A simple and inexpensive yet effective frame to hold Baltic birch plywood

[Frank Pellow]

The problem: When I built the structure in my shop to store sheet goods (see the thread http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=15471), I had not yet discovered Baltic birch plywood. Now that I have discovered it, I am using it quite a lot, but there is a storage problem. My sheet goods structure is meant to hold either full, half, or quarter panels of 4’ x 8’ sheets. But Baltic birch comes in 5’ x 5’ sheets. And, I can get quite a good price if I have about 20 sheets of various thicknesses delivered at a time. So, I needed a new rack. But, there certainly is no room in the shop.

The solution: I am completely redoing the interior of our garage so that it can hold:
-our car,
-our utility trailer,
-a small workbench and some car/trailer maintenance tools,
-accumulated stuff that we have uses for,
-accumulated stuff that we can’t quite bring ourselves to throw out,
-woodIn one corner of the garage, I built a small platform to protect the gas line and the gas furnace exhaust. The platform is about 18” high, 6’ long and 2’ wide. A couple of days ago, I realized that, if I built some sort of framework to sit on this platform, it would be the perfect place to store the plywood. So here is the framework:

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It is made of 1.5” by 1.5” cedar and spruce cut from boards that I had saved from various renovation projects. All the joints are butt joints attached with two 3” screws.

Here it is holding a few sheets of plywood:

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And, here is a view showing a bit more of the surroundings:

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[Rob Nolan]

Nice Frank ... good idea ... I need to do something about storing my plywood too.

Maybe a dumb question but does anyone know why baltic birch ply comes in 5x5 sheets anyway?

[Chuck Saunders]

It is easier to tell which is the long side ;)
Chuck

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I apologize for going off on a tangent....but that's a neat bike.
-Jeff

[Frank Pellow]

Nice Frank ... good idea ... I need to do something about storing my plywood too.

Maybe a dumb question but does anyone know why baltic birch ply comes in 5x5 sheets anyway?
That's always puzzled me too. :confused: Since the plywood comes from Europe, one could understand if it was cut in some metric size, but that's not what they do.

[Frank Pellow]

I apologize for going off on a tangent....but that's a neat bike.
-Jeff
Thanks. Its an electric bike that I bought about 7 years ago when I was living in the Seattle area and riding my bike to work. It was kind of cheating, but on cold dark days when I did not fancy peddling up all the hills, I used my electric bike.

[Jim DeLaney]

That's always puzzled me too. :confused: Since the plywood comes from Europe, one could understand if it was cut in some metric size, but that's not what they do.


Real close to 1.5 Metres, though...

[Frank Chaffee]

That's always puzzled me too. :confused: Since the plywood comes from Europe, one could understand if it was cut in some metric size, but that's not what they do.

Real close to 1.5 Metres, though...
And can be trimmed to 1.5m sq. too, just as 49” x 97” can be cleaned up to 4’ x 8’.
Frank

[Art Mulder]

So, I needed a new rack. But, there certainly is no room in the shop....

In one corner of the garage, I built a small platform to protect the gas line and the gas furnace exhaust.

Less than a year old and it's full already? Wow, Frank, that's a shame. :eek:

And this is a bit off topic, but your furnace exhaust goes through the garage? That just seems wrong. Was the garage a later addition or some such?

Nice looking wood rack. The rack on the side with the bike fitting under it is also a good idea. So often I see garages where the idea is to hange the bike from the rafters. I use my bike every day to get to work, and hanging it up at the end of the day is just NOT going to happen. Parking it *under* something is a much more interesting idea.

thanks
...art

[Frank Pellow]

Less than a year old and it's full already? Wow, Frank, that's a shame. :eek:
Gut it is not unexpected. I knew that the interior of my shop would have limited wood storage.


And this is a bit off topic, but your furnace exhaust goes through the garage? That just seems wrong. Was the garage a later addition or some such?
The gas furnace was a later addition and the exhaust through the garage did pass inspection. It's not like the garage is very airtight.


Nice looking wood rack. The rack on the side with the bike fitting under it is also a good idea. So often I see garages where the idea is to hange the bike from the rafters. I use my bike every day to get to work, and hanging it up at the end of the day is just NOT going to happen. Parking it *under* something is a much more interesting idea.

thanks
...art
Thanks Art. Actually, I built three platforms on the garage last week. Here is a picture showing the two larger ones:

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Stuff is just piled randomly on top of the plartforms right now waiting for me to build some shelves and to get rid of some bulky items.

The platform with the trailer under it will have some wood storage racks built over most of it.

[Jim Becker]

Excellent solution, Frank!