A while back, I started throwing away tackle boxes that my metric screw sets came in and started converting them to a labeled drawer system.
Recently these machine screws have been added to the GitHub collection.
SVGs are available from GitHub.
Made in Inkscape.
Many Screw Variations
In a previous life, a hobby of mine was testing out 3D-printed designs on Thingiverse, and pretty much every project required its own special types of screws. The problem is how many different variations of screws there are – which leads to many tackle boxes that need to be sorted.
The various properties of a metric screw are:
- The diameter – Specifies the diameter of the screw in millimeters – such as M2, M3, M4, etc.
- The length – The length of the screw thread in millimeters.
- The head – The shape of the screw’s cap.
- The drive – The shape of the screwdriver needed to turn the screw.
- The finish – The color of the screw or its outer plating. Usually silver or black.
And then, besides the screws, there are other related items, such as nuts and washers, which aren’t as highly dimensional but still add to the number of items needing to be tracked.
The Label Types
Two different label types need to be produced: drawer labels and bag labels.
One of the core goals of the organization system is to be able to graphically identify where stuff is instead of just relying on text. It gets visually crowded with all these screws looking essentially the same – and for someone who’s a raging dyslexic, addressing this is important.
So the labels for the screws are designed to be to-scale where possible. Except for the thread lengths because that gets a little too hairy to tackle for all the variations. A drawer will contain a variable number of lengths, with all other factors (diameter, drive, finish, etc.) constant.
This allows holding up a screw to the graphic to verify it belongs. It’s not uncommon to print silhouettes of this kind of stuff as charts for identification. For example, the cheat sheet comes with Prusa 3D printers. This is pretty much the same idea, except on a per-drawer and label basis.
The Document
The SVG documents are somewhat hap-hazard because of how in-flux they are. I only have stuff authored for things that have been relevant. Plus, I don’t print out the SVG documents as they are in the repo; I copy and paste variations of labels as needed in a separate document. That way, if I need a specific label type or multiple labels, I can be selective of what I’m spending ink and label paper for.
You may notice the drawer lip icons aren’t to scale. There just simply isn’t the space to do so.
