Storing Materials

[tmuir]

Hi,

I finally finished building my workshop this weekend. Smiley

And have started to move my gear in.
The one thing I haven't figured out yet is what is the best way to store all my sheet metal, bar stock and pipes I've collected for model making.
The two most important things for me is to use as little space as possible to leave more room for future equipment but the material must still be readily accessible.
Has anyone got any great tips for storing material?
I'm thinking about getting a couple of 1 meter lengths of 50 or 100mm conduit and tying them horizontal to the frame work of my shed wall for storing my long bar stock but does anyone else have a better idea?

I'll post some photos of my workshop in a few days once I've finished arranging everything.

 

[Circlip]

Don't know what it's like in Oz tmuir, but if you can get some plastic half round gutter, it's much easier getting your bits out of a channel than a tube. Short ends tend to disappear, then you've got a tube full :big: Regards, Ian

 

[tmuir]

Good idea.
I'll pay a visit to the hardware store.

 

[Bogstandard]

I recommend what circlip has said, if you look at how my shop has evolved over the years

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=137.0

You will notice I have used guttering for lightweight storage.

If possible, store as much outside as you can, I have a large plastic storage box (lockable), that I put all my large non ferrous and bulky items into, that way it is not cluttering up the shop. It only takes a few minutes to retrieve what you want.

For ferrous rod and bar, I store under my benches, you are not going to be using it every day, and it isn't going to go rusty. For all ferrous and non ferrous offcuts I put into 'rooting' boxes on the bottom shelves of my benches, easy to slide in and out and have a quick scan thru (these are the bits and bobs we use all the time).

You will see that I have shelves everywhere, these can be moved about if needed, for when I retool with new machinery. You just cannot have enough storage, make and fit wherever you can, preferably with the tooling by the machines, ready for use.

John

 

[Tin Falcon]

Build yer self one of these

then get an old filing cabinet for short pieces.
Tin

 

[tmuir]

I actually just remembered today I had some cable tray lying around at my work that would be skipped soon if it wasn't removed so I grabbed a couple bits of it.
The smaller one is 150mm and about 1.3m long. I tech screwed it to the horizontal beams of my workshop tonight and no have half my storage for my material sorted out.
I still have a 300mm wide section left and once I've got my lathe will fit it with appropriate supports in a place that won't be in the way.
This is the type of tray I used.

The best type of solutions are the free ones. ;D

 

[Bogstandard]

Nice one Tony,

As you say, freebies are best.
A few more like that and you will get the lot done for nothing.

John

 

[tmuir]

Can't fit any more shelving to the walls until I get the rest of my equipment so I can ensure they aren't in the way.
I've run out of 150mm tray but I still have about another 8 meters of 300mm and 15 to 20 meters of 450mm tray at my disposal. Benefit of being a building manager and having left over tray from a previous fit out that I need to get rid of within the next couple of months before the last empty room in my building gets fitted out as it is stored in there.

Managed to store away the rest of my material tonight and so now I'm on the hunt for a new workbench. I want one I can do some light bashing on but can also sit down at and get my legs under too.

 

[Rog02]

Hi Tmuir:

Material storage is always a headache. The cable tray is a great idea and I am going to have to find some as the only place I have to go is up^.

As you mention you are a building manager, you might want to keep your eyes open for a heavy office desk. I was given one for simply hauling it away and turned it into a decent bench for my home shop by building a frame from angle iron to raise it to a comfortable working height (I greatly dislike setting down while working).

The desk had one of the old typewriter wells on the left side which has a spring counter-balanced tray that rolls out, rises up, then locks into place. I was tempted to discard that feature and just use the cabinet for storage, but then thought better of it and mounted a bench grinder that is stored out of the way when not in use. The metal top has a rubberized covering that has proved to be both hard wearing and no marring. The vice you see mounted is a 4" that was mounted by making a 1/4" plate drilled and tapped to the bolt pattern for the vise then the vise was mounted to the bench top with the plate acting as a load distributing under the top.

The desk is plenty sturdy to mount a small lathe on as well. As far as "bashing" on it, I regularly pound out U-joints in the vise with no ill affects to the bench.

 

[shred]

They'll cost a few $, but AkroBins makes long skinny plastic bins that work great for storing short lengths of rod and odds and ends. I have a shelf under one benchtop that holds six of the 4"x4"x24" ones.

 

[tmuir]

Nice bench Rog but alas my building won't have any old desks in it as its a purpose built data centre and only 5 years old. It was also originally built to be unmanned but now boasts a permanent staff of only 3 so no chance in the near future of scrounging a desk.
Although I do like yours.

 

[Circlip]

'Nother little tip tmuir, as a building manager do you have access to the small diameter plastic cable conduit? I made some toolbit storage trays using 35mm long pieces glued end on and side by side to each other on a flat piece of PVC. It probably won't be much use to most people on here but I don't use a QCTP, my cutting tools are all square section HSS or welded carbide tipped tooling.3/4" or 19mm tubing allows all my tools to stand vertically, 3 rows by however many columns long you want to make it. Ian

 

[tmuir]

Conduit is easy for me to get hold of as I work for a communications company so we are always doing civil builds to get fibre into customer premises so a quick word to our contractors could get me plenty of offcuts.

 

[PTsideshow]

On the subject of material, it is true in most shops the only way is up.
A free way is to cruise by the local carpet barn and pick up a couple of the cardboard tubes/rolls they roll up and transport carpet. On they generally take it off before heading out to do an install.

These are under a bench in the basement.
I had a load of shorts of PVC drain pipe that I picked up there seemed to be from 30"to 46" section which the company didn't keep any thing cut after the job was completed under 6'

This is them in use next to the sheet goods rack I used some heavy duty shelf rails supports as the containment uprights so I would be able to put small shelfs on both the out sides of the racks. It has worked out well.
The red and black crosses in the pipes are dividers so I can store 4 different sized or type of materials in one pipe.

And speaking of desks you don't need the whole desks just the drawers sections. Here are 3 sections removed from those wall hanking cubical office dividers.

They are under the work bench that was already in the shop.
Here are some assorted drawers from broken work tables, stacked them and welded them together and put a plywood top on and a set of casters. They hold any number of same power tools.

Here are two of the cheap desks drawer units that seem to be every where today.

weld together and it can double as a work surface, tool box tote or just as a collection point for stuff as any flat surface does. ;D

 

[snowman]

PTsideshow

Get that buffing wheel off your buffer before you grind!

I made that mistake ONCE...took me an extra two hours of sanding to get the scratches out of that piece of jewelry

 

[PTsideshow]

Thats one of those flat places that I was talking about that collects stuff :big: Thats not the one I use it was one of the $5.00 garage sale deals. I have one that what ever I need gets put on when it in use.