Span required for lumber rack?

[Arthur Wood]

I'm building a lumber rack in my shop - essentially 1/2 pipe inserted horizontally into holes drilled into vertical 2x4's. My question is - what is a reasonable span for these shelf supports? Every 16 inches seems like overkill - but am worried that 32 inches would be too large a span and cause sagging.

What are you all doing?
:confused:

[Matt Meiser]

I'm building a lumber rack in my shop - essentially 1/2 pipe inserted horizontally into holes drilled into vertical 2x4's. My question is - what is a reasonable span for these shelf supports? Every 16 inches seems like overkill - but am worried that 32 inches would be too large a span and cause sagging.

What are you all doing?
:confused:

I did every 24" on mine and it has worked well.

[Doug Jones]

I don't have the measurements here with me, but I have three supports. One center, and the two on the ends approx. 6"- 12" from the ends of a 8' board. No sagging to date.

[Andy Hoyt]

I went 16" o/c. Screwed 1x2 strapping through gwb into framing and lagged heavy duty standards to the strapping and through the gwb into framing. Brackets are 16" (+/-) deep. I've had tons of stuff up there and it's never groaned. The purpose of the strapping is to prevent the weight from crushing the gwb.

30203

EDIT: I should add that one great reason for more supports is that the load on the entire system gets distributed over more load bearing points. Thusly, you increase the load bearing capacity of the system. The other guys are right, too - Level or at least "in line" is essential.

[Jim Becker]

My larger lumber rack is spaced at 24" OC. But the supports above my cantilevered miter station are at 32" and I have experienced zero problems with saging on the 5/4 cherry material that has been living on them for a few years now. I think that "level" is actually more important. That said, 16-24" is likely to be more convenient over time as you have to integrate some shorter material into your inventory...longer cutoffs, etc.

[Matt Meiser]

Jim is absolutly correct that level is important. When I built my rack, we carefully laid out and drilled the pipe holes. As I installed it, we secured the first side, then used a 4' level to make sure that the pipes were perfectly lined up.

[Jim Young]

Mine aren't equally spaced. I just tied into the joist that was near, sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right. It really depended on things I needed to move around.
http://www.simoli.net/images/Woodworking/Shop/jy_lumber_12312004.jpg

[Bob Johnson2]

As Jim mentioned, the 16" will give you more options for shorter stock. I've got 1 that is 32" and while they support just fine I'd like it better at 16".

[Steve Ash]

[quote=Jim Young]I just tied into the joist that was near[quote]

Jim, you need to spend more time with your building contractor friend...me! I'm sure I could teach you the difference between a joist...and a stud:D .

Joists are for the floor...studs are for the walls. Looks like to me you fastened to a stud since they are stading vertical. :p

[George Matthews]

Here is my 'rack' made about a year ago. Has worked well, and no 'I wish I had...'

http://web.mac.com/sgmatthews/iWeb/Cornell%20Work%20shop/Cornell%20Work%20Shop.html

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Mine is built at 16 oc. I should really re-do it because it was slapped together in about 1/2 hour and could be made much better. However, it works for now! :)