Coin envelopes for SMT part, where?

[RST Engineering \(jw\)]

As I recall, there is one down near the corner of Watt and Fulton.

 

[Joerg]

Had a hell of a day at the old airport last Thursday, didn't you?

Yes, that was a bad day. The first plane crashed a few miles into the
flight but they survived. The 2nd one might have been overloaded for
such hot weather, I don't know. Crashed right at the end of runway 31,
two dead, two survivors (so far). Looking at the airplane it's a miracle
anyone came out alive. What really amazed me is that they must have had
fairly full fuel tanks for the trip to Mexiko but there was no fireball.
AFAICT not even a minor post-impact fire.

 

[Robert Latest]

Ok, guys, I've read it many times that coin envelopes (the paper kind)
are practical for storing SMT.

I've become a huge fan of these:

http://www.mira-electronic.de/mira/container_1/container.html

robert

 

[Rich Grise]

Zip locks they had but that's an ESD hazard.

Get a jug of Downy (or any brand) fabric softener. Put it by the
bench with a lid arrangement where you can just moisten the tip
of your finger with about a half-drop of the stuff. Open the ziploc,
and stick your finger in and wipe fabric softener all over the
inside surface of the bag, like you were greasing a baking pan.

That should make it anti-static.

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[DJ Delorie]

That should make it anti-static.

You do realize that fabric softeners don't work by reducing static,
they work by waxing your clothes so that they don't stick, right?

Besides, if you did find something conductive to smear inside the
bags, it would quickly get all over the components, giving them each a
conductive coating.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Ok, guys, I've read it many times that coin envelopes (the paper kind)
are practical for storing SMT. Much less space than all those cans the
size of aspirin packages that stuff the cabinets here. Ok, not as
airtight but that should be fine.

I asked at all kinds of stores, Tarjay, Walmart, Longs, stationary
shops, you name it. None had any, most didn't even know what I was
talking about. Where do you buy them?

http://www.vakits.com/product_info.php?products_id=955 might be
useful.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Al]

I've become a huge fan of these:

http://www.mira-electronic.de/mira/container_1/container.html

robert

You have to be careful with using paper to store electronic products.
Many papers use sulfur in one form or another as a sizing. The sulfur
can attack the metal finish of your parts. Years ago, when device leads
were silver coated, this really killed the solderability of these items.

Al

 

[Rich Grise]

You do realize that fabric softeners don't work by reducing static,
they work by waxing your clothes so that they don't stick, right?

Please show me.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[DJ Delorie]

Please show me.

Hmmm... maybe I was thinking of anti-static dryer sheets, but all the
products I looked up all included "coats the fabric with a chemical"
in their description of how it works, and include lubrication as one
of the purposes of that chemical. I don't think that's such a good
idea for electrical parts.

As for dryer sheets...
http://www.bouncesheets.com/popups/common_questions.jsp

"How does Bounce® soften?

During the tumbling of the dryer, fabric care agents are transferred
from the Bounce dryer sheet to the surface of fabrics. These fabric
care agents have a lubricating effect on the fabric causing fibers
to feel smoother and thus softer."

 

[Robert Latest]

You have to be careful with using paper to store electronic products.

That's an interesting answer to a post that proposes using plastic
containers rather than paper envelopes.

robert

 

[Robert Latest]

IME it's ok. Clean paper isn't very static and stuff like diodes,
resistors, caps has never died an ESD death here.

Have you looked at the SMD containers with spring-loaded lids I suggested?

robert

 

[Joerg]

Joerg wrote:




Have you looked at the SMD containers with spring-loaded lids I suggested?

I have some here but IMHO they aren't the cat's meouw. There is very
little space to even write a row/column ID onto them and then that rubs
off over time. And you can't write a P/N onto a lid so you end up having
to run the laptop all the time for the database. Happened to me at a
client. Needed a BAV99 and a 0.033uF cap. Laptop on -> Windows hourglass
.... hourglass ... hourglass ... "DANG, come on!" ... hourglass ... ah,
they are in E6 and G4 respectively. In the DOS days that would not have
been an issue.

 

[Joerg]

I've become a huge fan of these:

http://www.mira-electronic.de/mira/container_1/container.html

These also tend to get expensive at almost half a Euro a pop. A coin
envelope retails around 3c a piece. And you can write part numbers onto
those.

Interestingly the conductive versions of the Mira boxes cost a little more.

Another issue with boxes are rough road trips or flights. You'll have
all the parts rattling against each other for hours. Not sure if that's
good for things like <2pF Cgs JFETs. Hi-ohms resistors and caps can be
damaged by matallization rubbing off onto the sides of their bodies so
they become less hi-Z.

 

[Joerg]

http://www.vakits.com/product_info.php?products_id=955 might be
useful.

Very nice! It's too high to fit into the cabinet drawers here (don't
want to leave all that outside) but that company has a lot of other
interesting things I am constantly looking for when at new clients. Such
as SMT resistor and capacitor kits at reasonable prices.

 

[Robert Latest]

I have some here but IMHO they aren't the cat's meouw. There is very
little space to even write a row/column ID onto them and then that rubs
off over time.

I print out little labels with part#/value and mfgr and affix them with good
old UHU. I've given up hand-labeling for the reasons you stated.

But somehow the idea of paper envelopes doesn't appeal to me... I have this
image of little parts that insit on wedging themselves into the furtest
crevice of the envelope in a tweezer-resistant way.

robert

 

[DJ Delorie]

One of the guys in our local eda group uses the smallest of these:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=44948&cat=1,43326

He puts a stick-on label that covers half the clear top, leaving the
other half see-through so you can see the value of the component and
how many are left.

Then he puts the various boxes in a big rolling Craftsman tool box,
one part type per drawer.

 

[Robert Latest]

These also tend to get expensive at almost half a Euro a pop.

They do. But depending on how much you value your time they may pay for
themselves after half a dozen parts that you didn't have to shake out of
paper envelopes.

Another issue with boxes are rough road trips or flights. You'll have
all the parts rattling against each other for hours.

Good point. Paper envelopes aren't an insurance against that either, but
they do restrict the motion somewhat.

robert

 

[Joel Kolstad]

But somehow the idea of paper envelopes doesn't appeal to me... I have this
image of little parts that insit on wedging themselves into the furtest
crevice of the envelope in a tweezer-resistant way.

That's why you always keep plenty of spares in the envelopes.

Actually, tapping the envelopes on a hard suffice (like smokers do with their
cigarettes) works well to dislodge any uncooperative parts.

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Very nice! It's too high to fit into the cabinet drawers here (don't
want to leave all that outside) but that company has a lot of other
interesting things I am constantly looking for when at new clients. Such
as SMT resistor and capacitor kits at reasonable prices.

Some of your clients might find the storage system useful for their
lab, too.


I used 2" * 3" antistatic plastic zip lock bags and the old cardboard
tray bins for my bench at Microdyne. Everything was labeled with half of
a self adhesive address label, and color coded. (the IT guys screwed up
and ordered 15,000 of the wrong type, and brought them to me when they
discovered they were single wide tractor feed instead of three wide.)

SMD parts were red ink, through hole in blue ink, misc. components
(like switches and crystals) in green ink, and hardware in black ink.
The value was in the upper left corner, and the stock number in the
upper right corner, with a full description in the remaining space. It
saved me a lot of time, making me the most productive tech in the
company. I cut dividers from card stock to separate categories. I
sorted parts by category, then value or part number. The stock numbers
were there for reference, and to restock. Two of them held thousands of
parts, in proper order and took care of 99% of my rework needs. I even
kept some SMD ICs on the bench, and replaced them by hand, faster than I
could even walk them to rework, and back. Most of the time I didn't
even have to disconnect the board from the test bed to change a bad
part.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Joerg]

One of the guys in our local eda group uses the smallest of these:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=44948&cat=1,43326

He puts a stick-on label that covers half the clear top, leaving the
other half see-through so you can see the value of the component and
how many are left.

Then he puts the various boxes in a big rolling Craftsman tool box,
one part type per drawer.

Very nice. However, with hundreds of SMT parts that does become a
tremendous stack of boxes. When I visit clients I try to squeeze it all
into a pilot's case, or two if going by car.