Shop Tip: Print Your Own Labels for End Mill, Drill Bit, and Small Parts Storage Bins
Here’s a tip on how to create and print your own customized labels for your storage bins. It’s not rocket science, but it sure is satisfying to create your own professional looking labels.
A friend of mine has the misfortune of having too many end mills. Hundreds of them. I wish I had his problem. For him, the issue with having hundreds of end mills is that he can never seem to find one with the right diameter, number of flutes, etc. when he needs it.
His previous attempt at organization involved sorting the end mills by diameter into several tupperware containers and coffee cans. Finding the right diameter was simple enough, but then he had to sort through the container to find one that had the right number of flutes, or a slight radius, etc.
Oddly, he had a set of storage bins on his workbench that sat virtually empty. He had the bins, but like so many of us, he didn’t have the motivation to organize the end mills into the bins. So I volunteered to help.
He wanted the end mills organized by used or new, diameter, number of flutes, and type (Ball, Hog, ect.). At first I started hand-writing labels for each of the bins, but I quickly realized that a printed label would make the project look much cleaner, and be easier to read from a short distance. Since the bins didn’t come with any labels, I made some up on my computer, cut them out, and stuck them to the bins using 2″ wide clear packing tape. Here’s what the labels look like:
Below you’ll find an Excel file with the labels I used. Simply change the content of the labels to suite your own storage needs. You could also take this idea one step further and buy your own self-sticking labels from an office supply store (which would make things even easier). Avery makes good labels if you decide to go this route, and Word and Word Perfect both have pre-formatted layouts that fit Avery labels.
If you decide to alter my attached Excel document there’s a few tips you need to know: If you want Excel to display a fractional size such as 3/4 you have to type an apostrophe in front of the fraction (i.e. ‘3/4) to prevent Excel from converting the fraction (3/4) into a date (4-Mar). Also, if Excel changes your 0.500 to 0.5, format the cell so that it shows 3 decimal places. If you run into any snags post a comment.
Have fun organizing!
End_Mill_Labels.xls (19.5 KiB, 373 hits)
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SMALL PARTS BIN STORAGE SHELF ORGANIZER RACK- 90 BINS
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Tags: Shop Tips
December 13th, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Here is another toolpost grinder for you to post ,although you may not want to since it is expensive. I noticed only the inexpensive ones made it onto this site. Could that be because I am trying to sell you one? LOL
http://cgi.ebay.com/DUMORE-Z-12-TOOLPOST-GRINDER_W0QQitemZ260435675290QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Tool_Work_Holding?hash=item3ca32d089a
December 18th, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Hi Barry, thanks for sharing. I actually have an add-on that posts relevant/current auctions to the site according to key words that I specify. The only issue with the link you provided is that it will be out of date soon and lead to a dead auction (which is fine). I use the add-on to prevent me from needing to babysit the links (delete old ones, add new ones, etc).
I think the home page is set up to automatically show current auctions with the key words of “Dumore” and “Grinder”. That’s why you’ll sometimes see auctions for Dumore manuals (because the listing has the appropriate key words). And sometimes a completely irrelevant auction shows up. Lets just hope that no one ever publishes a romance novel with those two words in the title. That would lead to some embarrassing links showing up!
You need to let me know when you finish restoring your Atlas grinder so I can buy your other one off of you! If you’re working on the furnace this weekend I’d like to come over and ram up a few castings. Do you have sand yet?
T
January 24th, 2010 at 6:13 PM
Hello Tylerman:
I am finished with the toolpost grinder, so the other one is for sale now. We worked on Garret’s car all day so no casting was done and it was raining anyway. Yes, I have sand and lotsa wheelium. Next sunny weekend will be casting time.
Barry
January 25th, 2010 at 1:19 PM
Sounds good. I’ll stop by and check out the grinder soon. Which one did you decide to sell?