Metal rack

[John Stevenson]

OK Peeps, need input and ideas.

My metal rack is a mess, basic problem is I have is it's 7 arms plus the floor and this isn't enough to split sizes and material up.



Quite an old photo taken when the slotter was being installed. This has now long gone and 3 CNC's now stand in front of the rack.

The rack is also far heavier populated to the point that I have had 15 bars of steel delivered this week and there is no room left and they are still on the floor. My initial though was, most material is in 3.1 metre lengths 10' or so and I never have to work on long lengths, in fact the largest lathe can take 50" max. So I was thinking about sawing the bars into two as they come in and store vertically in  a frame made from say 1 1/2" x 5/16" or 40 x 8 in UK parlance consisting of say 6" squares.

Back rows at say 3' high and another 4" off the floor to stop bars sliding and the front rows at say 18" high to take bar ends. Frames to be made in sections and bolted together and then when a move comes and it will in a couple of years they could even be re bolted to form a corner.

Idea's bricks, flames £5 notes all gladly accepted.

[awemawson]

John,
You are supposed to be downsizing and decreasing your activity as you approach retirement. Have you not got this the wrong way round? Reduce your activity and stock to match your storage.

If it's any consolation my metal rack suffers from the same issues and it has nothing like the same turnover and usage as yours..

(Presumably you've thought already about colour coding the ends.. I don't just mean 'green for mild steel' but paint the end a base colour to define material, then stripes of another colour to define sizes - leave that end on when cutting!)

[PekkaNF]

Holly cow. I would be weary working on front of that rack, yank one bar for a closer inspection and do saint vitus dance while dodging an avalace of iron goods.

I have very little bars and they are stored upright. I have long ones on back and short ones on front. Still spend some time trying to find the elusive "I think I have it here" bar.

If someone has working color coding and painti system for material identification, please stand up. Spray bottles dry between uses. Electricians tapes wear off. My mystery material pile grows.

Pekka

[awemawson]

I have a shelf of 'special steels' that I obtained from somewhere - don't remember where  They are mostly tool steels of one sort or another - each has had it's material name and over all sizes written on in black marker - in some cases over a white background.

There are standard colours for bar end marking:

http://www.parkersteel.co.uk/media/pdf/standards/colour_chart.pdf

or

http://www.interlloy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Colour-Chart.pdf

[RussellT]

Looking at that rack if you go for vertical bars you might end up taking more space as your 5ft bars won't be as high as the existing rack so you won't be able to use the space above 5ft.

How high is the ceiling?  Could you pull out a 5ft bar from among other 5ft bars? Do you have to lift them manually?  Can you pull stuff out when it's near the wall?

Could you go for a rack which stores 5ft bars horizontally but at 90 degrees to the way they are now or would your CNC machines be in the way.

Having the bars sloping down towards the wall a bit might make access easier.

Russell

[kayzed1]

You could always send some to me to learn on, lots of free space then
Lyn.