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Thread: Wood Storage Question, awkward pieces in small shop

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2018
    Location
    Piercefield, NY
    Posts
    1,660
    I'm in a similar situation about the kinds of wood pieces I keep for later use. One thing I find helpful is that I have a box for small (24" or less long) leftover pieces of each species I use a lot (cherry, curly maple, walnut, African mahogany) and boxes for the different fretboard woods. For fretboards I like the large flattish boxes that Stew-Mac ships things in. I've been lucky enough to have outside-the-shop storage for my large piles of unused lumber, but when I move next year I'll have to consolidate. One thing that might be worth looking into is building a small shed in the yard for wood storage, unless your shop is more climate-controlled. Around here most towns let you build up to a 144 square foot shed without a permit, or even an 8x8 would be enough to store a lot of lumber.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2018
    Location
    N CA
    Posts
    1,279
    Do you have openings under wall benches. How much width do you have in the current wall rack? Perhaps you can reduce the full height portion and add smaller shelves in the freed up area. Glenn’s idea is great and sure looks effective, but I still like vertical storage. i added an angled base for my rack and it helps keep the wood snuggly on the wall. As to the under benches, side mount some good casters on a rolling moving cart type device would allow you to stack the boards on the roller and pull it out when you need it. As you have a photographic memory that shouldn’t be a problem remembering where that “one piece” is I’ll be interested to see what you come up with.

  3. #18
    I would say your probably best to build a small lean to next to the shop if you are able, or purchase a Rubbermaid storage shed that you could build shelves in.
    https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubberma...7673/206758427

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298
    Quote Originally Posted by Bryan Lisowski View Post
    I would say your probably best to build a small lean to next to the shop if you are able, or purchase a Rubbermaid storage shed that you could build shelves in.
    https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubberma...7673/206758427
    If the current space is conditioned, an outdoor shed might cause problems with seasonal humidity changes, depending on the location.
    I decided to heat and cool my shop and wood storage to control the humidity somewhat.

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Fairbanks AK
    Posts
    1,566
    John and Bryan in the last two posts are banging on the only option I have to offer. Once finished, the instruments you build are likely to live inside peoples homes, yes? So the 'ideal' place to store your stock of material is in a similar indoor conditioned space.

    How much room have you got inside your HVAC conditioned home- that our wife will let you use- for wood storage? I am in a 30x30 two car garage with laundry facility and the furnace with one bandsaw at nine inches. Trying to fit your three bandsaws in my shop with possibly 400 bf of lumber in here is a fools errand. Accept props for what you have been able to do.

    Could you, possibly, settle on perhaps sitka spruce for bodies, hickory or whatever for finger boards ( I am not a luthier, obviously), and then have a collection of 'other' for that bit at the top with the tuning pegs on it? I am just asking. I am facing the same problem with different goals and different woods. If I can't cook with the scraps in my BBQ pits I don't use it because I too am space constrained. I use basically cherry (good on poultry), beech (good on seafood) as well as white oak and hickory (good on beef and pork) because I love BBQ and am building indoor furniture. I have a hard time letting go of small scraps of highly figured anything. Just too pretty to burn.

    Someday when I am old and feeble I will be reduced to pen turning and spoon carving in my shop before the kids cart me off to Shady Acres rest home. I do want some magnificent figured wood in stock for that season of my life, with some fiddle back walnut and quilted maple already lain away.

    Any road, if you can cut down on the materials you use you can buy them in big, easy to store pieces and cut small pieces off as you need them. At my place, if I can't cook with it, I don't buy it.

  6. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    If the current space is conditioned, an outdoor shed might cause problems with seasonal humidity changes, depending on the location.
    I decided to heat and cool my shop and wood storage to control the humidity somewhat.
    John you bring up a good point. However he isn’t building a new space and seems to have several space constraints, and not looking to get rid of tools to create space. It also doesn’t seem the OP is using the entire slab right away. If the wood has been air dried, leaving in a storage shed shouldn’t effect all that much, plus he could bring inside shop prior to starting a new project to acclimate.

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Location
    Portland, OR
    Posts
    462
    I just re-did my wood storage because of similar problems. I built a 4x8 table/cabinet. Bora wood racks above for 5-8' pieces. Ply on top of the table. One shelf for 3-4' pieces, 1 shelf for 2-3 foot pieces. Then everything 2' and under is in milk crates stored vertically that can slide in and out. Works quite well for me so far.

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    South Dakota
    Posts
    1,627
    In my old shop I used file 13. All my shorts went into file 13. If I hadn't taken them back out in 30 days they got burned. File 13 is a 30 gallon trash can.

    Well I guess not all my shorts. Only the ones that didn't fit my lumber storage.

    I'm in the process of building a new shop and plan to build a much bigger lumber storage rack but I also will use the file 13 approach.
    It just seams easier knowing that I'm keeping them around for a bit before making the final decision to get rid of them. But for me is not so much of a rare wood, hard to replace issue.d. I don't work in a bunch of exotic woods. It's more of what do I value more, a clean orderly shop or the wood itself.
    Last edited by Leigh Betsch; 12-03-2021 at 2:20 PM.
    The Plane Anarchist

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
    Posts
    12,298

    Don't forget your local art teachers!

    Quote Originally Posted by Leigh Betsch View Post
    In my old shop I used file 13. All my shorts went into file 13. If I hadn't taken them back out in 30 days they got burned. File 13 is a 30 gallon trash can.
    ...
    Those pieces I can't use I put into big plastic tubs. I occasionally offer them to the art teachers at local schools. I offer to cut them into other sizes if they want.

    They love them - it gives students a new medium to work in - glue, cut thin pieces, paint, color with markers. One of the most popular was extra 5-6" wide strips of smooth radiata pine plywood I cut into squares and rectangles and smoothed the corners. Lots of little kids used these to draw pictures with markers. They get paper but hardly ever get wood!!

    I've also take styrofoam which gets cut up, glued together, colored or spray painted. One year I took 10,000 small cardboard microfiche boxes. The high school art classes used these for years. I'M still using some in my shop!

    If I have exotics too thin for woodturning I sometimes find a knifemaker and make his day.

    JKJ

  10. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by John K Jordan View Post
    If the current space is conditioned, an outdoor shed might cause problems with seasonal humidity changes, depending on the location.
    I decided to heat and cool my shop and wood storage to control the humidity somewhat.
    Current space is air conditioned, but heated only if it get really cold (this is Florida and it doesn't get cold in the shop), but the door to the inside of the house is open much of the time. So neither the temperature nor humidity fluctuate very widely.

    No way I am storing lumber in a shed. It get really humid here and the humidity and heat fluctuate widely.

  11. #26
    I still haven't made the plunge and built anything shelfwise. Still debating between a few ideas.

    I will say that I appreciate all the suggestions. As far as offering the scraps for use to others... I do use even tiny scraps in my work and tend to also build little boxes and stuff for the heck of it. This time of year a bunch might get used for a christmas craft project to be given to friends, family, and neighbors. My scraps that aren't useful to me probably aren't of much use to anyone even for crafts or knife scales. Yeah there may be pieces of junk lumber used for jigs and such (temporary or not), but the pieces get used for smaller jigs, clamps, guides, and tools until they aren't worth saving. That stuff is often construction grade 2x framing ripped and/or resawn along with some less choice cast off hardwood where needed for hardness, stability, or durability. So it reall gets down to matchsticks and small pieces of construction grade framing.

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