RESISTOR STORAGEThanks for another round of replies, new ideas and cool pics !
AVG and Factory eat the cake, I am impressed...
Tubes ?! Interesting !
That's original... but not for me, reminds me too much of the tubes they used to suck my blood a few years ago when I was doing lab exams ! All the medical gear scares the shit out of me, makes me shiver, brrr !!!
Only exception : I am OK to buy a big syringe... of flux ! That's about as far as I am willing to compromise...
The envelope idea seduced me ! Same principle as the zip-lock bags, without the drawbacks of Zip-lock bags. They are floppy, and opening them up, when they are small like that, with my big fingers takes time and is a pain, brrr... not to mention that the component leads like to stab the bag or get caught in the Zip-lock part, and then you have to stick two fingers in the bag to try to "free" the components.. and again it's a pain to do because bag is so small. I think an envelope will solve all these problems at once, and even add value on top of that : brown paper is more qualitative to me, more natural/pleasing a material, both to look at and handle/play with... goes well with my wooden drawers as well, it's all a consistent theme. Also the envelope will be much less floppy, will make it easier to flick through them looking for the one you want. The while labels will also visually contrast better with a brown paper than a transparent bag. Will make it easier/faster/more comfortable to look at and flick through, I think.
Yeah, I think an envelope, for me at least, will be a winner in every department. So I have just ordered some ! The "pay slip"/ wage ones, 10x10cm are cool... but searching a bit more, I realized there are tons of similar small envelopes with slightly different dimensions. I found some 6x10cm ones. So same width as the Zip-lock bags, hence I will be able to achieve the same compactness/ storage density !
They are dirt cheap too.... in the UK ! Like 5 Euros for 100 of them.. (even found an ad, a guy selling a whole 1,000 box of the 10x10 ones, for only 16 money.. ON OFFER on top of that !
)... BUT I have to add no less than 20 Euros for shipping and import duties !!
So instead I searched French Ebay.. but not much luck. So looked at Amazon instead... found some, yeah but.... at 2 or 3 times the price ! 11 Euros for 120 envelopes !
https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B08GSKBJVQ/ref=pe_27091421_487052621_TE_itemBut... no import duties to pay, no import bullshit to deal with eventually, faster shipping, and... I could even get free shipping if I accepted to get the parcel delivered to a local shop near me, rather than having it delivered directly to my house. So doing that, somehow the final bill is less than if I bought from the UK. Also, since I can get free and fast shipping, I don't "need" to buy many hundreds of them at once... so I bought only 120, to see how it goes, and if I like it I can always buy some more.
Should get them by Wednesday according to amazon. However amazon sucks ! It does not offer me to pay with Paypal ! I have some money there which I could have used !
So now I just need to buy some labels for my laser printer, and get cracking...
@BU : thanks for the link for the metal resistor kit ! Much more affordable than I thought, and fast shipping from Germany, not 3 months wait from China-direct ! Am tempted !
Then I would just have to get the other half of the E24 series, and I will be in business !
Well I probably already have most of them in my existing drawers... albeit 1/4W carbon not 0.6W metal.
Also, this evening just picked at one of my local H/W stores, a couple drawer units. Have 3 H/W stores near me, that one I never go to because it's at the other side of the city, takes times and lots of traffic, brr... but I looked at the websites for these 3 stores, and the farthest one was the only one of the 3 stores to have drawers units that looked decent to me, and with good value for money, so I decided to make the trip down there for once.
Did so at 19H30 (they close at 20H00) this way I avoided the traffic on the road and nobody in the store to slow me down at the checkout.... cool.
Anyway, good value I said, at least around here : a 50 drawer unit, with nice polypropylene drawers not shitty britle plastic, and a very decent looking metallic frame, that looks just as good as my old red racco I showed yesterday. Cost 26,90 Euros :
https://www.castorama.fr/casier-de-rangement-mac-allister-metal-50-tiroirs/3663602905448_CAFR.prdThe only thing that put me off at first, was the horrible, screaming, eye bleeding flashy blue colour !
But in real life, thank goodness the blue is not that bright, it's much more toned down. I think the guy who took the photo for the website, went a bit crazy with the studio lights that's all !
In the flesh, they are much more acceptable.... they look... yeah, they look 100% smurf blue !
That's the price to pay to get good value for money : the store sells these drawers under their own "brand" name ( " Mac Allister " ), hence they used their corporate colour, which is that blue. Every tool they sell with their brand, bears this shade of blue...
Anyway, now that I have the unit on my bench... I don't find this blue so ugly, somehow it kinda "works"... might live with it. If not, it should be quick and easy to just repaint them, seeing as it's painted metal, not cheap crap plastic.
I also bought another unit from them, smaller, but useful because it has some large drawers at the bottom : 3 medium sized ones, and one mega large / full width one. So adds some flexibility.. like when storing large electrolytic caps, say... or power resistors, or what not.
Anyway, it's too early for now for me to know how exactly I will end up storing all my stuff, but I bought these units if just as an interim solution, en route towards a more permanent solution....to help me clear the bench as I just keep unpacking and sorting stuff...