Small parts cups

[mklotz]

When I disassemble intricate mechanisms I like to keep the small screws/nuts/etc in a little dish on my workbench so they don't get lost. If retrieving the items from the dish with your fingers, said dish should not have any corners lest the items get trapped there and are impossible to pick up.

The domed bottoms of aluminum drink cans work perfectly in this application. Mark the bottom of the can with a Sharpie held on a block of wood (a la a height gauge) and cut with a cutoff disk in a Dremel. (It's very difficult to get a nice clean cut (so the cup isn't tilted in use) with scissors.)

I find that the resulting cups are too light as is; they tend to flip easily if bumped. My remedy for this is to run a bead of glue around the inside circumference of the cup bottom, then fill with bird shot. After the glue dries, pour the unglued shot out and save for the next cup.

[DIYer]

Thanks mklotz! We've added your Small Parts Cups to our Storage and Organization category, as well as to your builder page: mklotz's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Small Parts Cups by mklotz

tags: storage, holder

[Justin Gasal]

Great idea! You should also glue a magnet to the underside so that a careless bump won't cause all your parts to go flying. Another useful idea would be to have a tray for the parts cups so they can be carried around without emptying them.
Justin

[mklotz]

Great idea! You should also glue a magnet to the underside so that a careless bump won't cause all your parts to go flying. Another useful idea would be to have a tray for the parts cups so they can be carried around without emptying them.
Justin

A magnet will magnetize the small parts and make it very difficult to pick up just one at a time. That can be very annoying.

[Jon]

Great first post Justin - welcome to HomemadeTools.net

There are many ideas for addressing the problem of losing small parts, but the soda can mod is definitely a clever one.

Seems like the simpler or less expensive the tool, the more I appreciate it. One of my favorites is this Tape Measure Modification; punching holes in a tape measure for increased marking accuracy. There's a comment on there for using the same concept to convert a tape measure into a jig. For crying out loud, the "tool" is just a hole! But I really like it.

[Saltfever]

Very clever, Marv.
You must have passed your FBI investigation to posses bird shot in Calif!

[earz]

I really like this idea. I need to make a few of these. Another method for cutting the cans is to just place a razor blade on top of said piece of wood (height gauge) and score several times around the circumference of the can. Once scored deep enough, you can easily split on the score mark by hand and the remaining part peels off. A layer of BB’s covered in hot glue should hopefully provide enough weight.

[davesrepair]

Great idea, Marv, I'll use that. Weighting them down is genius. Thanks!

Another one that works well for me if the screws need to be kept sorted, as in laptop computer disassembly, is to hot glue a styro egg carton to a piece of cardboard to weight it down a bit and keep it from getting tipped over. Label each compartment with a sharpie, "bottom", "HD", "hinges", "PCB", "keyboard", etc, to keep them straight when putting it all back together.

I don't do as much laptop work as I used to, but still keep a couple of those hanging by the bench, both a 12-egger and an 18. Useful for taking apart any gadget when its screws etc are different sizes/lengths.

Thanks again, to all of you. Love this site! I've been a tech for almost 50 years and still learn something new here nearly every day.

[Elizabeth Greene]

Watchmakers have a special tool (of course they do.. they have special tools for everything) for holding parts during disassembly and reassembly. It has a bunch of different names, Dust Cover, Movement Tray, etc.

The Bergeon (swiss) one is expensive for what it is ($23)
https://www.esslinger.com/bergeon-pa...d-cover-100mm/


But there are cheap ones too. ($5)
https://www.esslinger.com/dust-cover-with-tray/