Organising the workshop; so... many... spokes...

[Andy in Germany]

Your price tags or suppliers. As much chance of them being suppliers on the boxes.

No, these were the big tags we print here, with our (awful) logo on it.

Buy a spoke ruler if you do plan on building as it is best not to assume the spokes lengths match what is on the box.

I use old spoke boxes to keep left over spokes in. The old box may have said 296mm, but inside may have been leftover 293mm etc. Alternatively the odd rogue length may end up in the wrong box.

There were several rulers in the boxes.

I scrapped about 2 kg of loose spokes because I didn't know their sizes, and sealed the boxes as I worked.

 

[presta]

he'd had to order a full box a few years back when another customer wanted a single spoke

If it's a size that's not in stock I've been expected to buy a whole box, even if looking for a full set of 36. I usually buy 20 or 38, so I have a couple of spares.

 

[MichaelW2]

Sadly I think you are correct there. Wheel building will have to wait until I can diagnose and repair bikes a lot faster, and also when I have a properly organised workshop so I don't have to search for twenty minutes for a set of matching brake blocks.

However I made a step towards that today:

View attachment 651715

Heavy box...

View attachment 651716

Sorting... sorting... Stage 2, by length.


View attachment 651717

Stacked and organised. R-L 1.8mm, 1.8/2.0mm, and 2.0mm 240-300mm long bottom to top. I may need to move them, and those boxes on top have the oddball spokes, which apart from the DT Swiss triple butted spokes may well end up in the recycling alongside the hundreds of loose unlabelled spokes in the boxes.

I'm realising that unsorted parts are worse than no parts because you waste time searching and they take up space for no benefit, so I'm getting ruthless...

Organising your spokes by box colour makes the display so pretty.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Organising your spokes by box colour makes the display so pretty.

Nice isn't it? As an added bonus the red ones are double butted, so it even makes practical sense...