nadogail
Well-known member
I regard pallet racking as "Tinker Toys" for a person with a chop saw and a welder. You are limited only by your imagination and your supply of steel and consumables.
Pallet racking
- Thread starter 2011laramie
- Start date
Bill T
Well-known member
This will make the Engineering folks cringe, but, I visited a shop in my area to pick up something from CraigsList. The shop had 14' walls. Looked like standard construction from the outside. I went into the shop and saw a method of construction I had never seen. The gentleman had constructed his shop almost totally from pallet racks. The perimeter walls were constructed of pallet racks with foam insulation and corrugated metal screwed to the pallet racks. The pallet racks were attached to the slab with Red Head expansion anchors. The trusses were home-made bar joists attached to the top of the pallet racks. He used corrugated metal attached to the bar joists for roofing. On the interior, he had shelving at different levels on all four sides of the shop. Again, while it designed very out-of-the-box, he had a hell of a lot of storage in his shop.
I’m sorry, I don’t not understand the question
It seem like it would be easier to build a few skids/pallets to drive/push the cars on before racking them. I’d you putting them up and taking them down regularly.
You could the pick them up from either end or side, and you would have not worry about bumping the car when moving it.
rsanter
Well-known member
A friend of mine had a setup like your top picture.
He used the area below as a work area with benches and toolbox
He then had the landing above to store stuff and access stuff that was on the back shelf
Worked well
He used the area below as a work area with benches and toolbox
He then had the landing above to store stuff and access stuff that was on the back shelf
Worked well
The large metal platform allowed us to drive the cars onto the platform and then drive or roll onto the rack. The racks only had wood runners under the wheels. The rest was open. I cut the 2x10 to fit in between the rails. There is a ledge on each metal rail that held the wood in place.
snorky18
Well-known member
I am an engineer (civil/structural), and I've considered building with that same methodology. After I put pallet racking in my shop against a concrete wall in my existing shop I suddenly realized that I nearly had framing for 5 of 6 walls of a tornado shelter, it's so robust.
If you start with value ($/SF) in mind rather than a firm fixed footprint you can come up with some interesting shop buildings if you can find used pallet racking at a good price. Ditto shipping containers. (Getting approval from the chief decorating officer who sleeps on the other side of the bed is a different discussion entirely).
My racking is all between 20-30" deep. I wouldn't want any deeper in a residential garage of typical proportions.
Back to the OP's ? for tips:
- I put big stuff / heavy stuff on the concrete (motorcycles, generator, weld cart, etc) under the first shelf.
- I put in several shorter shelves with only ~12"-18" tall openings between them that's been great for storing all the awkward small/medium sized objects. Small toolboxes, power tool cases, portaband, etc.
- Anchoring to the floor is advised, especially tall or narrower sections (like my 20") that can be tippy. As mentioned before, I would not anchor to walls.
- Use shallow beams to allow more shelf opening area unless you need the weight capacity of taller beams.
- buy the tallest uprights that will fit your height
- If you find it cheap and used like I do, you may never again find those exact beam sizes - I buy a few extra, and in the rare case I don't use them, I put the extras on the side facing the wall, near the top, so if I need them later I can lift them over. Set up far enough from the wall to allow room to get beams between wall and mounted beams.
- I have found minor variations in say 96" long teardrop beams between manufacturers. Maybe 96" vs ~96 1/8". This can wreak havoc when you try to put everything together. Try to get identical beams across the whole fleet (all exact same style and manufacturer). If you do end up with tiny variations in style/length, maybe put all the oddballs in one section together at the end, so at least all the other sections are easy to put up that way.
OP
2011laramie
Well-known member
Well I picked up a trailer load yesterday. Shop had sold and was selling for a great price.
load shifted on the rough gravel road a few miles from home.
load shifted on the rough gravel road a few miles from home.
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Nice. Are you installing it as-is or painting it first?
OP
2011laramie
Well-known member
Part of me wants to clean in up and paint it.
Other part of me doesn't want to pay for paint
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Now is the only time you really have a chance to do it. If it wont bug you, send it as is.
drwheels
Well-known member
I built a work bench out of pallet racking 30inch by 10 foot because I had a piece of plywood that size 1 1/2 thick and used coke cases for the drawers.
I would not paint it until I was sure of the configuration I wanted. No point in painting what you're not going to use, or what you're going to cut and/or weld on. Dragging stuff around tears up the paint.
I would scrub/pressure wash them and treat the rust with Ospho before I set them up.
I would scrub/pressure wash them and treat the rust with Ospho before I set them up.
Ole Slewfoot
Well-known member
Mine is a bit harder to clean than most, but you don't really have to.
10w x12t 36 deep seems right.
10w x12t 36 deep seems right.
Wouldn't mind seeing a picture of the coke crate drawers
nadogail
Well-known member
I regard Pallet Racking as the industrial equivalent to the Lincoln Logs i played with as a boy.
Much more like an erector set than those sissified Lincon Logs....
nadogail
Well-known member
I played with Lincoln Logs long before I was given an Erector Set.
Here's what I did in my storage semi. They are two foot wide. I used plywood for the shelf's, had Home Depot rip the plywood down the center.
