2019-02-24

Cheap SMD box

It may seem silly, but I'm trying to reuse almost all parts from consumer electronics, including SMD 1206 and 0805 resistors and larger ceramic capacitors (1206 and 0805, 1u - 10u) for DIY projects. Desoldering these may seem like a waste of time, but it's difficult to keep wide range of component values in stock and reusing old one often beats going to shop to buy new one or waiting for shipment.
One way of reusing old components is keeping few scrap boards at hand and scanning them for particular values when needed. Surprisingly this might be easier then looking through desoldered components if they are not sorted, thus sorting is essential.
There are some nice dedicated SMD boxes on ebay/aliexpress, but using polyethylene pill boxes is cheaper.
This pill box, consisting of 7 smaller boxes with 4 compartments each in larger box costs ~$2.50 from local retailer.



 As some edges and corners are not closing precisely, I've put some hot glue on them. As all is stored in larger box, risk of losing anything is minimal and it's easy to identify if any compartment needs attention.


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