closing the barn door after the tools done got out

[Bruce Seidner]

I have seen shop idea/plans for vertical pegboard or vertical shelving that slides in/out of a case like a book on a book shelf. I recall one that had the individual vertical boards/shelves suspended by hardware that looked a lot like traditional barn door hardware.

Can anyone remember seeing this or know where to point me?

I have made my benches quite deep in some places and have the space for the shelves to go even deeper but they would not be within reach. It would be nice to utilize this space by having vertical tool boards that used the ceiling/second level floor joists as the support for such barn door hardware and be able to pull out these boards when something needed retrieving. The down side to this is the the bench has to be clear where it travels out but as it stands it is a stretch if I were just to put up pegboard or cabinets. It would be nice to have a handle or a some way to pull the entire shelf out and just depend on the support from the ceiling joists, independent of any guides or support from the bottom. There is the issue of sway or stability but I am drawing this out as well as figuring out the bearing brackets/bearings that will run on the track. I think I am reinventing the wheel because I know I have seen this done before on a number of occasions in those shop idea books.

[Bob Wingard]

There was a guy doing a DVD periodical (Woodworking at Home - Chris DeHutt) and one of his discs shows mounting drawers on edge with full extension slides at the bottom and simple grooves at the top. I have his full set and I have that particular project as a separate clip if you need it.

[Bruce Seidner]

Thank you Bob, but I am going this route because I have no bottom at my disposal for drawer slides. I have plenty of evenly spaced ceiling joists up top and uneven crawlspace below. I also envision these lateral sliding shelves bearing the weight of bins that I use as storage for power tools and hardware. Ideally I would have room for more shelving to store them in the form of floor space, but if bullfrogs had wings they would not bump their behinds with every big step. Hunting for reasonably price metal stock is a chore but I did find a metal works guy in Knoxville who manufactures coal burning oven stoves that look like they came out of a Montgomery Ward catalog circa 1908. He sells them throughout Appalachia. He said he would be willing to cut the steel rails that I will need as well as the mounting plates for the bearings. It is wildly expensive to purchase barn door hardware. Literally hundreds of dollars for the rails, bearings, and brackets. This is a basement garage and not a trophy home. I found V-grooved sealed bearings for a buck a piece from a CA company that sells the same bearings on E-bay for between $4 and $8 a piece, go figure. I will have this stove maker cut some 18G steel into 1.5" strips and drill holes every foot for the support spacer and screw that will mount them into the sides of the joists. He will also cut the 3"x6" plates that will mount the bearing to the wood shelf that I plan to make from Baltic Birch. I plan on having the bearings on both sides of the "shelves" and span 2 joists. This should lock the shelf vertically and mitigate the potential for it to sway.

Thank you for the offer of the DVD. Looks like you are just down the road a bit. Have you been to any of the East Tennessee Woodworkers Guild meetings in Maryville? It is an eclectic and talented crew and going the Hwy 411 back way you could be there in no time.

Take care.

[Bob Wingard]

I was not aware of the Guild ... Maryville is not a horrible drive for me ... can you give me some more info ???

[Bruce Seidner]

This is the kind of group that would be featured in a sketch from the Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor describing all the characters living in Lake Woebegone. Really talented, fun, and generous souls. Very diverse crew from professionals earning a living making custom pieces and master craftspeople who have won national competitions to beginners making their first bird house from a kit. None of them have ever met a stranger and all of them love to be of help.

Go to etwg.org and download some newsletters to get a flavor of the group. They meet in a high school that has a real wood working shop and that has a separate shop for kids to build strip canoes from the unfinished stock to the finished canoe.

[Bob Wingard]

Will check it out ... thanx !!!

[Lee Ludden]

I posted this a while back, it sounds kind of what you are looking for.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?164866-New-shop-storage-project-finished

[Bruce Seidner]

It is exactly what I was looking for in one section of my bench where the reach is only 4' to the wall. A cabinet such as this would be perfect and I am going to flatter you sincerely with rote imitation. But I have another section of bench that has to travel the length of >6' over a table saw extension, the saw itself, and an Excalibur sliding table accessory. I am unaware of sliding drawer hardware that will give me the excitement of that much extension. So, my individual shelves will be trolly cars riding the rails towards me on bearings. They will also be doing heavy duty with bins full of power tools. If this works out I will document it with pictures. While I have SketchUp installed and could open your files I have no capacity to actually use the application.

But thank you so much for reminding me of where I got the idea. Functionally I will follow your lead. Mechanically I am going to have to blaze my own trail and hope I don't go off a cliff.

[Dan Rude]

I have seen these done using the pocket door hardware. The Family Handyman had a project using that type of hardware not to long ago. http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Home-Organization/Garage-Storage/garage-storage-space-saving-sliding-shelves

Dan