How To Organize Resistors

A 4-band resistor

The common 4-band resistor has roughly 10x10x10x4 = 4000 resistance values. When given an assortment of resistors (unsorted) one might feel sluggish to organize them all. Sadly, organizing them is going to be a little on the difficult side, but a few projects later it will have payed off tremendously. Let me present to you the simplest and most effective way to sort your resistors.

THIRD BAND SORTING

Reason: the 3rd band is the multiplier, which is far more significant than any other band on the 4-band resistor.

Example! 

Resist. A: RED - RED - ORANGE - SILVER

Resist. B: BLUE - PURPLE - RED - GOLD

Resist. C: BLUE - RED - ORANGE - SILVER

Resist. D: WHITE - GRAY - RED - SILVER

The true values of the following resistors are...

A. 22,000 ohms (+-10%)

B. 6,700 ohms (+-5%)

C. 62,000 ohms (+-10%)

D. 9,800 ohms (+-10%)

C is proportionally closer to the value of A than C is to B. So, I should put A and C into a baggie and label it in sharpie

"ORANGE 3rd band [*1000]."

Then I would place B and D in a different baggie labeled, "RED 3rd band [*100]."