Storing lengths of ali pole

[Stuart91]

I was wondering if anyone has come up with any neat solutions for storing scaff poles. 

We've recently cut a bunch of different lengths to brace a stage, and they have just come back from the rental and are well and truly in the way. 

The options I've seen in use so far seem to be:

1) Leave them in an ungainly heap leaning against the nearest wall. 

2) Construct some sort of stillage structure to separate them out by length

3) Leave shorter lengths lying on shelves / racking 

 

Option 1) is pretty much where we're at just now, which isn't going to work. We don't have enough free wall space to line them up in any semblance of order. 

Option 2) seems tempting, but my concern is that we've got quite a few different lengths to accommodate. Plus none of the potential spots for this construction have much headroom above. Our longest (standard) lengths are 3m but that's not far off the height to the ceiling so I can't have, say, a horizontal support 1m from the ground or we won't get past it. 

Option 3) may be easier to implement, but unless I can find some way of clearly labelling each individual length. There's no easy way of telling at a glance what we've got on each shelf...

 

I'm sure other people will have tackled this before. We're just hitting the point ourselves where we have too many poles and different lengths to continue being disorganised about it. 

Keen to hear any clever techniques, or even if there are proprietary systems out there that I could invest in...

[J Pearce]

If you have the height, vertical storage works well. Always lock them in with a frame or chain etc. Stillages with dividers works well for shorter lengths. Bays per length works well for organising lengths.
If you don't have the height, but have a long wall spare, then unistrut up the wall, unistrut booms out from that, and store them horizontally. Put something on the end of the boom to retain them!

[Stuart91]

Thanks, Jon. 

We've certainly got more height than length available. 

I suppose some sort of chain arrangement would work for retention, rather than a solid frame. 

 

[J Pearce]

We’ve got a nifty frame thing at work that has barbs that allow scaff poles in easily but prevents escaping poles. 
It’s only 20mm box, so if you’ve got a square, a grinder, a welder, and a human who can use those you could easily make something similar.

[kerry davies]

Load straps with hooks work better than chain for vertical tube as long as they are used with a modicum of care. It is often useful (and much safer) if you have a set number of tubes to make a bucket like retainer to put the bottom ends into. 

If you can store horizontally then take a wander around a few scaff yards and see how they normally build their own racking out of .... you guessed it... tube and clip.

[Stuart91]

14 hours ago, J Pearce said:

We’ve got a nifty frame thing at work that has barbs that allow scaff poles in easily but prevents escaping poles. 
It’s only 20mm box, so if you’ve got a square, a grinder, a welder, and a human who can use those you could easily make something similar.

Sounds great. I don't suppose you have any photos of it? We have all the "ingredients" necessary.

12 hours ago, kerry davies said:

Load straps with hooks work better than chain for vertical tube as long as they are used with a modicum of care. It is often useful (and much safer) if you have a set number of tubes to make a bucket like retainer to put the bottom ends into. 

This touches on my usual problem with any sort of storage solution: if we build for what we have now, we'll inevitably outgrow it. if we build for what we *might* need in the future, Murphy's Law comes into play and we don't buy any more for years with the additional space sitting unused in the meantime. 

I like the idea of something to retain the bottom of the tubes though, even just thin partitions on the floor to stop them sliding around. 

It's the "modicum of care" bit that worries me slightly. Everyone is careful until they're grabbing something in a hurry for a van that needed to be left an hour ago. We used to store deck vertically but gave up on that after someone toppled a few pieces when they moved it in a rush. 

12 hours ago, kerry davies said:

If you can store horizontally then take a wander around a few scaff yards and see how they normally build their own racking out of .... you guessed it... tube and clip.

I was in one of Glasgow's foremost scaff yards the other week (buying the pipe which I now have to store 🤣) and that's exactly how they do it. But we don't really have the horizontal space, I suspect vertical is going to be our only option. 

[kerry davies]

I had forgotten what we actually did which was to bolt a hoop to the wall about a foot short of the pole length to prevent the lot falling on your head when the straps were released. Lift the tube, pull out the base until clear of hoop and the others stay there. 

You guys need to double check my posts for sense. Everything is perfectly logical leaving here but here is under a lot of pressure right mow.

Edited November 29, 2023 by kerry davies

[boatman]

One thing to be careful of when storing ali tube vertically is end damage. If the floor is concrete put down some padding (6mm rubber sheet is ideal) otherwise the tube ends will suffer.

[Stuart91]

5 minutes ago, boatman said:

One thing to be careful of when storing ali tube vertically is end damage. If the floor is concrete put down some padding (6mm rubber sheet is ideal) otherwise the tube ends will suffer.

Good point. 

If we build a stillage type arrangement it may end up on a mezzanine floor with wood underfoot. But there's plenty concrete elsewhere on the premises and it isn't guaranteed. 

I suspect that with galvanised tube the problem is the tubes chipping the concrete...

 

[J Pearce]

I'll try to get a photo of our scaff contraption tomorrow (not in today). Lots of great points from others!

[T*ny]

Mark the frame every metre or 500mm to give a quick at a glance tube length to save having to dig through the pile each time

 

[boatman]

3 hours ago, Stuart91 said:

Good point. 

If we build a stillage type arrangement it may end up on a mezzanine floor with wood underfoot. But there's plenty concrete elsewhere on the premises and it isn't guaranteed. 

I suspect that with galvanised tube the problem is the tubes chipping the concrete...

 

Wood should be OK, but I think even galvanised tube will suffer end damage on concrete. A lot less than aluminium but the underlying steel isn't hardened.

[J Pearce]

Bit of an odd perspective looking up at it, but hopefully shows the principle.

[Stuart91]

Looks good, and well within our fabrication capabilities. 👍