I have some assorted size ball bearings that I used to keep in a plastic box, which had separate compartments for each size. One day the unthinkable happened- I dropped the box and they went rolling all over the floor! After picking them all up with a magnet, I didn’t want to sort them all manually, so naturally I had to create a sorting box on my GF to do it .
It has compartments for each size ball. The walls separating them have gaps at the bottom that are just the right size to let some balls roll through, but not all. It also has removable partitions that block the gaps that can be inserted after the sorting to keep all of the balls in their correct places.
The name of the post reminded me of this ingenious Lego vacuum sorting contraption . It’s in Norwegian but you can fast forward and see it in action https://youtu.be/IMhbPJ116H8
I am trying to decide how to set up a screw sorter to make quick work of the random containers of screws that somehow seem to multiply around my shop over the years.
I made the mistake of buying one of those revolving bins for hardware organization, thinking of what to do with that problem. I just neglected to figure in the final price of having to individually sort a bucket full of loose random hardware piece by piece…
I surrendered and each day I enjoyed a beer in the evening and spent that time - wood screw, machine screw, washer, nut sheet metal. Screw, lag bolt…
It took a little more than a week, but eventually achieved it.
TV time is a good option I think.
It will be worth it… In hindsight. Sure beats scratching through all of it. Before, I would spread out a towel and dump half the bucket to find what I was after and then gather the corners of the towel and dump it all back into the bucket, which worked reasonably well.