Metal organization ideas needed

So maybe this has been covered before, either here or on the garage journal. If so, maybe someone can copy/paste a link to a thread.

Im looking for ideas on how to organize my metal in my garage. I have large pieces of sheet metal, medium and small sized stuff too. Most are scrap pieces and usuable left overs from cutting out shapes. Also theres all sizes and lengths of exhaust tubing, square stock, round stock, solid round, angle iron...... you name it. Its a hot rod garage, so you all get the picture.

For the last few years Ive just been throwing it into large plastic totes. One for flat metal, square and angle stuff. The other I put in round stock and exhaust scraps. Then I prop the longer sticks in the corner. The really small scraps are put into a plastic grocery hand basket.

Its such a pain in the ass to paw through all my remnants of scraps when trying to find the size Im looking for. Pulling half of it out onto the floor is a huge waste of time.

Im hoping some of you could share pictures of how your shop is set up and how you organize your metal. And not just new, uncut sheets or sticks, but how you organize the usuable remnant scraps of metal to be used later.

Thanks!

 

Heres my current mess and the space that I have to work with.









I want to remove this cupboard with the headlight bezels on it and I could relocate the tools on the board. However, that board is covering a large window, so that has to stay.

 

You need an addition with magnetic walls.

 

I've put up a couple of racks on the walls of my garage that let me organize the larger bits and pieces. The rest either goes in a bin or I take it in for scrap. Keeping random parts creates clutter.

 

That's a tuffy, id like to know too. Every shop I've ever seen has had a problem with this.

 

My garage/metal storage system looks a lot like yours...I have determined that the solution to MY problem is getting a bigger garage or stop hoarding bits and pieces of metal. I do have a setup something like Coburn posted above, any place I have some wall space open I put up a couple shelf brackets and lay the long pieces across them.

 

Old library system with rolling ladder. The answer lies in the vertical space or a building as big as home dopot.

 

I have similar storage woes, but I would start by actually going through your scrap pieces and determine a minimum size to keep, and ditch the small grocery basket in the recycle. You can always cut small stuff out of the larger, and with space being a premium, it is costing you more to store the tiny stuff than it is worth. Plus with the current price of scrap, it will allow you to buy more big stuff to whittle down into the small stuff. If you use the tiny stuff everyday, it would make more sense to store it, otherwise, instead of searching through it, you are prone to grab the more accessible big stuff to cut your piece from.

With a very small amount of effort, you can make a simple rack to hang the long stuff up next to the ceiling to free up some more floor space. I have no good solution on the big sheets, I have the same issue, but I do have pallet racking, and I am looking at making a full sze shelf, just below one of the current shelves, to slide the sheet stuff into. I just haven't worked out all the details yet...

 

I hate dealing with the metal as well...I got a plastic 45 gallon barrel that I put some wheels (castors) under for the kinda longish but not too long stuff ...at least I can move it around easily to get it out of my way ! Still working on an idea for the sheets of body metal though....

 

Get some tubing 6 inch or larger dia. PVC pipe or corrugated tubes from rug rolls etc.
Cut them in various heights. 6,12,18,24,30,36,48 etc. Cap one end, then stand them on end. Strap them to the wall or make a stand to hold them. If you make as stand leave room for large sheets behind it. Use these for tubing, round or square.
Use the totes for the small sheet cut offs etc again sized for the size of the cut offs.

Nick

 

Hey get outta my garage... oh wait, it only looks like my mess.

I have homer buckets with round pieces near the lathe. One for steel, one for aluminum, and another for platic. 10' or less Tube goes under a long table that has my chop saw on it. Long tube is hung from the rafters. Small plate & odd pieces of aluminum & chromolly go in totes near the welders.

I try not to get too organized, or it makes me feel like its work instead of play.

 

I have a dedicated shelf in my shop for tubing, rod, angle etc that will hold pieces about 2 1/2 feet long. I can see the ends, but don't know the length until I pull it from the shelf.

all my sheetmetal is stacked against the wall, smaller pieces are in a box standing up so I can see what is in there without digging through the pile.

I also have a wooden box I built with 2 sections. one 3 feet tall and another about 4 feet tall. I stand longer pieces of tubing and whatnot in that one. short pieces in the short side, longer ones in the long side.

couple people here spoke of tossing some of it out . I never throw sheetmetal out, since a piece the size of a dime may come in handy some day filling a random hole. other types of metal I'll keep if it is at least 6" long or so.

 

I built a small a frame on casters. One side has sheet metal and a couple small shelves the other side has tabs for laying longer pieces on. Works good and I can move it outside if I need the room.

 

I don't have any pics at the minute but we use green uni strut also referred to as B channel. It basically looks like an arm configuration but more heavy duty than the over seas aluminum crap. The uni strut can be bought at Home Depot or Menards in the electrical isle. We welded ours together and bolted it to the wall. I use a 55 gallon barrel for the smaller stuff.

 

Hey, that looks like my place, except the pegboard is too neat.

 

thanks so far for all the input. I like the vertical tubes and the large sheet metal stacked behind it. That would be the best idea for using a small footprint of the shop. I think I could make shallow wooden drawers for the small stuff.
<O</O
I keep all my stuff, even the small stuff. I like to keep my medium to large pieces as solid as I can without cutting small shapes out of them.

<OHow about the wall pegs like Coburn Performance has, but then add some clear corrigated plastic (like you see on back patio decks) so the smaller pieces dont fall down through, and you can still see whats up there.

<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comMaybe</st1:City> <st1:State w:st="on">Ill</st1:State></ST1l take down that cupboard and put that there, some metal stacking racks where the totes are now. I think I can make small organization bins just in front of the vertically stacked metal. Huummmm.

<O<st1:State w:st="on"><ST1Ill</ST1l</st1:State> draw up some plans and scan them in here later. See what you all think.

<O</OThanks so far for the brain buzzers, this is what I needed to start the engines turning.<O</O

 

What about an old fashioned heavy duty filing cabinet.
Would be big enough to hold pieces 17 x 11 or smaller.

 

I have the same problem only bigger since we're a full time shop and I'm a pack rat, hate to throw anything usable away. I finally built a heavy duty selve unit that has seperate shelves for flat, round, square, ect. Anything 1 to 4 ft long. Bigger sheets stack on a wall. Small stuff ends up under my welding bench till the pile gets big enough to annoy, then it's trashed. Funny, I always hate to toss it but it seems overnight it's back anyway, not like I miss it! Besides, I feed the homeless with it, set it out front and in my nieborhood and it's gone by morning.
We are starting to do a lot more roll cage type work so I need to build a pipe rack to inventory long pieces of tubing, right now that lives under my frame table

 

here is my solution for small stuff. everything is some what organized by thin sheet, thick sheet, round tube, square tube and bar

 

I am in the process of organizing my shop and hope to solve the problem of steel storage. Have been using some ware house shelving to store the cutoffs and smaller pieces of material on. I cleaned off two shelves, ten years of saving and took 1500 pounds to the scrap yard. Just bought some additional shelving units so I can go up with storage, can't go out. The shelving units are 4 feet deep and 8 feet long. Going to have the sheet metal stored in a space between two of the units. Space will be about 3 feet wide, on foot of width will be for full sheets. The rest of the space will be partitioned so that half sheet will fit low and smaller pieces will be higher up. For the long structural steel, up to 10 feet tall, will be stored vertical. The smaller pieces will get stored on shelves with partitions.

I am going to put some of the larger pieces of equipment under the shelves, top shelf will be at 8 feet with one shelf at 7 feet. This was wasted space in the past.

Another set of shelving will have the welding machines under it and storage shelves above that. One other set will have shelve every foot in height. Hopefully this will give me a lot more floor space by now using higher space that was wasted before. No pictures only about half done. Three of the shelving units are in the bed of my pickup right now.

 

Whoa whoa whoa that's a little too organized."

 

I just built this to solve the same issue. Though I do not have a lot of big pieces, I have a lot of smaller stuff that is spread all over the place.

This will have my 4x bandsaw mounted on it in lieu of the standard metal stand.

 

I try to keep an old washingmachine/dryer/etc. near the end of my work table to store all of the little pieces of scrap. When it gets full, to the junkyard it goes!
Usable scrap pieces are thrown on top of new sheets/tubing/etc. laying on the floor to camouflage them.

 

Wow, that cabnet system looks pretty cool! However, after seeing the metal shelving and hearing others using the metal shelving, I think that would be the ticket. Hope to find two units on CL for cheap. Ill post pics of what I finally come up with.

Keep the suggestions and pictures coming! Id like to hear everyones solution!

 

Throw it all out and start fresh by cleaning up the garage!

 

a clean garage is all about the shelving. on a 40 foot wall here I got 25 feet of shelves. A fab shop guy was moving and gave me all his "drops". DON'T CALL IT FRIKIN' SCRAP! that is what he told me... plus metal from my own scrounging.

 

49ratfink, lookin good! I think Im gonna steal youre intire layout plan. I like the wooden boxes at different height for the long stuff. Now, if I could only have some guy GIVE me all his old shelves! haha!

 

Show off!! Yes I am jelous !

 

I scored 5 metal shelving units today from a guy off of craigslist. $20 for all 5! Great start!

 

Updates ?