Storing spare parts

I have a little organizer right on my bench, but it only stores pretty small parts. I use it primarily for small supplies like X-acto blades, pins, and small screws and nuts.

I have a bigger rack along a wall near bench. It is a metal framework with cardboard "drawers,"  and each drawer is large enough to hold reasonable sized parts.  Also, top half of unit stores smaller drawers, bottom half has larger drawers.  The rack stands about 40 inches high, by about same wide, and ten inches deep.  I store both unused kit parts but also aftermarket details and unused photo-etch. I also store pieces of material there, like styrene, wood and small metal stock.

Roger,

    Right now that is not a problem that I have run into.  But when I do if I haven't used the spare parts as "set decoration" in a garage diao I'd probaly cut the piece off with enough of the sprue so that it still had it's original part number as well as having something to hold on to while I painted it at a later time.

Hi;

   I raid garage sales for those medium and small drawer cabinets , in either plastic or steel . I have those plastic storage bins that are shoe box size for most large items . I have three large black boxes , that were gift boxes filled with cosmetics . I have one similar one meant for jewel sorting ( with the little screw on top containers set in foam ) for finished P.E. Parts

   Three I use for Decals .They keep them flat in their individual Zip-Loc sandwich bags and they let them lay flat ! as well as in the dark ! Now for larger parts I have one under bed Plastic storage box on wheels for ship hulls , and one medium sized one ( made for larger shoes and boots ) , to store car bodies etc..

   I have on the garage wall , about a four hundred drawer storage capacity with less then one quarter used for R.C. parts storage . I use a group of mailing tubes for different sized brass rod and short ones for All my Evergreen rod and tube stock . All are labeled and all I have to do is swivel in my chair to lay hands on these.

    Never believe that your work area is a fixed object in space . It will constantly change as your building skills and projects change . It will definitely change if you move or R.V. in summer . I took a folding table Purchased from Camping World and made for grilling , put my tool box where the grill went and then hung a general assembly " goody " box from the utensil rack ! It worked great for over five years on the road . Oh , before I forget . I got a clear plastic Mary Kay gift box about three by twelve by twenty four . I store unused P.E. Frets in there .

    I actually finished three commissions while traveling . I even delivered each completed piece personally ! This certainly surprised the clients ! Imagine how I felt . My missus and I having lunch with a corporate big wig in California at the Malibu Yacht Club ! How's that for a well done ? I still like my American Legion Post though .

I have several different plastic taboret cabinets with multiple drawers. There's no real system, although I try to keep loose parts in one drawer and detail parts still in their packaging in another. I have a drawer for sheet styrene, plastic shapes and wire. I have one deep drawer with nothing but loose HO scale vehicles to use for flat car loads. I used to keep them in their retail packaging, but they took up too much space. Invariably, whenever I'm looking for something, it's always in the last drawer I look in, although often I get distracted by things I stumble across and forget what I was looking for! My theory is that if I can't remember what I was searching for, it wasn't that important to begin with.

Same as you,just throw them in a big box,no inclination to orginize anything,sounds liike work to me.

I use two different methods. One method I use is to reuse old model boxes. An old Tamiya M1 Abrams box holds mainly leftover Abrams parts from various past builds. An old Italeri M4A1 Sherman box holds leftover Sherman parts, an old Tamiya M113 box holds old Bradley and M113 parts, a Tamiya Jeep box holds leftover softskin parts. An old Tamiya Marder holds any WW2 German pieces.

This method is great for finding spare parts for a specific vehicle type.

My second method is for 1/72 scale armor pieces. I use a few clear multicompartment cases to hold all the tiny spare parts. I tend to put similar parts into the same compartment, i.e., road wheels in one, track pieces in another, gun tubes, machine guns, figures in one, tools in another, all regardless of nationality.

Spare parts are stored at my house in boxes from completed kits. I have F-8 parts in an F-8 box, F-4 parts in multiple F-4 boxes, etc. I also have my conversion and upgrade parts in boxes that "mostly" match the aircraft types. For any parts that don't fit that scheme, I kept the boxes my hanging files came in, and use those.

I also have a small steel frame that holds clear plastic small parts drawers, some stuff is in that.

I store spare and left over decals the same way as I store all of my aftermarket and kit decals when they are "new". (none of my decals are still in the kit boxes)

Decals for all of my kits and aftermarket sheets

I forgot to add,,,,,,,organizing only takes time to set up. Once you have a method in place, it only takes a few minutes to put things away after you open a shipping cartoon for mail order stuff, or bring home your 4 bags of stuff from a show, etc.

Rex

Oh My !

I thought it was because I was in my seventies that things like this happened .Thanks for making my day .LOL.LOL.

Well, TB, the decal thing happens almost exactly the same way as the kit stash thing.

If you want to build over 200 units in model form,,,,,you are going to wind up buying decal sheets that only have 1 or 2 schemes that you want, but have 5 subjects on them. You wind up with a lot of unused multiple copies of kit decals, and "half-sheets" of aftermarket decals. (or more than half)

I know that the current wisdom is to not have a stash, and to buy kits and decals as you need them for a project,,,,,,,,,but, the people that believe that,  won't be anywhere to be found when I want to do the VA-156 F11F-1 Tiger, and the kit turns out to be OOP, and the decal sheet is OOP and hasn't been listed for sale since 1988. So, I have them in stock now, ready for the day I want to do them.

Rex

(in short,,,,,,I did this on purpose, the kits, the decals, the paints, and the books)

Thanks for all of the responses, especially the ones with pictures attached. This forum is a GREAT resource!!

Roger

I think that I have OCD with this stuff at times... I organize my spare parts stuff into various categories and have the majority storied in a couple of the those drawer type storage organizers like your find at the hardware store for screws, nuts & bolts, etc. And of course those are stuffed to the bursting points in some categories.... with more new stuff added all the time.

on the rack over the aircraft table

plus I also have a few old model boxes organized with particular types of stuff like Rob such as Sherman related parts, 1/48 Air to Air, 1/48 Air to Ground, etc.

I have 4, same size boxes(from built kits) for decals....WW2 U.S, WW2 German, WW2 everythbody else, post WW2 everybody. As far as parts go, I have a couple boxes dedicated to subjects that I do a lot of, for the rest, I have a box for weapons/ordnance, 1 for figs, 1 for clear parts and another for anything and everything else(and some of those listed above...it's a real mess!).

I purchased two type print setting trays at a tag sale.  They are about 2" deep with a variety of sizes of divided compartments.  The trays are about 18" x 24" and fit nicely under my work bench.  To keep dust out I lay thin sheets of plywood/laminate over the top of them.

Now when I search for the 'perfect' replacement or supplemental part, I pull out the drawer and have a good view of all available parts.  One drawer in for US type kits and the other is for IDF, NATO partner subjects.

I use this rotary storage system by Rota Vision. It's good for storing 1/72 figures  and small parts . It also makes organizing easier. 

Now, that is a cool setup. It would be a neat way to keep Xacto and Scalpel blades too. You could see exactly what shape you are looking at, and only ever open the container with the blade you want.

Rex

I suppose because of the type of kits I build its rare that I have left over parts that are of any use. They just stay in the kit box for now. Same with decals.

Back in the day when my main kits were cars, I saved tons of parts fro spares. I had one huge round bin (15" dia. x 7" h) filled every spare car parts imagined - engines, headers, exhaust, air filters, carbeurators, shocks, suspension, etc.. I even had a model kit box filled with nothing but tires of all sizes. Tossed them out a few years ago before I had returned to this hobby.

Didn't think I was coming back to my first love of building kits then. Oh well...