i have a scrap pile problem

[eco redneck]

ok i am not to sure if this is where to post this but here it seams to fit fits

 

we have lot of scrap at home  but our  sorting/storing is not working very good for the smaller stuff

anything that is between three feet to one foot is all thrown under a section of grain bin tin.

it dose not work very good because you can only get at the stuff at the top easy

 

i need some storage ideas please help

 

thank you

 

Eco redneck

 

 

:unsure:

[Charles R. Stevens]

One of the other smiths, uses deheaded 55 gallon drums on their side, I'd imagine 5 gallon buckets would work too.
You could rack them and use the grand bin tin as a cover for the rack.

[Glenn]

Drill holes in those 55 gallon drums or 5 gallon buckets so you do not start a mosquito farm.

[Workhorse247365]

I have this same problem. Ive got mine piled on top of one of those trundle bed frames that has the mattress support grid/springs ... Works like a broken clock. Everything i want is on bottom and gets hung up on everything else when i try to fish it out of there..needless to say ill be watching this post for some ingenius remedy or a-ha photo post.

[swedefiddle]

Lay clay drain tiles on their side, stack them a few rows high. It lets you sort out by size and it lets you see what is on the bottom. Could uses sections of pipe, same thing.

 

Neil

[Frosty]

I see quite a few pieces of sq. pipe that would serve as small stock storage if stacked. buckets, barrels, anything similar you can stack end out will work. for stock longer than 3' consider standing it on end, makes it easy to see and doesn't take up much floor/ground/ space.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Jim Coke]

Greetings Eco,

 

I'll toss this one to ya...   I to have that problem...   I buy old stainless steel fire extinguishers that are broken that nobody wants..  They work great cut at different lengths for small drops and such..  They are easy to move and don't take up much space...

 

Forge on and make beautiful things.

 

Jim

[DSW]

I use a variety of things for shorts. 5 gallon buckets, short lengths of 4" or larger diameter pipe and I've also got a rack that originally was designed to hold short concrete pins. I'll try to see if i have a pict of the bin on the other computer.

 

 

I try to use pipe as much as possible for lengths between 18"-36". 4" PVC is easy to find but somewhat limiting. Given a choice I prefer 6" or larger green SDR pipe. You can often find shorts of this when guys are doing commercial construction. They frequently use 6-8" PVC or SDR for the connections to building downspouts. Ask the job foreman or check their dumpster. I managed to pick up 2 or 3 full lengths at the end of one job. They were cleaning the jobsite and all the leftover pipe and shorts went in the dumpster after they cut them up to get them to fit better.

 

Anything shorter than 18" seems to work best in buckets. I have a bunch of square 4 1/2 gal buckets we used to get concrete color in. These take up the least amount of space, but the handles aren't very strong so you can't pick them up even 1/2 full. The round 5 gallon buckets are stronger, but take up more space. I use these where I keep scrap tucked under a bench and need to drag out the buckets to sort thru them.

 

Anything longer than 36" gets either stood vertically between the studs of the wall and strapped in place, or laid horizontally on a wall rack. I like the double slot adjustable shelf standards Clossetmaid sells. Attached solidly to block or studs they hold a ton of weight. You can either lay the material right on the brackets, or lay 2x's on the brackets as shelves and lay the stock on that. The shelf brackets and standars aren't cheap, but they are fast and easy to set up and you can easily adjust them to reconfigure them when needed.

[John McPherson]

I use 50 pound welding rod cans, they are square and stack well on their sides, just don't overload your shelves. They are about 5x5x15 inches long, and you can lift them even when filled almost solid.  You can also stand them up in the bottom of a bin or bucket to separate longer stock by type. 

 

You could punch holes in the side to put bail handles on them to make them tote-able, but I strongly suggest taking pliers and crimping down the sharp edges around the openings before use. If you are careless, you will bleed.

 

Anything that you can get in quantity and cheaply can be made to work with some ingenuity and sweat equity. I just turned a rusty feed silo into a storage building at my farm, cost to date -$0-. All hardware was leftovers from other jobs.

 

Talk to people, network, barter, check out Craigslist free list or Freestyle for giveaway items, use the TPAAAT technique for all sorts of items. I have gotten offers of stacks of oil cans and food grade buckets from restaurants who just threw them away every day.

[arkie]

This may seem like a trivial item, but if you use or get the plastic 5-gallon buckets....get the white ones!  I ran across some dark blue ones and put a lot of small pieces in them.  Being dark colored, you can't see most of what's in them and end up dumping them to see what's there. :-(

[VaughnT]

Barrels on their side..... perfect solution.  I often used 10 gallon drums from the oil/lube joints.  Not too big and not too small.  

 

Another thing..... organize by type rather than just throwing everything in a puddle.  Springs here.  Tubing there.  Circular thingamabobs yonder.  It makes each pile far smaller and easier to access.  

[monstermetal]

Trust me, you dont have a problem,   I hauled 10 ton to scrap and afterwords it looked excatly the same in the yard.    

 

I would just throw it on some dunnage so its off the ground, cover is good but unless your in a real damp area (like I am here in Seattle)  many times its just as well to leave it uncovered

[easilyconfused]

I'm surprised noone has come across the obvious answer- make more stuff to use it up!

[Dodge]

Eco

I know this is too small for your situation, but for the smaller stuff I made this rack. The neat thing about the kitty litter buckets is the shape of the bottom allowing them to "hook" the bottom rung and tip for easy access. I also put a piece of plywood on the top and it makes another flat surface that you will soon never see again :D

 

[Frosty]

I'm surprised noone has come across the obvious answer- make more stuff to use it up!

 

We all took a vote and it was decided to let you have one for a change and we kept quiet. <snicker>

 

Frosty The Lucky

[Frosty]

Eco

I know this is too small for your situation, but for the smaller stuff I made this rack. The neat thing about the kitty litter buckets is the shape of the bottom allowing them to "hook" the bottom rung and tip for easy access. I also put a piece of plywood on the top and it makes another flat surface that you will soon never see again :D

 

BucketRack.jpg

 

That's an excellent piece of shop furniture dodge. I've been saving kitty litter buckets because they're square, stack and are the right size to store small rems. I've been thinking up racks to keep them organized, handy and out of the way for a long time but till now without a satisfactory thought.

 

Consider your rack adopted, thank you sir.

 

Frosty The Lucky

[Nobody Special]

First step is admitting you wish you had a scrap problem.

[DSW]

Man I wished I'd taken picts of the piles of scrap up at the farm today that they are digging out of the weeds... Glad I went. I reminded them I want dibs on the coal forge when they relocate it if it's still there. I keep wondering how much of the stuff they are pulling out is wrought iron. I'd hate to see that stuff go for scrap. Good thing is most of the old farm stuff they are trying to save to sell. They are mostly junking the newer mowers and stuff her dad used to like to tinker with.

[Dodge]

Frosty, That was the problem I was having. They stack too nicely and invariably, the piece I wanted way always in the bottom bucket.  Adopt away! I'm happy to share :)

[yahoo2]

It is much easier to handle and pick through if it is sorted and restacked once in a while.

 

For that amount of stuff I would just clear a space at one end, then pull all the tubular steel out and stack it there, then work my way to the other end. it will still look like one big pile from a distance but up close everything is in groups.

 

1. SHS,RHS,pipe,tube

2. structural steel

3. solid bar (square hex round hollow bar etc)

4. other (odd shaped)

5. alloy and nonferrous

 

plate (somewhere dry)

rubbish (out)

good short bits (to shed in containers)

 

No need to be perfect, for that amount of stuff it should only take 30 minutes to an hour to do, unless you start trimming and cleaning pieces up as you go.

[Frosty]

Now there's your problem Yahoo, you're handling it! Don't mess with it till you need a piece and only sort as much as necessary to reach the piece you want.

 

That hex bar should be in a high carbon stack.

 

Tanks again Dodge, I have a couple front burner projects to get past but I just MIGHT find time to do some measuring, cutting and fitting in slack periods. AND go round and collect, dump and wash all the kitty litter buckets around here.

 

A few years ago the local Honda shop used to stack the empty ATV crate frames outside the fence and hope someone hauled them off so they didn't have to. I still have maybe 40 stacked here and there, they're light weight rectangular tubing and HANDY stock. I built the scaffolding I used when I put up my shop from them. One of my better salvage projects. I sure wish they still did that. <sigh>

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[John McPherson]

I have found that a lot of hex stock is leaded, or free-machining steel meant for threaded nuts, and not forgable or weldable.

 

Octagonal stock, on the other hand, tends to be middle to high carbon.

[Glenn]

First off you need to USE material from the resource center (scrap pile). This helps you FIND what is available and organize it in some manner.

 

For small stuff, a bucket with cut to length cardboard tubes will do.

 

 

or you can use some of the scrap to build a more permanent solution. Wheels are a must for this project.

  

 

For those with a larger resource center (scrap pile) or if you want more organization, may I suggest the following.

 

 

For the stuff that wants to escape, only open the door half way.

 

 

You can scale up or down depending on YOUR resource center (scrap pile). This example is from an earlier post 

 

The problem is still not solved, you still have a resource center (scrap pile). Only now you can find what you want so it can be used. No more cutting a 20 foot long bar to get a 12 inch piece of working stock. You either pull the proper length of material from the resource center (scrap pile) or the next closest length. This keeps reducing the amount of short(er) pieces on hand.

 

Be sure and keep the now even shorter pieces, drops, or cut offs. They will come in handy for bracing or reinforcement for other projects, or they can be used in a variety of ways.  

 

Never have figured out how you can go to the junk yard with a truck full of buckets of small pieces, and other junk and OWE the junk yard money on your way out.  May have something to do with giving them what you can no longer use and loading up some select items (the truck full of items from the junk yard) you can use. (grin)  Just remember to sort it out when you get back home.

[yahoo2]

Now there's your problem Yahoo, you're handling it! Don't mess with it till you need a piece and only sort as much as necessary to reach the piece you want.

 

thanks Frosty, :)  I did say "for that amount of stuff". My own scrap pile covers about 3 acres in an oak tree scrub plus a large shed, I am seriously thinking about signposts and a map! I can generally find the piece of steel I am looking for in a couple of minutes at the most, like Glenn says its best to have a plan and sort it straight off the truck instead of just dumping it in a heap and dealing with it later, it tends to build up quick.

 

One of my neighbours used to give me endless grief about my "junk", lecturing me that I should get rid of it, he had sold all his and had a pocket full of CASH :angry:.

I relieved him of all of that cash burning a hole in his pocket when he needed me to do an emergency repair to his Combine Harvester. I found the correct alloy steel (in the scrap), lathed a short shaft, cut a circlip groove, heat treated it, pressed it in and assembled everything inside two hours and had him going again that night. The alternative was $2700 for a new assembly + $130/hour labor (for a "real" mechanic)+ travel and freight costs AND 10 days minimum downtime. If he hadn't been such a pr#ck I would have done it for free, he knew what he was paying for when I told him the price and that it was cash up front before I lifted a finger.

 

Perhaps I'm just getting old and grumpy :( it wouldn't have bothered me 20 years ago.

[John McPherson]

It sounds like the opening to a Blacksmiths Anonymous meeting:

 

"Hi, my name is John, and I have a scrap pile problem. It has been XX days since I  {pick one}

 

(1) stopped traffic to pick up rusty metal (bonus points: in the wife's car)

(2) dove into a dumpster headfirst, and came up grinning

(3) drove 27 miles out of my way to 'just take a quick look around' at the junkyard, and left with my bumper dragging

(4) had to wait until winter and the weeds died and I could burn them because I dared not mow

(5) considered raising goats because of #4 (That how you got started Frosty?)