Over the past week I’ve managed to salvage 12 shelving racks during my work’s move to a new office. This racking is a bit bashed but there is sufficient amount there to completely replace the twin slot shelving I put up earlier in the year with some potentially spare
The current twin slot & mdf shelving is showing that under load (about 20kg) it begins to sag. I calculated that the shelves will take 40kg without issue, the sagging is due to using mdf and it being unsupported over 800mm spans . If we were to continue to use this shelving then the mdf would need some reinforcing prevent more areas sagging.
Alternatively I can replace it all with this racking which will completely remove the weight issues faced as it has metal shelves. However in doing so we’d be reducing storage volume and overal quantity of storage units.
Table to show the comparison:
Twin & MDF
Racking
Units per row
20
19
Depth
600
500
Width
400
450
Height
400
400
Dimensions are rough approximations and the racking aren’t 100% set so won’t know exact sizes until its built in place
By switching to the racking, the twin slot shelving will be available for use in other parts of the space so no material is lost/wasted. Only bits required would be some ground anchors and additional nuts & bolts
Assuming there are no major objections to swapping to the racking, work can begin straight away
I assume the new racking could be spaced slightly away from the wall the same way the blue racking in the bar storage area is, which would increase the depth a little?
Is it the same / similar to the blue racking? That stuff is great for member’s storage and being able to outfit the whole area with it would be ideal!
One of the advantages of having 600x400 storage is that we tend to have a lot of 600x400 acrylic in stock for the laser cutter (that being roughly the bed size).
I think there is a shelf in the desk opposite the laser cutter for members to store cutting materials in - could you check this still exists and will take 600x400 sheets? If it does, I have no objetions.
I can try see if I can bring the racks out another 100mm to give the full 600mm depth, but I won’t be sure till I try which can only be done after taking down the shelving
I doubt most people would use the storage near the laser tbh, opting to use their units instead (myself included). This would lead to instances to having materials overhang slightly by ~100mm which isn’t too bad imho
As part of the changes to storage in the space we’re trying to avoid having multiple places being used for storage so ideally we’d want people to stick to their units away.
I personally like the simplicity of people having enough storage for their things and it all be in one place, as you can say “store your things in one of these spaces” instead of “some things in storage, other bits under the table, others in the box”.
Keeping laser materials and 3D filament (and other machine “food”) about the space makes more sense.
It also reinforces the idea that you shouldn’t leave your stuff out, as stuff that’s about is fair game to be bought and or used.
The new racking looks great to be honest. Are you tempted to change the layout at all? Maybe making an “E” shape against the back of woodworking would allow more storage and bits of overhang
No plan to change the layout. The original plan was to keep that area open so that a seating area could be located there to accompany the kitchen proposal. However I have nothing against it changing shape in future
The racking is bolted together unlike some of our other stuff that slots together. This means we can customise the layout/build of the shelving to suit our needs/layout which I intend to do.
Each rack has 6 shelves, we only need 5 as the floor doesn’t need a shelf, additionally bolting two racks together leaves two space L steel struts that can be used to make more racks / cut & bent to fabricate brackets etc. I won’t be able to salvage all the parts though as some shelves have serious dents in them, but with some persuasion I may be able to make them useable again
