Cutoffs, short lengths, metal storage?

[Vegaman_Dan]

I'm considering ideas and designs to make holding cutoffs, short (4' or less) lengths of angle iron, bar stock, tubing, etc, in some sort of wheeled cart instead of the plastic tub where it all flops about now.

It would need to be something to keep the longer pieces vertical without flopping about (maybe with a wire grid of 2x3 or so) as well as being able to hold on to those less than 6" stub pieces that you still hold on to for making brackets, misc usage. That seems to need a tub or sorting option.

What ideas or solutions have you come up with to hold your metal cutoffs?

 

[PCO6]

I recently purchased a card file cabinet for metal "scraps". I have the 2 below in my garage and the third one is outside in my shed where I keep my stock of metal, plastic, wood, sheet goods, etc. The drawers are about 26" deep and hold a LOT of weight. It's good for metal stock that is 2' and below. Pieces up to 4' are current leaning up against it until I build something better.

View media item 34552

 

[sberry]

I saw a couple carts here that were great in principle but needed some additional work to double the capacity. I have a different shop but do have something just for this. There are sheets against the wall in back and another rack not in pic.

 

[lilredex]

Saw these on here, I believe.......the ideas looked good enough to make it into my library. Something similar should suit my needs as I have also outgrown that 20L. pail.

Love your set-up sberry....but don't have room for even one of those pictured.

 

[zkling]

Small cut off storage is the freaking bane of my existence. Seriously I'll save the smallest nubbin of bar stock that I can still chuck up or put in the vise, cause so many times that will save the day.

Pieces 3' and larger go on the horizontal wall rack. <3' but >12" go in a vertical floor rack like lilredex posted. 12" down to ~4" go on a shelf under the bench. Anything less than 4" goes in a file cabinet like PC06 posted. Two drawers for each material type. Yea it doesn't move.

 

[sberry]

I see a version somewhere that looked like a stepladder that was neat. I find something about half the time on the chop bench.

 

[R.Anderson]

Here is what I use in my basement shop, its not on wheels tho. Short stuff goes in the two drawers.

 

[SM Racing]

5 gallon buckets for the small stuff. Cut 55 gallon drums in half for the bigger stuff, full racks for 5ft and longer. I built a small cart with casters that would hold 6 5 gallon buckets in a row. You could hold a lot of materials in those buckets.

 

[kazlx]

I have the same issue. Anything longer than about 3' goes on my wall rack. Shorter stuff goes on my shelf and then cutoffs go in 5 gallon buckets. I hate the buckets and need to come up with something better.

 

[rdsk8ter]

Here is what I use in my basement shop, its not on wheels tho. Short stuff goes in the two drawers.

I agree I have added another to my storage and organized 2 shelves of scrap down to this.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Some good ideas here. I stopped by my local metal / salvage shop, but there wasn't anything there that was suitable for repurposing. I do have an idea for a poster storage rack style thing, perhaps with stackable bins on one side for smaller pieces. Picked up enough angle iron to build pretty much whatever. Of course, just making such a cart will generate its own pile of cutoffs!

 

[ADSR]

I agree I have added another to my storage and organized 2 shelves of scrap down to this.

Those look good. What are they from?

 

[Kevin54]

Short pieces are probably one of the hardest things to find storage for and having it to look good. At work, they were needing a way to store welding rod. I made up a rack out of PVC pipe and caps. You could do the same and use 4" PVC pipe and cut the lengths into something like 1',2', 3' and 4'. Maybe make them 4 across of each length. Mount the caps to a flat piece of plywood, mount the plywood to a furniture dollie, then possibly fasten the tops together with some of the real long zip ties that would be long enough to go around the pieces of PVC.

 

[welder4956]

Those look good. What are they from?

Those look like the 12" spools that MIG wire comes on. Also good for winding extension cords on.

I keep my scraps in a couple of large 5 gallon yellow cat litter containers. I used a little brake cleaner and a shop rag to wipe off all of the labeling from the containers.

 

[pepi]

I saw a couple carts here that were great in principle but needed some additional work to double the capacity. I have a different shop but do have something just for this. There are sheets against the wall in back and another rack not in pic.

Nice stash of steel, I tend to store in open bins and shelves also. Opening and closing a bunch of drawers gets tiring real fast. The open style lets me see everything at once, best practice for me.

 

[NASTYZEN]

Heres a couple of my metal racks. Stairs are such a space sucker, so I decided to max out the storage underneath it.



Medium lenths 4 to 8 ft.



All the 2 ft and less go on some shelving.

 

[R.Anderson]

Those look good. What are they from?

For someone who knows a lot about welding, you didn't know what those were from? 30-33 lbs spools learn something everyday don't ya.

 

[zkling]

For someone who knows a lot about welding, you didn't know what those were from? 30-33 lbs spools learn something everyday don't ya.

Eh, in his defense not all of the wire comes in rolls like that. I have never purchased wire that comes on open spools like that only solid plastic spools. You usually don't see the open metal frame spools till you get into larger wire or non mig wires.

 

[R.Anderson]

Eh, in his defense not all of the wire comes in rolls like that. I have never purchased wire that comes on open spools like that only solid plastic spools. You usually don't see the open metal frame spools till you get into larger wire or non mig wires.

.030, .035, and .045 came on the spools I have. Also common in all the shops I have seen small and large. With what LORDDiESEL has talked about in MIG production welding and in pipe IN another thread I would of thought he would of came across these in his time. guess I'm wrong on thinking that.

 

[great white tj]

Here is what I use in my basement shop, its not on wheels tho. Short stuff goes in the two drawers.

Nice..... I like it.

 

[zkling]

.030, .035, and .045 came on the spools I have. Also common in all the shops I have seen small and large. With what LORDDiESEL has talked about in MIG production welding and in pipe IN another thread I would of thought he would of came across these in his time. guess I'm wrong on thinking that.

No, I understand where you were coming from on that, but I just wanted to point out that there is a pretty good possibility that he may have never came across those spools, depending on what and where his work has taken him. Lots of manufacturing places, especially with strict QC policies will get onto one item and then just stay with that specific item for ease of paperwork reasons.

When I first looked at your picture I thought those were some massive custom made racks, then seeing it on top of the file drawers I realized they were used wire spools. What are those two solid pieces of brass? standing up on the right hand side?

 

[great white tj]

Every one is a Great Idea, I now have something to do today...

 

[nonhog]

I stopped by my local metal / salvage shop,

Rusty Rack Guys? I like Inter West in Fife. I am always thinking about storing this stuff too. Good thread!

 

[rdsk8ter]

Those look good. What are they from?

they are mig wire wheels I got from a scrap yard. I got 9 for a 2 bucks welded the together I have three filled to the brim now might need to add a 4th figured out if you space them a bit apart but you can actually store flat between them

 

[sberry]

Nice stash of steel, I tend to store in open bins and shelves also. Opening and closing a bunch of drawers gets tiring real fast. The open style lets me see everything at once, best practice for me.

We stopped what we were doing a couple days last winter and sorted. I could start over and gain a little advantage and still consolidate some things but really am trying to use it up. I went thru most anything that had been saved as assemblies and cut to stock, we process it to stock type things if we can. Our foundry scrap is really cut to bits.

 

[Richard D]

Eh, in his defense not all of the wire comes in rolls like that. I have never purchased wire that comes on open spools like that only solid plastic spools. You usually don't see the open metal frame spools till you get into larger wire or non mig wires.

I never saw that before either.

 

[ADSR]

.030, .035, and .045 came on the spools I have. Also common in all the shops I have seen small and large. With what LORDDiESEL has talked about in MIG production welding and in pipe IN another thread I would of thought he would of came across these in his time. guess I'm wrong on thinking that.

I'm a carpenter by trade and a welder/fabricator by hobby. I have 8 months at welding school to further along my hobby and have never come across metal spools. All the ones i've seen are plastic.

 

[astroracer]

Well, you guys got me inspired. I have went out in the shop a half dozen times to clean up my drop pile but, once I get out there and look at all of it, I stop. I have no where to put it that is easily accessible and orderly...
I got to thinking about all of the buckets I am using right now as containers and decided to design a mobile rack.
I measured up a couple of buckets (I have a few different sizes) and modeled up an average size in UG this morning. I had an idea already in my head so I ran with it on the computer. Once the bucket was modeled the rest was easy.
This is a side view. The rack is 24 inches wide.

Here is a front view. It is 42 inches long and about 48 inches high. Six buckets fit comfortably with room for three more in the middle if I decide to go that way. Right now I am thinking I will make this middle bay a vertical rack for tubing.

The buckets set in, and on, 3/4 x 3/4 angle at about a 30deg tip.

A close up of the casters. You can see I am also building in a lot of narrow racks for long lengths, whether sheet metal or tubing, Should work very well. I plan to put steel on the bottom and aluminum higher up.

I will start doing details tomorrow and probably order steel the end of the week. This looks kind of complicated but its not. All of the pieces are easy to cut with many of them used more then once. Can't wait to get going on this!
Mark

 

[DoghouseForge]

I read the title as "cut off short lengths"

LOL,

We talking "Bob Wier short" or "below the knee" here?

Sorry,

interuption over now...

JP

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Rusty Rack Guys? I like Inter West in Fife. I am always thinking about storing this stuff too. Good thread!

Interwest is indeed where I go. I wish they were open longer than 12:30 on Saturdays, but it's worth visiting if only to see what's new. They redid the yard and it's not nearly as muddy now.

I'd like to find more salvage metal yards in the area.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Astroracer:

You're going to use up all your cutoff scrap pieces in building that rack!

But seriously, I think you've got about 40 pounds of extra steel not needed. It's beautiful with all those angled cuts and supports, but the KISS principle might be worth considering.

Something I'm trying to keep in mind is that that the cart needs to have a fairly small footprint for saving shop space. Also a low center of gravity. The more bins you have higher, the less stable it would be if you move it around.

You've got some neat ideas I might incorporate into my own cart. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Deltarat]

Here's what I do with short pieces up to 6'. The longer goes on a wall rack.

 

[steel 35]

There was a build thread a few years ago of one on a vertical cart that leaned back just a little and it sounds a lot like everyones ticket.
Wish I could find it but can't, if some one knows where it is I for one would like to see it. Leftover rebar so I have some good stuff left to put in it.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

Leftover rebar so I have some good stuff left to put in it.

Rebar is great stuff. It's super cheap and easy to work with. The biggest hassle is simply cleaning it fully of all the residue from manufacture. I like to have several sizes on hand. Someday once I get an external shed with some long walls, I hope to attach some PVC pipe with caps on the outside wall near the fence (hidden from view) to store the longer pieces and cap them off to be weatherproof.

 

[ADSR]

Check this bucket system. Looks very simple to fab up.

http://www.monkeybarstorage.com/monkey-bars-bucket-hanger

 

[R.Anderson]

No, I understand where you were coming from on that, but I just wanted to point out that there is a pretty good possibility that he may have never came across those spools, depending on what and where his work has taken him. Lots of manufacturing places, especially with strict QC policies will get onto one item and then just stay with that specific item for ease of paperwork reasons.

When I first looked at your picture I thought those were some massive custom made racks, then seeing it on top of the file drawers I realized they were used wire spools. What are those two solid pieces of brass? standing up on the right hand side?

Just some brass pipe with brass ends screwed in have three of em. I salvaged em from a broken fancy three tier food tray thing. I'm planning on making a three tone steam whistle out of em well try to anyways.

 

[R.Anderson]

Check this bucket system. Looks very simple to fab up.

http://www.monkeybarstorage.com/monkey-bars-bucket-hanger

I like this and it does look easy to make. Just might to organize all my pails of cut offs out in the corner of my garage. Looks like I would have to beef it up tho.

 

[Vegaman_Dan]

I don't like the wasted space of round buckets in a rack. I did run across small rectangular waste paper baskets at the store today and picked up four of them. I think those set at a slight angle will work really well.

 

[steel 35]

The biggest hassle is simply cleaning it fully of all the residue from manufacture.

Cleaning naaaa I didn't clean what I put in it either should have done it long ago.

 

[sberry]

That is not bad.