Technical How do you guys store small pieces of metal?

Lots of great ideas here. Some of you guys have a lot of scrap, or drops!

 

My neighbor across the alley manages to keep his need for scrap smaller by getting pieces custom made by Send Cut Send. Seems quite promising.

 

There seems to be more than a few members here who store many of their small pieces of metal by welding them together into the shape of a car or truck.

 

When I worked... I mean showed up for the paycheck... I would get those round shipping tubes that were being chucked out, The guys in receiving put a few on the side when I wanted some.

All my trim is kept in them and labeled as GOES ON THE CAR, NEEDS TO BE POLISHED, etc. Some I'll chop in half to hold leftover stuff I pick up at Ace Hardware or at the metal supplier.

 

Hopefully the guys who drive around my street the night before garage day looking for scrap steel don't see all these pictures you are all posting. It would be like watching porn for them.

 

Here's my portable yet grossly overloaded storage cart.
Found the design drawings in the March/April 2009 addition of The Home Shop Machinist magazine.

 

That looks pretty handy.

 

The three drawer cabinet is an old Microfiche file. Very strong. They used to be almost free. The cardboard tubes are from long Mcmaster deliveries.

 

I throw them in the corner next to the "small pieces of wood" pile

 

Being absolutely sure I am too old to build another project car, I deposit them neatly in the recycle bin and the nice trash guy takes 'em away every Monday morning.

 

On the floor under the bandsaw and then there’s a pile under the chopsaw . I’ve set a 5 bucket next to the bandsaw . Any tiny pieces gets tossed into it for scraping.

 

My sister in law bought a Variety Store in her small town and the yellow drawer units were in the basement. She said they originally had sewing patterns for sale in them. Round stock-top drawer, flat stock ,2nd drawer, angle, round and square tubing in the lower 3 drawers.
Next is a rack I made from wood and plastic pipe, if you can see it behind some of my other junk.
The blue tub is what my actual scrap goes into. We had a scrap drive for the school recently so it doesn't have much in it. I originally bought the tub to use for electrolysis rust removal.

Gary

 

1951 GE refrigerator carcass works for me. Just went through all the metal inside and under it tonight, and confirmed I do not need to buy more.

Please excuse the Aztec themed carpet, circa 1976 :

 

Where do I store small pieces of metal? If I'm wearing inappropriate footwear, in my foot. Some of it gets stored in the tyres of my daily driver.

 

I use plastic milk crates, turned on their side. All sheet pieces are stacked vertically like books on a bookshelf, blocks are stacked neatly in size order. Round stock is all laying in the coolant tray under the big lathe (I need to get back to that) and the cut offs are standing up in a plastic coffee can. Everything, and I mean everything is separated by alloy. Ferrous and non ferrous material never meet in storage.

 

I find that anything I really don't want to keep, if I just set it out by the mailbox and write "FREE" on it, its usually long gone before sundown.........and somebody actually has a use for it. Went out to see my friend with the CNC Plasma Cutter last Sunday. He was going to cut some scrap metal that I had torched from something and make me some giant washer shaped pieces. Thirteen and Fifteen inches in diameter to make some attachments for some lathe chucks that will allow me to easily bolt a 3/4 jaw chuck on my mill or turntable. So what looked like a pretty ugly piece of scrap became two free parts with some more left over for some future something. While he was doing the real simple program for these, he pointed at a nice little scooter sitting in his shop. Said he and his wife were going somewhere when they drove by a place that had put it out for the garbage. It was in good shape and after cleaning the carb, it ran just fine. Nothing wrong with being a "garbage picker", I've done it before. He**, the garbage pickers are more reliable than the garbage service I pay for.

 

This used to be the Mouser's litter box but works great for small stuff. What you need is in there, you just have to dig for it!!

 

I once asked a friend who owned a welding shop for a small piece of scrap metal. He informed me that in a welding shop there was no such thing as scrap metal.

 

Hello,

When we tried to store sheets of aluminum bought at Douglas Aircraft Surplus Yard, it had to be small enough to fit inside of our Impala with the rear seat down or fit into the large trunk of the car. But, any excess was small enough to get in the open framing of the rumpus room walls. The walls did not have drywall or insulation, so the beams were painted, but exposed to the room.

We put up a small flat piece of wood midway up the area next to the work bench. The space was tall enough for a 3-4 foot piece of metal or tubing stored vertically to fit inside of the cross bar area. At first we nailed the cross bar in and had to slide the longer pieces from the top. Then one day after spending time trying to get another long bar in place, we got the idea that a dropped bar would give us access to the whole area, 16 inches on center and 3-4 feet tall in the spaces.

So, now, we had a dropped bar, slide in the metal pieces and move the bar up to hook it so nothing will fall out. It worked and we were happy. Metal tubing, pipes, narrow sheets of aluminum that had been cut down from the larger sheets, etc. The flat stuff was in the back. the pipes and tubing in front.

Then we got the idea that the other nearby 16” wide by 4 feet tall empty spaces ( the space below casement windows were 3 feet tall. The other areas were 4 feet tall) could hold just the flat pieces of metal stacked vertically, with another dropped bar lock. Then the tubing or metal piping would have its own place and no rummaging behind or in between pipes and dowels would be necessary.

Jnaki

These days and for the last 40 years, the walls have been drywalled, so the pull out deep drawers were partitioned off to separate one side to store horizontally, small sections of flat sheets or cut out patterns. We no longer need longer metal pieces, so the flat pieces of cardboard, thin wood paneling and metal sheets fit like file folders in the deep drawers.

If you do not have enough specific flat sheets, use them for the dividers between parts on one side and different parts on the other side. Just in case the sheets or parts get used and now the deep drawer is going to be used for something else.

Also, for our woodworking projects, we used to store wood in the attic, but why? if we don't have a current project going, there is no wood to store from the last project. our attic is a haven for suitcases and memorabilia we no longer see or use daily. if and when a project comes up, we go buy what we need and use it up with little scraps left over.

Note:
For us, there is little reason to store extra pieces... It certainly is not for ..."those mystery projects down the line..." It is funny that once, we had a tall cabinet in a large three car garage that held tubing, pipes, flat metal pieces and tall wooden poles, 6 foot wood beams and anything that could not be stored anywhere else. It was a catch-all cabinet, but still behind a closed door. There was a method to our storage wars... !

Even that huge garage was one giant white wall of cabinets, a long work counter and nothing was sitting around exposed to the constant movement in and out of our cars. Everything was put away behind doors or drawers. The large, rolling table saw had its own tall cabinet. As for the drill press and band saw, they had cabinets with doors to accommodate their respective sizes. If a project was finished, everything was put away so the whole garage was clear of any impediments. No exposed parts, boxes, tools or stuff to get in the way of the major daily entry into our house from the garage. YRMV

 

When building the Lakester I used an old shopping cart.One with chrome mesh basket. You can wheel it
around and the mesh lets you see pieces down in the pile.

 

After looking through this post, I need to reorganize my drop metal. I feel like a slob.

 

.Mostly stored in a covered galvanized horse tank behind my lawn shed, longer stock inside stored upright between wall studs.

 

I’m really organized when it comes to that stuff…

 

for nuts bolts and screws stuff like that i have 20 some drawers out of old fridges for that stuff. i was a scrapper that retired but going back into it this spring if it ever comes, so anyways those were free bins.

then for my small cut off metal pieces or different brackets i accumulated gets thrown into an old lumber/hardware company bin. back in the old days when you brought nails they scooped them out of this big wooden bench bin that usually had a paint mixer at the opposite end. i have one of those when i brought out an old hardware store from the mrs. when her husband died and she closed it down. i brought the laundromat when i was 17-18 so i want to say it was like when i was around 20ish. i had it in the barn before i built my own shop in 94 so that bin has been around for many years. i will be 59 beginning of next month. i mounted rollers on it and at one time it was my main work bench i rolled up to the project i was working on. .

then about 6 years ago or maybe even 10 now(losing track of time) when they sold the airpark off i brought all the helicopter stuff because it was going to be just a regular airport for planes, no helicopters at all and it came with all these metal bins with drawers and they are filled with stuff like orings, snap rings, brass bolts etc so i have been putting my extra fittings type stuff in the empty drawers of those cabinets.

big long heavy duty scrap goes just out behind the shed. being from the family that uses heavy steel in the original family business that stuff doesn't never get tossed out. between the family and farmers it tends to come in handy hanging on to instead of scrapping out. little cut offs too big for my nail bins gets put in the back shed in a pile to dig thru or just against a wall in the main shed.

i am thinking about gutting one of my 38' campers out and moving all my extra steel in it under one roof. i have all my extra big helicopter parts in another camper and it works good for that. i am also setting 1 camper up with my ebay stuff in it at the present time. i have another pallet of liquidation car parts coming in monday and they will be put in there. 6th pallet of car parts this year. trying to free up as much room as i can in the main shop so i have room to move around and actually build more toys again. so no more pallets going in my work bays if i get it sorted out right.

if i was smart i should haul/ scrap everything and auction off everything else worthwhile and sit my ass on a beach for the rest of my life but that life isn't for me except maybe the bikini scene but for some reason after a short time i miss my shed and junk.

 

In my eye! Haha

 

When I had my shop built, I had switch and outlet wires go up to the top plate and down to the next outlet as I didn't want things leaned against a horizontal run of wire. I also put outlets on back wall>48" high so I could lean plywood there without blocking them. Something to consider for new construction.

 

I'd say that many of us are keeping those small cut off pieces that we used to toss in the scrap load without a second thought because of the cost of metal these days. Used to be it got tossed in the scrap load when it got too short to go in the chop saw or band saw for that last cut to size to be used. Now some of those pieces end up in the 5 gallon bucket.

 

Heavy duty fiberglass bins forgot who makes them at the moment. Best thing I ever did

 

Hello,

For small screws, there are small drawers in a cabinet with slide out access for the size and usage. But, for small plates, flat bars and sheet metal, they are stacked up in a deep drawer and the larger pieces act as drawer dividers. Those extra pieces of metal from left over cuts and other projects are lucky the annual garage drawer clean out by my wife is not a weekly or monthly thing.

But, a lot of them have bit the dust that I was saving for other future projects. If I do not use those small sheet metal pieces for a new project or repair, then they get the toss in the trash. As long as one sheet is acting as a deep drawer divider, the other pieces on the other side of the divider are fairly safe.

Jnaki

As the old saying goes in our house, “if it hasn’t been used for two years, out it goes…” Our garage is well kept, clean as a house decorated simple room and every time we pull into the garage, we have smiles on our faces. A simple style, build and complete garage looks as part of our household proper. YRMV

If you are a small part, of whatever is stored away, watch out for those clean out days. Or that the deep drawer is too heavy to pull out… Yikes!

 

New-to-me sheet metal brake with a heavy duty, fully welded stand with plenty of open space means time to re-organize.

I prefer the rectangular cat litter buckets as they are morre space efficient than round cylindrical buckets, so...: