newb advice sought: what to stock?

[pinkjimiphoton]

hey guys,
i've been thinking about this a while now, and figured i should ask as i've yet to see it discussed anywhere...

and i apologize up front if it's opening a huge ass can of worms...

but if you want to stock your junk drawer,

what are the values you should order?

i mean, what are the "standards" for resistors and capacitor values? i hear people talking about "next standard value" and i often use stuff that's
"close enough for rock and roll"....but i have to make a huge order soon to complete way too many projects, and it seems kinda silly to keep basing
mail orders based on specific projects and having to be running to the parts store to get a couple components i'm missing.

for pots, i see 1k, 10k, 100k, 500k and 1meg being standard...so i'll order about 10 of each (maybe 20 for the 100k pots)

for caps and resistors tho, seems like it's ALL over the place.

so anyways, i figure if someone can answer my dumb question here, it may come in handy for newbs universally, maybe even worthy of making a sticky.

if i missed something, please yell at me to use the search function!! it's how i learn!! (eventually)

thanks guys...peace!

[John Lyons]

If you want to be conservative you can stick to the decades. 1k, 10k, 100k etc.
Then fill in from there as needed. You can also get resistors "kits" for super cheap at a few places...
Ebay has several sellers for these as well as cap kits.

For prototyping you can get the tadya split/splined pots for 50cents each.
Futurlec, Tadya, ebay and smallbear all of this stuff.

[CodeMonk]

Ok, this bit may be a bi much, but I try to keep this kind of stuff stocked (although still not there on all of them)...

CAPS
100, 101, 102, 103, 104
220, 221, 222, 223, 224
33...
47...
68...


Kinda the same with resistors, sort of...
10, 12, 15, 22, 33, 47, 56, 68, 82, 100
Multiple by ten a few times.

At least I try.
But I buy most of that stuff locally from an electronics supply surplus place, for very low cost.

[amptramp]

Another approach is to determine what you want to build and stock up on typical items from the parts lists and schematics.  A lot of designs use (or could benefit from) pulldown resistors at input and output.  If you are happy with 1 megohm for these, then stock what you need for the number of inputs and outputs you expect to build.

Pots are a different story - you have to account not only for values but for the taper.

For capacitors, check out the assortments available from Dave Cantelon (who is also a member of the London Vintage Radio Club, so I have met the guy).  He is the go-to source for a lot of things for those of us who restore antique radios:

http://www.justradios.com/capkits.html

You may also want to stock stomp switches, jacks, enclosures, LED's, other switches, knobs, shielded wire and wall warts among other things.  You may need painting or etching supplies for enclosure finishing.

[midwayfair]

Having just started doing this myself, I'd recommend the following (this is wayyyy beyond the op's question, but it might benefit someone else).

0) Before you do ANYTHING, I'd suggest making a build list. Don't be too conservative about it, either. Plan the next 5 boxes you know you're going to box up and make sure you're getting everything on the bill of materials along with your stock items. Paying shipping over and over again because of poor planning is the best way to waste money.

1) Go small: The "Joe Knows" 1/4 watt resistor kit on Amazon is an excellent deal. It's on prime, or it ships free on orders over $25. Get a breadboard if you don't already have one to go along with it and you'll be over $25 and have two seriously important tools. It comes in an organized box with labeled bags, so you don't have to guess. It makes a perfectly adequate storage container. I've used almost every resistor in any remotely common value and restocked them several times.

Go BIG: This thing will keep you in every uncommon value for years: http://www.amazon.com/Full-Range-Resistor-86x50pcs-4watt/dp/B00689SPV8/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1340072227&sr=8-8&keywords=resistor+kit
You'll still have to buy some very common values (10K especially) after not too long, but this is probably the best $29 you can spend early on if you're going to build lots of pedals. Also free shipping.

2) From Smallbear, get the following kits:
box caps
Electrolytics
poly caps
Ceramics 1 & 2
If you plan on making small pedals, get the 50V cap set while they last.
Skip the tantalum kit unless you're planning on making lots of 1590A builds.

Although you could order the cap values cheaper piecemeal from Tayda, Smallbear is a good supplier, the caps are good brands, and you can pick up some other nice things while you're on his site (more on that in a moment). These will cover several builds and most importantly give you little organizer boxes.

3) Pots are the hardest thing to build up stock on. They're expensive and heavy. Your best bet, as John Lyons mentioned, is Tayda. I'd get a bunch (say, 10-20 each if you can afford it) of the really common values (10, 50, 100, 500) in audio and linear tapers and then a handful each of 1K, 25K, 250K, and 1M to start. This will give you plenty to experiment with, and you won't run out of the common pots for quite some time. Get more 10K and 100K linears than you think you'll need.

If you're building small pedals, unless you're flush with cash, you're kind of stuck ordering small amounts from Smallbear as you go. His 12mm and 9mm pots are a constant source of drain on my bank account, but they're excellent pots and you won't get them elsewhere for his prices.

For Trim pots, you can get the smallbear kit if you think you'll need the organizer, or you can just pay $0.06 each for the cheap ones from Tayda. Get them in every value, even if you don't think you'll need it, because they're also good for breadboarding. They work right, but I always feel like they're a little flimsier than the white ones you get from Smallbear. YMMV.

4) While you're at Tayday, you can get extra metal film resistors for $0.012 each. I'd suggest getting lots (20-30) of 1K, 4.7K (current limiter for LEDs), 10K, 22K, 47K, 220K, 470K, 1M, and 2.2M (alternative pulldown resistor). Or you can get the bags of 200 from Smallbear if you're really certain. They have thick leads and I've found them better for sockets and breadboarding.

5) Smallbear has a Jellybean transistor and IC kits, which will give you another organizational box, but you can also just get really cheap transistors from Tayda. They won't be anything special, but I've found them to be plenty reliable. Get at least 10 each of 2n5457s, J201s, 4558s, 072s, and so on. You'll probably have to make your own list because only you know the type of effects you're interested in. Don't neglect to pick up some 2N7000s -- they are a Mosfet that can be used in pretty much any circuit that requires one. Get some BC10X while you're at it and several BC547s if you want to build transistor-based tremolos.

6) Smallbear has all things unobtaneum. Need Germanium? Grab a couple rough sorted batches. They're all good leakage and they'll work for rangemasters and "Gosh, I wonder what this pedal with a low-gain Si transistor would sound like with Germanium ...."

7) Diodes: I'd say 25 each of: 1N914 (a pretty generic clipping diode), 1N4148 (maybe even 50 of these -- the circuits that use them tend to use several), and 1N34a (generic Ge diode). Then 50 1N4001 -- it's used in almost every pedal as a protection diode, but they pop up elsewhere and are an adequate sub for most silicon diodes. Since you can get all the Si diodes you could ever want from Tayda, just throw some common Zeners in with your order (4.7v and 9.1v). It's annoying not to have them when you've got everything else.

I got most of my Germanium diodes from Scott's Electronics. He ships for real cost, and his prices are good for some fairly rare diodes. But for generic Ge diodes, Smallbear has a very good price as well.

Voltage regulators: You need 78L05s for PT2399 delays, and sometimes you might need an 78L09 for analog delays and certain modulation pedals. If you're not planning on building delay circuits, you should be able to skip these.

9) When you get your LEDs (Tayda for cheapies), pick up some LDRs to have on hand even if you don't have anything you plan on building that requires them. They're useful for modulation circuits, but they're also good for .

10) Switches. Obviously you need foot switches if you're going to be boxing up your circuits, but always keep at least 5 SPST, SPDT, and center-off SPDT switches around. Tayda's are fine.

If you can get $200 together at once for parts, you can have the parts needed for a couple dozen pedals on hand while only needing to come up with a small number of hard-to-find parts every once in a while for cleverer circuits. Obviously anyone's comprehensive list is going to depend on what they're into. I especially like tremolos, delays, and comps, so my needs are a little more eclectic, but for the average fuzz/od/distortion/boost fanatic, you'll be set with only a fraction of this list.

[LucifersTrip]

hey guys,
i've been thinking about this a while now, and figured i should ask as i've yet to see it discussed anywhere...

but if you want to stock your junk drawer,

what are the values you should order?

i mean, what are the "standards" for resistors and capacitor values?

this has been discussed numerous times before (usually a newbie asking what he should get to start)...and there was one great post a while back where someone actually made a chart (by percentage, I think) of the most commonly used values. I'll keep looking...

one thing newbies don't usually realize is that they can get most values with a very small set of parts if combined in series and parallel
http://diyaudioprojects.com/Technical/Electronics/parallel-resistor-calculator.htm

remember, parallel resistor calculation is the same as series cap calculation

so, all you really need is the common values in each power of 10 (ie. for resistors: 10, 22, 33, 47, 100, 220, 330, 470, etc). at a penny a piece, it barely adds up to anything

For the pots, I'd definitely get more than the 1k, 10k, 100k, 500k since if you need a 250K, though you can use the parallel trick, a 500K resistor across a 500K pot will change the taper.

[petey twofinger]

9.1 volt zeners ,

also maye look at a few fuzz schemos , jot down any odball diodes that may pop up .

the oly reason i threw in my 2 cents is i had to run to frys a few times just for those ...

$$

[bonaventura]

funny i came across lot of 1000 caps at ebay just yesterday.10-20 pcs each for over 50 values,fm 1pf to 100nf if im not mistaken.

at first i thought this was a good idea but then again 1000pcs seemed like an overkill.

[slacker]

For resistors I highly recommend  Dr. Slacker's resistor kits (not available in shops).

[defaced]

Standard values go by E Series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_number#E_series

I stock the following:
E12 series for resistors from 0 to 10Meg (eBay resistor kit, 30 bucks, 50 of each value). As I run out of values, I restock with resistors from Allied Electronics.  250 for 4 bucks, best price I've found at the big retailers. 
E6 for caps up to 1u, then 1, 2.2, and 4.7 up to 1000u (stocked up at Tayda for these) 
Pots, 1, 2.5, 5 from 1k to 1Meg, audio and linear (Tayda for these too). 

I also keep alot of semiconductors on hand, zeners, signal and rectifier diode, regulators, etc.  That get more into what you like to build though.  I did BOMs for the 10 builds I had planned next and worked from there on semiconductors.  I'd like to get an inventory system setup so I can quickly see what I need for potential builds, but that's a task unto itself and right now time is not cheap. 

[pinkjimiphoton]

awesome advice guys, thanks!

the resistor values will be wicked helpful...i see a pattern emerging.  i will read this thread more in depth when i get a chance.

[Colonel Angus]

For resistors I highly recommend  Dr. Slacker's resistor kits (not available in shops).

Can you get steve d. or somebody to stock this? Nice list!

[slacker]

Thanks, I think Aron was considering it for the store a while ago. Don't know what came of it.

[pinkjimiphoton]

the big obstacle is always shipping...i tend to buy a lot from tayda, cuz they're so cheap. but their resistors suck, and often fail if in tite quarters...i've also had opamps fail out of the gate there, and don't get me started on the run of 2293's...

the worst thing is trying to find quality 1/4 inch jacks that are affordable...i'm gonna start using them morley kinda ones tayda has cuz they're so bloody cheap.

i love smallbear, steve has the best stuff in the highest quality...imho....but until i start actually selling a couple pedals here and there (i sold my first!! the second dick wagner overdriver that i built for myself is with an ecstatic musician in alaska...i gave him an apparently great price on a  "boot tweak" pedal (100.00) ...i think i'm selling 'em too cheap ) i gotta go more for the quantity at a lower price. i'll upgrade when the time comes.

not looking to become a commercial manufacturer, once in a while somebody wants something...i don't mind a one-off here and there. the big thing is the ludwig phase II clones, i have a bunch of people that want me to build them, but i'm not ready to even build MINE yet!

[charmonder]

A100k seems like a safe assumption for volume pots.
I personally have a preference for resistor values 1k 4k7 10k 47k 100k 470k 1M(I think I have a type of color blindness but its really easy for me to identify these specific values) and  (101 471 102 472 103 473 104) for non polar caps. Ive gotten pretty used to approximating equivalent values with just these parts. Unless its a pedal I really want to get right I hate sorting out and sorting through resistors.

[mremic01]

the big obstacle is always shipping...i tend to buy a lot from tayda, cuz they're so cheap. but their resistors suck, and often fail if in tite quarters...i've also had opamps fail out of the gate there, and don't get me started on the run of 2293's...

the worst thing is trying to find quality 1/4 inch jacks that are affordable...i'm gonna start using them morley kinda ones tayda has cuz they're so bloody cheap.

Really, Tayda's resistors fail? I've never had a problem with them, though a lot of them are pretty cheap looking. I haven't had any problem with their PT2399s, if that's what you mean. I was really wary about them based off of what I've read here, but I swapped a few out with some from Small Bear and didn't notice a difference in noise or distortion.

Anyway, the best advice I could give someone is to just plan ahead and stock up on the parts you know you need. Otherwise you could easily wind up with a lot of resistor values you don't use. I've got a storage box full of drawers for each resistor and cap values that I made after I had done a few builds, and it just kind of became obvious what values I'd need from that most of the time. I can see if a particular drawer is getting empty and remember to add that to my cart next time I need to order something else. I've also got a box full of resistors that I probably won't ever use because they were part of a kit I got off Amazon.

[pinkjimiphoton]

yah, the tayda resistors i've found tend to break if they get stressed or overheated or something..trying to get 'em to lie down, nice and tite to the board isn't best with them imho. they seem to often break off just past the end of the lead.

2399's i got on ebay were all bad. smallbear's are good, and tayda's are fine. but there are the bad ones out there, they seem to show up sometimes.

i gotta good idea of what to stock up on. i'll also get some of them plastic boxes with dividers...just recently moved to a "system" with a drawer for each kind of components...but there's naught but chaos beyond there
yet. 

[rutabaga bob]

This might be the chart referred to.  If it causes viewing problems, I'll dump it>  Larry

[pinkjimiphoton]

thanka kindly, shemp!
~curly poe