How to sort resistors ?

[ElectroNewby]

Hey that's a dumb question but I'd like to know how to sort resistors.

I mostly only have .25W resistors, from 1ohm to 3.3ohm and I divided into 6 groups:

1 to 100 ohms
100 to 1k
1k to 10k
10k to 100k
100k to 1M
1M and greater

I'm sure you guys have more efficient ways of ranging you electronic parts and I'd like to have some tips.

also, do you know all the possible resistor values ? I could make a list with the values I have at hand and keep it up to date.

 

[alec_t]

I sort mine much as you do, into 6 boxes each carrying the appropriate colour sticker corresponding to the third colour band on the resistors, e.g. orange denotes 10k to 99k.

do you know all the possible resistor values ?

Google for 'E24 resistors'.

 

[ericgibbs]

I'm sure you guys have more efficient ways of ranging you electronic parts and I'd like to have some tips.
.

Hi,
Get some pieces of stiff cardboard, cut them into rectangles , about 3 inch * 1.5 inch.

Place your resistors one at time across the 1. 5inch face of the card and then bend the wire ends of the resistor around the edge of the card.

If done correctly, the resistors will stay in place on the card, then write on the ends of the card the resistor value.

You will then have a card for each resistor value in your stock, place the cards in a suitable tray.

The same can be done for small sized capacitors.

 

[atferrari]

Once for all solution

A better solution. But, handle them, as porcupines making love: ve-ry care-fu-lly.

 

[MrAl]

Hi,


What i did in the past was to take strips of thin cardboard and make dividers for small plastic shoe boxes. You can glue the dividers right into the inside of the boxes or use Scotch tape.
If the dividers are not made too tall, you still have plenty of room for a good number of resistors in each 'bin', and also you can stack one shoe box on top of the other, where the bottom of the top shoe box fits into the first half of the bottom shoe box, so they stack but the top one is partly inside the bottom one. You can stack them several high.
It also helps to tape a label inside each divided bin to indicate what value range is in that bin.

To decide what labels to use for the bins, it really depends on what value resistors you have on hand, and/or what values you intend to buy in the future. If you have a wide range of values that spread across the spectrum evenly then you want bins that are labeled similar to 0 to 1, 1 to 10, 10 to 100, 100 to 1k, 1k to 10k, etc. But if you have a lot of some values and little of other values, you would find some bins nearly empty using this idea, so you may want to make some bins bigger than others unless you intend to stock up on the other missing values too. Also, power resistors often take up much more room than regular resistors, so you might want to think about bigger bins for those.

The top shoe box is the only one with an actual cover if you stack them all on top of each other. The rest have a shoe box on top of them (partly inside) so they are already covered.

In any case, the key to finding a resistor value when you need it is simply to maintain an inventory of the items you have on hand, and update it whenever you take one out or buy new ones and replenish your stock. To do this, you can use a text file or a set of text files, but also with a search program to search the files for a given term like "ohms" or "10k" or "transistor" or "2N2222A".

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

While we are talking about storage of stuff. I bought a few bug boxes and cages many years ago. See: https://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/s...0001&freeText=bug boxes&search_type=jamecoall

 

[cr0sh]

I found that a Stack-On 60 drawer storage cabinet, with a single divider per drawer (120 spaces) was enough to easily hold a fairly nice E24 selection, with about 100 pieces per each value (50-75 would have been more comfortable, though). One label per drawer on my label maker, 2 lines (top line for front compartment, bottom for rear). It was kinda expensive to buy that many resistors, but I doubt I'll ever have to buy resistors again in my life. Of course, if I ever have to move that cabinet...shudder.

Oh - and for the EIA stuff - this is a great explanation:

https://www.logwell.com/tech/components/resistor_values.html

 

[gary350]

I have probably 5000 resistors in a 1 gallon coffee can. If I were to sort these they would take up 20 times more space. My space is valuable in my tiny work shop. If I need a resistor I dump the whole pile out on the counter top. I can usually find what I need in about 45 seconds.

 

[canadaelk]

5000 resistord in a coffee can would drive me nuts, life is to short. Looking for a $0.02 part is not worth my time
As I am lazy to the extreme so i forced myself to establish an order
All my parts (excluding large items) are in "coin envelopes", 33/8"x6") these fit into standard 4" cardboard storage bins, mine are 18" deep. !8" boxes hold about 60 bags
At the moment, for E24 (1/4W 5%) I have 2 boxes, for E96 (1/4W 1%) I have 5 boxes, a separate box for 1/8W and surface mount
Capacitors, transistors, diodes etc are equally arranged
The beaty of this is minimal space requirement and easy access
The littel plastic drawers are used for production runs where the envelopes proove to cumbersome. E

 

[Dean Huster]

I use two 60-drawer plastic parts storage cabinets, 12 drawers tall and 5 drawers wide. When they're stacked vertically, I have 5 columns of 24 drawers, very nice since there are 24 5% values per decade, giving me access to 5 decades of 1/4-watt resistors, one drawer per value -- no dividers used, each drawer holding 300-400 resistors. The first column is 10 thru 91 ohms; second is 100 thru 910; third is 1K thru 9.1K; fourth is 10K thru 91K; fifth is 100K thru 910K; and the sixth is 1M thru 9.1M. I have a pretty massive parts inventory and values less than 10 ohms, greater than 9.1M or wattages other than 1/4-watt are in other storage (albeit just as organized). That, of course, works out fine since the 1/4-watt parts are the ones used 99% of the time, especially when breadboarding. The "bulk" storage system uses heavily-divided drawers, each steel drawer about 4" x 3" x 16" and handles from around 0.01 ohms to 100M ohms. There's no vertical/horizontal organization at all. Values just run progressively from lowest to highest, divided sections varying in size according to quantity/size of resistors. 1K and 10K are the larger ones. Each section will have 1/16-, 1/8, 1/4-(bulk and used parts), 1/2-, 1- and 2-watt resistors mixed together along with high-power wirewound units, the only commonality being the value. SMT "chip" resistors are in plastic parts boxes, one box per significant digits, 24 total boxes, each containing one decade for a certain set of significant digits, e.g., 22, 220, 2.2K, 22K, 220K, 2.2M ohms in that decade. Each box has six compartments, so it's pretty compact storage for teensy parts that would otherwise scoot around drawer dividers. Metal film "precision" resistors are stored in coin envelopes, one value per envelope, using two drawers in my big metal drawer system.

I have written an article describing my parts storage system that includes resistors, capacitors, lamps, ICs, transistors, diodes, hardware, et. al. if you're interested. PM me and I'll send you a copy. Or I could post it here, but in just a few days it would get lost in the fray unless a moderator could be persuaded to make a sticky topic for component storage system topics.

 

[gary350]

It is extremely nice to be well orginized. I have just about everything in my shop in boxes. Boxes are all marked. I have a map of my shop with the number and location of each box. Each item has a list of what is inside the box. There there are other things that do not go in boxes. They are marked on the map too. The list is in alphabetical order. Anything I can not remember where something is I look it up on my alphabetical order list. If it says bottom row box #63 or second row box #42 I can go right to it. Things I have not used in 10 years are basically lost without this system. I just can't remember everything. The free postage boxes work great as long as they are not loaded too heavy.

Inside many of my boxes are empty food cans from the kitchen. Lots of small items in those cans like nuts, bolts, screws, flat washers, etc.

Things like resistors take up an unreasonable amount of space. I bought a sorting cabnet once it had 6 rows of 6 drawers. Drawers are about 2.5" wide each. All the resistors in the cabnet takes up about 6 times more space than the coffee can. It took me 3 days to sort all the resistors then after the cabnets got knocked over I decided to put them all back in the coffee can. There are so many resistors I can dump them out and usually find the resistor I want in 30 to 45 seconds. I tried it both ways the coffee can is working fine for me now.

I have a lot of projects going all the time. Nice thing about being retired I get to play in my shop as much as I want. I am working on another custom bicycle in the photo. I have a lathe, bridgeport mill, surface grinder, welder, torch, air compressor, bench grinder, bench sander, several metal working and wood working machines and hand tools. I also have an upstairs with just as much stuff as down stairs. I have a wood stove and air conditioning too.

My son has several car engines, lots of car parts.

I have gotten even more organized since the photo was taken. I built drawers for each shelf 24" x 30" 6" tall. I have them under each work bench on the floor with 1" roller wheels on each corner. I have them on the second shelf of the bottom work bench too. Each drawer is filled with postage boxes and each box is filled with stuff. When a person gets too much stuff you have to be able to find it. If you can not find it that is the same as not having it. I got tired of not being able to find things then I had to buy another one. I am getting every thing all in the same location I am tired of having pipe fittings in 7 different places, electrical house wiring supplies in 10 different places, plumbing supplies in 5 different places, etc.

 

[cr0sh]

I have written an article describing my parts storage system that includes resistors, capacitors, lamps, ICs, transistors, diodes, hardware, et. al. if you're interested. PM me and I'll send you a copy. Or I could post it here, but in just a few days it would get lost in the fray unless a moderator could be persuaded to make a sticky topic for component storage system topics.

Your system with resistors is pretty close to what I use, except using one cabinet with each drawer divided (and only 100 resistors per division); I have other cabinets holding other parts, but not organized as well as I'd like (but certainly better than what I had before!). I would be interested in reading the article you mentioned...

 

[cr0sh]

It is extremely nice to be well orginized.

I wish I had your shop; I still may get it...

Right now my shop is fairly small; about 12 x 20 foot, 8 foot ceiling. In one corner I have a small "server closet" I built for holding server PCs and such. I also built an L-shaped bench with shelving above it. Elsewhere I have some "gorrilla rack" shelving to hold big things (more PC equipment and cases, robotic parts, and other things).

I noticed that from your picture (granted, missing half the view) it doesn't seem like you have any pegboard - what's your thoughts on that? I ended making a portion of one wall pegboard for frequently used tools (I noticed you had toolboxes, though). I've been thinking about getting rid of the pegboard, though, as I could use the wall space for other things - I just need to figure out what to do with some of the tools. Maybe a shallow workbench on that side, where I could put my micro-mill, and toolboxes and such below...

 

[duffy]

Good question! It's trickier than it seems. You want SOME organization, but obviously not a separate drawer for every value. I use 16 drawers, 1 sectional organizer and 2 cardboard boxes.

Drawers are:
0 - .9Ω
1 - 9Ω
10 - 99Ω
100Ω
101 - 999Ω
1kΩ
1.01k - 9kΩ
10kΩ
10.1k - 99kΩ
100kΩ
101k - 999kΩ
1MΩ
1.01M - ∞Ω
Trimmers
Pots
Audio Taper

The sectional divider is for SMT resistors and has 10 divisions by decade.

Cardboard box #1 has power resistors from 5W to 25W (smaller stuff in the drawers).

Cardboard box #2 is for big ceramics, wrapped in bubble wrap. (first time you bust a $100 resistor, you will be wrapping them in bubble-wrap, too)

 

[cr0sh]

Cardboard box #1 has power resistors from 5W to 25W (smaller stuff in the drawers).

Cardboard box #2 is for big ceramics, wrapped in bubble wrap. (first time you bust a $100 resistor, you will be wrapping them in bubble-wrap, too)

I have a few small "sand" power resistors in various values - but nothing as large as the ones you show (though I know where to get some, if needed); I'm curious what -you- use them for? The few small ones I have are "just in case" things I have collected over the years, but rarely needed or used. I couldn't imagine needing anything larger, but I am curious where they would find application (at a hobbyist level)...

 

[duffy]

We got a rash of bad Chinese switching regulators at work. I had to build a thing with 250W resistors to load them down and see which ones popped. You would be surprised how many power supplies rated for 200W can't even deliver half that for any length of time.

Also use them for tweaking the speed on a motor for a mech. Do that with a power resistor to see if it works before giving the mech to a programmer to write PWM code, saves development time.

 

[Dean Huster]

You want SOME organization, but obviously not a separate drawer for every value.

I've had electronics as a hobby since around 1962 (I'll let you do the math) and during the early years, 99.999% of my parts came from totally disassembling elecronic and mechanical equipment. I saved EVERYTHING but the rivets that held tube sockets onto the chassis and the stripped chassis itself. Over the years, I've accumulated thousands of parts .... heck, thousands of resistors, let alone all the other stuff. Without tight organization, I'd never be able to find any of it or know where to put new acquisitions. The parts cabinets aren't expensive, less than $12 each. I began my storage originally using orange juice cans -- back in the days when they were made of steel and you had to use a can opener on them.

If I stored all my resistors in one can, I wouldn't have electronics as a hobby. I'd have been committed to an asylum long ago.

I've relegated the bulk of my BIG stuff (my other hobby/profession dealing with woodworking, electrical wiring, plumbing) to the "new" plastic coffee containers with the snap-on plastic lids. I have around 150 of them now, each held 39 ounces of coffee originally. I've built a shelf system 8 feet high, 8 feet wide and about 11 inches deep just for holding the cans, and I'm going to have to build a twin for more cans. In these, I store nails of all types and sizes, sheet rock screws, deck screws, cement board screws, staples, sanding disks, copper and PVC plumbing components, wire nuts, "biscuits" for plate jointing .... well, that list is pretty long and varied. But what a great system. I can pick a can off the shelf and take it to the job site. When visitors see more coffee cans than they've ever seen in one place, they're somewhat awed. Sometimes, I am too. I don't drink coffee! And my wife drinks Gevalia and it comes in vacuum sealed bags, not cans. I've had several people saving their cans for me and I'm indebted to them. It seems that most of my benefactors drink Folger's with the red cans, but I do have one or two blue Maxwell House cans, so I'm not prejudiced there.