How many bins?

If I wanted a small bin/drawer/container for every different type of rivet, nut, bolt & washer that is required for building an RV-7A, just how many bins would I need? (Approximately...)

Mike

MikeJ 7A said:

If I wanted a small bin/drawer/container for every different type of rivet, nut, bolt & washer that is required for building an RV-7A, just how many bins would I need? (Approximately...)

Mike

Click to expand...

maybe 60 or so...It depends on whether you buy additional fasteners that most of us like to experiment with.
-mike

MikeJ 7A said:

If I wanted a small bin/drawer/container for every different type of rivet, nut, bolt & washer that is required for building an RV-7A, just how many bins would I need? (Approximately...)

Mike

Click to expand...

LOTS.

Here's what I did. I got a couple of bins for rivets:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93928

The inner bins are removable so you can take them with you to wherever you're rivetting.

I got one of these for large parts:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93198


Here's the key. For nuts and bolts (and miscellaneous fittings, nutplates etc) I ordered these in assorted sizes:

http://www.bagsplus.com/zipclose.html

The ones at the bottom of the page have a little hole in them to hang on pegboard hangers (you do have pegboard, yes?). And they're CHEAP. It's like having a nice store display right in your shop. It's also easy to see when you're running low on a particular size of something.

Finally, for temporary storage when I'm working on something and don't want to loose the bolts or other hardware, I got an assortment of these:

http://www.bagsplus.com/drawstring.html

Put the hardware you took off in the bag and loop the string around the part.

10 years working robotics, semicon and aerospace taught me a thing or two about organization and FOD control.

In answer to your original question, here's the hardware boxes I shipped my RV-7 hardware in:

http://www.rvspeed.com/rv/20061208.html

This is the gentleman's website I sold the kit to. There was probably 1 extra box of rivets there I sent him. In addition, I shipped a bunch of hardware that I had been storing in one of these:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=94375

Nuts and bolts and things. I kept the bin and just repacked the hardware in plastic bags before shipping (all nice and labelled, of course).

This was just the hardware from the Wing kit. There's a lot more when you get the the fuselage.

Everyone has their own system but man you can't beat plastic bags on a pegboard for quick, flexible and economical (organize them by diameter...all the AN3's bolts on one peg, AN4's on another, etc).

I hope this helps. I haven't tried the cloth bags yet so I don't know how durable they are but they're so cheap I don't really care.

Keep your Vans bags together.

Vans does an excellent job providing you with most of the hardware, parts, pieces, etc... all bagged up per assembly or operation. I used simple organizing bins you could see through and marked them with the bag number to keep them together.
Sure, you will need to have bins for misc. hardware too, but do not separate them out of the bags and undo all of the work Vans did to put these together.
I kept much of my hardware in the bags and organized them by number in a cardboard box too, expecially if they where non generic hardware.
If you wanted to separate all of the parts that come bagged, you will need about 500 bins or more, and some really big ones for spar bolts, tail springs, etc...

Good luck.

Agreed that you should leave all but the very common hardware (rivets, nuts, washers, screws, platenuts, etc.) in the bags Van's provides. On each of the plastic bags is a detailed inventory of what parts are in there. This will help you identify some of the specialty stuff you'll never have seen before and it allows you to cross of items you use as you use them. This also precludes the need for having hundreds of little trays and is a very compact way to store stuff. I keep each sub-kits' hardware in its own shoebox with the inventory list Van's includes and have never had trouble finding hardware. As mentioned above, though, everyone has their own method of organization that works for them.

I can't give you an exact number of bins necessary. I've been adding them ever since I got my A&P in '73 and still don't have enough.