Stock Carts


Author: Dave
Date: 01.06.13 - 8:36am



As a wood worker or metal worker, keeping your raw stock organized and accessible is a useful part of the process that often gets overlooked. I dont really throw scraps away unless they are truly well scrap. Why cut up a large piece of fresh material if a small one thats easier to handle is available, hell you might even find one just the right size. So your scrap pile grows and grows.

Eventually, its a true pile and you have to literally dig to try to find stuff, which leads to the next step of having no idea whats in the pile and sometimes even buying fresh stuff just because you dont want to dig or risk not having the piece you need on hand for a project.

At this point, its time to create a stock rack or cart. My shop is a bit space constrained, so a cart was really needed. The first one i built, i built from scrap from the pile to handle all of my wood stock/scraps. I went with a 3 level bin design with 4 swivel casters and a handle to move it around and into tight places should the need arise. It has worked nicely. it is now also my limit guage. If the pile overfloweth, something is getting thrown out!



I have recently been running into this same evolution with my metal stocks. I had a 55gal drum full of stuff, plus a 5gal pale for smaller stuff, plus all kinds of dirty odds and ends under a table of the bandsaw cart. But again, i started loosing stuff, duplicating stuff, I was finally sick of the disorganization, and it was time for a metal stock cart. I also had a bunch of shipping tubes from some recent orders. Turned out to be a match made in heaven. The final piece of the puzzle, was marrying the stock rack, to a 20 dollar movers dolly i found on sale at the supply store. Sooo much better than digging through a 55gal drum for this stuff buried under larger pieces. I actually cant believe how much material the rack holds, or how much i had to fill it!



If your thinking about building a stock cart, trust me, just do it!

The one I use in the garage for long welding stock is a 55gal drum. For years i just used it as is, but it can be pretty hard to get stuff out as it is all leaning on one other. Getting to stuff that is buried in the back is a real chore.

To remedy this, i first mounted it to an extra movers dolly on the bottom, then screwed a plywood divider to the top to separate it into nice sized sections. Came out perfect for the task. sometimes its amazing the pain 10 minutes worth of work can save you.



The last stock rack I will list, is the tray I use for small scraps. It's really worth keeping small sizes around to use as filler, braces, and spacers. These save a ton of time as they are already cut and often perfect size for an offhand task. For these I just lay them all out on a shelf underneath the bandsaw. This is one of my most used stock racks.








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