Wood racks and lumber storage are one of the toughest issues to resolve for most any wood shop. Lumber takes up ROOM and if you work wood, you've got to have lumber. The obvious best choice is to practice 'JIT' or, 'just in time' delivery like big places do. You would only get your lumber delivered as you were going to use it, you would not maintain an inventory and you wouldn't have to store it either. I know, it is a pipe dream theory and doen't work for me either! I STOCKPILE lumber, thereby needing a way to store it. I have tried many different racks and so forth and have not been happy with any of them. They all take up more room than I want to give up and are pretty much pains in the backside to get the board you need that just happens to be on the bottom of the pile.

In a previous life, my lumber rack was a simple 2 by 4 workbench covered in ply. The ply was removed to live again in some other project and the 2 by 4 framework that was left became a lumber rack. The supports were all bolted and screwed to the uprights. The uprights are 2 by 6's with 2 by 4's attached to form an 'L'. Top shelf is cedar, I don't have that much left and it is light weight. Middle shelf is cherry and some gum, the bottom shelf where all the weight is, holds my oak. Under the used to be, benchtop is my assortment of shorts, too good to toss. I don't use a lot of sheet goods and what I have on hand stands alongside the rack. It's not pretty but, it is functional.

My turning stock rack follows the same general set up as my lumber rack. It may not look like much but there is a lot of blanks stacked on it. I also have blanks under the lathe and on the shelf of the lathe.

It's not the best picture to show the lathe shelf rack but it will give you the idea anyway. The black nozzle above the tool rest is my dust collection for the lathe. It was a nozzle from a long gone planer attached to a 2 by 4 so I can position it where I want it at the lathe. It is connected to my dust collector and works reasonably well.

Lumber storage is just one of those things nobody wants to talk about as it is bloody difficult to come up with a reasonable solution. The storage issue takes on monstrous proportions when you are dealing with a small shop. My rack effectively eats up 32 square feet of my 300 or so, I give it up reluctantly!
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Last update : 13-02-2008 18:58

Keywords : wood racks, lumber storage, small shops, layouts, videos, woodworking

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