Source of all-steel shelving

JumbleDuck

JumbleDuck

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I need to replace a steel shelving unit in my workshop, but all I can find cheaply has MDF shelves, which I definitely don't want. I could buy "Euro" shelving from Storage Direct but although it's good stuff - I have three bays already - it's £150 + delivery and probably overkill, as I only need something lightweight for paints, oils and assorted potions.

So before I bite the bullet, can anyone suggest a source of old-fashioned all-steel shelving?
 
I have various with MDF and it's fine; £30-40 off Amazon.

You could buy the same and add steel plate shelves easily enough I would think.
 
Big Dug have quite a big advertising budget; it looks fine although I've no practical experience of it. Bott do very nice stuff, pricy though; they do have a very amusing name if you are as childish as me.
 
I wouldn't want MDF for anything heavy, but I built shelves out of 18mm ply and 2X2. They aren't going anywhere, and I've been known to climb on them. The cheaper steel offerings would probably be a similar price, and a lot quicker to assemble, but I enjoy working with wood.
 
Thanks, folks. Big Dug have nothing narrow enough - I need 900mm (which incidentally rules out the Euro racking I thought would fit). The racking.com system looks like a real possibility. This stuff used to be easy to find, new or secondhand.

I'm not fundamentally anti MDF, but this rack will be standing in a blocked up doorway in a 200-year old stone-built smiddy (it used to lead to the smith's house next door) which can get a bit damp, so I'd prefer steel and if possible galvanised steel.
 
I have used the Toolstation free standing racking , it is steel angle with MDF sheets just resting in the angle frame as shelves. Works well, If the MFD starts to degrade I will replace with OSB.
David MH
 
Pallet racking | Used Storage Systems Ltd

They have a big selection of used industrial racking which will include something you want I bet. But if shipping makes it uneconomical I expect every city has a similar place.

Worth noting as well you can easily reduce the width of the better types of racking. The cross members of the uprights bolt together so you can unbolt and cut some of it off making it narrower. Not even a lot of work. They have shelving they can cut to what width you want but you might not know that exactly until you've done it in which case maybe save post costs by just buying the frame and sorting the shelves locally

Worth also noting that its not all the super heavy duty pallet racking, they do intermediate stuff as well. That cheapo boltless diy stuff is feeble in comparison. Its a pity they don't show more on their website.
 
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OSB, MDF they all sag at 4mm thickness on 250 kg shelves in cold out buildings that are not heated in Scotland's high humidity West Coast environment. The problem is that at 251 kg, the engineered wood starts to sag. For example, 1 litre of oil is about 0.8kg so it does not take much to exceed the 4mm wooden shelves that come with many low cost shelve systems. Going up to 10 mm works for me, but I overload the shelves anyway and have scrap bits of wood.
 
JumbleDuck said:
I'm not fundamentally anti MDF, but this rack will be standing in a blocked up doorway in a 200-year old stone-built smiddy (it used to lead to the smith's house next door) which can get a bit damp, so I'd prefer steel and if possible galvanised steel.
Click to expand...
Use treated timber and BWP 18mm ply and it'll stand up to pretty much any amount of damp that won't have it floating away
 
The problem with mdf or other wood isn't swelling and falling to bits, that would take water pouring on it for that to be a problem, its more that it can go mouldy and drop spores over everything on the lower shelves which I've had happen. I'm not sure if you were meaning 900mm wide as in the depth or width of the shelves? Or how heavy duty you want to go but if heavy duty you could get the industrial type racking second hand without shelves, the place I linked to will sell uprights and cross members as many as you want and shelves separately then buy metal for shelving. Maybe corrugated aluminium with a flat layer of aluminium riveted over it. That wouldn't need doing again in a hurry
 
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