Tubing storage?

[Donut Dave]

Anyone have a way to store misc. short lengths (18”) or shorter?
I waste time looking for the correct material, must be a better way!

 

[zmotorsports]

I now store my short metal drops in a drawer system. I picked up a couple of cabinets from the local university that I now store anything shorter than about 20 inches in length. I have the drawers divided into steel, aluminum, etc.

In my previous shop I used 4" PVC drain pipe cut at a 45-degree angle at the top an capped at the bottom standing upright and screwed to the wall. I had them in various lengths between 12" long and 24" long pieces which allowed the drops to stick out of the top. I placed the tubing (as well as other configurations of drops) in the PVC tubing and it allowed easy access for viewing and selection.

 

[sberry]

I have a couple shelves.

 

[dr_clyde]

I have just some simple shelves. I don't really like my system. Stuff just gets piled up.

I want to redo it with some pigeonhole style racking. My old job held onto anything longer than it's diameter, and it basically just kept getting smaller until it disappeared. Full bars to partial, to less than 5 ft to less than 2 feet to little stubs. I'm planning to emulate that when I get a little time.

My really short stuff is kept in a Durham bolt bin. That seems to work pretty well.

 

[astroracer]

This is a cart I built a few years ago, best thing I ever did for cut-off storage and sorting.
The build thread...

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236804&highlight=roll+round+metal+cart
Mark

 

[theoldwizard1]

I have an extra bottom tool cabinet and 1 drawer is dedicate to tubing/hose under 5'. Yes, I have to pull EVERYTHING out to find any thing !

A couple of things I added to this collection:

• Jiggle siphon (get the biggest size you can find and be prepared to replace the crappy hose that has a dozen kinks with something better)
• Outboard primer bulb with 3-5' inlet hose and at least 5' of outlet hose

I have not used them that often, but they are great to have !

 

[matt_i]

After going thru a lot of systems, I think under around 26 inches, a Vidmar or similar style drawer cabinet is best.

Tubing is relatively lightweight (generally, thinking 1" OD and under) and could easily go in a standard rolling toolbox.

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

I like a vertical rack for this stuff. Short stuff up front, longer in the back so you can see everything. **** it up against a wall for a minimal foot print.

 

[sberry]

I process scrap to some extent. I cut up pieces to make it storable, I use the dumpster too but that little shelves for bits and pieces saves a lot of fab and machine work. I found 2 pieces of angle for a job yesterday, didn't have to make a cut, simply welded them on.

 

[ndnchf]

I bought some of these hangers from Home Depot and attached them to an I-beam in my garage. You can space them however you like. I use them for metal stock storage. It works great and uses space otherwise going to waste.

 

[EdT]

A perpetual problem. I just dumped out my box of "sticks too short to keep" and burned it all up. Unfortunately, I do a lot of custom fabrication and, for that kind of work, a lot of metal tid-bits is handy IF you can find just the right piece. I store all my small tubing, music wire and threaded rod in vertical tubes graduated in length but mixed in size. All the other metal off-cuts etc. are in a semi organized shelf unit. Not too user friendly, but it's what I have. Some shorts of "special" (brass etc.) material are in a drawer unit. Long stuff is in a wall rack.

 

[LXCam]

I had several 1' pieces of 2-1/2" galvanized square tubing left over from a project that I tacked together (3 deep and 6 high) and mounted them on the side of a upper cabinet. It's great for anything under 18" in length since it's mostly at eye level but protected by the depth of the bench below it. Then anything that's 4ft to 18" has a divided self directly adjacent to my machining area (that one has become a cluster phuck of stacked ****) And then there's the hanging 6" sonotube that holds all the 12' or so sticks on aluminum and stainless under a high hung shelf and last but not least the steel rack that holds 20ft sticks of steel tubing along the wall.

If you have figured it out by now, I'm a highly organized horder.

 

[4 FN 27]

Anyone have a way to store misc. short lengths (18”) or shorter?

Here is a link to an old thread...don't let the title mislead you.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=368008&highlight=Storage

I only keep "Drops". The scrap gets recycled every few weeks. I just take it to work and toss it in the trailer there. Not worth my time to take it in. Our main plant produces about 20 tons of Laser Webs, Turret Webs and holes a week.

The drop I store under a work bench where I made a racking system. Any thing 2 feet and less across the top, small chunks in the plastic bins below and 3-4 footers from the end.

4-6 foot Drop goes in a rack next to the wall. And anything over 6 feet goes in the material rack and can hold up to 24 footers.

Now I have to work on the Sheet Metal blanks and drop. I have a cart that holds about 3000 lbs right now but need to either build racking for 5 x 10 sheets and create another rack for standing less than full sheets up on end.

 

[b-dog]

I bought some of these hangers from Home Depot and attached them to an I-beam in my garage. You can space them however you like. I use them for metal stock storage. It works great and uses space otherwise going to waste.

THAT'S AWESOME! I have grandiose plans for storage, drawn up and everything. I just have too many other priorities so right now, all of my tubing is on the floor. I have a beam, I'm going to whip up something this weekend!
Thanks for posting that.

 

[matt_i]

It might be a good idea to drill a 1/8" hole close to the end and then bend up some Tig filler rod (etc) into little hooks. Then hang them up. Sort of like the old "v belt array" in old gas stations and some hardware stores. You could even buy one of those "rubbish pickup pole-hands" to get them down

 

[ndnchf]

Here are a couple better photos of my I-beam mounted brackets. I cut 6" lengths of all thread to make dividers to keep things organized. They work fine, I just haven't done a good job of organizing!

 

[racingtadpole]

Tube and structural section longer than 600mm goes in the dead space corner, 200mm -600mm goes in a plastic crate under the folder, under 200mm goes in the scrap.
Turning/milling stock bigger than 50mm go in a smaller plastic crate also under the folder. Under 50mm it’s going in the scrap.
Life is too short to spend ferreting through boxes of scrap for the sake of having 50mm of whatever on hand. Yes it’s bought me undone once or twice on a Sunday arvo but then so has a lack of left hand rod ends and the female of the species too for that matter..
I should probably mention that longer lengths live on some unistrut cantilevers on the wall

 

[sberry]

4FN's setup is super slick. One of the best fab shops on here. It is a lot easier to be neat when there isn't something for everything, specialized has its place. No need to save every bit when it's easy to make new with good tools. I agree that scrap needs to go and too costly to save there.

 

[s14kev]

I'm just a home shop. As such, I tend to keep a lot of cut offs. Many of the pieces I buy are just 2-3 ft segments of aluminum, hot/cold rolled or stainless bought online for specific projects so it doesn't make sense to throw out 1-2 ft cut offs. Many are in drawers of a spare toolbox however the short sections are in a PVC caddy I glued together. About $20 of PVC and cement and an hour with a miter saw. I'll probably extend it and make it larger as I run out of room but it sure makes identifying the correct piece easy. Full 10-20ft lengths of stock are hung from the ceiling.

View media item 83540
View media item 83541

 

[jhn9840]

S14kev, the pvc caddy looks like a great solution to that problem.

jhn9840
John

 

[4 FN 27]

4FN's setup is super slick. One of the best fab shops on here. It is a lot easier to be neat when there isn't something for everything, specialized has its place. No need to save every bit when it's easy to make new with good tools. I agree that scrap needs to go and too costly to save there.

Thank you sberry!!!

 

[BD1]

I use some old plastic Coke cases I got from friends local store. Set on shelf and they slide just like drawers.
You could use five gallon bucket with a divider on top. Something like a fence or hog panel cut to fit. That would give you built in dividers and quick. Depends on how fancy you want to be.
Large diameter PVC laying flat works too.

 

[b-dog]

I bought some of these hangers from Home Depot and attached them to an I-beam in my garage. You can space them however you like. I use them for metal stock storage. It works great and uses space otherwise going to waste.

Thanks buddy, have a drink on me!

 

[ndnchf]

Looks great - glad to share the idea!