Steel Shelving

[Sound_Man]

looking at comparing betwwen fabing my own shelves and buying some.


looking at doing them 8 ft wide x 10 ft tall x 2ft deep and using angle iron with mdf shelving

question is, thoughts on thickness and size of angle iron for uprights and shelf supports.

other option would be to do them only 4 ft wide, but would require more uprights in that case.

Was thinking like 1" angle for the uprights and 1/2" angle for the shelf supports w/ 1/2" mdf if 4ft sections

or 1" angle for uprights and 3/4" angle for shelf supports with 3/4" mdf


i guess the main quesiton is in the gauge of steel to use.

The racks at sams and such are no where near an 1/8" thick so my guess is that this wil lwork, but tel lme if i am wrong


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well the local supplier only has 1/8" thick in the 1/2" and 3/4" angle

but has 1/8 3/16 and 1/4" in the 1" angle


so thinking 1/8" all the way around, sound like it will work?


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[Sound_Man]

Bueller?????

[randii]

1/8 should be ok -- the trick to the stuff that you reference for sale is the stamp-forming they do to add stiffness to the pieces -- it minimizes deflection and as long as they are loaded on a level base, they stand up well to pretty decent loads. Load them at a tilt or off-level, and they will fail quickly...

Attach your shelf supports to the shelves with screws and you can use flat steel and worry less about deflection... for a few more bucks, you might also consider using angle, channel, or tube. I have three of the 'Gorilla' brand shelves and they work well enough -- better, now that I have replace most of the particle-board shelve flats with decent plywood.

Randii

[Sound_Man]

the plan was to use angle for everything.



After crunching all the numbers I think I am going to do 2 10ft wide shelves per row for a total of 20 feet and use 1" x 1/8" angle for the uprights and 3/4" x 1/8" angle for the the shelf supports with 3/4" ply for the shelving.

And make a total of 10 units. so shouldn't be too bad and should save a decent amount of cash, plus be able to make them exactly how we need them. Ie some shelves taller for cable reels and others shorter for misc parts bins

[PhantomEB]

This is a great idea that I have been considering, for parts storage in the back corner away from my work area. Other one was to do this but enclose in 1/16" sheet metal and store my paints and other fluids in as well.

Why buy when its a fun day project to do? I never realized how much fun I could have before I got my little Miller 175. Welded together will always be stronger in my eyes then them bolted together store deals.

[roundeye]

Not sure where your're from, but around here in NorCal, there are many used shelving places that have what your looking for and it's usually pretty reasonable compared to the amount of time/material it will cost you.
Kind of like Home Depot's shelving systems.
Adjustable, easy to put up and holds a lot of weight.

[randii]

...around here in NorCal, there are many used shelving places that have what your looking for...
Bruce, have you contact info for local vendor?

Randii

[roundeye]

Bruce, have you contact info for local vendor?

Randii

Call me when you can. I want to hear your voice anyway and need this silly looking pink doggie bowl out of our warehouse to stock more inventory.:grinpimp:

[86turbodsl]

I just built a shelf unit out of 3/4" angle iron. I built them because my shop loft is only about 6' 2" or so high, and most commercial shelf units are too tall. I also wanted a unit 4' wide and 16' long. I used cheap OSB for shelf material. It was a little tough holding everything while I made the first few welds, but it turned out pretty good, and holds a ton of heavy stuff. I plan on building another one too.

[Sound_Man]

so your shelf has only 4 uprights for the 16' span?

3/4" x what thickness angle?

any other support materials

any pics?

[ironpig70]

alot of time home depot and the like get rid of there stuff cause the uppers are bent near the top from the fork lift. but they are like 14-16 feet so you could cut off the tops and the cut them in half aand just weld in a few pieces and you'd be good to go.