How do you store your pen spare parts, extra nibs, ink converters and cartridges, etc.?

[A Smug Dill]

How do you store your pen spare parts, ink converters, etc.?

 

My wife finally managed to get me to clean up some of my mess, ahead of friends visiting (which is quite rare for us).
  

Spoiler

On 9/23/2020 at 10:05 AM, AmandaW said:

Did you find a solution for sorting and storing cartridges?

 

On 10/30/2022 at 6:13 PM, USG said:

You have a lot of nibs.  How would you like to put those nibs to use or is nibhoarding a new part of the hobby,

On 10/30/2022 at 7:03 PM, USG said:

It seems like you have an awful lot of spares.

 

I have boxes of pen spare parts, standalone or replacement nibs and nib units, dip pen handles and nibs, ink cartridges and converters, tools (such as tiny wrenches) for pen maintenance, water brush pens, a stamping kit to produce an outline image on swatch cards, makeup applicators for swabbing ink, display stands for (photographing) swatch cards, surplus Chinese pens, dedicated cheap pens for holding certain iron-gall inks and pigment inks so that they're always on the ready, etc. All of which, until recently, used to sit in a precarious pile (or ‘tower’) on one of the unused dining chairs, and it's hard to either move them or hide them away from sight all at once.

 

Just as well that I also have a hoard of ‘spare’ storage boxes, document trays, etc. This one proved suitable beyond my expectations, even though of course it couldn't hold all of that type of bits and bobs; I still have dozens of new Sailor, Platinum, and Pilot converters, as well as retail boxes of ink cartridges and new surplus (not just Chinese, but also Japanese and European) fountain pens filling up mini-crates and crammed into a huge drawer elsewhere.

 

 

Take a guess how much stuff it holds for me!

 

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This is not nearly the “all laid out” view, when there are stacks and layers inside the smaller boxes themselves:

 

 

All of the plastic boxes shown were bought in Daiso, with the exception of this one:

[Paul-in-SF]

I don't have nearly as much of that stuff as you do, I'm sure.

 

I  bought 7 hard plastic food storage containers, five of them are probably about a pint, the other two are smaller, maybe 1/2 that size. The tops have a knob that you push in that actuates and seals the top against the sides -- not really necessary for pen parts, but I liked them better than the other food storage containers I saw. These containers are exactly the right height to fit into one of the drawers of the small-ish set of drawers that occupies the top of the inner corner of my L-shaped desk area. The other drawers are 2 drawers of ink, 2 drawers of tools and repair supplies, and 1 drawer of miscellaneous storage. 

 

The 7 food storage containers have labels on them, as follows: Sacs and Diaphragms, Ink Cartridges, Pens to Repair, Sheaffer Parts and Tools, Assorted Parts, (and the smaller ones) Steel Nibs and Nib Units, 14K Nibs Feeds and Converters. The Pens to Repair container is mostly empty, as I no longer accumulate pens faster than I can work on them. I used to keep each pen's parts in a labeled ziploc bag inside that container, while they waited for parts to arrive or for something else. The Assorted Parts container has things like pressure bars of various types, breather tubes, O rings and the like, plus a relatively small number of leftover parts (blind caps, sections, caps) of pens that are otherwise defunct. 

 

I had cycled through increasingly larger sizes of bins with smaller containers inside, but I hated going through the various containers to find the one that I wanted, which was invariably on the bottom. This drawer unit I got for free from a neighbor, took the wheels off, and plopped it in an area that had been mostly wasted space. I love having stuff in drawers, they are so much easier to access and then put away out of sight. 

[dipper]

5 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

....... I love having stuff in drawers, they are so much easier to access ......

Agreed.

 

Big storage boxes are OK, if you rarely want anything of the masses of bits and bobs inside. Bigger boxes hold more stuff. Much too often there will be something in a big box that I do want - every few days! It's a pain getting a box out, half emptying it, repacking it ...😝😝.

 

In contrast, an array of smaller slide-out drawers are a joy to use. Three units here - side by side on a bookshelf. I have more, smaller versions, in the garage workshop, and my wife has a regular fleet of them up in the "flower loft".

 

(From a local "Wilco" store in the UK.)

[A Smug Dill]

26 minutes ago, dipper said:

Bigger boxes hold more stuff. Much too often there will be something in a big box that I do want - every few days! It's a pain getting a box out, half emptying it, repacking it ...😝😝.

 

Yes, I'm not a fan of doing that myself, which is why it took months for my wife to manage to convince me to pack the clutter away from the concrete shoebox of an inner city apartment's main living area.

 

26 minutes ago, dipper said:

I have more, smaller versions, in the garage workshop, and my wife has a regular fleet of them up in the "flower loft".

 

Alas, we don't have the luxury of plenty of space at home; and unfortunately I'm the opposite of a minimalist (hence being a ‘maximalist’?)

[TSherbs]

My pens, parts, and accessories go in little labeled plastic envelopes, which go into various labeled cigar boxes, which all fit into one bureau drawer. That's my rule (no second drawer). This helps me control my purchasing impulses. 

[webgeckos]

I have an antique secretary. Its actually oak and not cherry or mahogany, which is strange. Three massive shelves up top. Three deep drawers and the desk bit pulls down. That's where I keep pen repair and all my dip pen stuff / supplies.