Small Shop Wood Storage
While my shop was being built and finished, my system for storing wood was no more elegant than a few roughly organized piles scattered around the construction site. Some of these were mercifully covered with spare roofing or plastic, others (like my green oak 2x4 stock) were left completely unprotected from the elements.
Recently, however, I took on a job making new baseboard and window moulding for a historic home and needed a place for the stock to adjust to my shop before being milled. A quick search of the internet revealed Chris Shwarz’s “$30 Lumber Rack”, which looked like it would suit my needs well. I have a good bit of old 1” gas pipe kicking around the basement, which I figured would bring my material cost down to $0.
Boring out the waste for the post mortise.
I started by milling up some of the 2x4 oak I bought back when I ordered the materials for my frame. I did not bother to mill it square, just planed off the roughness and gave myself a reference face. Next, I cut a 45 on one end to match the angle of the timber frame’s braces that the top shelf post would be screwed to.
With the 45 cut I set the brace in position, held the bottom against the girt, and scribed a baseline for the shoulder. As I dont have any wall studs that I can attach my shelf to with lag screws, I needed to find a way to tap into the strength of the timber frame itself. By joining the bottom of the post to the girt with a tenon and tightly fitting the top end to a brace, I was able to lock my posts securely into the frame.
I cut a 1.5” tenon on the bottom of each post, pulling my measurement from my reference face and transferring it to the girt so my reference face would be flush with the front of the girt. Bored out the waste with a 1.5” forstner bit, then chopped it square with a 1.5” timber framing chisel. Chamfered the edges of my tenons, started them in their mortises, and gently pounded them in.
After the posts were installed, I established a level line for the topmost holes. A straight edge and level would have worked just as well, but I happened to have a laser on hand.
A portaband makes quick work of the otherwise tedious task of sawing through an inch of solid steel.
With the posts installed, I made some test holes for my black iron pipe and discovered a problem. My nominal 1” gas line does not fit into a nominal 1” hole, it’s slightly too big. I didn’t purchase the Shwarz article, so I don’t know how he got around this difficulty (or if he even encountered it, perhaps my 1920’s gas pipes were made to different standards than modern black iron pipe)? Happily, I discovered that I had some 1” round bar left over from a job I did making timber frame podgers which fit my test hole perfectly. I laid out my bar lengths at 14”: 2” for support in the posts, and 12” for shelf depth.
I set a sliding bevel to 5 degrees and taped it above my level line on the posts. This was not the most comfortable way to bore an angled hole but, because I was designing this as I went, it was easier to bore the holes with the posts installed than try to wrestle them out of position: they fit pretty snugly. In retrospect, I should have decided upon my shelf heights before installing the posts, and bored the holes at the bench. The end result, however, was quite good: the angles of my round bar all matched.
Setup to drill an angled hole, I stood on a stool and checked my progress by looking left and right of the drill.
The best pieces of my humble wood collection now safely stored in the shop.
Next, I’ll build some storage shelves underneath the wood rack, and a workbench along the wall. I also anticipate needing to add a third post for support in the middle, but this will do for now. I’m curious to know how the wood storage will affect my work at the main bench: I won’t be surprised if I need to slide the bench further back to allow me to joint long boards without running into my new shelf.
