Cheaper to buy 10 than 1!

[Deke609]

Figured it would be good to get some more 215R 1/8W resistors for the El84 sockets on the Beepre, since they don't stand up to well to hard manipulation (from rebuilding, tweaking, generic idiocy, etc.).  And to my pleasant surprise, 10 cost 30 cents CDN total compared to 31 cents CDN for just 1: http://www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/270-215-RC  Score!

Now if I could only find the same kind of multi-buy deal on tubes, trafos and chokes!

cheers, Derek

[Paul Birkeland]

You can definitely get those deals on transformers and chokes.  Once you are willing to pay for 20+ pieces, then a run can be done just for you and the prices will drop.

[Deke609]

Multiple for the same price as just 1?  For trafos?

[Paul Birkeland]

It depends on the winder, that's for sure, but indeed often times when you transition from a 1 or 2 part purchase to a run of 20+, you'll find that you're  getting several parts for the price of the prototype piece.

[Deke609]

That's good to know. Might work well for a group buy for experimenting with different iron.

[EricS]

Wow - I haven't found that much of a price break in the past, but it is why I have something like $1000-$1500 in random/spare parts in boxes in the basement.  Whatever it is that I need, I usually round up to the nearest qty of 10 or 25 (and sometimes 100)  to get the price break.  Do that for 15-20 years and it starts to pile up.   Surprisingly, I find that I still need to buy parts way more often that I would think...

[grufti]

EricS - you got off cheap, if you're only $1.5K in after 15-20 years.

[EricS]

Ha - I suppose I am gettng off "cheap" after this amount of time  . Not included with my first guess are parts/kits for another 4-5 amplifiers and a random speaker project or two, piles of heat sinks, etc.  I keep thnking that I really need to retire in order to have time for all of my upcoming projects...  Sadly, that day is about 15 years off.

[Deke609]

Whatever it is that I need, I usually round up to the nearest qty of 10 or 25 (and sometimes 100)  to get the price break.

Eric - I do the same for small passive parts like resistors, capacitors, and diodes. Yesterday I ordered 100 x UF4007 rectifier diodes, a bunch of 220/270 uF high voltage electrolytics, and various resistors.  I almost always order enough to get free shipping and no duties - no shipping plus the price break for ordering 10+ is nice. But I find the real benefit is the convenience of having them on hand when tinkering. I was once hung up by the loss of a 10 cent part: a black shoulder washer dropped and rolled somewhere when I was reinstalling a power trafo after adding a flux band. I made repeated searches for that thing - scrutinizing every square inch of surface in my work space, carefully sweeping the floor and sifting through the collected debris, and never found it. I had to wait days for the new part to arrive. So now I maintain a supply of assorted washers and fasteners. 

What do folks use to store small parts? I have some plastic Akro-Mils organizers that are well constructed (and no detectable off-gassing smell! A rare thing these days). But they are kind of pricey. Anything better and lower cost out there?

cheers and happy holidays,  Derek

[EricS]

I use two high-tech solutions: the first is compartmentalized plastic storage boxes from Lowes/Sam's Club as I find them, the second is zip lock bags.  Parts are bagged by project (all necessary parts just waiting for assembly) and by part type (mica caps, electrolytic caps, etc) that hold the little bags that come from Mouser/DigiKey.  All of these bags are spread across a few cardboard boxes piled up in the basement.  As I said, it's all very high tech 

Happy Holidays to everyone!  Hope you get to spend time with/avoid family as appropriate 

[Paul Birkeland]

Lots of bins.  The Flambeau 5007 with extra dividers is probably my favorite small parts bin, especially for hardware.  The Harbor Freight divided bins are a good size for resistors.  I also use the Ikea Glis bins for bigger stuff (crossover chokes, film caps, wirewound resistors, etc).

[Deke609]

That's a nice set up PB! I'm envious.  But tell the truth: is it usually that tidy or is this a "I finally got around to cleaning up and organizing" glamour shot? 

In my case, my workspace is tidy and organized about 1 day out of every month: a day or two after a finish a project. But within 2 days of starting something new, it looks like an earthquake hit.

[Paul Birkeland]

It is that clean about once every 3 or 4 months. 

[Doc B.]

I have a very clean system for storing extra electronic parts. I give all my extra crap to PB. That said, my workshop at home is still a disaster zone since we moved last summer. Along with uncategorized stuff from the old office it's filled with boxes of tubes, motorcycle engine parts, laser cutter stuff, sewing projects and piles of random crap left over from other hurried projects. An indication of the crazy pace of the past year. So the first project in there is to clean up the last projects.

We got a shipment of toggle switches in last week, that came packaged in a nicely molded clear styrene bin with individual compartments and a slide-in cover. I was like "Awesome, a free nitrous jet organizer!" Rambo the race ambulance now holds most of my tools and along with spares for the race bike. There is a drawer assigned to electronics tools and parts, and a dedicated soldering station in one cabinet. All the drawers and cabinets are awesome for staying organized, and I have all my tools with me when I drive to work each day. I feel like I finally found a tool box that is big enough.