If you're like me, you probably would like to take either old, busted pieces of equipment or shiny, new pinnacles of tech and tear them apart - you monster. I thought I'd share a small post about how you can keep up with all the little screws that get left in the wake or your reign of destruction. Some are simple, some are more elaborate, but money's no object when it comes to complete obliteration of unsuspecting gadgets, right?
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| Not just for pills anymore. |
Using a multi-chambered weekly pillbox can help out with a quick project that has small screws. You can either separate the fasteners by shape or by disassembly step. The limiting factor here is that you can only hold 7 types or steps unless you try to buy more of them. Also, you either need to go buy one, or take from a poor, frail elder.
2. The Paper
Now, there are two ways to use the paper technique. My friend has always created a basic plan of the object being torn down, and labeled the steps and pieces as he disassembled, putting the screws in the proper place. The disadvantage here is that bumps and accidental swipes can create chaos very quickly.
I've also come up with the idea where you actually stick each screw into the paper by order of how you took them out, labeling if needed. It helps to keep them in place, but labeling while sticking screws in can get a bit tricky.
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| No, not this Will Smith. |
I got this little ingenious idea from Tested.com's Will Smith while watching a tear down of the new XBox 360. It's a tweaked version of using paper, but the tape actually holds on to the screws. Either of these methods is a cheap, easy, and almost-always-on-hand solution. My only issue here is that you can't label any of the screws, so it's up to you to use a separate piece of paper or just remember where everything went.
4. The Tackle Box
This solution is for the bigger projects involving a lot more screws. It's basically the bigger version of the pillbox method. I'd suggest using this only if you really need to keep track of a LOT of screws, or are planning to store spare screws by not reassembling your gadget victim.
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| Like this, but with less clutter. |
Speaking of saving screws and other parts, if you're just going to break everything apart and not reassemble, why not just get a simple organizer for future projects? You can get a variety of sizes, and a variety of drawers. They can be easily labeled for reference as well. This is for the one who needs to disassemble gadgets on a regular basis, such as an at-home repair shop.
Now that I've shared my methods, anyone else know of other ways to keep track of everything?
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