Techs: Where do you place laptop screws?

[Coldkilla]

I'm looking for something that might help me organize the tiny 20+ screws that come from dissassembling multiple laptops. Many of the screws are different sizes and I would like to have some sort of system for keeping these screws in order. I don't have the deskspace (yet) and cannot simply have them spread all over the place.

Ideas?

 

[herm0016]

i like to use a little tackle box that has removable drawers. i have one full of different electronic parts, one for common screws and one for special stuff.

 

[bendixG15]

Get an ice cube tray.............

 

[xgsound]

Empty egg carton.

Jim

 

[corkyg]

I use empty plastic prescription drug bottles for that - or aol Aspirin bottle, etc. Small zip lock baggies work too.

BTW - we haven't had an ice cube tray since about 1990.

 

[bendixG15]

BTW - we haven't had an ice cube tray since about 1990.

Gosh, I'm sorry to hear that. What happened in 1990, plague ??.. famine ?? earthquake?

I guess we are just lucky here, ice cube trays have been available for our "ice boxes" for many years. Maybe you should consider moving

 

[tcsenter]

All you need is one container or partition. Grab paper and pencil, then crudely illustrate the holes in which each size of screw resided. e.g. document the holes as A, B, C.

You don't need to be an artist. Just draw a rectangle then use the same mad skills you perfected filling in all those thousands of ScanTron circles over the years.

When you're ready to put it back together, dump the screws out in one area, separate into sizes A, B, C...

 

[bruceb]

I have some small shallow metal cups I picked up somewhere.
A muffin tin will also work well. And it helps it you drop a tiny note
in each container or tag it outside so you know what size screw it is.
A lot of the manuals will spec it out by screw thread / length
Sometimes, they show a true size image so you can compare the
hardware to get the right one. Too long in a laptop is nothing but trouble.

 

[tcsenter]

Separating the screws by size is not helpful for putting them back in the right holes by size. Its not like the screws are going to change or breed if they are all put into the same container. They can easily be separated by size again just by looking at them.

It's where they came from that is the hard part, and the only thing that helps there is very good recall or some kind of illustration.

 

[jonmcc33]

Um, on the desk as I'm working on the laptop? I've worked on quite a bit of laptops and never had a problem with the screws.

 

[Zepper]

Any kind of partitioned containers will work - egg cartons or ice cube trays - number each well. If you are working on more than one laptop at the same time, then give each tray a letter to correspond to the machine. I then draw a rough diagram of each layer with each screw numbered to coincide with one of the wells (when you have multiple screws of the same thread and length, give them the same number and put them all in one well. That way you may have enough spaces in one carton or tray to handle all the different parts.

.bh.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: bendixG15
BTW - we haven't had an ice cube tray since about 1990. Gosh, I'm sorry to hear that. What happened in 1990, plague ??.. famine ?? earthquake?
I guess we are just lucky here, ice cube trays have been available for our "ice boxes" for many years. Maybe you should consider moving

No, silly! We got modern. A fridge with an ice maker - no trays involved.

 

[wwswimming]

wood bowls from Cost Plus or Pier One imports.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Originally posted by: wwswimming

wood bowls from Cost Plus or Pier One imports.

For you metrosexual technicians!

 

[KeithP]

If you have a piece of styrofoam or even cardboard, you can push the screws into the material like a thumbtack which should hold them. If you have a Sharpie handy you can even right on the stuff to label them.

-KeithP