Home scrap bins

[Mick Annick]

Mine’s all ferrous:

0-50mm - on the floor in the corner
50-500mm - windowsill
500-2000mm - stacked vertically next to the forge
2000-6000mm on the ground in the open barn

If I every get the workshop sorted out I’ll make a rack for the longer stuff

Of course that’s all steel, not just the scrap!

 

[awemawson]

What ever you do Kim it will ultimately prove inadequate - these things always do ! I said my bar ends are on a shelf - not really true - they are on shelves all over the place ! There's even a pile accumulating by the lathe and another by the cold cut off saw !

 

[R-D-R]

Its a never ending problem for both metal and wood. For metal i purposefully left the space under the workbenches so i could slide stock under it thats under 2m long. For short bar i then have buckets with it in and for longer stuff i have 3x 8m runs of soil pipe laid out down the side of the garage with end caps on it that allows me to store 7.6m lengths which are cheaper to buy. its still not enough and i have sheet and plate stock wedged behind things everywhere

 

[Dr.Al]

There's never enough storage for these things, is there?

Anything short & of questionable value I keep in some old drawers (long bereft of a drawer unit) slid under my lathe (which is raised up on feet so there's a fair bit of space underneath).

Stuff that's less than about 350 mm long goes in Bisley filing cabinet drawers (the steel filing cabinets designed for A4 paper lying flat) - that makes it easy to separate different types of steel in labelled drawers. For stuff I have less stock of and looks very different to one another, it all goes in one drawer (silver steel, plastic, copper, key steel, which are unlikely to be confused). These drawers are definitely my favourite option as it makes it so easy to find stuff; it's just a shame the length is limited.

Up to about 1.5 metre long bars go on a simple rack I made and lives behind the lathe.

Longer than that gets slid onto some hooks that look a bit like this and are bolted to the joists in my garage roof.

Brass I have all together in one drawer of a "Halfords Advanced" tool chest. I'm sure the weight of brass in there is beyond the rating of the drawer, but it copes admirably.

Small sheet material lives in another drawer of a Halfords tool chest.

Big sheet is against the wall in the shed.

Even though that all sounds quite organised, it's still a big challenge finding places for stuff & then finding the stuff when I need it. I regularly shuffle stuff about

 

[Ashley Burton]

@KimB most garages use 199L barrels, So just ask them if they have an empty one?

Normally they are happy to get rid of them

Only thing is when they're full, They will be heavy

 

[slim_boy_fat]

But also storing them horizontally isn't a bad thing

And saves them taking on a 'set'.

 

[stuvy]

I might see if I can get a barrel from somewhere for the time being as well.

don’t do what we did and leave it under the stairs behind loads of bits we didn’t use regularly

when it’s full youl swear you’re head off emptying it so it’s light enough to be able to move it

 

[Shedendman]

I know the odd wheely bin goes missing round here

 

[8ob]

@KimB most garages use 199L barrels, So just ask them if they have an empty one?

Normally they are happy to get rid of them

Only thing is when they're full, They will be heavy

Can get a bit heavy, especially if they get overfilled Best drill drain holes in them as well , doesn't take long outside to fill with water.

 

[sako243]

Only thing I'd be wary of with bins etc., is having to delve down around in them. OK it took up a bit more space I suspect but I liked the shelves (will try and find a picture) because stuff was easy to find / retrieve. Perhaps a variation on the barrel idea would be to cut it in half vertically so to speak (i.e. not around it but from flat to flat) and then weld four legs to stack one on top of the other. Provides a bigger area to go delving inside.

I think Bob's scrap bin is just that - it's scrap for the scrappy - rather than useful scrap.

 

[gaz1]

i use these for my scrap just beaware they can be heavy

advantages they can be wheeled out of the way when needed

i can sort my scrap by colour of the bin

i payed for them so some places cant complain about how i use them

 

[Ashley Burton]

I wish 60l oil barrels were more commonly used, As they're a far more manageable size

@sako243 some people aren't using their scrap bins for bits they might use later. They are using them for scrap which is no good

I use to separate the good usable stuff from the useless stuff you are happy to never see again

 

[MBB]

Mine is all over the place usually on the ground/ floor to good to weigh in.
@Wallace
like your saw stand, looks well made.

 

[Wallace]

Mine is all over the place usually on the ground/ floor to good to weigh in.
@Wallace
like your saw stand, looks well made.

Thank you. It started with the rear axle and a pile of 25x25x3mm offcuts then snowballed! R&D and WIP.

 

[Fraserb]

We generate far more empty 200l drums than we use so once we're back to normal if anyone needed 1 or 2 I'm sure we would have spare.
The plastic ones we generate even more of so if they were a use for something as well

 

[Matchless]

Can get a bit heavy, especially if they get overfilled Best drill drain holes in them as well , doesn't take long outside to fill with water.

View attachment 224156

Mitsubishi Delica, we used to have a 2500 and later a 2800, great vehicles, my last one ended up in France at a mates ski lodge.....

 

[colnerov]

I am separating out the Ali, hoping to build a gurt smelter and reduce it down to ingots. One day

Bob

I was once told a while ago that scrap yards view ingots with suspicion because they don't know what's in the middle, and price it accordingly.

 

[Melvyn Best]

Ask at your local car repair workshop, most buy oil in 205 lt drums which the suppliers often don’t want back

 

[Matchless]

there is no scrap, only bits you don't yet know you need!

 

[zzr1200]

A steel shelf unit for the small stuff up about 12 inches long a shelf each for small round, longer round, steel flat and one shelf for ali flat/round.

Then a couple of 25 litre steel bucket bins for longer steel tube and round stock, plus some larger flat stock.

Large flat plates lives behind the lathe.

There also some other pot luck bits stashed here n there.......

PS.
And for pure waste scrap storage, I have 3 x 45 gallon oil barrels one each for steel, aluminium and nylon/plastic.