wood rack

[Anthony Smaldone]

Im in the planning stage for a wood rack for my new shop. I think im going to lag 4x4's to the wall and use pipe to hold the wood. Does anyone know what size pipe works best? And is 20 inches out of the 4x4 (3 inches in) and ok length?

Thanks
Anthony

[tom A nelson]

I have done just what you are planning. I am using 1/2 galvanized pipe, 12 in long. I drilled the holes at a 5 degree angle (upwards). They work very well so far. I would be a little concerned about going out 20 inches. That seems like a lot of weight on 3 inches of wood. tom

[Andrew W. Thomas]

Joshua Layne put together a good design

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=132557

[Joe Chritz]

Think vertical.

I just added a rack that will hold several hundred board feet, at least 500, and it takes up 8 foot of wall space and 16-28 inches of floor space. Easy access with no weight restrictions. It holds a theoretical max of 900+ BF with 8 foot boards.

The pipe racks will hold a ton and give the advantage of being able to stick stuff under them if designed for it. I just built the vertical rack but so far I am liking it.

Joe

[George Clark]

I built a horizontal lumber storage rack by scabbing 2 x 4s which I had pre-drilled for 3/4" black pipe at a 3 degree angle to the existing wall studs. I used 18' lengths of pipe (8 per 12 foot stick) and covered the pipe with PVC to prevent marking the wood. I have literally filled the rack with wood and it has held up well. A great solution if one doesn't have a lot of ceiling height. If I had the ceiling height I would prefer vertical storage; a lot easier to sort through.

George

[Mike Cruz]

Anthony, that last thing you need/want right now is yet another "you should do this" post. You asked a specific question, and you want a specific answer...well, I ain't gonna give it to ya!

Quite honestly, recently, I put up a rack for trim, cut-offs from the TS, and cut-offs from the miter saw. I scoured throught he Borg for my options on what to use for the extensions from the wall. I looked at PVC, black pipe, galvanized pipe, wood...you name it. In the end, I went with wood because I know it won't discolor the pieces I put in it, and well, I know wood a lot better than I know the other materials.

My wood storage is likely different than the space you have available. So, my set up probably won't work for you. And since I dont' have a direct answer to your question, what I will pose to you is this. Make sure whatever you use won't stain/discolor/affect the wood you are storing.

[Ryan Hellmer]

Yeah, I'm sure everyone does it their own way. I think your way would work fine, my thoughts on improvements would be (1) use 3/4 pipe, galvanized is best especially for oak, and (2) 5 degrees is surprisingly steep, I angled mine 2 and it has worked well.

Now, for what I did, I have a series of "racks" which are pieces of channel iron about 12" long. Each channel "craddles" around a stud and is lag-bolted in. The channel has a piece of square tubing (I made 18 and 24" versions) coming off the channel at 2 degrees. These racks are just bolted onto my open studs and can be infinitely rearranged. I routinely keep several hundred to well over a thousand board feet on hand and this has worked well. PM me if you want pictures.

Ryan

[Jeff Bartley]

In my shop the north wall is made of ICF's (insulated concrete forms). I didn't feel very comfortable attaching fasteners to the foam concrete forms so I simply built a wall that stands against this ICF wall. In this 'wall' I drilled holes every 6" and inserted 3/4" galvanized pipe to hold lumber. The 'studs' are composed of 2x4 material that was jointed straight and then 1 1/2" x 7/8" oak was glued on the front and back forming an I-beam like structure.
Hardest part of this setup was laying out and drilling all the holes exactly the same and then leveling the wall so that all the holes were level across.
Besides my time and the pipe it was relatively cheap to build and by using 3/4" pipe I always have pipes for short pipe clamps.
Jeff

[Stew Hagerty]

I have an idea in my mind for the one I plan on building. It will be an A-frame. On one side I will put large sheet goods. On the other I will put smaller sheets and cuttings plus have room for my clamps. through the middle will be storage for boards and lumber. I'll have it on wheels of course and it will normally sit up against the single car door of my 3 car garage which is where my shop is located. Then I can roll it out to access material or add new from outside.