material racks

[STRENGTH AND POWER]

Starting to outfit my new space and got a lot of ideas rolling around in my head. Total space is 975sq ft. with the shop area 20 x 28, less a small restroom. Originally I was thinking about doing a material rack on wheels, but scrapped that as unnecessary. Second thought was to store my material horizontally in a multi tier rack. I'd be giving up 12' of wall space. (for convenience, I get everything cut in half) Ceilings?roof is about 14' so my next thought is to store everything vertically using a piece of angle iron mounted to the floor to keep things from sliding out, also having "arms" about every 12" to keep things neat and organized. Any plus's or negative's y'all can think of?

Any pictures of racks would be great.

220 outlet is about centered on one wall, between the cord and cables, I can just about get anywhere in the shop, future plans call for a 6ga x 25' long extension cord but that's down the road.

Added 4 light fixtures in the back so it is nice and bright.

I will be doing most of my work in the evenings so the plan is to build a gate for the bay door to prevent surprises. Area seems quiet but that doesn't mean anything.

4x8 welding table is in the near future, looked at using 3/4" and having it blanchard ground but it's a little too pricy for now so 1/2" top, with C-channel understructure will be the route for now.

[Fishy Jim]

Wheels are good sometimes.

Most of what I do is accomplished with drops, so keeping shorter stock handy is more important than the longer pieces. I can still put a 10'er on the back vertically, but the rack only occupies 4x4' of floor space.

[Geezer]

Jim,

You made use of every inch, good job.

I am in the process of building (soon) and new garage so this is good info

thanks

[Fishy Jim]

The plywood shelves are bolted via brackets to superstrut, so they can be moved vertically and added to, should the need arise.

I kept it short enough to pass under the breezeway door (8') should I ever want to move it out into the (unheated) garage. The casters are rated at 1000lbs each, and while getting it aimed correctly is a little tricky, it still rolls nice even with all the weight.

[wb4rt]

Your shop is about the size of my garage. I'm just a hobby welder, not a pro, but this rack has worked very well for me for over a year. If I took a picture today, it would have twice as much steel on it. Let me know what you think.

I pick up my steel cut to 10' lengths and it stores well in the tubes, the drops go into shorter vertical tubes until it ends up in a box.

It holds a surprising amount of material and you can find and pull the size you want easily.

The first picture is the bare rack, the second picture shows it loaded.

[stick man]

I'd post mine but I'd have to pick the steel up out of the floor. It's a shame we have 3 different racks through out the shop and 90% of the steel is piled up in the floor. I don't know if were real busy or lazy..

[Copperdog]

My shop

I have a very active 15 year old son that spends a lot of time in our shop.
He does not have time to put anything back, so my storage does not get used much.
My projects are usually putting back the tools he used to do his projects.
He is a welding technology student and I am going to talk to his instructor and get his input. Maybe we can add some homework cleanup to his class grade.
I would not have it any other way!

[m.k.swelding]

Nice that a good way of using space