Scrap metal storage ideas?????

[JZHeyde]

Looking for some ideas to store scrap/left over pieces of different metals. Right now i am very unorganized and have it everywhere. Does anyone have a unique efficient way to store the metal pieces? Pictures would be great. Inhave a couple drawers for the small pieces. Really looking for a solution for the longer stuff 12" and longer.

 

[c/o say]

File cabinet, five gallon buckets and a plastic barrel with the top cut out. That's all I got.

 

[Strouty]

I have a couple roll around bins that I put the decent short pieces in, but I am in the same situation as you after a couple feet long. I know there are a few nice solutions that members have come up with.

 

[G-Ram]

The larger stuff I just sort and pile behind my shop


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[gdocktor3]

Plastic 50 gallon drums

 

[tool_scrounge]

Large ammo cans
Vertical material rack, like the one below
https://materialflow.com/p/Jarke-Vertical-Storage-Racks

 

[JZHeyde]

I like that material rack....may investigate that more. I could put it on casters even. I dont have a TON but definitely enough to consider a reasonable storage solution.

 

[altersaddle]

For now I have been using 5 gallon pails. This weekend's project is to consolidate into a stack of three of these IKEA bins:

http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/10255897/

Metal, wood, and paper/plastic. I may get a fourth bin to separate paper and plastic if it's not too wobbly. If I get it done today I will post a photo.

 

[crewchief888]

five gallon buckets and a plastic barrel with the top cut out. That's all I got.

The larger stuff I just sort and pile behind my shop


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i do the same....

 

[Ree75]

Aldi's used to have some nice decent sized tubs that felt like structural foam for cheap (the lids were thin plastic like tupperware tubs)

 

[Mr_fixit]

efficient? no. The double merry go round behind the ladder is my favorite. T That one holds up to 1 1/2 foot and 3 foot to 6 foot pieces.

The grey horizontal one holds from 1 1/2' to under 3 foot. The other horizontal one holds 5 to 10 foot.
Milk crates or buckets hold similar or shorter items.

 

[04chase]

my solution for long and short stock.

 

[2oolhound]

Looks like a lot of us are in the same boat. Not enough space and hate paying metal warehouse prices when we need a piece of steel.

I'm so tight for $pace I've always tucked it away anywhere it would fit. The problem with that is you can't find it when you need it.

There is a 24" x 12" pocket behind my parts washer where I stand up pressed metal angle, bed frame angle, and rebar etc.

Ready Rod, Tubing and bar stock is kept under the bolt bins below a 2' landing.

I have an attic/mezzanine storage for long stuff. This deck is an 8' span made of 2x4' rafters on 12" centres. Then every 3rd rafter has a 45ᴼ brace that supports it staggered 2' from each wall. The ends are triple 2x4 and there is also a 2" schedule 40 upright pipes 2' from the walls supporting the deck as does the robust staircase at one end. Anything that is long goes up there. Most material is around 10' with a few 16' pieces and some shorter stuff too. I need to build a framework up there to keep it in layers. I can be difficult to retrieve pieces on the bottom.

I made special arms to hold some 4' pipes and 4' - 6' square tubing up in an open area along side the attic deck or mezzanine.

Plate steel 1/8 to 1/2 up to about 30" x 30" is stood on edge against a cabinet.

Short pieces of tubing are in buckets

Short flat metal goes in drawers

Longer pieces of angle and odd sized tubing up to 4' are stacked upright behind a door (no photo)

 

[sberry]

How much room you have?

 

[astroracer]

This is the storage rack I built a couple of years ago. It has worked well, is mobile and has a lot of steel and aluminum on it right now.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=236804&highlight=roll-a-round
Mark

 

[bdelmar2]

I like 04Chase's setup in post #12, seems about the right size for what I typically have around.

I just moved and ended up letting most of my scrap go, but I did keep some. Now would be a good time to build a rack of some sort - before I collect a bunch more.


I worked with a guy who had another kind of storage rack which I am also thinking about making.

It was a 2'x4' (approximately) base on wheels with an expanded metal floor.

Then on each end was an 'A' frame and a third one about a foot in from one end. The 'A' frames were probably a little shy of 4' tall, but they could be made higher or lower.

There was a piece across the top connecting them for stability that was also a shallow storage pan, about 4" high and maybe 12" wide that ran the whole 4' length, it had an expanded wire bottom so it would drain if necessary.

It would hold anything under a foot or so long and was at a handy height to sort through small pieces.

The 'A' frames had ears sticking out which were about 6" long and made of heavy pipe with caps - could probably skip the caps, but they helped keep stuff on when rolling the cart.

Each side had 4 rows of these 'ears' so you could have 8 places to stack different materials, pipe, box channel, angle iron, flat, bar stock, round stock, etc....

With the center 'A' frame closer to one side you could rack anything over a foot or so long on one end, over 3' could go toward the other end, and 4' or over could go anywhere.

Less than a foot went above in the shallow pan - which you could make larger, or put one on each side or whatever depending on what you keep.

Inside the 'A' frames you could keep sheet scraps of pretty good size, this particular version wouldn't quite hold anything over about 3' wide on one dimension, but you could build the frames taller if needed. Might want to make the base a little wider if you did that though.

Overall a fairly compact, mobile way to store a lot of scrap pieces in an organized way that is fairly easy to get at.

The sheet stuff could be a bit of a pain to reach so if you do mostly sheet work with some long stock it might not be the best solution. But it you keep mostly bar/flat/box stuff and a little sheet it works well.

If you did more sheet, I see those carts like they have in Home Depot/lowes for sale on Craigslist once in awhile. If a guy put 'ears' on the side of one of those for some long storage, and welded a shallow pan on top, or one on each of the shorter end bars lengthwise and have pretty much the same thing (about twice as big though) but aimed more toward sheet storage.

 

[BonzoHansen]

metal trash cans.

 

[someone else]

You mean various piles outside by type isn't a storage solution?

I have 30, 35 gallon tubs that I keep my good scrap in, then I have boxes/containers for scrap that I'm going to recycle. Big stuff sits outside, organized by type and whether or not I'm keeping it.

 

[04chase]

I like 04Chase's setup in post #12, seems about the right size for what I typically have around.

I just moved and ended up letting most of my scrap go, but I did keep some. Now would be a good time to build a rack of some sort - before I collect a bunch more.


I worked with a guy who had another kind of storage rack which I am also thinking about making.

It was a 2'x4' (approximately) base on wheels with an expanded metal floor.

Then on each end was an 'A' frame and a third one about a foot in from one end. The 'A' frames were probably a little shy of 4' tall, but they could be made higher or lower.

There was a piece across the top connecting them for stability that was also a shallow storage pan, about 4" high and maybe 12" wide that ran the whole 4' length, it had an expanded wire bottom so it would drain if necessary.

It would hold anything under a foot or so long and was at a handy height to sort through small pieces.

The 'A' frames had ears sticking out which were about 6" long and made of heavy pipe with caps - could probably skip the caps, but they helped keep stuff on when rolling the cart.

Each side had 4 rows of these 'ears' so you could have 8 places to stack different materials, pipe, box channel, angle iron, flat, bar stock, round stock, etc....

With the center 'A' frame closer to one side you could rack anything over a foot or so long on one end, over 3' could go toward the other end, and 4' or over could go anywhere.

Less than a foot went above in the shallow pan - which you could make larger, or put one on each side or whatever depending on what you keep.

Inside the 'A' frames you could keep sheet scraps of pretty good size, this particular version wouldn't quite hold anything over about 3' wide on one dimension, but you could build the frames taller if needed. Might want to make the base a little wider if you did that though.

Overall a fairly compact, mobile way to store a lot of scrap pieces in an organized way that is fairly easy to get at.

The sheet stuff could be a bit of a pain to reach so if you do mostly sheet work with some long stock it might not be the best solution. But it you keep mostly bar/flat/box stuff and a little sheet it works well.

If you did more sheet, I see those carts like they have in Home Depot/lowes for sale on Craigslist once in awhile. If a guy put 'ears' on the side of one of those for some long storage, and welded a shallow pan on top, or one on each of the shorter end bars lengthwise and have pretty much the same thing (about twice as big though) but aimed more toward sheet storage.

Took some scrap diamond playe i had as well as a fee piece of 1.5" angle, chain and caribeaners.



Bottom plate is a 24"×48". Its about 8 ft tall. I bolted it to one of my beams in my shop . The steel it holds now weighs well over 1k lbs. I needed compact to fit in my shop and wish i had room for one more. I need to separate aluminum. Local metal supply had all aluminum rem for 1.00 lb at years end.

 

[BD1]

I made a shelving unit for small pieces. I got Coke plastic trays from a buddy that owns a store. They work great for the small stuff.
For longer pieces like four foot , I store in plastic drum with a divider I built for the top.

 

[bdelmar2]

Thank you 04chase, I do believe that would work better for me than the one I described.

It looks to take up about half as much floor space for just the unit itself, and way less when you add stock.

It looks to me like you have enough room to shoehorn another one in somewhere for non ferrous.

Nice shop Btw.

 

[4 FN 27]

I toss out the scrap (recycle) and hang onto the drops. Made a rack for 2-6 foot drops and anything less I built a system for under one of the work benches.

Came in handy today. Needed to repair a broken A-Arm for a friends son. Needed a 2 inch long piece of .875 dia x .090 wall 4130. It was sitting right there in the 4130 drop.

 

[Pitalplace]

Seem in our area there a lot of old fuel barrel stands at the auctions. No one uses these 300 gallon barrels anymore. They usually sell very cheap or not at all. I have sold the barrels at the iron dealer and use the stands to keep the iron up off the ground. The second picture is the area I built under one of my benches to hold the small stuff.

 

[Finky198]

Some old pallet racking holds most of our larger stock.

 

[Strouty]

For the guys that store it outside, do you put new steel out there or is it old stuff to start with? I have always wanted to store some stuff outside, but I can't bring myself to take "new" steel outside.

 

[Pitalplace]

For the guys that store it outside, do you put new steel out there or is it old stuff to start with? I have always wanted to store some stuff outside, but I can't bring myself to take "new" steel outside.

I don't store the new stuff outside, but I don't usually have a lot of new stuff

 

[Strouty]

I never intend to have new stuff leftover, but sometimes I order extra for stage two of a project and then that never happens.

 

[Finky198]

Mostly used stuff, some cut offs and some is painted or galv.... If and when I get new steel it goes inside until we finish the project then large pieces go outside, and small stuff gets put in a few milk crates...

 

[Strouty]

I currently have a wall being used for vertical storage, stuff up to about 13' fits really well, after that it has to go up into the insulation. I also have an area that allows me to store a few pieces of 24' stock and keep it out of the way, but it is tougher to get to.

 

[matt_i]

The stuff I actually intend to convey to the scrap metal dealer, I had all over. I ended up taking a pallet and putting some sides on it, now I can move it with a pallet jack until I'm done constructing the shop. Inside I have sorted steel and aluminum in boxes, a lot of trim coil cutoffs.

Then, it will be forklift time into the pickup truck.