Pallet Rack ID?
- Thread starter jaymar_
- Start date
IndyGarage
Well-known member
There are many specialized types.
I wouldn't bother with them and I definitely wouldn't use them like that.
Used teardrop uprights and other components are relatively inexpensive. In my city there are a couple places that have whatever you need. I'm sure every other city would also.
Also those look like fairly light duty cross beams. Somebody starts piling a lot of metal on those shelves and you are asking for an accident to happen.
I wouldn't bother with them and I definitely wouldn't use them like that.
Used teardrop uprights and other components are relatively inexpensive. In my city there are a couple places that have whatever you need. I'm sure every other city would also.
Also those look like fairly light duty cross beams. Somebody starts piling a lot of metal on those shelves and you are asking for an accident to happen.
Actually just wondering whether it would be worth it to ID and look for matching beams...
IndyGarage
Well-known member
The place I've gone to a couple times has an entire warehouse full of used rack in every size and style. Unless that's something very uncommon they probably have it.
Seems like the beams used were about $20-30 apiece and the uprights $50-80 depending on the height. Because you use multiple beams on a section it ends up being nearly the same cost for the beams and uprights. In my area the teardrop seems to be the most common. I had a couple sections of some with a V-shaped slot, but I sold those off and standardized on teardrop. I'm certainly not an expert, but I've got a ton of stuff up on pallet rack in my shop.
I think that might be the same style as one of the uprights I have.
Teardrop will fit in some of them.
EDIT.
This is the one upright that is different. The teardrop beams fit with some persuasion. I believe I did drill and add a couple of bolts as a safety.
Teardrop will fit in some of them.
EDIT.
This is the one upright that is different. The teardrop beams fit with some persuasion. I believe I did drill and add a couple of bolts as a safety.
Last edited:
IndyGarage
Well-known member
I have learned to always put a bolt on any beams that don't have locks on them.
I had to relearn that lesson awhile back when I almost dropped a Waverunner from about 10 feet. I had put up some new rack a few years ago and wanted to move it. I was unloading the waverunner with my forklift and the one rail that I didn't have a bolt in popped loose and the waverunner slipped backwards pinned between the wall and the forks. It was a scary moment, followed by a tense 30 minutes of using ratchet straps to secure the waverunner in place so that I could move the forklift and get it down.
The only bad thing about pallet rack is you can put a bunch of heavy stuff up high and you have to be super cautious moving stuff. I have a couple of car bodies 14 feet in the air.
I had to relearn that lesson awhile back when I almost dropped a Waverunner from about 10 feet. I had put up some new rack a few years ago and wanted to move it. I was unloading the waverunner with my forklift and the one rail that I didn't have a bolt in popped loose and the waverunner slipped backwards pinned between the wall and the forks. It was a scary moment, followed by a tense 30 minutes of using ratchet straps to secure the waverunner in place so that I could move the forklift and get it down.
The only bad thing about pallet rack is you can put a bunch of heavy stuff up high and you have to be super cautious moving stuff. I have a couple of car bodies 14 feet in the air.
It looks like Interlake Teardrop (old style) on the left and New Style Teardrop on the right.I think that might be the same style as one of the uprights I have.
Teardrop will fit in some of them.
EDIT.
This is the one upright that is different. The teardrop beams fit with some persuasion. I believe I did drill and add a couple of bolts as a safety.
It'd be better to swap out the upright for a conventional teardrop style - then you can mix/match brands without issue.
My first job out of college was at a distribution center. When the building was first setup, they went with a racking supplier that sold them on a proprietary style because it was cheaper at the time. Unless you were ordering large quantities, buying replacement uprights and crossbeams was significantly more expensive, and you had to use the supplier to get them. Cheap in the short term, but we paid for it in the long term. When we added on to the building, I pushed to switch over to teardrop, but lost that battle. So much for learning from our mistakes.
Me too... I've seen beams buckle from being overloaded, but never rip out like that.
duneslider
Well-known member
We sell millions of dollars of racking a year and beams ripping out of a frame is not a "barely touch it and its destroyed" sort of event...
There is a LOT of cheap crappy racking coming out of china nowadays, probably fine for at home use but its very difficult to get it engineered and approved if you need to pull a permit on it.
There used to be a lot of different connection styles but most everyone is using tear drop now and they are fairly compatible with each other but still best to buy the same brands and not mix and match.
Structural bolt together is nice as well but generally overkill for home use and usually more expensive. Also, new racking in general is not that expensive compared to buying used **** and trying to paint to look good unless you really want your own colors. Who doesn't like green and orange anyway...
There is a LOT of cheap crappy racking coming out of china nowadays, probably fine for at home use but its very difficult to get it engineered and approved if you need to pull a permit on it.
There used to be a lot of different connection styles but most everyone is using tear drop now and they are fairly compatible with each other but still best to buy the same brands and not mix and match.
Structural bolt together is nice as well but generally overkill for home use and usually more expensive. Also, new racking in general is not that expensive compared to buying used **** and trying to paint to look good unless you really want your own colors. Who doesn't like green and orange anyway...
Usually it's the forklift operator that catches the top of the backrest on the beam when lifting the pallet under it, or they catch the cross beam when backing out. Despite what the poster above says, it takes very little effort to cause that damage with 4500lbs sitting on it. The weight does the damage...the "barely touched it" sets it off. Definitely not a typical home shop environment though.
The only issue we've ever had with the bolt-together style, is when someone runs into the leg and takes the whole rack down.
nadogail
Well-known member
There are more than a few styles of pallet racking. With a chop saw and an Arc Welder I can usually make a lot of it work well enough for my purposes.
duneslider
Well-known member
Guaranteed someone didn't "barely touch it". From the one picture assessment, I would say this was a 3 pin beam and it either had no safety pin, or the pin wasn't engaged, and the other end of the beam was knocked out of the holes and the load fell pulling the beam down. I wouldn't call it just "barely touched" though. It would have had to be lifted and pulled out on that other side, most people realize they have f'ed up before they drag everything out and have a disaster. This isn't something we see happen often, people hit the bottoms of uprights with the forks all the time. We constantly are doing repairs on that sort of thing.
Again, nothing wrong with structural steel racking either, it's just more expensive.
I dunno, I’ve just watched it happen a few times, and if my 20+ years as a forklift operator counts as anything, if you can’t feel it in the seat, it was “barely touched”. I’ve almost done it myself.
Like I said earlier, the weight sitting on it does the damage. The ‘barely touching it’ just sets it in motion.
The new sections they are replacing have a safety bolt through them now.
I use the damaged stuff that ends up in the dumpster.
Like I said earlier, the weight sitting on it does the damage. The ‘barely touching it’ just sets it in motion.
The new sections they are replacing have a safety bolt through them now.
I use the damaged stuff that ends up in the dumpster.
I got some used pallet rack uprights about 5 years or so ago and then some 8' beams from my neighbor who got them free from the town dump he worked at. That's when I found out that all pallet racking were NOT the same. The uprights were the Paltier style while the beams were the Old Teardrop style. 
I was able to make it work by grinding out the holes on the uprights. I then cut the uprights to ~4' and made a pallet rack work bench out of it:
To ensure its rigidity, each upright/beam connection has two 3/8" bolts. You can one each bolt on the bottom beam; the 2nd bolt is connected to the side of the upright. The thing is solid as a rock!
I was able to make it work by grinding out the holes on the uprights. I then cut the uprights to ~4' and made a pallet rack work bench out of it:
To ensure its rigidity, each upright/beam connection has two 3/8" bolts. You can one each bolt on the bottom beam; the 2nd bolt is connected to the side of the upright. The thing is solid as a rock!
