Capability: Tools and Parts we Bring to Every Job
Yes, all this stuff travels to every job in the van.  Not always Edward, of course.  Items on the right half of the picture are all tools.  Things on the left are all parts.  I believe in showing up ready to work, not to run for extra tools or parts.  I've found I can carry the most stuff if I pack it in containers like plastic boxes and small canvas bags.  Items I use frequently are just inside the door or on custom-built shelves.  Other bags and boxes go into bins where they pack most efficiently.  Searching a bin for a minute to find the right bag is a reasonable price to pay as I don't need everything every day.  Everything has it's place and I know where to find it.

I really don't understand how some tradesmen appear to work out of the contents of a 5 gallon bucket.  They can't be doing the same job I am. 

I'm always paranoid someone will break into the van with the thought that something valuable is inside.  Well, it's valuable to me, but there's nothing you could sell quickly and make much money from.  Used tools don't bring much at a pawnshop and there are just too many little parts to deal with. 

Parts

Tools
Removing the consumer packaging.  Parts are usually packaged to sell in stores.  Cool enough for stores.  But I always unpack nearly everything, because it greatly reduces bulk.  I can carry the load, just not the cube.  From here I will sort them out into kits, MH breakers, fuse blocks, terminal strips (the last is a duffel bag).  

I have a funny relationship with my major supplier, Port Supply.  It used to strike me that parent West Marine looked like it was throwing it's weight around a bit much in the competing Boat US store days.  I tend to identify with the little guy, the underdog in a lot of competition.  And boat US had slightly lower wholesale prices, if I remember [in]accurately.  I look at the big guy in a market for signs of bullying.  Hey, I know it's all business, but it's still an instinctive reaction.

But it's all perfectly fine if the Big Guy is smiling at you.  Among suppliers, Port Supply is so f-----g good to me, I gotta love them.  They publish a catalog that establishes a reasonable list price for things.  I can't haul a part around for three years and then sell it wholesale.  I might as well wrap parts in folding money.  

Port Supply also delivers to me, right to my front door, for no added charge.  And, if you get an order in by late afternoon, the stuff shows up the next day.  Right now (2009) the fill rate is pretty good, I suppose because the market is slow and PS finds themselves unusually well stocked.  Free delivery includes batteries.  Do I think WM batteries are superior?  Probably not, but they are perfectly fine.  They will sell them to me for a reasonable price.  Mostly it's that I don't have to pick them up.  This is big.  I pay freight from almost everyone else, and it's a normal cost of doing business.  But "free" is a whole different market as I've heard said recently about MySpace.

Then, I have a PS salesman who pays attention to me.  A salesman who will go out of his way to find something anywhere in the West Marine system and get it to me quickly and for free.  I would tell you his name but I don't want to lose him to a bigger account.  He's that helpful.  Kudos!  PS just improved it's website a ton.  (Best supplier site in my book: McMaster-Carr.)

So they get the majority of my business.  It just works out that way with my business model.  I have credit with at least a dozen other suppliers, and I buy where it does both me and my customer the most good.  I no longer dislike any of my suppliers.  Those guys don't know who I am.  I rarely pick up something unless I have to talk to a technician.  I buy my Volvo parts at Bay Marine and I pay cash, but their expertise is worth it.  FedX or UPS get better mileage delivering stuff than I can.  Locally it's next day always.

 Tools have always been central in my life.  I mean "tools" in a narrow sense: tools to build and repair machines and structures and vehicles (if that isn't saying it twice).  A lot of men are as bad about tools than any woman is about shoes. [is that possible?]

I still use some of my Grandfather's [both sides] and my father's hand tools.  Over the years I have gradually lost a number, but I got to know them pretty well.  I don't believe they have any talismanic, magical powers.  But they feel good to use and they work very well.  I no longer to need to remind myself to drill pilot holes, but for a long time I thought about my father's advice whenever I cracked something with a screw.  Always drill a pilot hole.  (OK, I finally get it.)  The tools retain a whiff of their former owners.  There is a connection.  You are piloting the chisel with lots of forbearers silently standing by.  They're in your brain, at least.
Major categories: All of this inventory is in the big picture at the top.

Small components:  Switches.  Fuses.  Circuit breakers.  Crimp lugs AWG 8-4/0, 1/4-1/2 screw.  Backup insulated crimp connectors.  Diodes - relays and other fancy stuff.  LED indicators - 6" leads  - 1/8 + 1/4 hole - R-G-Y - resistors and diodes packed separately for maximum flexibility.  I solder up the dropping components I need for any voltage or current.  All usual combinations are tabulated on the cover of the box.

Hardware:  316 exclusively - Oval head Phillips machine screws, washers, nuts, also sheet metal screws (sharp edged threads widely spaced.  Work well in fiberglass).  M3 - M8, 4-40 - 3/8, lengths every 1/2 inch from 1/2 to 3 or 4".  Some hex head where you would expect it.  They are packed by diameter in 9 x 14 x 2 polyethylene tackle boxes all subdivided as required so confusingly similar parts can be kept far away.  There are 15 of these boxes, If I remember.  The most-used are stacked in two bins easy to reach from the back door.  Literally, I carry my own store.  I never leave a job for hardware.