Often finding the garage short on space, a rack for storing materials was a natural project. A few store-bought racks were attempted, but either were under-rated for the weight or were simply poor designs for holding half-sheets of metal (48"x48") or short lengths of tubing/bar stock. This was my solution, a rack with a section for sheet, bar, and tube stock as well as many shelves for the little parts. Only a few of the rack-pans are in place and along with a few other finishing touches. This will be updated once the rack has been completed and stocked.
 |
 |
Keywords: storage welding
Project Detail
Simply put, I wanted a rack that could hold more than enough stock to keep my hobby needs satisfied. I also wanted them organized, so I thought a bit about how material comes and what materials I might want. These are the specifications that resulted:
- Capacity to hold half-sheets of material (48"x48")
- Separate smaller sheet-stock from the lager stock; a section for pieces approximately 12"x48" max.
- Section with the capacity to hold bar stock up to 6" diameter. This includes solid and tubular, round and square, angle, channel, and beam up to 48" without more than 6" hanging out either side.
- Section with the capacity to store at least 32 small storage containers for small parts and projects.
- Section that can hold mid-sized boxes (approx 12" cube).
- Easily movable (in this case, accessible by a pallet jack, as I would suggest for every garage).
Concept Generation
Sketches/Prints will be uploaded once they are scanned in. This was a paper/pencil project, AutoCAD seemed a bit over the top for such a simple design.
Fabrication
The entire frame was mild-steel structural tubing. The pans for the racks/shelves were made from 0.125" 5052 Aluminum sheet stock bent on one end to form a 1" lip. The base tubing was 1" square with an 11ga wall thickness. The uprights and cross-members are all 3/4" square 14ga tubing. The frame was cut using an AMADA horizontal bandsaw and welded together using GMAW (Mig) on a Lincoln PowerMig.
Pictures:
Future Work
The remaining pans must be placed onto the shelves and the rack needs to be stocked. Also, the plastic bins could use some labels.