Hello all, I have a garage workshop and I am looking for a way to store plywood and other lumber. I have a two car garage and my wife parks on one side and I park my truck outside so I have half of it dedicated to tools. I saw an article in a woodworking magazine, and I forget which one, where the guy built a lumber storage on casters. He placed it between the garage doors so that it freed up wall space. The storage unit was attatched to a steel poll located in between the garage doors and the steel poll was attatched to the garage wall. I have some ideas on how to build it but I figured someone out there would have some good ideas. Please let me know if you have any ideas.
Thanks in advance.
Replies
Check out ShopNotes magazine. They have tons of articles on different wood storage projects.
I have roll up garage doors in my home shop. When the doors are in the UP position there is about 8-10" of space above them. I built racks from scrap steel and bolted them to the ceiling(rafters behind drywall). I can store about 200 BF on them. It was really unused space, since the flourescent lights were elsewhere.
Rob -
Hopefully you haven't set yourself up for sagging joists in your garage. I've had to fix a few sagging garage ceilings over the years and - in most cases - the problem was caused (or aggravated) by people storing heavy 'stuff' in a place that wasn't designed for much dead load.
Kenny66,
No great idea here, but I did build a platform in the garage between the two car spaces. It measures about 4x8 and has about 4 1/2' clearance on the bottom and similar on top of the platform. Also, I cut some short pieces of 2x4's attached them to the rafters and slid some dowel between them to store boards..mostly MDO, MDF...it is a bit dusty pulling those boards down...
HI Kenney66,
When I first started out I screwed around with all the diiferent ways you read about in Tips. Some worked better than others but usually things got buried until you ran out of room and were forced to cull the pile. Also work space was and is still an issue.
Anyway, what I finally settled on was a separte out building. It's one of those $600 wooden sheds. I built a rack inside to lay out the long sticks while the sheetgood type products lean up against the rack. Now just like at my hardwood supplier I can see at a glance exactly what I have on hand. This shed has worked out better than expected and I wholeheartedly recomment it.
Dan
Did you consider ventilation/ humity control into this shed?
Yes I did consider it but it hasn't been a problem.
Had it for quite a few years now and all boards put in it stay flat.
Built a 3 tiered platform based on the way they store wood at the hardwood dealer I use. Never had a problem. But it does get hot as h-ll in there in the summer. Almost like a kiln. BTW it has a louvered vent window in the back.
Dan
Kenny,
Correction. Wood Magazine Dec/Jan issue, Better homes and Gardens publisher. Page 36. If you have the height it looks like a pretty good box for storing sheet goods.
ASK
The current issue of Wood Mag (I think) the one put out by reader's digest has a 4' deep X 8' tall X whatever width wood storage cabinet. Open at the 8' tall by whatever width. I'm having the same problem except not in the garage, in my cellar shop. This little box might solve the problem. It's on casters so you can move it around and has a brackett on the back to attach it to the wall.
ASK
Edited 11/18/2004 7:56 pm ET by ASK
sounds good i will check it out,
I also have my shop in our 2 car garage, so space is at a premium. Storing 'flat stock' is a real issue in any shop. For me, I built benches using solid-core fire-proof doors that I bought from a local lumber yard. A local job ordered the wrong stock and the supplier had a "no return" policy, so the doors were selling for $20 each. They make excellent benches. Anyway, I used two of these doors for a top and bottom, 8" off the floor and 28" between, inside top to bottom. That makes them the exact same height as my table saw too. I cut all of my full-sheet flat stock in half (drastic, I know.But most of my projects using sheet goods rarely exceed 24"). Now I can store all of my stock flat, as it should be stored, with no worries of twisting, warping or broken corners! I kept narrow 3/8" lathing between each sheet for ventilation and each sheet can be accessed from either open end of the bench. I have also built a type of static locking elevator that I can prop up any number of layers of stock, since the piece I usually want is at the bottom of the pile. Not the best solution perhaps, but it works for me.Good luck, Kenney66.
There is an old storage idea that gets printed up somewhere every year or so. Drilling holes at a 3 degree angle in the edge of 2/4's to accept 1/2" steel pipe in lengths of 12-18".Just helped a friend do this in the side stud walls of his garage. I have also used this system in the middle of a space, with the 2 X 4's tied into the roof rafters. I have always bought used pipe from a scrap iron yard.
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