lumber storage

Re: lumber storage

arw01

>Going to do the same thing REAL soon myself. Torn on buying the system on sale at Woodcraft this month (also sold at lee Valley), or using the brackets sold at Home Depot like I started in my garage.

OR making my own system with 2x material.

Woodcraft rack:

Home made lumber rack:

q

Brackets that HomeDepot sells:

Re: lumber storage

Mike L (Orange County, CA)

>Thanks for the suggestions. The sale at Woodcraft is what prompted my question. That system is a bit pricier than I was hoping for but when I think about the storage headache it will alleviate, perhaps it will be money well spent.

Regards,

Mike

My preference,

Don Henthorn

>since I don't like to waste time stacking and unstacking wood, is vertical storage. I built dividers about two feet apart so that I could stand a number of boards upright in each. I didn't fill each space because I needed to be able to leaf through the boards and choose the right ones. I had a concrete floor but had no trouble with moisture. If your concrete floor lets moisture through then make a wooden platform for the lumber to stand on. I never had a board bow because they couldn't lean far enough to cause a problem. I expect it takes up about the same space as horizontal storage although I always felt it took less space. For me it was much more convenient. The length of boards you can store depends upon your ceiling height. Mine was 8' and I never need boards that long. Works for me.

Re: My preference,

Mike L (Orange County, CA)

>Hi Don,

I agree that a vertical storage system would be the way to go if I had the space (that's what all of the local lumber yards use) but I cannot spare the floor space. My plan is to use horizontal storage starting about 5 foot off the ground and going up to the ceiling (8 ft.). I think I'll go with the 24" straps from Woodcraft, mount them from 5-7 foot high, and then put shelve brackets at 5, 6, and 7 foot. I doubt I will have anything beyond a small inventory of wood for the foreseeable future so stacking/unstacking the boards should not present a problem.

Regards,

Mike

Re: My preference,

Chad Hamilton

>I had horizational lumber storage but went instead to vertical. I was able to store more lumber in the same space and am now able leaf though the lumber just like at the lumber yard. I used 2x6 lumber ripped in half, I then drilled holes into the 2x3 to hold black iron pipe that forms the dividers. Then these were bolted to the studs with lag bolts. It was cheap, easy to make and easy to install.

Pictires of your vertical storage?

arw01

>Thinking about it, I have a narrow 18" or so running down a 26' wall that would lend itself nicely to that type of storage. Since the walls are 12' I could put some 24" shelves above that for even more storage.

Alan

Re: lumber storage

Will

>We recently finished installing a lumber storage system using the steel straps available from Lee Valley (these are also available from Grizzly and Woodcraft). These are very sturdy straps and come highly recommended.

Like with so many of our projects, we went overboard on the engineering.

The instructions that come with the straps are more geared towards attaching directly to a concrete wall or studs. As we had to attach to drywall, we elected to embed the straps in dados cut in 4x4s that were then lag bolted to the studs. We then cut into the ceiling so the 4x4s could bolted into the top strap. Our garage has a concrete lip around the base, so we cut a rabbit into the 4x4s and Kwick bolted into the concrete. The final touch was to install a blocking beam on the top. We bolted a 2x4 into the beams in the ceiling to prevent cantalever motion.

We also constructed a sheet goods cart for 4'x8' sheets. Its on hinges attached to the end 4x4. It is on casters, so it can be pushed against the wall for easy storage or pulled out for access.

The spaces between the 4x4s are used for part storage. We built a shelf at the bottom and use bungie cords to hold everything in.

I have more pictures about the details if there is any interest. This design was put togther from some specs in Woodsmith, the strap instructions, and a few ideas of our own.

Re: lumber storage *LINK*

Tom Berninghausen

>My extremely frugal brother would demand I suggest a close look at the Grizzly shelf pricing prior to paying twice (!) for the shelving parts at Woodcraft or Lee Valley. The products appear to be identical.

My Grizzly set (four sets of bars 24"+48", four sets of 18" brackets over an eight foot span, using HD ply for the shelf to overbuild the unit) has worked very well. Holds my slender self well...

One caution: the bars were of two manufacturing runs and didn't match up, everything corrected on their dime, but time was wasted. I suppose this could happen whoever imports these from the "country of origin", but I'll ask before I order any more sets.

I would be concerned about hanging any shelves without extending the bars to the floor, but I'm a cautious geezer. My preference is to use the full length of the wall studs to prevent any chance of failure.

Tom


Grizzly shelving

Re: lumber storage

Ryan in Louisville

>I bought the shelving from Lowes or HD, the white closet stuff. I contacted the manufacturer and they said a 6' stick of the double grooved can hold 1200 lbs with proper anchoring. I put a few of those up with screws in every hole and have ahd no problem with it. It's alot cheaper than the Woodcraft stuff and does the job (so far).

Now I'll probably come back from X-mas in Ohio and all my wood will be on the floor...

Ryan

It depends...how much wood do you store? *LINK*

Grant Smith(remove 1 for email)

>Almost any store bought solution wouldn't do me much good at all. I tend to have logs milled in to lumber locally and then store it until I have a project in mind to use it for.

Indeed, if you are a one project at a time retail lumber buyer, then the premade solutions would be fine.

Even with a solution like mine, the rack runneth over. I have about 500 BFt of Maple, Hickory, and Walnut on the floor right now, and another 1000+ BFt of various hardwoods on the way in the spring.

Anyway, consider making a high capacity one cheaper than you could buy one and much beefier, too. Here's a link to what I made for lumber and sheet stock. No regrets. And if you have the space, make it an A-frame affair (similar to a design Ellis provided at one time...).

Regards,

Grant in Iowa


Storing the Goods

I like it Grant

Brian in Brighton

>I was thinking about making a similar shelf with Unistrut instead of pipes, mainly because I can't find a 1.05 inch drill bit for 3/4 pipe. I can miter the angles for the posts onto some cut down 4x4's that are 3.5 x 1.625. Sandwich them between 1x4's and slip the Unistrut in between. Unistrut is less expensive than 1.5 x 1.5 steel tube stock. Making like a mortise and tenon. I can't afford the horizontal floor distance for the long term storage, so I plan on running the posts from the ceiling to the floor in a more or less vertical fashion. The shelves will all be above 6 feet to accomodate vehicles, but there will be holes below to allow for future use of short shelves. The shelves will be 18 inches deep max. More will probably be 15 inches.

I know there will be twisting on the wall. There is a concrete ledge on the bottom that I plan on tying into. I have to figure out the moments when I have 1500 pounds on the shelves. Maybe I'll look into the scrap steel place and see what I can get tube for.

Brian in Brighton.

Re: lumber storage

Rob Keller

>I like your custom made lumber storage unit and the incorporation of the sheet material. If you have more pictures, I would like to see them as I am getting ready to build something - real soon.

Thanks

Rob

Bloomington IL

do you have any attic storage?

Larry, TN

>Last year, I built a new 20'x30' garage shop with 10' ceilings, but keep my lumber in the attic where it is out of the way until I need it. I have had lumber storage on walls and suspended from ceilings, but speaking for me, I like the attic storage best.

I do still keep my sheet goods downstairs, but with a 10' ceiling, I can easily stack the sheet goods in the corner behind the paint / stain / finishing cabinet and they take up hardly any room.

If you are going to do in-shop storage, how about building a horizontal rack over your chop saw station? That way, you can double up the wall space and make the most of the area?

Re:Drill bit for 3/4

John in Kerrville

>inch pipe. I had this same problem and happened to remember a solution that I read somewhere (FWW most likely). I took a 1.25" spade bit, carefully held each side against the belt sander, quenching often in water, until I had the size I needed.

Worked suprisingly well and very cheap.

john

Re: lumber storage *Long* LINK* *LINK*

Will

>I have 17 pictures of the construction process for this lumber system in an account on flickr.com. Rather then posting them all here, I will give the link to the first picture in the set (there are other DIY/wood working pics in there as well, please note that the nice looking tool box was made by my wife, not me :D ).

The learning curve was not too steep, but I do have a few points I would advise:

1. If you are using wooden beams that stretch from the floor to the ceiling as we have, you will in all likelihood have to cut an angle on the base to match the floor of the garage/basement (unless you are blessed with a flat surface). This should be done before you make your cuts for total height (duh! I mean oops)

2. Treat the base of the wooden beams with something to prevent wood rot. Water will seep up from the concrete floor and can cause problems very quickly. I would seriously consider priming and painting the bottoms as a preventative measure. Dealing with this after the fact (as we are now) is a major pain.

3. If your ceiling is as wavy as your floor, each beam will be a custom fit, so don't try to do a production line (unless you are making gross cuts and will be doing fine tuning on an individual basis).

4. Dados: Where to cut the bottom of the dados is a critical measurement. The steel straps should rest on the bottom of the dado. All downward force on the strap will rest at this point. If the strap is not resting at this point, and is instead �floating�, then the downward force will be on the lag bolts instead. While the risk of the bolts sheering is minor, it can be voided by having the base of the metal straps resting on the wood. As you will want to have all of the straps lined-up so the shelves will line up, you will have to put some thought into this. We did one beam at a time, fully attaching it to the wall, before moving to the next. On the next beam we would cut the rabbet, cut the angle on the base, and notch it to the ceiling beam, and then position it on the wall. The position of the dado base would be marked using a large framing square and a level (all of this was necessary as our floor and ceiling are anything but level).

5. Casters: The Woodsmith plans called for one fixed caster and one rotating one. I am not sure why, we accidentally bought two rotating ones and everything works okay.

6. Lag bolts: Attaching all of the lag bolts requires a considerable amount of ratcheting. We picked up a 14.4v impact driver which made this a simple process. As the bolts are fairly robust (3/8� if I remember correctly), you will want to make certain to pre-drill the holes (get a long bit) and locate the center of the stud.

If you have any questions regarding the construction of this, please let me know. I could draft a materials list is so desired.


Lumber Storage System Project