Sorry, Stephen-- I went to the site yesterday and didn’t find them.
I bought them a couple of years ago-- and this is a surplus place.
I fear they are gone. But the site is still a good one to know
about: http://www.sciplus.com/. Possibly these could be found by a
search for “tackle”. Good luck, and sorry to get your hopes up! Noel
Go to www.cabelas.com I think this might be what your looking for.
They have a great assortment of storage items. Their prices are
pretty good and I’ve find them good to work with.
Type “soft worm” in the search box. They’re $8.99
Pam
Other than general clutter which I do have ways of dealing with but
don’t, sandpapers are everywhere. How do others contain them? I
reuse the bits and pieces as they become less aggressive and
consequently have these folded bits all over the bench top and
trays.
Marilyn Smith
How do others contain them? I reuse the bits and pieces as they become less aggressive and consequently have these folded bits all over the bench top and trays.
I use gallon ziplock bags, and one of those crate style hanging file
boxes. I just put the pieces in by their marked grit, and select
what I want by touch.
Ron Charlotte – Gainesville, FL
@Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org
The “soft worm” results on www.cabelas.com are not at all like what
I got from American Science, who seem not to have them anymore. The
closest things I could find on that site are the “bottom bouncer
storage bag” which is kinda the same idea, but one-sided, or maybe
the “flasher storage bag” or the tackle binders, especially
“spinnerbait”. I’m sorry, I don’t have time to do a proper search,
but if I get a chance, I will.
–Noel
Marilyn,
Like you I re-use bits of sandpaper. For me it’s usually a matter of
tossing it when it becomes too loaded or contaminated than when it
looses it’s original bite.
I store new sheets, or 1/2 sheets etc, in an expandable paper file
folder. I think this has already been suggested. But the used bits I
store in a cheapo fishing tackle box, the flat single-layer kind
without moveable dividers. I can’t remember exactly but I know I paid
less than $5 each for these. They have enough compartments to separate
the various sandpaper grades, and the compartments are wide enough to
store a small heap of sandpaper bits and still leave room to rummage
around for the “right” one. I use one such tackle box for sandpaper
that has been used on jewellery (gold and silver) and a second for
bits that have been used on other things such as wood, base metals,
etc.
Although these particular tackle boxes are quite large, 18 inches
wide by 12 inches deep by 3.5 inches tall, I just stand them on edge
and slide them onto a nearby shelf when I’m not using them so it’s not
much of an intrusion.
If I ever get around to adding my “bench” photo to the Orchid
archives my tackle box fixation will be revealed. I use at least 30
of them for everything from Foredom handpieces to rough stones. One
good trick I’ve found is to cut out or otherwise tailor this or that
fixed divider when you’re dedicating a particular box to a specific
purpose. It may sound crude but I can organize and store a surprising
amount of stuff on the single wall that serves as my shop space.
Cheers,
Trevor F.
Hi Marilyn,
I also found myself in this situation. The method I came up with
was to keep them in regular envelopes and write the grit number on
the front. When not being accessed, I stick the envelopes in
between two rows of my homemade pliers/ assorted tools holder.
Best Regards,
Dale
The "soft worm" results on www.cabelas.com are not at all like what I got from American Science, who seem not to have them anymore. The closest things I could find on that site are the "bottom bouncer storage bag"
Try looking at “tackle binders” or “tackle wraps” on the Cabelas
site. I think these might be what was being discussed.
After browsing that website, I’m thinking that some of the
non-traditional fishing tackle storage gear might be more useful for
many of us than storage units designed specifically for jewelry
items!
–Kathy Johnson
Feathered Gems Pet Motif Jewelry
Trevor, glad to know I am not the only tackle box fiend! I LOVE
them! My favorites are by Flambeau, and have both the little boxes
and the large sliding drawer boxes. All fit into a big overbox with
handle, for carrying around with me. I also have some nice ones by
Keter, than are a storage file sort of box, that holds four tackle
box drawers vertically. This is where I store stones and beads. I
have also gotten the bathroom shelf accessories at Wal-Mart - little
shelves - and use those for mandrels and odds and ends.
The plier holders from Rio are wonderful! I have two, and they are
definitely worth the small cost. I also love the little
compartmentalized wire baskets from Wal-Mart for holding adhesives,
pens/pencils, scissors, etc.
Beth in SC
Re Sand Paper – if you use sanding sticks then you don’t have any
little bits of sand paper about. Just buy the sanding (emery)
sticks once and then rewrap them with your own sandpaper or emery
paper.
To do this: take the sand paper and trim the length if necessary.
Line up the sanding stick at the edge of the sandpaper. At the
other side of the sanding stick, score the sandpaper. Fold up the
sandpaper and stick, holding them together. Score again, fold
again, score, fold, etc., until you run out of sandpaper. Secure
with staples or wire at the top.
When a side of sandpaper gets worn out, simply tear it off and throw
it away. There’s a perfectly fresh piece underneath. Saves time,
is neat, and it’s a more efficient way to sand.
~Elaine
Elaine Luther
Chicago area, Illinois, USA
Metalsmith, Certified PMC Instructor
Studio 925; established 1992
@E_Luther
people - some tool ‘placement’ ideas - ‘organization’ is nirvana &
not for my lifetime. the wooden box with round cut outs for spice
bottles on a rotating rack became a bur holder when i adhered pieces
of 1" styrofoam to each side (think people before cutting: you have
to account for the overlap at corners - either 2 wider pieces or 4
same size pieces) & one for the top - again allow for the added
thickness of the styro. i attached sheets of grid paper (any size
will do, you’re just looking for uniformity in spacing for holes) to
all sides. holding a pointed wood skewer at a downward angle of
about 30 degrees (just make a wild guess) i poked holes through
intersecting lines on the grids - further apart for the burs with
large heads, etc.etc. on the top i stick special burs for easy
access. since my domesticity included only one spice rack i had to
fake the second one (i do a lot of carving, etc. & use a lot of
different burs, ‘hard work’ does not mean doing it the hard way)
every super mart or discount store usually has one of those rotating
plastic flat thingies that stands about 3/4" high & the diameter of
a large plate. go through the above styrofoam, adhesive, grid paper
& poking with a sturdy cardboard box the right size, angle the
pokies so the closed box end is the top or the open end is up if you
want to put long scales, tools in it. cut another styro square that
just snugly fits inside the box, glue it centered onto the rotating
plastic thing. when dry drizzle some glue either inside the open end
of the box & stick onto the glued square or leave off that piece of
styro & glue the closed end to the rotating plastic dooda.
the different length & width tan or white plastic drawer organizers
that can hook onto the next one are invaluable (not flatware
holders) - if you don’t know what they are, go something else: put a
paper label on the end of each for ‘pen-cils’, ‘calipers/scales’
[small versions], ‘small brushes’, ‘calculators’, ‘small scissors’,
‘xactos & blades’ - you get the idea. into a larger size container
went all my glues - a drawer can’t be carried around your work area
when needed & the container is handier - guess what the label on it
says? another medium container is labeled ‘wood’ & it holds hundreds
of pointed skewers, chop sticks, toothpicks, short dowels, old paint
brush handles, etc. for mixing epoxy, firming up tubing for cutting,
making jump rings, & so on.
magnetic strips are worth their weight in gummi bears. keep your saw
blades in ziplocs & just toss them toward a strip & it is caught.
the same for metal tools. a rotating utensil boxy thing with a tube
at each corner holds most of my hammers, ring sticks, etc.
foot controls for foredoms: one goes on the floor at right of my
knee space, one at the left, and the third is attached at right knee
level inside the knee space; fewer bur changes. the trim saw,
cabmates, genie, polishing machines, drill press, band saw (so i
cheat, get over it) are on foot controls - check out your local
thrift shops for sewing machines with the plug & outlet type foot
controls, buy the machine for almost nothing, take off the foot
control, redonate. machines wear out before the foot thingies so
some sewers don’t need to buy one.
a tape necessity: 3-m makes an adhesive ‘tape’ that comes on rolls
of brown paper from 1/2" to 12" wide; press the brown tape in place,
pull it off & the almost invisible adhesive is left & can be used
for everything. no work area should be without some.
inventory: since i buy pearls by the kilo they can get out of hand
in a hurry (no pun intended) & prices forgotten so every hank goes
into a ziploc bag with # of strands & price of each written onto a
stickon paper label - plastic bags eat even sharpie ink in no time.
the bags go into 2 crates, one for white pearls & one for dark
pearls. the same is done for gemstone & sterling beads. gemstones:
go into handyman’s multidrawer cabinets with guess what on the front
of each drawer? every parcel has # of pieces & price; since i buy a
lot of melee i immediately divide the parcel price by the number of
pieces & write the ‘each’ cost. the larger drawer ones work best for
me.
rolling mill: lacking the upper body strength to operate one at a
high center of gravity level i converted a shorter laminated 3 drawer
cabinet with sturdy wheels on the bottom & bolted the mill to the
top; i can get some leverage on the handle; it rolls out of the way &
the extra rollers go into the drawers with a large can of wd-40,
light machine oil, pieces of old towels, & corrosion prone tools such
as my antiquey carbon steel tools, daps, stakes, blocks, etc. (you
will notice i keep a lot of ‘etc.’ on hand, properly labeled of
course) will go into the rest at another time people - all this
enforced organization is giving me a rash. later -
ive
I love cigar boxes for my workshop samples and other small bits. My
favorite is the Criollo box that has 4 pull out drawers. I label
everything with cute little labels too. (Go ahead, laugh! It’s a girl
thing!)
(you can get the Criollo boxes on ebay fairly cheap)
Barb V.
I have never been into tool organization or having a bunch of little
drawers to hunt through I just keep everything on racks at my bench
so they are easy to get at and I can see them. If you are really
into tackle boxes though you should check out the Gerstner web site
it has the most beautiful tool boxes in the world I have a couple
that I keep around the shop because they make me look like I know
what I am doing, most were sold to tool and die makers and
machinests they have been in business 100 years. The chests are not
cheap but they will out last you if you take care of them the two
that I have are from the 1920’s.
sincerely Kevin
I keep reading three words in this series of postings.“too loaded up
& contaminated " with what?? Gold, Platinum, Silver, 'scuse me do you
not have a refinery of these papers near you? do you really know how
much money you are yearly throwing away into the garbage??? please
allow me the favour of driving to your stores and collect of these
"too loaded up papers” how about those carpets you are walking on?
duh???$$$$, let me tell you a little story before you throw more
stuff away…:>) If you folks do this refinery thing, even once a
year, you’ll have enough money for a nice vacation! I used to work for
a very large Toronto jewellery company about 150 people on staff. Each
summer the company had to pay the folks a 2% wage for their
vacations. Do you know what this owner did…??..think now! He picked
up all of the carpets including his EMERY PAPERS, polishing sweeps,
and had the local refinery pick up the stuff. With the refinery
charges deducted, he still ended up with so much money his 'found’
gold paid the 150 vacation pay for those 150 jewellers. Everyone won! Gerry!
I use lots of beads in my work. I got two tall plastic multi-drawer
chests from Sam’s Club. Each chest has 4 drawers that are about 3"
deep, three drawers that are about 8" deep, and has casters so it can
roll. I discovered that the frames that support each of the drawers
snap apart with some difficulty, but reassemble easily. I rearranged
the drawers so that all 8 of the 3" drawers are on one rolling base,
above one of the deeper drawers. The other five 8" drawers are on the
other rolling base. This gives me lots of shallow drawers in which to
store beads.
I get hundreds of film canisters for free (I love that word!) from
the local photo studio/film developing shop. They save the canisters
and give them to whoever asks for them first. I go in every few
months and clean out their canister collection box.
Each temporarily strung strand of beads is unstrung and carefully
put into a canister. One bead from the strand is glued to the
canister lid. There’s usually at least one less-than-perfect bead on
each strand that can be sacrificed as a marker bead. If not, I use
silicone sealer to attach them, so that a still-usable bead can be
easily pulled loose if it’s ever needed.
Information about the beads (size, material, price) is put on a
label that goes on the side of the canister. These film canisters
full of beads go into the shallow drawers, sorted by color so I can
find things later. I just glance into a drawer, and can easily see
the bead I’m looking for on top of the canisters. I only use the
translucent white canisters for bead storage. That makes it easy to
see when I’m getting low on something without having to dump it out
and count the beads.
Each drawer of beads is labeled by color. The big drawer on the
bottom holds all the various packages of small zipper bags that are
both a blessing and a curse to those in this business.
For larger beads that won’t fit into a film canister, I got some
larger tubes from a coin shop which are meant for holding stacks of
bullion coins. They hold full strands of big beads nicely, and still
fit into the shallow drawers of the plastic chest.
In the chest with the leftover 8" drawers, I keep shipping supplies
such as labels, pens and tape, as well as small display pieces, photo
background papers/fabrics, signs, maps and other show-related odds
and ends.
For tools on the bench, I got a wooden remote control rack from a
discount department store. I think it cost $9. It is two-tiered,
perhaps 10" wide by 8" deep. It easily holds 20 pairs of pliers when
the pliers are positioned so that the handles straddle the sides and
center divider of the rack. In the two deep slots that are meant to
hold remote controls, I can stand taller tools that can’t straddle
the wood dividers, such as files and scissors.
And now an organization question— When I bought my previously-owned
shop equipment, I got a large box of various sizes of casting flasks
and rubber sprue bases. Does anyone have any suggestions for storing
them in a relatively organized fashion? Right now they’re in a
plastic laundry basket, and it’s difficult to find the size/height
flask and matching base without dumping everything out on the floor.
–Kathy Johnson
Feathered Gems Pet Motif Jewelry
http://www.featheredgems.com
-sanding sticks
Just a quick note in response to E. Luther’s suggestions about
sanding sticks. Keep in mind that staples and wire are harder than
gold (and silver). One stroke that’s a little too long, and you’ve
got a nasty deep scratch in your precisely and carefully sanded
piece. Some goldsmiths use rubber bands to attach the sandpaper. I
use scotch tape myself. -BK in AK
The best sander I have found is in the beauty supply stores. Its an
oblong sponge with fine sandpaper finish that beauticians use on
fingernails. The beauty of this is, it contours to your piece, fits
in your hand beautifully and does a great job. And they are less
than a dollar. I urge everyone to try them, you’ll love them.
Julia
I bond sandpaper to sticks with contact cement or instant glue. By
bonding the sandpaper to the stick you can and use the end of the
stick to sand in difficult places. You can buy sand paper covered
boards from a beaauty supply house. Lee Epperson