Technical How do you guys store small pieces of metal?

How small are we talking? I got this hardware store cabinet at the scrap yard a few years ago and sorted all of my hardware into it, including several drawers for "junk", they're deep enough for most of the small bits. It took a long time to sort it all out, but I find I use way more of the stuff I already have now that it's somewhat sorted.



I don't use enough bar stock or angle iron/tubing to ever have a lot of that laying around.

 

Big stuff stacks against the wall. Medium size goes into a 4' x 2'x 3' tall bin I made from plywood. Smalls go into multiple 5 gallon buckets.

 

You all notice that we have all got one thing in common?

We're all hoarders!

 

Lots of good ideas, thanks! I am definitely a hoarder! I am quickly running out of room, got to do something about it. I hate to throw anything away.

 

I have a piece of 4" pvc screwed to the wall that houses the long, small stuff, the cast off things shorter than a few inches get scrapped. If it doesn't get used in 1 year in my shop its gone.

If I use a piece of 1/4x2" strap for a project, I buy a replacement for it so its on hand, the things I use the most for fab work get replaced, the things that are cast off crap get junked. My minimum length on hand is 6" normally. I am constrained size wise on the garage so this is what works for me. The 5 gallon bucket method works good for people also....

 

After I take it off and leave it on the floor to be kicked around for half to a full year before I clean the garage. Then I sit there knowing I've seen that part and I spend a hour of wasted time looking for something I should know I'm not going to find. I then go out and pay three times the price after I get it to find the part I'm looking for laying out in the open I over looked....

 

5 gallon buckets....easy to store , move around...dump it all out . get what you need and a shovel to scoop it all back up...

 

Like most small stuff in 5 gallon metal buckets. long pieces on a rack or leaning up in the corner against wall.

 

Anyone remember going into Dad’s garage and the smell of a train engine ? Maybe from baby food jars sitting around full of hardware , then filled with oil. Those were the days , save everything , never know when your going to need an oiled up used nut or bolt .

 

Fire up the welder and spend a day tacking them all together. Then you only have to find a place for one piece....

 

I have a corner that is pretty much good for nothing else, kind of my "junk drawer", like others have said, milk crates are hard to beat, the extra long ones especially, though they never have seemed to come available like the regular ones, small pieces do fall through so I have lined the bottoms on a couple of them with sheet metal.
I also have a couple of the old wood and metal versions, they really require a bottom filler, they have become quite collectable (read that $$$).

 

Lets call it "frugal" on something that we will eventually use and have already paid for. Most of my metal comes from the cut off rack at either a local outfit's metal yard or a scrap yard that has picked up metal at local fab shops for the past 80 years and has always set a lot of the usable cut of stuff out in a section of the yard for folks to pick trough and buy by the pound. I tend to look there first and then the rack at the other place before having a piece cut off if I only need a certain length. The local machine shop in town will sell cut off pieces or what ever but they want the same money for that cut off piece that was laying against the wall for a year as if they just pulled out a 20 ft stick and cut it off for you.
I'm another member of the 5 gallon bucket club, many of them coming off the side of the road. Longer light pieces go up in the rafters of my 1 car garage if they are 10/12 ft long.

 

Wood ammo crates like the one pictured. Some I have are longer. Very strong, they stack well and kinda cool, too.

 

I have most in a couple of post office bins, leaning against a shop wall. Longer pieces are everywhere. Someone gifted me a couple of 8' long 1/2" x 4" hot rolled steel... I put that shit on everything.

 

Usually in buckets but if I have anything longer I can usually find someone throwing away a pair of those giant 1970s house speakers and I just pull the speakers out and cut the top off the box.

 

Doug,
I line them with USPS LARGE Flat rate boxes. Fit perfectly and free.

 

I have some pallet racking in my shop and one shelf is designated for leftovers and somewhat short lengths. I can stand in front of the rack and see all the different shapes and pull out any that might be long enough. Very easy to see what is available and maybe even see something that will work even better than what I was looking for. Since the pallet rack is already there to hold other stuff and the shelf I put metal on is abouut 6" above head level.....its free space. Most shops have lots of wasted space because owners don't utilize the high space available.

Then I have a cheap cabinet with roller drawers. You can get ones about 15-20" wide with a bunch of drawers. I take all the short/small/odd/specialty pieces and toss them in there. I dig things out of it often when I need a small bracket or brace and don't want to ruin some good stock. They can be pricy, but if you watch Facebook for a while you can get one for $100 or less.......The roller drawers make them easy to open and close and you can quickly see whats on hand.

Not pretty, but it works for me........

Its usually not that crappy looking but I was moving somethings around and pushed some stuff back in that corner to make room elsewhere.

This is not the scrap pieces cabinet, but a similar one I have. One or two drawers for scrap and the other for more important stuff like fittings and coiled tubing and other spare stuff.

 

So Chris,
You're homeless or just shopless?

 

In a large plastic gardeners bulb crates. Actually two , keep the aluminum separate. I also have a small pail for round tubing, stainless, DOM, brass…..

 

Buckets and boxes. Longer pieces are stood up in the corner.

 

I'll say it again, we're all packrats. And proud of it!

 

I say, if you can keep your scraps organized, you aren’t trying hard enough.

 

I usually leave mine in my neighbor's driveway.

 

I got a lot of this from a guy who had a fab shop who went out of business. I referred to it as scrap once and he acted like I insulted his mother and told me "THESE ARE DROPS, NOT SCRAP!!"

I built this wood box for the tall stuff.


I had this shelf full of "drops" like these, and smaller stuff up above it. I am moving out of my shop within the next year or so and got rid of all the smaller stuff and a large portion of what used to be on this shelf.


... another thing to do is build something out of it. I was looking at all this 2x2 steel tubing thinking of giving it to a buddy and looked at the 3' X 4' - 3/16" thick steel plate and this table popped into my head. I'm going to build another one with a smaller plate I have and the same square tube when I move I'll probably sell them.

 

Outside storage for some of the rusty metal.

 

Washing machine outer sheetmetal is 3 sided. Holds scraps and is also a donor. Sits on shelf of pallet racking

 

I'm like most of you, putting stuff in 5-gallon buckets or stacked in corners. What I've learned is how to place the scraps and drops so that I don't lacerate myself when I casually walk past these pieces sticking out, or when I reach down to grab something I need and catch the sharp edge of whatever's next to it. Nowadays, no matter whether I'm in a hurry or tired, I slow my roll reaching in for a piece and am very deliberate and careful. I also try to grind off any sharp edges on the leftovers. Still, that doesn't always work and sometimes I get surprised by not seeing something that cuts the shit out of me. Let's be careful out there!

 

Hi Bruce, Shopless mate, we sold our home of 33 yrs and moved South to a little holiday house, waiting for a larger place to come up ,hoping with a shop or I’ll be building again.
I have my gear stored far and wide. Been 6 mths really but as this thread is about storage, I’ve learnt a lot so will be starting a fresh, maybe a good thing.
Going nuts without my space!

 

Actually, I don't consider myself to be a "hoarder".......I'm way past that level and now consider myself to be a full blown "WHOREDER". I'm a sucker for any good buy of some type of metal. I know I will never use all of it but I never know which of it I may use. I do know I would not have built many of the things I build if I had to go "out of pocket" for new or even over priced used metal and components. I try to get more by buying in lots instead of pieces. Then I have stuff on hand that I could sell for profit later, but its all just there at no new cost....its already paid for.
I've always been that way, look for where you get the best bang for the buck. When I worked in the procurement department for a major weapons company, I just couldn't stand the waste. Guess it comes from being raised poor and never wasting anything.

A few years ago I bought a bunch of round stock to have on hand for lathe projects. Most of it was 4140. Had to drive about 300 miles round trip to get a trailer load of it. Got a bunch of Ingot size pieces with it....stuff in the 3" 4" range and the long ones (16 ft) were 1" to 2.2" in size. Gave about $600 for all of it. Try buying just one piece of 2" diameter steel just 4' long today. Probably a minimum of $100. I gave about a 1/3 of it to my son to use on his lathe. Cut them into 4' lengths and put them on a pallet. His 40 hp tractor had trouble lifting it (1/3) and he had to take some off.

Bought some 1/2 " steel plates 11" wide and maybe 40" long. Had holes in them in a straight pattern. Guy wanted $50 ea. Guy had 8 of them . Wanted to get rid of them. $200 and I had all 8 of them. Then I spied some steel plates with surface rust. 1/4 and 3/8 and for another $100 I got all of them. That was a real bargain. A few of the 1/2 inch plates will be used to make some header flanges. A friend is going to make me 3 sets with his N/C plasma cutter. Then I'll pare them down with the mill and leave raised bosses around the exhaust (kinda like Sanderson headers). Don't know what I'll use the rest for, but I got it for a good price and its there if I need some.






These are two of the sheets of steel I got for that extra $100. Also the plates in front of the picture above this one.


These are a few of the 1/2" steel plates I bought.











So most of the time I can find what I need to make things and only have to buy a few ancillary parts . I'm a WHOREDER and proud of it...............

 

When I finished my last build all that scrap metal went away... Now it is just a small box of scrap....I am done with building anymore...Costs to much....