Sorting Rack for Screws and Other Small Parts

Effervescent tablets. They come in pretty handy little tubes, but after drinking your vitamins, those tubes land in the trash can. Or do they?

Those tubes are sealed, can hold dozens of small screws and don't take too much space. Reuse them! I'll show you how.

Get a plywood board, all your tubes, and start measuring. The top side makes the tubes convenient to use because it stops the tube, but consider them while picking a distance! Leave some extra space between the rows, so you can easily get the selected tube.

If you will use a benchtop drill press like me: there is a maximum drill depth! Either make 2-3 long rows or a bit more compact and square like mine.

We have the markings, so drilling should be easy, right?

WRONG!

First, put something under the board. Either another board or something much softer but thick. I have a lot of scrap insulation, it squeaks when the blade reaches the pink foam.

Second, the wooden coins don't disappear, they stack up nice and tight, so you have to pause for about 10 minutes after 3-4 cuts if you don't do the trick nr. 3. They really love their new home.

So how to speed up the process? Just mark the points first by drilling the inner hole and slightly cutting the outer part, change the drill bit for just a slighly bigger regular one, redo all the inner holes, change back, so you can easily pick those wooden coins. (don't forget to stop the drill, it's much easier and safer, they just don't fall out...)

After drilling both halves, we can assemble! Either buy longer screws or cut a thread. Have one nut for each side on each board to keep it from collapsing.

Also I have only 2 hands, imagine that I grab both wrenches to tighten the nuts.

We have a DIY sorting box!

Screws can be screwed in the top of the tube, nuts and washers can be glued, or just write there, what you have in that magic tube.

Last but not least: if you get bored, you can still play Connect 5 in a row!

Thanks for reading and sharing!