[TheForge] Streel racks

[Jonathan Nedbor]

Regarding Racks for Steel: As convenient as those pipes are for holding and 
organizing your stock, remember that they are curved and all the stock will 
push down towards the center. The problem becomes apparent when you want to 
get a piece from near the bottom of the lot and all the other stock in the 
pipe is weighing on it and you are unable to move the upper pieces to the 
"side", as they all move to the center. I am speaking from experience. I 
have used, for 25 years, a very nice free standing rack with curved arms for 
the stock. It is my plan to build a rack with flat arms in my new shop to 
get away from this problem. Gravity works straight down and if your stock is 
on a flat surface you can move the stock, from above the piece you want, to 
the side and keep digging. The curved arms or pipes would not be a big 
problem the larger the diameter and if you are not putting too much stock 
(layers) in them.

Some shops have a vertical system for organizing shorts (10' or less). It 
makes it easy to see the length of each piece and they are not weighing on 
each other as much as horizontally. It sounds like Mike has a good system 
for the shorts already in place.

That's my two cents worth. So, happy and healthy holidays to everyone, and 
looking forward  to seeing a bunch of you at Dave Hutchison's farm in 2 
weeks.

Jonathan Nedbor