Bit organizing

[Joseph clements]

My shopbot is 6 months old , and now I am ready for some way to keep my bits
organized. I have onsrud bits with numbers on them.

[donek]

My shopbot is 6 months old , and now I am ready for some way to keep my bits
organized. I have onsrud bits with numbers on them.

2X4 or 2X6 with holes drilled in it.

[bleeth]

And little labels next to the holes until you get to the point where you know what bit it is by glancing at it.

[frank134]

This is what I did. you can't see them, but I but number by the bit and make a spread sheet with the info for that number. type, price and where I bought them.

[adrianm]

There are some good designs (and files to go with them) in this thread on the Vectric forum - http://www.vectric.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13954

I use one which is a combination of Tim's, Mark's and Andrea's designs. If I ever find where I put the file I'll post it!

[jTr]

Had grand ideas for an impressively crafted drawer system - but then realized I needed to get some work done....
$15 hardware organizer hangs on wall to the left of my control computer. Somewhat like an outline or spreadsheet layout - starts with a drawer of collets followed by an assortment of well labeled bit drawers that correspond.

Triangulated layout of machine work flow in my shop, so my bot is at a 45 angle to the wall. This way, I have little to no steps to take for bit changes and controls for DC / vac motors and zones. Not pretty, but pretty functional.

jeff

[JoeinWestMich]

Don't have my Shopbot yet (shipper says in 4 hours - am I counting?) but I have a fair number of router bits for my router table. I decided to go with a simple solution. I bought a couple of plastic trays with dividers from the local sports store. These are trays made for fishing lures. I bought one for regular size lures that works great for my 1/4 bits; and then a tray made for salmon lures that works perfectly for the 3/8 and 1/2 lures. Cost me just a couple of bucks for each tray. Holds 36, 3 rows of 12 but many other sizes/capacities to choose from. I can write with a Sharpie pen or put a small label on the lid over each compartment to identify them. I like them because the plastic will not damage some of the fine, very sharp bits AND when closed protect the bits from the elements so none of the rust film buildup that could occur in my garage shop. Plus being small and portable, I can bring over the tray to the router, soon Shopbot, when I am working then put back into the cupboard when done.

[Joseph clements]

This was on Vectric forum

[coryatjohn]

I bought a used machinist tool box from ebay. It has lots of little drawers lined with felt. Rather than stand them up, I found it better to just keep them in the drawers so I can organize them by size, type and age. Works for me!

[mjindustry]

This was one of our very first projects with our shopbot. Still using it today.



It's not nearly as shiny anymore.

[GeneMpls]

How bout a present day photo- (wanna see how many bits you have):D

[mikek]

I had a router table that had a drawer full of bits out of sight so when I got my BenchTop I made a sliding drawer storage system under the table which holds my ShopBot bits and collets and other clutter. Out of the way so I don 't cut myself reaching for them! The BenchTop ShopBot is sitting on top of this table. Crude, but it works for me.

[dana_swift]

I use a set of boxes like Jeff R shows on the first photo of post #6 on this thread. I keep the boxes sorted by what type of bit, starting with diameter.

I keep bits on hand from 1/2" shank down to 1/8" shank and diameters down to 0.020.

The little bits with 1/8" shanks break a lot, so I get a minimum of ten at a time when I order them.

I also have a set of ER-11 collets and holders on 1/2" extenders for all the 1/8" shank bits, and also some 1/4" shank bits. That gets the bit just bellow the Kent CNC dust skirt where I want it.

How many bits do I have?? no idea. Well over 100 probably if they were all counted. The number goes down spontaneously as you may well understand ;) Although I don't break bits as fast as I used to, there must be some kind of bad bit karma that floats around the spoilboard. That's what it is.. bad bit karma..

D