Mancave cupboard question

[8ob]

Looking at wall and floor cupboard options for the mancave extension, there seems to be a lot of stainless commercial catering gear up for grabs for not a lot of money. Has anyone here used this stuff or know whether its HD enough to cope with workshop use?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/stainles...202770138302?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

Bob

 

[hotponyshoes]

Same with anything, you get cheap commercial catering stuff and some lovely lovely stuff.

Most of the stuff you will see really cheap is because it's cheap to buy in the first place so easier for a commercial kitchen to buy new as it doesn't need cleaning off!
Good quality stuff is like a snap on tool box and will fetch more than you would want to pay for it second hand.

If you can find a catering auction near you then go along with a van as you often get bargains as people only go looking for one particular item and dealers won't pay any money. The stuff is not rare so don't get carried away with the bidding.

 

[DAPPH]

Most brushed or polished commercial kitchen stuff is pretty heavy duty & yes they do make good mancupboard benches & cupboards but they used to be quite expensive especially if they came out the Bartlett stable . See if they can tell you the thickness of the metal .

Paul is the man to seek advice for he works in commercial stainless quite a lot .

 

[arther dailey]

Lots of food outlets going under,so its going cheap, 8ob you can always put stiffners in, heavy supports, just give it a power wash before you start, god only knows what bugs might be on it !

 

[hotponyshoes]

Draw from a higher end commercial fridge unit.
All stainless including the runners and bearings.
Corners rounded so it's easy to keep clean.
Very sturdy, I could stand in this when its fully open with no problems.
The whole unit had a scrap price reserve as the gas had leaked out and iwas the only bidder.

 

[hotponyshoes]

One thing to watch out for is the prep tables .
They often look good and seem to be really solid but the tops are often only a thin sheet of stainless with a bit of wood glued on the underside to stiffen them up.
The better ones have 2-3mm thick tops, easy to tell by trying to lift it.

Ex medical and veterinary is normally very good stuff if you can get access to it.

One of the best made tables I ever had was a raise & lower from a mortuary. Top was solid marble but had been wrapped in 3mm stainless at some stage and had a nice lip/channel all around the edge to catch any tools that wanted to roll off.
You get cheap stuff there as well as some people are a bit squeamish about things like that and don't want it.

 

[8ob]

The better ones have 2-3mm thick tops, easy to tell by trying to lift it. .

I guessed the newer stuff would be paper thin which is why I was looking at used/S/H older gear. I do like the look of some of this gear but it does seem to be spread about the country , the dealer prices seem to be a bit rich.

I was also thinking of junking my Sealey parts washer and getting a commercial double sink/double drainer , keep the degreasing jollop/pump in one bowl and rinsing off with water in the other.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Yea those sinks are pretty massive when you get up close to one.
It would be easy enough to mount a heating element and pump to one, make a nice parts washer and you would have a draining board to let the parts dry off as well!

 

[Wightsparks]

Buy privately and it's cheap - I sold a double unit like your pic for £150 - exactly what I paid for it (used) 2 years earlier - that was a FRANKE unit so top quality.
Get hands on with it first though as there is a big variation in quality. A restaurant closing or re-furbing will be happy for you to take it away for little money - no comercial fridges though as disposal cost is mad.