wood storage rack

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10-20-2018, 1:14 PM
Bill Carey

6 Attachment(s)

wood storage rack

Finally got tired of tripping over the pile of wood, so decided to test my idea for a storage rack. Bought 10 36" pcs of 1/2" black pipe, and 20 1/2" floor flanges.
Cut the pipe in half, and since I hate metal on the floor of the shop (I work barefoot a lot - I know, I know) cut slots in a plastic bucket to cut the pipe.
Attachment 395158
The screwed the pipe to the flanges, and put the plastic caps on the cut ends.
Attachment 395159
Then lasered the 3x4's for level after standing them in place, and drilled a 1 1/4" hole for the lip of the flange, and a 5/" thru holr for the pipe.
Attachment 395160 Attachment 395161
And screwed the flange to the back of the posts. Ya know those red caps? Had to take them off to get the pipes thru and replace them. Lesson learned. Stood the posts and secured them.
Attachment 395162 and loaded them up. Attachment 395163

They are plenty strong. But I should have used the drill press - at the ends of the pipe some of them are out of alignment by 1/2".
ANd some of the pipes just did not thread straight in to the flanges.
But it was quick, relatively inexpensive (45 bucks), and seems to work fine. And no more tripping over the pile of wood.
10-20-2018, 3:52 PM
ChrisA Edwards

Nice, I like it.

I've almost got to the point of sacrificing the use of one of my garage doors to gain some usable space like that. I think you pushed me into that decision.

Think I'll unplug my door and do something similar.
10-20-2018, 8:59 PM
Dave Cav

Nice looking rack.

I've built three pretty big lumber racks sort of like that. Instead of black pipe I use 3/4 EMT conduit. I edge drill 2x4s on the drill press to accept the EMT at a 5 to 10 degree angle (approximately) and lag the 2x4s to the wall.
10-21-2018, 6:41 AM
Charles Lent

EMT conduit is soft and designed to be bent. It is not a good choice for this application. Replace it with pieces of black iron or galvanized pipe and your rack will be much less prone to failure.

Charley
10-21-2018, 9:12 AM
Tom M King

Nice rack!
10-21-2018, 3:20 PM
Mike Heidrick

Never seen a door blocked like that. Interesting approach.
10-21-2018, 3:24 PM
glenn bradley

Nicely done Bill. If the black pipe reacts with the wood, slip some pvc pipe over them.
10-21-2018, 3:28 PM
Jim Becker

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Heidrick

Never seen a door blocked like that. Interesting approach.

Actually pretty practical when the door doesn't actually need to be used for anything. You can treat it like a wall, albeit you need to provide support like Bill did. My second set of double doors is currently blocked in a similar way with my sheet goods rack and a couple of re-purposed old kitchen upper cabinets, as a matter of fact!
10-24-2018, 12:09 PM
Bill Carey

Quote:

Originally Posted by glenn bradley

Nicely done Bill. If the black pipe reacts with the wood, slip some pvc pipe over them.

xcellent idea. I was going to use tape, but the pvc will be much better. Thanks!
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10-27-2018, 9:12 AM
Todd Bender

Sidetrack here...what brand laser is that in the pic? It looks quite a bit brighter than my Bosch.
10-27-2018, 11:47 AM
Bill Carey

Quote:

Originally Posted by Todd Bender

Sidetrack here...what brand laser is that in the pic? It looks quite a bit brighter than my Bosch.

Huepar https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ie=UTF8&psc=1.

Ya, the green line is a big improvement over my old laser, which had a red laser and was NOT self leveling. And I'm very happy with this little laser. I wanted one that spun and delivered a line 360 around the room, but for the limited use I have for it could not justify the extra cost. But by all means get a self leveling one.
10-27-2018, 2:06 PM
Todd Bender

Thanks. The one I have is self leveling, which is wonderful, and has a red line. It's fine in semi-dark areas, but is no good in brighter rooms.
11-12-2018, 7:43 PM
Jon Endres

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charles Lent

EMT conduit is soft and designed to be bent. It is not a good choice for this application. Replace it with pieces of black iron or galvanized pipe and your rack will be much less prone to failure.

About eight years ago I built a lumber rack from 2x6's and 1-1/4" EMT pipe. The rack is semi-free-standing, anchored to the floor and the ceiling above, and is 9' tall, 12' long and 5' wide. The EMT has a maximum cantilever of 18". It is full. By my best estimate, it has a little over 4500 board feet of lumber on it. The EMT has not sagged, and quite honestly I've tried to bend it and can't. Not with 300+ lb hanging on the end of a cantilevered piece that was already loaded. EMT is designed to be bent, yes. However, the force required for anything larger than 3/4" diameter EMT usually requires mechanical assistance.

Now, 3/4" might be a bit more prone to bending with a heavy load, but if you keep the cantilever small (12-14" maybe) and the spacing tight, you can put a lot of lumber on a rack made with it. If you kept verticals/uprights at 24" on center, even if you put 2 feet thickness of lumber on top of a 12" long cantilevered piece, you're still not putting more than a couple hundred pounds max weight on it. I would personally not use less than 1" EMT but have seen racks made with 3/4" and as long as you do not overload them, they work great.