Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Parts bins

I have made bolt bins from the old rectangular antifreeze cans.
Larger bins with plastic five gallon buckets.

I'm thinking of bins from the square coffee "cans".

You folks ever make any?

Old smuckers Jelly jars with the lids nailed to a board. Has worked for twenty years. If you don't like the glass, you could use plastic peanut butter jars.

Have some square coffee can bins.

Lids keep the dust out.

I use all sorts of recycled plastic containers as storage. I get empty 1 quart clear square plastic spice containers from a restaurant that are great to hold wedge anchors, self drilling screws, nut , bolts you name it. They fit tight against each other for saving space in my truck boxes. I use a sharpie on the lids to mark what's in side so I don't have to pull everything out just to see what's where in them.

I use the yellow plastic nestle's chocolate containers too. The larger ones are perfect to hold welding lenses for my hood and the smaller ones I use for soap stone, ear plugs or other smaller stuff. Again, just use a sharpie to identify what's inside.
I also use the larger ones to keep sandwiches from getting smashed in my back pack when I am hunting. They will hold two sandwiches perfectly.

I used 5 gallon buckets to store hammers and clamps in my truck boxes too.

I use empty plastic oil containers. Clean them out with solvent (put the solvent in, screw on the cap, shake well, and pour out the solvent and oil. Cut one side out. They lie flat, can be stacked, and seem to never wear out. I have shelves in my shop and sections for bolts, nails, screws, and so forth all stored in the oil containers.

30+ years ago when they closed the grain elevator in our small town, they took what they wanted and anything left was up for grabs. My dad decided we should have the leg belt with the cups on it that carried the grain from the pit to the top of the elevator and into the bins. Needless to say, they were a couple of long belts with lots of grain cups on them. We then proceeded to take off the grain cups bolt by bolt, and they make really good parts bins. They already have the bolt holes in them and they have rounded bottoms. I just ran across a big box of those cups in an old outbuilding that we had pushed in. I kept some and let the rest be buried with the building. I think I'll have plenty of parts bins for my lifetime!!!!

You can buy the rectangular one that stack real cheap