An All-in-one Component Toolbox and Workstation

Nowadays, many people have taken up the hobby of electronics. While being an interesting and incredibly productive hobby, keeping all components such as resistors, capacitors, ICs etc neatly in one place is a pain.

Of course, one can make a proper toolbox for all this stuff and make some robot  sort it all out. Unfortunately building one is just a little cheaper than a low end saloon. Sensible nerds try to organise their workstation as efficiently and as compact as possible. And this is what this instructable is about; my very own electronics workstation, all in one, cheap, and incredibly handy.

My project implements 2 ideas...
1. Pill boxes (?)
2. Stack on boxes (????)

Well, it doesn't, because taking pills out of their packets and keeping them for weeks in the open is a bad idea. The pills packaging is air-tight, and has an inert gas(like nitrogen) filled in, so that the chemicals in the pill don't react with air or water. Hence, doctors advise not to use pill boxes for pills.

Fortunately, the pill box has another use; to store small resistors, capacitors, etc etc and etc. Just pop in the component, label the lid, and that's done! I've use 7 * 4 = 28 small compartments.

These pill boxes come at less than 2$ each, so it will fit your budget unless your bank account has been hacked. Some things like Leds and ICs won't fit, so you'll need to see the next step.......

The "flip" boxes are a good idea to accommodate LEDs , ICs etc, but heres my idea: Stacking boxes to make them more compact. Its easy;

start with 2 boxes, stick the bottom of one on the lid of the other with hot glue or chewing gum, and that's  that.

You can also try this ground breaking idea on screw lid and other types of boxes, and can also stack more than 2 if required.

One big box for a breadboard is handy. We'll put it together later.

Now, (surprisingly), we have to put everything together. I've glued everything using hot glue, but it's your wish whether you want to use something else. See the pics and the tags for more clarity. 

What I've done is this;
1. Took some bamboo skewers( or long matchsticks) and stuck it to the pill box like in pic1.

2. Add additional skewers to make it stable and strong. Hot glue is advised.

3. Stick the stacked box (shown in prev step) to the bamboo skewers (see pic).

4. Stick more skewers to support other boxes if required.
 
5. Stick remaining boxes.

6. Nurse your glue gun burns, if any.

Remember the big box??? I thought the best way to join it to our "contraption" was by using Velcro. You dont need to spoil a shoe for this.. i got it for a few cents at the hardware store.

Glue some of the Velcro to the lid of the 'big box' as shown in the pics.  I think the pics explain the rest...a long strip wrapping the entire thing.

Thats done!

Very basic, cheap, efficient, compact, lightweight, and all in one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The cake step is optional.

Of course, you can add power. Get an adapter, ideally 200-1000ma and 6 - 12 V. There are several ways you can make one yourself (see diagram).

You can make a voltage regulator and adjuster too! See the circuit diagram above for making it.


Enjoy! If you liked the project, please vote!