Tune in each month for a heads-up on
where to get all of your “robotics
resources” for the best prices!
Organizing Your
Robotics Workbench
Iwe looked at the major electronics
tools and supplies used in building
n last month’s Robotics Resources,
robots, such as volt ohmmeters and
soldering irons. Like all workbenches,
how tidy you keep your robot building
home goes a long way to how much
you’ll enjoy the process.
There are a number of solutions
for organizing the bits and pieces of
your robotics hobby, including all
sorts of toolboxes, chests, cabinets,
drawers, boxes, bins, bags, and more.
We’ll cover many of these in this
installment, including handy online
sources if you don’t happen to have
a “Storage Shelves R Us” nearby!
A Place for Everything,
and Everything in
Its Place
Over his 20 years in the military,
one of the main jobs my father had
was taking charge of supplies. He had
the knack for organizing; the Marine
Corps had to keep tabs on everything
from huge trucks and airplanes, to
miniscule ball bearings. He’s long
since retired, but he has numerous
jobs and hobbies where his organizational skills still come into play.
When he got into model
airplanes, his portable “shop box” was
One of the many Amazon storage-related offerings. Do a search under the sections
Home & Garden and Office Products & Supplies for more.
neatly filled with everything he’d need
while out in the field. While other
members of the team would just toss
things into a plastic fishing tackle box
(and often had trouble finding things,
or even knowing if it was in the box),
my dad devised special compartments,
and he knew where everything was.
If apple trees are organizational
traits, this apple (me) fell far from the
tree, because I inherited virtually none
of the mindset to keep things in their
place. All while growing up — and
even now as an adult — I usually
forgot to put things back where they
belonged. I lost a bunch of stuff, and
ended up buying the same thing two
and even three times because I lost
track of it all in the garage.
So, knowing my shortcomings,
I have to make a conscious effort to
maintain order in the shop, or
else things get rapidly messy and
increasingly uncomfortable. When I
skip the step of organizing my stuff,
I enjoy the robot building process
far less. Finding parts becomes a
half-hour job. No fun.
While my shop is far from
Robotics Eden, it’s more or less well
organized with the help of some small
parts cabinets, a few plastic parts
bins, zipper lock-style plastic bags,
and a few other odds and ends. While
my system works for me, you’ll
undoubtedly want to improvise your
own. Everyone has slightly different
requirements; for example, because I
usually build small robots, my storage
needs tend to be for small parts. If
you build large and heavy combat
68 SERVO 04.2009
