My New Lumber Racks

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Bree

Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
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1,736
Location
Buffalo, NY
For a long time I have had several hundred board feet of White Oak as well as some Maple, Sycamore,Ash, Hickory, Walnut, and Birch sitting on two pallets. I had some sitting on the floor as well. That doesn't count my exotic lumber and turning blanks.

You can't get at the lumber below the first couple of layers and you don't even know what the heck you have or its condition. So I decided that I needed racks.

After doing a bunch of research, a friend called me and told me that a local store was going under and giving away all their fixtures including their all steel cantilever gondola racks. Well a cantilever rack is what I wanted so I was off like a shot to scavenge, scrounge and score.

I got 3 units with end plates and lots of shelves including many 16"ers. I did some measurements and decided to use only 2 units with no end racks. I put inthe bottom base shelf, 3 rows of 16" shelves, a 14", and a 16" wire rack on top. Both sides symmetrical. I filled it with lumber as the PIC shows.

I also scored a nice slatwall unit from Rockler when they were remodleing a store. That was a freebie too. I am considering putting in standards bolted across the slatwall so the weight of my lumber and turning blanks is not on the slats. I am also toying with reinforcing the slats by putting a strip across the slat where the shelf brackets attach to prevent the MDF from ripping out under load. That is the cheapest way to get the biggest increase in load capacity I think.

The slatwall rack will hold my exotic lumber, turning squares, bowl blanks, burls, and other odd pieces. I will use the end unit and have shelves on the end. If I can find a good way to reinforce the slatwall, I will use 16" shelves with a bracket every 12".

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Progress through scavenging!
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

PS... Fooling with these racks and moving wood from here to there etc. is why you haven't seen any production from me lately other than this Sunday. The whole workshop has been a complete mess and my lathe was totally blocked by big sheets of plywood. But things are getting better!
 
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Bree,
If you think there is any possibility of too much weight on your racks just send any lumber you don't think it will hold to me:biggrin::biggrin:

George
 
Good score, and good use of recycled stuff! And with your other recent score, you sure that slat wall will hold all of your burls? :biggrin:
 
Nice rack! Thanks for showing us your rack!



Hard to believe I'm the first person to post something like that with the cast of characters that make up this site.
 
Good score, and good use of recycled stuff! And with your other recent score, you sure that slat wall will hold all of your burls? :biggrin:

One way or the other that slat wall is going to hold the weight!! I think I can bolt a reinforcer on the bottom of a slat that is where the shelf bracket hooks under from below. I can bolt on 2 strips of Oak... one on each side with the bolts running completely through the slatwall so it basically takes the load off the MDF. That should provide more than enough extra strength.

I think with a bracket every foot that the slats would hold more than I am going to put on there. But I want to reinforce it anyway because I don't trust MDF as a load bearing substrate.
:wink::wink::wink:
 
that a good idea,i have two of those shelfing units that need to be assembled right next to my wood pile on a pallet wish i thought of putting two and two together.
 
that a good idea,i have two of those shelfing units that need to be assembled right next to my wood pile on a pallet wish i thought of putting two and two together.

Don't feel bad. I had that wood pile on the pallets for years. I finally realized that I had no idea what was in the wood pile and couldn't get at the bottom stuff even if I knew what I had!!

I did know that I had a spalted quarter sawn American Sycamore board about 8 feet long with flames spalted in it... I mean like biker flames. I was at this beat up old sawmill in PA and I spotted the board and couldn't believe it. The guy gave it to me for $1.90 foot for all the Qtr Am Sycamore I wanted. What a steal!! I needed to know that that board and the other AmSyc were still there and in good condition.

I actually cut off an end from a sister board and cut it into some blanks to test them to see how they might turn for pens. See if they need stabilization or not. Will try that soon.
:cool::cool::cool:
 
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