Newbie alert! Home Depot's PRICES...

[Dave]

Is there really no alternative to Home Depot's outlandish prices? Nearly $20.00, for a 6-foot piece of 3/4 inch galvanized pipe? I am wanting to replace a shelf in the pantry I built off the kitchen years ago, and hang a piece of pipe beneath it to hang S hooks on for pots and pans. Only it looks like the price for such would exceed $100.00 for the six-foot shelf I have planned. Uses a 2 x 12 and the aforementioned piece of pipe, along with mounting hardware etc. I checked with Lowe's, and they are just as bad, from what I can tell. Are there really no other options?

Many thanks for any advice or ideas...

Dave

[norminn]

I use 1-1/4" dowel rod to hang my pots and pans. It is about 7' long with support (wood curtain rod brackets) at each end and in the middle. No cast iron hanging on it, just alum. and stainless.

[IGot2P]

Sure there are other options.....just use a piece of particle board shelving, three shelf brackets with rod holders, and a wood closet dowel. Should work find for normal pots and pans.

Don

[Red Green]

"Dave" wrote in news:-qydnUw3JbPS51zXnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Well, compare to a plumbing supply. If that's no better that's today's cost. You got raises (hopefully!) over the past ten years. So did everyone involved from the mining of the metal to the cashier who would check you out.

Consider other materials.

Shelf: $11 (Same item number $8 in Aug 2008)

Pole: $14

Might need a support/hanger for mid part(s) of pole. Maybe that's why you want real pipe.

[Tom G]

Check electrical conduit. Comes in a thick walled and a thin walled. I would think the thinner stuff would be sturdy enough unless you're hanging all cast iron stuff. I purchased some thin walled stuff in 1 1/4 inch last month at Lowes for $7.35 per 10 ft to reinforce a canopy cover I put up to shade my dock. Seems to be pretty stiff in that size and a lot cheaper than the galvanized or black pipe I was initually considering going with. I think it's measured as O.D rather than I.D. however, if that makes a difference. Tom G.

[Rudy]

Metal scrapyard..about $ 2.00 Its amazing, all the metal stuff they have there

[aemeijers]

Local Ma'n'Pa lumberyard and/or plumping supply, if there is one in your area any more. Maybe there is a bent 2x12 in their cull pile that you can pull six straight feet out of, or a partial stick of pipe. Can you live with 2x10? That will be a lot cheaper- trees that can make 2x12 are getting rare. Or even thinner wood with a vertical front 1x3 hardwood front rail screwed to it, if they have any cheaper glued up panels or precut plywood sheets. If you can can support the back edge with a cleat, it should be plenty strong enough. As to the pot hooks- if you can live with a fixed placement rather than sliding hooks, you can just attach them directly to the shelf.

Have you checked out local Habitat ReStore? The one around here often has old store displays dirt cheap, that parts can be scavenged from. I hear you on the galvanized pipe, though- when I was a kid, 1.5" galv was all my father used for closet rods in houses. I was maybe 13 years old before I ever saw a wood closet rod.

-- aem sends...

[Larry The Snake Guy]

I don't know about pipe per se, but when I finally got around to looking up real metal suppliers in my area, the first place I stopped had steel tube for around 1/4 of what HD wanted for it, plus 10 times the selection.

[RBM]

[dadiOH]

1. Be glad you don't want brass
2. Copper is less than the galvanized

or ideas...

Forget the pipe...rout a groove in the 2x12, insert eyebolts in groove, hang "S" hooks from eyebolts, hang pots.

When routing the groove, make it segmented so you have bridges; i.e., rout

10", leave 2" bridge, repeat. Enlarge part of the groove so the eyebolt nut is recessed. If the 2x12 goes wall to wall you don't need any mounting hardware, just a wood cleat on the wall at each end.

[Dave]

Well, thanks for all the ideas and thought-provoking insight. Have decided that I am just going to have to bite the bullet and accept that things are a lot pricier than I thought. It's been a while, I guess... Anyway, thanks for the input. Looks like I am going to spend about $80.00, but the shelf will be by God strong and reliable. Oughta hold anything I can lift to put up there. Guess I'm just thinking things were still like they were when I put up the other shelves in that pantry, cutting a couple of 4 X 8 sheets of plywood into eight pieces and hanging them with $.99 Z-brackets that I installed upside-down, so the supporting member was on top being stretched, instead of on the bottom being compressed. Total cost something like $30.00, and those eight shelves are still there strong as ever. Thought about doing that again with this shelf and a piece of 1/4" repair in the point of the single SO-bracket for the SO hooks, but that would be solo ugly.

The comments are appreciated. Will probably be back with some other asinine question...

Dave

[Dave]

Typos. Meant to say "1/4-inch REBAR in the point of the single Z-bracket" and "but that would be sooo ugly."

Spellcheck tripped me up.

Dave

[bob haller]

hings were

local small steel supplier sells some pipe very cheap. interesting that some larger sizes are much more popular, and thus far cheaper.

buy long pieces, shorter lengths often cost more than one twice as long.

me and my best friends have built stuff from pipe.

[Gordon Shumway]

I wouldn't buy pipe from HD at those prices. The first place that came up when I googled was less than $15 for a 6' piece.

You just need to shop around.

Gordon Shumway

Is it good if a vacuum really sucks?