I Have Too Many Parts!

OMG, I can't believe the prices I've seen... Kemets for $13 each -- in reel quantity? I don't see anything special about them that a $1-2 part doesn't posess.

Tim

I think you described the answer. The data base program "sends" an address to the "vending machine" which moves (rotates?) to the right position for pinkie access at minimum. Modify an old jukebox or RAMAC?

Bins like pigeonholes, and a "picker" on an X-Y mech, like a flatbed plotter...

Cheers! Rich

Yup.. An mini smd vending machine.. Maybe with some treats tossed in too. Slot 14 22k 1206 Slot 12 Kit Kat Slot 10 SOT23 mos Slot 4 Smarties

What I've been wondering about is how much I would spend if I saw something like this on Ebay. I'll guess I'd spend $100 if the unit can hold 300 components in there original bags. (With say 10% of bags being cut down smaller to fit into the unit).

I'm imagining a scaled down version of a filing cabinet with an LED on each file folder.. (Somebody posted a similar idea in this thread.) (Also, iirc long ago Jim mentioned he keeps his parts in a filing cabinet.)

LEDs are interfaced to a PC by USB. Perhaps an app reads an excel file. Yup..I'd spend $100 for that.

How much of the company's money are you folks going to spend on the storage bin vs. how much on the parts?

For example, it could be silly if a company bought a $5000 computer controlled robo inventory system for only $400 in parts..

two bits.

It still amazes me the ways that the cost ratio between labor and materials has changed so radically only in some parts of the world.

For example, $400 buys about 200,000 0603 resistors.

ok... And if they're all different values.. Seek times might add up. Automation could help and perhaps spending $5000 on a hightech part seeker might be justified.

$200?

Even if they're in reels (my preferred method of storage), that's 40 values. It still takes a *lot* more values to get to an automated inventory clerk. Reels are pretty easy to store as they are. Pick-n-place tools like them better too.

You assume that you can buy something useful for $5k. A decent parts cabinet without silly electronics goes for more than $5K.

Those are the expensive ones!

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Buy 500 small coin envelopes 2.5"x3.5" for $15 and several long narrow plastic drawer organizers for another $10. Cut tape with 20 resistors fits perfectly in these bags. Easy to store, sort and search, takes very little room.

DigiKey prices. What do you expect?

McMaster-Carr is not shy about their prices, but if you need something RIGHT NOW, they've got it in stock. There's a McM-C a couple of miles from here, and the warehouse is so big that if they took the shelves and stock out, you could probably play 4 football games simultaneously.

But you'll pay a premium. I once heard someone say that McM-C is "the convenience store of miscellaneous hardware."

Cheers! Rich

It ain't necessarily so, it depends on the labor cost of managing that by hand.

from

stock

Close, but they are also a Big Box store and have on hand some of almost everything.