entry for the pockets, so the resistors are pretty secure if the binder falls over.
Putting a sticker on each pouch is easy.
And expanding your selection is also easy: just buy another binder and more sleeves.

Downside is that they have 10 pockets per sleeve, which doesn't fit well with E12, E24 values.

Upside: the binders fit on any shelf.

Cheers.

It's a great method. I have a Susumi resistor kit and a tant cap kit that both use that. They have small plastic resealable bags with labels on them, the bags are just the right size to slide sideways into the pockets, so the pockets themselves don't even need labels if that's desired.
The susumi kit uses very small rings, to keep the binder slim too.

[moffy]

@Benta, that is a great solution, the pockets are almost a perfect size for 1/2W resistors.

[moffy]

Thank you for all of your excellent suggestions, I ended up going with Benta's suggestion because it fit with the modest quantity of resistors that I have.

[dustooff]

I have two A5 ring binder folders, one for SMD analog IC's the other digital IC SMD's.
Using old 3.5" floppy sleeves, fits most antistatic packets from the usual suspects,
fold the packet so you can read the label while flipping through.
2-3 packets/pocket, 2 pockets/sleeve, ~10 sleeves per folder.
(actually 4 pockets/sleeve if you use the sleeve label area.)