Lumber Rack Question?????


jgfore

Recommended Posts

I am considering building the Wall Mounted Lumber Rack System which I found plans for from WoodSmith® Plans. Check out the plans and tell me if you think the rack system would be a good and strong system. I do not want to waist my time and wast a good piece of plywood making something that is going to be junk. I have included the link to the plans below.

http://www.woodsmithshop.com/download/211/lumberrack.pdf

Thanks Jeff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made my rack out of 2x4's and metal conduit. I drilled holes 10" apart through the 1 1/2" face of the boards and cut the conduit into 16" pieces. The holes were sized so that it was a snug fit for the conduit so I just drove them in using a piece of threaded rod and a couple of nuts. I then lag bolted the racks to the studs with the bottoms resting on the floor.

Regarding the plans you are considering;

1. I prefer the supports to be on closer centers. I used 24" on my rack (5 uprights = 8') so I can stack shorter pieces as well as full length boards up to 10'

2. The horizontal supports take up too much vertical space. It looks like you are wasting about 5-6" of vertical space for each support. That is over 2 feet of the height of the rack. The pipes are just under 1" so I can space them closer and still have more capacity. The advantage is not having too high a stack to unload when you want the bottom board.

3. Cost wise I bought 5 2x4's, 5 lengths of conduit and a handful of lags and washers. Total cost was about $30.

4. It looks like all the weight is supported by the 4 lags holding the horizontal board to the wall. I would be more comfortable if the verticals sat on the floor and were bolted directly to the studs.

I don't even want to think of the weight I have loaded on the rack. So far, I haven't heard a creak out of it, so I guess its strong enough.

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff, it looks pretty cool, but I passed on it for my needs because of two main reasons. I didn't think it could hold a sufficient weight - I often can go long stretches of time between projects so lumber storage is important for me and I wanted to have more flexibility in storage - If I am using up a long stretch of wall, I want to be able to put more than just lumber on it. I am currently looking at using some heavy duty standards by knapp and vogt 182 and 82 series. If you want to check out my thoughts I jotted some stuff together on OneNote and threw it on the web, I am soliciting design help from engineers to figure via statics the max weight before failure.

http://eng1.webstarts.com/index.html?r=20101012203015.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Jeff,

I remember seeing this rack on an episode of the woodsmith shop, seemed pretty flexible from a configuration stand point.

I ended up using 4x4's and 3/4" piping, I also built a cart for shorts (boards shorter than 4 feet).

I've got details on both at my blog if you want to check it out:

A home for my lumber, pt1

A home for my lumber, pt2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I am considering building the Wall Mounted Lumber Rack System which I found plans for from WoodSmith® Plans. Check out the plans and tell me if you think the rack system would be a good and strong system. I do not want to waist my time and wast a good piece of plywood making something that is going to be junk. I have included the link to the plans below.

http://www.woodsmithshop.com/download/211/lumberrack.pdf

Thanks Jeff

I couldn't get your pdf to open, but I thought I'd show mine to give you more ideas to play with.

_MG_4337.jpg

lumber_1.jpg

It is simple to build from 2X4 and a few bolts. It ties into my wall studs and has worked for around 5-years now.

More pics here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I used 2x4's and some real low cost black pipe which is just stuck in holes drilled 5 degrees above level. The black pipe was dirt cheap and super strong. Then I took a sheet of plywood and a 2x6, cut the sheed of plywood in half at a diagnal and built the sheet good holder which is hinged on one side with a wheel at the other. It swings out to allow easy loading and unloading and allows me to use some bungies to make more spots to store cut offs. Over-all I love this lumber rack and it was dirt cheap.

post-2771-0-94457700-1291662239_thumb.jppost-2771-0-49442700-1291662268_thumb.jp

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Looks good.

I wonder if the design could be modified to be free standing.

I'm designing a free standing rack now that will be made out of square tubing about 48x96x12 with horizontal supports on one side. I'm thinking of having the two wheels underneath at one end that are straight and the two wheels at the other end to swivel. That way, one end pivots out from the wall kind of like Chet's rack swings out and I can easily load/store the sheet goods. My only reservation is will sheet goods warp if they are stored on their edge? I kind of have to be creative because my shop is a detached two car garage and while the sq feet is good, the ceiling is only 7 feet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm working out a freestanding system for longer pieces, using 2x4s. It's basically going to be two tall shelving style units, perhaps a foot square by six foot tall, that can be spread out. I, too, have a low ceiling height, and do not plan on staying in my current shop for all that much time. As for plywood storage, Marc mentioned he uses a pair of veneer presses in an early episode (don't remember which one off hand) where he stated that the plywood would, indeed, curl over time.

I haven't designed that tidbit for my own use, yet. I'd think that a torsion box frame back, with a pair of laminated MDF panels attached to a pair of veneer clamps should work. I'd love to have one of those vertical swinging racks they use for extra large area rugs, but that's 1) overkill, and 2) too tall for my storage area.

But a fella can dream, right? ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My only reservation is will sheet goods warp if they are stored on their edge?

Tim,

I haven't had any of my sheet goods warp as far as I can tell. Although, I have to admit, my turnover time is usually pretty quick. The shop isn't big enough for me to buy a ton of sheet goods and just "hang on to them". Usually I'm am buying project by project. I did do a huge garage cabinet project all built from Maple ply and I had a bunch of ply left over for probably 6 months in my rack. No warping on that, but I'm not sure how it might differ over a longer period of time, or in a higher moisture area. You'll have to ask somebody smarter than me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Who's Online   3 Members, 0 Anonymous, 42 Guests (See full list)

  • Forum Statistics

    31.2k
    Total Topics
    421.7k
    Total Posts
  • Member Statistics

    23,756
    Total Members
    3,644
    Most Online
    FaithMoody
    Newest Member
    FaithMoody
    Joined