The size limit

The row we do not stock

On this page12

What the table offers metal What this shelf holds So the useful row of the table is one we cannot serve Where this shelf does serve the table And the glass end is thinner than it looks The capacity distribution, stated Which means Category 3 and 4 are well served A safety can is not a metal bottle Say it to the customer Which costs one sale and keeps the relationship Unless the liquid cannot go in metal at all References

Zero metal containers, zero safety cans. Said plainly rather than sold around.

What the table offers metal

A gallon of a Category 1 flammable and five gallons of Categories 2 through 4, against a pint and a quart for glass or approved plastic.

What this shelf holds

390 PET, 156 HDPE, 127 glass, 76 PP and 1 LDPE. No metal containers, and no safety cans.

So the useful row of the table is one we cannot serve

For a Category 1 or Category 2 flammable above the glass limit, the answer in the regulation is metal or a safety can, and that is not a sourcing failure to work around. It is a product we do not carry.

Where this shelf does serve the table

Below a pint, which is most of it: 665 of the 750 containers are a pint or less. For a Category 1 flammable in glass or approved plastic, that is the whole permitted range.

And the glass end is thinner than it looks

127 glass containers, of which only 6 are over a pint. Which happens to sit close to the Category 1 limit, though the shelf was not built with the table in mind.

The capacity distribution, stated

85 containers over a pint, 23 over a quart, 3 over a gallon and none over five gallons. The largest thing here is a 9.5 litre container.

Which means Category 3 and 4 are well served

Their limit in the first row of the table is a gallon, and this shelf has 20 containers between a quart and a gallon plus the 3 above it. For a mineral spirit or a heavier oil that is a real range.

A safety can is not a metal bottle

It is a defined object with a spring-closing lid, a flame arrester and an approval behind it. Substituting a metal bottle because the table says metal is a misreading of the row.

Say it to the customer

A shop asking for a gallon of lacquer thinner in plastic is asking for something the table does not allow and we could not approve anyway. The honest answer sends them to a safety can supplier.

Which costs one sale and keeps the relationship

The alternative is selling a container for a use its material cannot carry, which is the failure this whole catalog is organized to avoid.

Unless the liquid cannot go in metal at all

In which case the regulation itself raises the glass and plastic limit to a gallon, on two conditions. That exception is the next page and it is the one place where the missing metal row stops mattering.

References

29 CFR 1910.106(d)(2), Table H-12, maximum allowable size of containers and portable tanks for flammable liquids. Glass or approved plastic: 1 pt for Category 1, 1 qt for Category 2, 1 gal for Categories 3 and 4. Metal other than DOT drums: 1 gal for Category 1, 5 gal for Categories 2 through 4. Safety cans: 2 gal for Category 1, 5 gal thereafter. Metal drums to DOT specification: 60 gal. Approved portable tanks: 660 gal. Paragraph (d)(2)(i) adds that "only approved containers and portable tanks shall be used" and that metal containers meeting the requirements of 49 CFR chapter I "shall be deemed to be acceptable". osha.gov

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 18 October 2026. The shop consumables shelf is 1,389 rows: 750 containers and 639 closures. 10 mL to 9,464 mL with a median of 120; 85 containers over a pint, 23 over a quart, 3 over a gallon and none over five gallons. 390 PET, 156 HDPE, 127 glass, 76 PP and 1 LDPE, and no metal containers or safety cans. Of the 127 glass containers, 6 are over a pint. 510 bottles, 219 jars, 16 tubs and pails, 4 jugs. 134 amber or dark amber. Closures: 373 continuous thread, 43 dropper assemblies, 39 child resistant, 36 disc top, 27 dome lids, 26 spouted, 19 flip top, 19 lug and twist, 14 phenolic, 7 buttress.

29 CFR 1910.106(d)(2)(iii). Glass or plastic containers of not more than 1 gallon capacity may be used for a Category 1 or 2 flammable liquid where "such liquid either would be rendered unfit for its intended use by contact with metal or would excessively corrode a metal container so as to create a leakage hazard" AND the user's process either requires more than 1 pint of a Category 1 liquid or more than 1 quart of a Category 2 liquid of a single assay lot at one time, or requires maintaining an analytical standard liquid of a quality not met by available standard liquids in a quantity exceeding one sixteenth of the capacity Table H-12 allows for that category. The paragraph also permits such containers where they "are intended for direct export outside the United States". law.cornell.edu

Written from 29 CFR 1910.106(d)(2) and Table H-12, 29 CFR 1910.1200(f) and Appendix B Table B.6.1, and from the catalog as it stood on 18 October 2026. Nothing here establishes that a container is an approved container for flammable liquid storage, which is a word the regulation uses and our data does not support. Fire codes, state plans and insurers sit on top of all of this.