Steel plate / sheet storage - Horizontal or Vertical?

[rquackenbush]

I have a CNC plasma table, and need to store 4x8 sheets/plates of steel. Any recommendations on vertical vs horizontal?

My thoughts so far:

Horizontal

• Easy to see what stock is available
• Would **** to have multiple thicknesses : materials on the same shelf.
• Needs room in front to pull out pieces

Vertical

• Nothing gets buried
• Needs room to the side to pull out pieces

I’ll be using a cherry picker to move heavy sheets.

 

[LXCam]

I can’t speak for full size sheets because most of the stuff I do allows for 2x4 cuts. But I normally have a pretty decent selection of gauges and types. I built my storage horizontal n fn hate it. It wasn’t practical to do individual shelves for each gauge so I stack it. And of course it never fails whatever I need is on the bottom.

The next time I get around to changing this up, it will be vertical.

 

[rquackenbush]

You make several good points. The most I can fit on my table is 1/3 sheets (48”x 33”). I already cut plate (e.g. 1/4”) down into 1/3 sheets for easier handling. I like the idea of just cutting all sheets down to thirds for storage.

Thanks!

 

[ycgoat]

I don’t have ful sheets like a production shop, as a hobbyist a built a mobile cart for side edge vertical storage. It is basically this but home made

Global Industrial Adjustable Mobile Sheet Rack, 60"W x 30"D x 36"H, 2000 lb. Capacity, Blue

Global Industrial Adjustable Mobile Sheet Rack, 60"W x 30"D x 36"H, 2000 lb. Capacity, Blue. Ships in One Business Day. Buy it and Save at GlobalIndustrial.com

www.globalindustrial.com

 

[bdbecker]

...Needs room to the side to pull out pieces...

My shop is only 24x24, so space is tight and I couldn't allocate a ton of floor space for loading/unloading my wood sheet rack. The solution I came up with was to make a rack that pivots.

I can pivot the cart out a few degrees and load/unload it through my garage door. It's been pretty handy because no matter what I've got going on in the shop, I can still get materials in and out of the rack without requiring a lot of space.

If you were to recreate this for metal, it would obviously have to be more substantial in its construction, but figured I'd share the concept in case you were looking for ideas.

 

[Jackfre]

I had horiz storage and it was maddening and dangerous as you end up with the unwanted around and behind you which you then have the pleasure of reloading. I went vertical similar to BD’s but it was fixed made out of a pipe frame and 4x4 hog wire I picked up at Tractor Supply. I had easy access with a seldom used OH door. Off-cuts are an issue and the combination H & V like BD shows works well. The other issue is you have to have the discipline to weed out the off-cuts. I always find a piece, “oh I can’t throw that away…” and I two-block myself.

 

[Spareparts]

Vertical, when I did a lot of plates, Plate Dog and a 3000lb fork lift to move it around. I am old and reliase I can't
do that any more, sold the F L and all but 1 welder. Got a couple ton's of cutoff's piled up they are going to my son's
place or the scrap yard, need room for a recliner and TV in the shop.

 

[CraigStu]

Of all the sheet metal shops I have been in over the years only the huge ones stored horizontal. That is because they had built something where they could put different thickness sheets on their own shelf. So no problem like LXCams describes. W/o huge room, go vertical so the sheets sit at a very slight angle from vertical. I would want a space 4-6in wide so I can flip through sheets, find the one I want. The rest get tilted to either side so pretty easy to pic out the one you want. You could make a bin like bdbecker did. Or grab one like ycgoat's. Thinking, if you will be dealing w/ 4' x 8' sheets, it might be nice to wheel them close to where you are trying to get them out and up on a table. I base this on when I am at Lowes getting 4x8 sheets of plywood or similar and then trying to get it off the cart and onto my trailer. Even w/ a helper it sure is nice to be able to position it for easiest transfer.

 

[gazza]

Vertical is easiest to sort through, depending on your structure. I have a raised floor office/workspace and all of my sheet metal is stored vertical. Most of it is stored in a space about 2' wide, it is easy to tilt the vertical sheets one way or the other to select the correct sheet or off cut then easily slide it out and onto the guillotine. It is always only thin sheet metal (prepainted "colourbond") which I cut to size to make signs. If I need a coloured background I use the same white sheets and just paint them to suit.

 

[TurnipTruck]

I just now stuck this old cart next to the cantilever rack out back so I don’t have to dig too deep in the snow to find my sheet. And my plate.
And now I have some bonus casters!

 

[ATC]

I would go vertical. I would also use a cart like TurnipTruck did above (or build something similar), with a hinge on the wall end, and a caster under the swinging end to carry the weight. That way, you wouldn't have to have the extra space off to the side to slide the pieces out

 

[egdede]

I might well be incorporating bdbecker's idea at my house. It's a smart solution that might work on my floorplan.

 

[Metallitubby]

I love that orange colored cart. Where have I seen those before?

 

[bdbecker]

I might well be incorporating bdbecker's idea at my house. It's a smart solution that might work on my floorplan.

Here's the link from my build thread with some additional details if anyone is interested...

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/the-****-shack.332912/post-6245420

 

[TurnipTruck]

I love that orange colored cart. Where have I seen those before?

In my case, the local Orange Box replaced all of their carts (after sixteen years of abuse) and piled them up next to the street. By the time I heard of the free-for-all, only a few highboys and zero lowboys were left, but I may have been the first to take a sheetgoods cart.

 

[metalmagpie]

I have a 1 ton Renfroe plate clamp. I also have a Ruger 2 ton shop crane (like an engine hoist on steroids). I built a rolling vertical rack I store pieces of plate on. In practice I have been able to tip some of the plate just a little, put on the plate clamp, then attach the crane hook and lift it free. I built a gantry crane in my shop driveway and sometimes I roll the plate rack out under the gantry where I can lift a plate completely straight up. I wrote a little project blog about how I at age 71 move heavy plate by myself. - metalmagpie

http://nwnative.us/Grant/shop articles/movingHeavyPlate

 

[SundayFunday]

You make several good points. The most I can fit on my table is 1/3 sheets (48”x 33”). I already cut plate (e.g. 1/4”) down into 1/3 sheets for easier handling. I like the idea of just cutting all sheets down to thirds for storage.

Thanks!

I have a CNC plasma table, and need to store 4x8 sheets/plates of steel. Any recommendations on vertical vs horizontal?

For the 48 x 33 pcs I would definitely go vertical. In the shops I worked in, we bought 4 x 10's of most steel so the small leftovers went in the vertical "drop rack" we could store and retrieve many sizes and thicknesses based on what we needed.

If you have to cut it down to size anyway, don't bother trying to store large sheets. either cut it down right away or, if it were me, I'd buy it at 48 x 33. Not too much more $ usually.