Organizing Fasteners
 

Before I order the -14A kits I want to get, at least, partially organized. I plan to put fasteners like lock nuts, nuts, bolts, washers in 64 drawer bins labelled with each part. Problem is, how many of which kind will be needed?

Also, I just figured out that instead of SAE designations, aircraft use a different system of AN designations: a pretty good description from Pegasus helped me here:

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/do...ocID=TECH00095

Any and all descriptions of organizing fasteners is welcome, as usual.

Scott

Parts bins
 

Not sure about the 14 but I have five 40 drawer Harbor Fright bins. Basically bolts, screws, nuts, washers, misc. They are full. Plus, suppliers are slowly migrating to MS nomenclature. Really annoying. AN had meaning. I label with both. Makes it easier to find and order.

More than you think!
 

I have at least six, 40 drawer cabinets that are full...

how I did it.
 

I used a mobile parts bin system.
https://www.harborfreight.com/floor-...ins-95736.html
I can organize all the small parts from the kit and move it close to my work. When I have a need for a large amount of rivets I just take the bin with me. I use a label maker and remove when I need to change. I have large shelves that I labeled "A" through "G" then numbered each shelf based on size smaller pieces "A1, A2" etc. then long skins and such I just kept in the crate or spanned both shelves. When I inventoried the parts I marked where I located them so I could find them as steps called for their use. It works good for me. Also I ordered double the clecos in #40 which helps I just keep the clecos in large yellow bins under my work table.

get more bins than you think you'll need
 

I bit the bullet in the last couple of weeks and decided to stimulate the local economy with a bulk purchase of nuts, bolts, washers & other hardware used in the plane. Then I purchased a couple of large parts cabinets that have individual multi-compartment pull out trays, so I can put most (not all) of the parts for one size into one tray.

I had kept parts in smaller storage trays, but I just found I didn't have enough space to store everything, plus I'm the kind of guy who'd rather be looking at it, than looking for it, so I don't mind having a large stock of bits available.

As for how many parts.....I bought heaps (as in by the hundred) of AN365 locknuts and AN960 washers for -3 & -4 sizes. Also buy lots of AN315 plain nuts or AN310 castle nuts so you can assemble bolts without stuffing up nylok nuts. I looked ahead at the inventory lists for the kit & ordered similar quantities of the parts listed, so I can account for fasteners that get damaged somehow or for future maintenance.

Then there's the other stuff.......adel clamps, split pins, electrical terminals, screws, nutplates, and of course rivets in every shape & size known to mankind.

Totally annoying! Good idea labeling with both.

Have a look here for my quick video tour.

The Stanley boxes are really useful as you can write in blue Sharpie on each compartment.

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...d.php?t=183125

I have 5 of these for all my small hardware parts. Everything is in order and all the drawers are labeled.https://www.amazon.com/Stalwart-Delu...0NVZ8RXZBEM06M

I bought a bunch of these... stick them where ever I need 'em

Stackable-Bins

I used these
 

I've got about 5. Each little compartment comes out, great for all the rivets and small parts I labeled each compartment on the side.

I got the same ones in 8 x 8 for the small bits and also 4 x 6 for larger bits. Drawers slide in and out easily. So far, I only have two of the 8 x 8's and 2 of the 4 x 6's. More to come I am sure.

I have a bunch of the harbor freight storage boxes which are similar to the one Bobby is showing. Its nice to be able to remove a bin with rivets of only one size at a time. If you knock over a bin its not too bad, but if you have a drawer with mixed sizes then its a sorting nightmare.

They go on sale for $3.99 each but normally they are only $5.99 each. I mark on the side of the bin the part number or description with a highlighter.

If its anything like the -8, you'll get all the rivets, nuts, bolts, screws and washers that come in the tail kit sorted out in time to then reorganize everything that comes in the wing kit.

If you sort everything into little bins, you might as well get a couple of hundred small ziplock bags, like the ones used by crafters (for beads glitter and such). Because, all it will take is one little slip and your sorted and organized bin full of a dozen different sizes of rivets will be scattered to the four corners of your shop. At least if everything is in ziplock bags, you won't have to break out the rivet guage to individually re-sort every rivet.

i tried to organize rivets but gave up. i leave them in the bags (and mark the length on the tag they come with) except the an426ad3-3 and -3.5 since they come in paper bags. those got moved to plastic ice cream containers. i use the lid to dole out a few rivets and put the rest of the container where i can't knock it over. you use pretty much 4 sizes commonly and the rest sparingly. the bags are nice since they generally don't shoot rivets everywhere like a container.

rivets are kept in 4 boxes: 470ad4, 470ad3, 426ad4, 426ad3.

i haven't found any real advantage to organizing bolts other than by diameter since i double check them with a gauge anyways. i just leave them in the original bags.

the rest of the misc hardware either stays in the bag (and i use the packing list to find) or in one of those HF containers. the only thing that i've found really worth being careful about are nut plates. it's far easier to sort and split them during counting than assembly.

I keep a lot of the parts organized in the bags they come in - since I went with QB fuselage and wings, I may have fewer total parts than someone who is doing the whole thing. I've gotten pretty good at scanning the inventory lists for which bag is which. I moved some rivets and bolts to a few 64 (8x8) drawer boxes, but I'm always afraid that a good bump on the box or table will result in a huge mess, like the time I asked my son to grab 4 rivets and he dumped a drawer of about 500 all over the place.

Dave Paule shared a great idea with me - save those small 4 and 8 ounce water plastic water bottles that tend to pile up over time or dominate our landfills and store rivets in them.

The bottles have a small opening - a tip or drop won't lose too many contents and the bottles tend to be really tough. Even dropping one full of rivets on a concrete floor rarely cracks the bottle. And the plastic bottles tend not to scratch aluminum, so you can rest a full bottle pretty much anywhere while working.

I just did inventory for my new build (with QB wings and fuselage) and took the opposite approach, because in my last build it drove me crazy looking for parts in little bags everywhere and scanning the inventory sheets to find the right bag. This time I organized parts by type like nutplates, washers etc. - carefully labeling compartments with part numbers. Only time will tell if this is a better approach. I did store a few "specialized" bags by bag number, like those with parts for stall warning and fuel selector.

It always amuses me (sometimes frustrates me) how Van's can spread a large number of the same part over a bunch of little bags. I know that it makes it easier to build up various kits for different aircraft but it can get tiresome finding yet another handful of AN3-5 bolts or 3-3.5 rivets. There was even one bag (fortunately very small) that mixed 3-3.5 and 3-4 rivets. No way I'm going to sort those. Fortunately I have a bunch of extras in both sizes so I just tossed em.

Unfortunately the two are not compatible, though. The HF bins are too tall for the other style (Home Depot?) Tried to customize the size/type bins in each case, but that idea didn't work out. Both seemed to be good for the job.

I am afraid of dropping the cases (though all should be OK if the lid stays shut), but do like seeing the all parts and their names all together as a good memory aid.

I have a rule, if I touch the paper bag, it's contents gets sorted and stored by part number and crossed off the inventory sheet. Nothing is more frustrating to me than to repeatedly search that danged computer printout from Van's, to find out which little paper bag that standard piece of AN hardware is stored in.

Mentor
 

Amazing all the stuff I learned and continue to learn from Mentor Dave. The bottle thing was one of the first tips he shared. I did separate 426 and 470 into baskets but they are still living in those bottles. I pour out a few into a paper bowl for rivet work. The size is jotted down in the bowl with a marker.

Brace yourself for the firewall forward. I bought a set of common AN-3 and -4 bolts, which came with washers and stop nuts. But I also bought many sizes of adel clamps and metal stop nuts, and a set of cotter pins in assorted sizes. I also got panel nuts, screws in assorted sizes (4-40 are handy for some things), and on and on. I got a fancy tackle organizer to manage electrical connectors and pins, plus the top section is great for storing special electrical tools. The Vans kit gives you an airframe, but there is so much more you will get before the aircraft is flying.