Project Metal Storage Ideas????

Bib Overalls · Jul 18, 2012

My shop is full of project metal. By project metal I mean scraps and short to medium lengths of steel that I have scrounged, hoarded and saved because it is to good to throw out. It sits in piles here and there and generally messes the place up. I need to find a way to store this stuff in an orderly manner. I can not be the only metal hoarder here. What works for you?

JimVonBaden · Jul 18, 2012

How I store mine:

Jim

machine_punk · Jul 18, 2012

I'm getting ready to work on metal storage in my garage. I work primarily with aluminum, but I use all different types of stock: 4x8 aluminum sheet and offcuts of that, 16-foot angle/rod/tube/T, Up to 1/4" plate, etc.

For longer, thinner stuff, I am going to build a holder on the ceiling...which will be several brackets to hold a couple of sheets of fiberglass corrugated roofing material end-to-end (a couple of feet from the ceiling, in a location which will allow me to pull the material out through the man door into the house, then lower it and move it back into the garage to deal with it).

For shorter offcuts, I plan to make vertical and horizontal tubes of PVC.

For 4x8 sheet and offcuts, I plan to make a large 'V' holder, with MDF to support thin sheet.

For mid-length thin stuff (up to about 3 feet), I have found that a 5-gallon bucket works fine for now.

M_P

LutzTD · Jul 19, 2012

Bib Overalls said:
My shop is full of project metal. By project metal I mean scraps and short to medium lengths of steel that I have scrounged, hoarded and saved because it is to good to throw out. It sits in piles here and there and generally messes the place up. I need to find a way to store this stuff in an orderly manner. I can not be the only metal hoarder here. What works for you?

I have mostly structural stuff. Mine ends up leaning on the wall in the useless area between the garage doors in my attached garage, I will eventually be geting some Home Depot style racks in my building which will have a dedicated shelf

carhunter · Jul 19, 2012

Bib, you've brought up a good subject! Mine is a mess and Ive been putting off organizing it.
One thought was to make a flat file like this to organize the smaller drops. Only problem is that its hard to find something sturdy enough.

zuk123 · Jul 19, 2012

I use 5 gallon buckets under the counter that holds my cutoff saw. I use a bucket for solid steel, one for aluminum tube, one for steel tube, one for flat chunks, one for little bits. I worked in a shop where the buckets were held on an angle in the space between the counter and the shop wall (there was lots of space due to the structural steel holding the building up, the counter couldn't be snug to the wall.) This was super convenient, the angled buckets cause all the long pieces to settle neatly in the bucket, and you could see into the buckets.

I built a rack for the wall above my cutoff saw for longer pieces. I used scavenged telestrut (square tube with holes in it) for the verticals and welded up shelf brackets from angle. I don't use shelves, so it's easier to see what is in the rack from below.

I also store long flat stock and some offcuts behind the fence but on my counter top by the cutoff saw. This is sub-optimal, but easy. Counter is 2 ft deep, but saw is set to use middle 9 inches which leaves room behind the fence, and along the front edge to stack pieces as they are cut. I used a 1x3 on flat as a fence on the left (feed in) side of the saw, and nothing as a fence on the right. I screw a stop block to the counter if needed.

First pic shows the rack on the far left. Then some more pix of the rack, you can see the buckets under the counter. I use the inside of the shelf brackets for small stuff like threaded rod, pencil rod, etc.

The 2nd to last pic shows the saw set in the middle of the counter.

The 3rd pic has my homemade stock support clamped in the cutoff saw vise. When I need to cut wood or aluminum, I set my chopsaw on the counter, and set the supports on it too. That's what the last pic shows.

BTW, the pix are from when I moved into that shop and it has NEVER been that uncluttered again

And, yeah, I know that counter is rough. I banged it together quickly from existing pieces 15 years and 2 shops ago. It got the job done and earned me plenty of money! I have a tendency to do "just enough" when I'm busy working, and then I live with the 'temporary' result for years.

Zuk

Scoutman · Jul 19, 2012

I have a few different places that material and drops live. Under my steel welding table I have 6"-24" pieces front to back, 24"-4' left to right, 4'-8' are on a rolling horizontal rack, and long sticks up to 20' are on a line of hooks screwed to studs. Very short drops (used for tabs and brackets) are in a metal bin and just plain junk steel/failed projects etc end up in a bigger wooden box on hd casters.

There are so many different lenghts that you can end up with and different shapes to organize. It'll depend on what you have and the space you have to work with.

Here's a picture of the metal side of the garage, sorry there is a lot going on in it but if you can see through the clutter you can see the shelf under the table and the long stuff hanging on the wall. Oh and I forgot that sheet steel is behind the lathe.

Scoutman · Jul 19, 2012

Zuk123, I may have to use that unistrut idea as I have some of it laying around looking for a home.

zuk123 · Jul 19, 2012

Hey Scoutman, you don't need my permission! Get busy!

I love unistrut. I used it in my work (hanging equipment from office ceilings, building framework supports for equipment) and I use it for my personal stuff too.

It's like TinkerToys for adults!

zuk

All the telestrut for the rack, (and most of my other fixtures) is scrap, found objects, or offcuts/ leftovers. If you look close at the second pic, you can see where I welded it end to end to make a piece long enough

The shelf supports were made from a bunch of pieces I had cut for a project but never made, and the diagonals were some scrap from work that might have been part of a scaffold. The verticals sit on the floor to carry the weight, and the rack is bolted to the wall.

wnstwolf · Jul 19, 2012

X2 on Zurk and the 5 gallon buckets. I have a few for those short pieces of scuare and round tube and another few for misc flat items. built some sturdy wall racks but love what Zurk has very clean and prof looking

some zilch · Jul 20, 2012

in a pile under the deck..........

Outlawmws · Jul 20, 2012

Like the others, buckets for smaller stuff, (I did switch to the square buckets, and I like the idea for setting them at an angle...) and I have a 2 gallon barrel for longer 3-6 ft stuff. I use to have a short rolling rack for med length stock, but that went away, as it ate a lot of floor space, but it is better than the barrel if you have the space.

92GreenYJ · Jul 20, 2012

No pics, but I built a narrow storage shed along the side of my garage, almost as wide as the wall to the gutter. Built some shelving in it and left a full length cube at the top that runs from the front to the back. I keep long sticks in the top section and all my smaller scrap pieces on the shelves. Also keep various Jeep parts and such in it

Torque1st · Jul 20, 2012

Many people build lumber carts to store and manage large sheets and leftover material. The carts are built with casters that makes them easy to move when needed. I made one from scrap material I had laying about that looks like zuk123's benches and is about 4' long. I was tired of having sheet goods in front of things when I needed access. The cart stores large sheets and smaller pieces as well as other cut-off pieces. The lumber cart also has an inclined rack to hold a sheet while working on it. The same thing could be made for metal which is an idea I will probably go for later.

sberry · Jul 20, 2012

I see a fair number of racks built where they could get a lot more on them in the same space, when I clean my big one this fall will do a bit of re-work. Have 2 more, might eliminate one when the time comes.

floridasailor · Jul 20, 2012

Bib Overalls

I had the same problem so last weekend I built a portable storage center patterned after one that I believe was on GJ about a year ago. It holds my short, medium length and small flat material. I designed it to roll next to my lathe and pull it out at project time. Long material is stored on the wall racks.

Floridasailor

Torque1st · Jul 20, 2012

The nice thing about carts with casters is they are both mobile and you can access all sides.

Here is my lumber cart made from scrap that I will probably duplicate in metal for a metal cart. Sorry about the crappy cell phone picture. The front surface is angled so it holds a sheet of material. The bottom 2x4 with a ledger board under it is supported by pins that fit into holes in the uprights. That makes it adjustable for various sheet widths. The aluminum 'bar' is a saw guide clamp from HF for making angled cuts easier. The back side of the cart has a 3-1/2" deep x 45" wide cavity for storing short pieces. I normally store my circular saw(s) and clamps on top.

cyamaha2007 · Jul 20, 2012

Hello my name is chuck, i hoard metal im working on it but my work throws 200lbs of great material away a week. Its a real problem. But im here for help.

zuk123 · Jul 21, 2012

Hey FloridaSailor, I like the rolling cart. It is very compact. I like the way you've hoisted your hoists up out of the way too.

wnstwolf, thanks for the complement on the rack. It really is just put together with bits and pieces. I tend to accumulate 'useful' stuff, until finally I have enough and it just sort of falls into place.

WRT organization, a friend pointed out to me a few years ago, that if you can't find something, then you don't really have it. This is me in spades. I've bought so many things that I know I had <i>somewhere </i>but couldn't find. So now, if I can't put something in a permanent place, I tend to 'clump' similar things. That way, I have a reduced search area

Torque1st, in some of the pix you can see my lumber rack for long pieces. For real shorts, I use another bucket, and for sheet goods, I have an area by the door that gets full and almost full sheets standing on end. I have a plastic bin on wheels that gets all my medium sized ply offcuts. I also have a bin for my flat metal offcuts.

http://www.uline.com/BL_1841/Poly-Box-Trucks (I'm not sure if the 20 or 22 bushel size.)

The bin works great, it's like a giant bucket. (I don't usually end up with offcuts too big to fit in the bin. I like to bid a project pretty tight on materials.)

zuk

edit-- I forgot that I screwed together a divider for the big bin for ply. It help keep stuff standing up, and organized.

Torque1st · Jul 21, 2012

I did not have enough space to dedicate a portion for scrap and material storage so the mobile carts work well for me. I work out of a single garage and a carport these days.

bts · Jul 21, 2012

My set up is a bit rough but it does the job.
I can store up to 18' lenghts. One of the shelves has some 1" mesh layed on for storage of the small pieces.

daus300b · Jul 21, 2012

I used airline service carts. You can access them from either end.

bullfrog123 · Jul 30, 2012

Buckets for 2' and up pcs. One for angle, on for flat, one for solid, yada yada....
Also a wood divider bin. Bins are about 1' square, they hold tabs, brackets, under 1' pcs, etc. Very easy to see and arrange aluminum/steel.
I also have traditional style steel racks to hold the 20' sticks and under. Bolted to the wall in the back of my shop. Out of the way but easy access when needed.

Bib Overalls · Jul 30, 2012

Wow! A lot of creativity here at the Garage Journal. One of my friends has an air application service (politically correct term for crop dusting) and he has piles of plastic barrels awaiting recycling. Blue, green, yellow, purple and gray in color and about 35 gallons in size. I initially picked up a couple of yellow barrels as my friend assured me the original contents were the least likely to cause warts to grow on my nose. The drums are washed when they are emptied, not so much to meet EPA standards but to ensure that the customers get everything they paid for. Once I got them home I cut the top and 6" of the body off on my table saw and then washed them again. I was so pleased with the way they organized my project metal that I went back and got four more. I'm going to put items like my disassembled quick change rear end and the pile of old Ford brakes that I take to swap meets (and never seem) to sell in them.

Submarine_Sailor · Jul 30, 2012

Not to highjack or anything, but I have to ask..... Where did JimVonBaden get the high radiation area sign?

IMCA38 · Jul 30, 2012

Here's mine.

BWS · Jul 31, 2012

My dock is a little over 50 feet long.Its cover'd,14 feet wide.I do more than half our fabrication work out there mainly because of the mess.

When the scraps/drops get to the 1/2 way point,and you can't walk through it....or....More often than not just get tired of it looking like chit.

It gets hauled to the woods.....out of site.Throw an old pickup bed over it and call it good.Some nice storage ideas posted though,looks good guys.

EdT · Sep 6, 2012

Ah, space the final frontier. I have been collecting stuff that "might come in handy" for far too long. I do a lot of random fabrication and as a consequence there is no "scrap" just smaller and smaller bits of stuff that might come in handy someday. Lots of it does. It's a shame to buy a whole stick of something if you only need a couple of inches. I have a big heavy shelf unit from an auction that holds all the 1-2' pieces roughly categorized by aluminum, steel, plastic, other stuff and further subdivided into round, square, and flat. Long stuff goes on wall racks, and the really short stuff goes in a cubby hole thing that hangs on the wall. 15 cubbies about 6x6x12". Wood stuff is all in one place and I really have too much of it, but it comes in handy too. In the wood area is also the famous " box of sticks too short to keep" which usually gets edited into the fireplace in the winter. Sheet goods are usually placed between the various shelving units and the wall or at the end of the bench next to the wall. The comment above about unfindable is the same as not having it is certainly true. For a business it's worse because you can spend a lot of time looking for something and still not find it. That's why most large businesses throw away so much stuff. It's cheaper for them to just order another one than to pay someone for an hour or two to not find whatever it is. That's what keeps McMaster and similar fast delivery companies in business which is good for me. I order from them about once a week. Amazing logistics!!

ihredo4 · Sep 6, 2012

I don't have too much material on hand but here goes. 3' and longer sticks go up high on the wall. It is kept seperate as much as possible...Aluminum, Magnetic, Non magnetic, Brass, Bronze, Plastic. Then the smaller stuff is stored on shelving I have again organized by material and by size. Smallest pieces go into Akro bins and such. All material is labeled with marker as to what it is. Anything that would be certified will always have the heat number marked on it and the paperwork filed accordingly.

sbhockey · Nov 5, 2012

Our guys do a great job of stacking it up around here. :dunno:

Project Metal Storage Ideas????

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