Shelf Life

[SteveHGraham]

Day before yesterday, I had some fun moving a huge set of shelves in my shop.

The former owner put a set of four shelves up, against a wall. He used 4x8 plywood for shelves. The structure was sturdy, and it held a great deal, but most of it was useless because a long side was against the concrete. Access was very poor. I also had problems with leaves accumulating in that area. The shelves were around 3 feet from a corner, and that whole corner was constipated. It was useless.

I decided to turn the shelves 90 degrees. It was quite a job. They weigh hundreds of pounds, and once you detach them from the wall, the whole thing is somewhat flexible.

I finally opted to use the tractor. I lifted the shelves on the forks, backed the whole thing out into the driveway, turned around, and put the shelves back. I could only get them to within a few feet of the right position with the tractor.

I took the handle off my Harbor Freight cart for clearance, and I used it to raise one end of the shelves. This allowed me to move them around. I shoved them into the right place and used galvanized straps to fasten the shelves to the wall again.

Now, for the first time, I have something big enough and strong enough to hold a significant amount of metal, not to mention other things.

The seller left hundreds of pounds of lumber on the shelves. I removed it, and I plan to burn most of it. I'm also throwing out steel fence posts and rebar, along with several 5-gallon pails of leftover house paint. I plan to paint small pieces of wood or hardboard and save them for color-matching. Keeping enormous pails seems like a really bad idea. They will go bad eventually, if they haven't already, and in the mean time, they take up too much room.

There is nothing like a tractor. Everyone should have one. Even people who live in apartments.

I'll put up photos. The first one does not do justice to the mess. There was a gigantic conglomeration of stuff in front of the shelves before I started, blocking my access to them unless I leaned over or moved something.

When I filled the shelves back up, I only used maybe half of the space, and the workshop is now virtually free of clutter. I never imagined they would hold that much. I had been considering building a shed for materials, but now I don't need to do that. Not right away, anyhow.

[NP317]

I like it.
RN

[SteveHGraham]

It's not optimal, but it's a hell of a lot better than the shop-choking disaster I started with!

[liveaboard]

Shelves are good; can't have too many. I have walls of shelves and they're all full.
Junk; old pumps, ventilators, engines, wire, rope, pipe, fittings, wheels, glass, wood, etc. When I want to make something, it's amazing how often what I need is on those shelves.
Last year I bought a bunch of heavy duty plastic stock crates; these are euro size 60x40x30, but I'm sure a similar product is available in the US.
I use these for small material; one for rod, one for tube, one for flat strip, etc. They can take a lot of weight.
My junk pile is now semi-organized, and takes far less space. I made a table / rack they slide in and out.

In the picture you can see a cheapo department store storage box on top of the bench; the grey ones below are the tough ones, heavy duty with webbing and all, made for professional warehouse and wholesale food / fish distribution.
I found second hand ones, but they weren't very expensive new [you know I'm a tight wad]. like $10 each here in 23% sales tax land.

They're stackable but when full of steel they're so heavy, it's better to have them on a shelf or rack singly.

[RSG]

Nice job Steve! You are lucky in the fact that you have so much space to work with. I had a nice wall cabinet come up for free the other day but I had to pass because it was just too big for my work shop.

[tornitore45]

I was skeptical about the utility of a 4' deep shelf until I saw you have access on bot sides. That is a very optimal arrangement if you have room for protruding into the area but do not want to use up wall space.

[SteveHGraham]

I hate having permanent horizontal surfaces next to walls. It's a really bad idea.

The previous owner of this house put an L-shaped Corian counter in one corner of the shop. It was sturdy and useful, and the material is wonderful, but I tore it out and cut it in pieces yesterday. It killed an eighth of the shop. I had my Harbor Freight wood lathe and my small compressor on it. I'm building or buying a cart for the lathe, and I'll find a new place for the compressor. I saved some of the Corian for projects.

Smart people put things on wheels, and they don't lock up wall space with work surfaces. Even if you like having a bench against the wall, you should put it on wheels, because eventually you will want to move it.

[Mr Ron]

I agree. I have about 16' of wall mounted workbench and from the time it was built ( 16 years ago) to the present, all it has been used for has been to collect junk. I have never used it as a workbench. Instead I have a smaller 7'x30" bench in a clear area of my shop. I guess the thinking behind the wall mounted bench was at the time, I was more mobile and younger and thought wall mounted was the best way. Now I see it was not.

[warmstrong1955]

I put in a 36" wide built to the wall work bench all the way across the back wall, and extends another 5' along the left side too. Put it in when we bought this place.
Use it a lot. Easy to tell by the color it is now......
I put a piece of steel plate on the right hand end, and that's where I TIG weld.
Never have wanted to move it.

[liveaboard]

8' x 2'. 3/8" steel top, what I wanted my whole life and finally got now that I'm an idle old fart.

Things on wheels are good, but sometimes you need something really stable.

[NP317]

Making us jealous...
NR

[BadDog]

I've got a big cantilever system 18' long built from a VERY cheap pallet of pallet racking cross supports. They are basically a steel 3x5 with a 1" x 1" notch in one corner (rough guestimate from memory). I cut some up and built 2 sections that combined make the 18' with no front supports (i.e. cantilever) so I can use the full length for long stuff. Like 20' sections of structural steel. The heaviest stuff goes on the bottom "feet" (stability and support), with consecutively lighter stuff going into dog-legs forming the lower (not very tall, just 2 layers of steel each) levels. That covers stuff from 6" x 1/4" strap to 2x3 x 1/4 down to various roll bar (etc) tube to 1x1x0.62 square grouped/organized as seemed reasonable. Above that the shelving starts, and has 3/4" plywood drop-ins (like drop ceiling) that fit in the notches. That holds everything from axle shafts to engine heads and lots of smaller stuff. The top 2 shelves are about 4" shorter than those below, and have small dog legs protruding. On those upper levels you'll find 1" strap, 1/2" square, and a variety of small solids (bar, key stock, etc) in (up to) 20' . Pieces shorter than 10' get stood in a vertical grate system, less than 5' in the bottom shelf of my fabrication table. None of which is light enough for any reasonable set of casters, and is considered imobil with anything less than time unloading, plus a forklift or the like.

I do have a free standing plywood "cabinet"(?) about 4' x 10'. It sets out in the open so I can work all around it, and the lower section looks like cabinets on both sides for storage. It's heavy built and stores dog drivers, indexers, angle tables, and lots of heavy stuff below. On top are parts bins, drill sharpeners, and a restored antique die filer. Used to be a "sensitive" Pratt Whitney drill press there, but it got it's own roll around stand a few years back. This is very rigidly built in it's own right, and sets on spacers so I can readily get under it with a pallet jack. Just unload and move with a 5k pallet jack. I've done that once to make room for 2 of my smaller bandsaws to operate, but not by any stretch considered "mobile" in any practical sense.

Likewise with my surface grinder, mills and lathes, not mobile in any practical sense, but obviously can if required.

Smaller stuff like my various welders, big Robland wood machine, table saw, miter saw, small drill press, and tool boxes are fully mobile on casters. I've also got a brutally heavy (1/2" plate) industrial cart on 8" x 4" super heavy (steel, no tire) casters that I bought from a surplus sale. I made it into a grinding cart so I could take it outside when in heavy use to avoid the mess in the shop. A range of grinders including a 2x42 Burking, 2x42 Porter Cable (old US), and 1x24(?) Rockwell along with 2 of my 2.5" receiver tube mounts with bench grinders (wire wheels plus 3M deburr) and a rack for a collection of 4.5" angle grinders. Oh, and a 4" thick boring mill table (2' x 4' I think?) I mounted a frame with casters and used for welding fixtures.

But beyond that, most of my shop is locked down with no practical mobility, and I haven't found that a problem.