Storage for Bar Stock

This is my current approach to storing long bar stock. It sits behind the Harrison M250 and therefore takes up space that wouldn't otherwise be particularly useful in the garage.

Short bar stock is kept in the drawers of a "Bisley" filing cabinet, which is designed for holding A4 paper flat, but is made out of sheet steel so is very robust for holding heavy bar stock. However, once the length gets over about 300 mm, the bars can't be stored in this way.

These photos shows the empty storage unit prior to being installed behind the lathe. I was looking for something cheap & quick to make and this design seems to work well & meet those criteria. The panels are cut out of a single 2440 mm × 1220 mm × 18 mm sheet of OSB from B&Q. Out of this panel were cut two 3' × 2' × 18 mm sheets (most of the rest was used for my tool holder storage unit). Joining the two panels are 35 pieces of M8 threaded rod, each 180 mm long and each with four nuts and four washers. The holes for the M8 threaded rod were drilled with the two panels clamped together to avoid any misalignment issues.

These photos show the unit at a partial stage of construction. The locations of the nuts and washers are visible, as is the gaffer tape (also known as duct tape) that is wrapped around each layer of threaded rods to form a shelf (and stop the threaded rod from scratching the bar stock).

The bar storage works well and makes it easy to store and find 1 m lengths of bar stock. Ideally, there would be twice as many "shelves" with less space between each one. The limiting factor for this was getting the reel of gaffer tape down between the layers of threaded bars. I guess for a bit more expense I could have got some hardboard or thinner OSB and somehow fixed that on top of the threaded bar to make the shelf, but that felt like it would end up being a lot more complicated and time-consuming than just using tape.

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