Just finished assembling this lumber rack. I used a tapering jig I found on Inspire Woodcraft to taper the shelf supports. This rack cleaned up my wood shop immensely. Thank you.
I built this same rack many years ago and it has served me well. I would recommend one additional caster in the middle of the rack. Mine has started to sag but only slightly.
Finished my cart a few days ago and followed your design. Absolutely love it. came out great and ALL my scraps are together and orginized. I used steel casters and the are just fine no issues what so ever. . My floor is pretty lever so no issue of the cart rolling out on its own. But as Mark stated in His video a simple latch will stop any free roll with ease. Thanks again Mr. Mark for your creativaty.
Nice design. I would recommend one additional castor on same end as hinges. Over time the gate hinge screws may shear from the weight. Let the castor handle the weight while the hinges allow the in/out sweeping movement.
I have built a number of these racks over the years and I have one suggestion. cover the horizontal supports with some plywood or OSB to make them into shelves. I notice that you have some shorter boards that cover 2 supports if you accidentally move them the ends will come off the support and onto the floor or yourself. (ask how I know). It also allows you to store a number of short pieces. It looks great
Thank you so much for this video! I had a similar design idea for a lumber rack floating thru my head. I’ve got a couple tweaks I’m going to do. The arms of the rack is the biggest validation for my design ideas. Thank you again.
I know it's an oldie Marc but thanks, just finished framing in my rack in our new home in my base,net woodshop to be. I have to get some casters and couple of hinges but that plywood rack should be in this weekend. Awesome video as usual, Chris
The locking casters is a good idea, but for the people that don't have the money to buy a lot of items like that they could get a screen door latch and use it. Thanks for the video Marc. It is very useful. I am going to build me a rack. I have wood in several cardboard boxes. I like that wood rack though. Excellent instructional video.
Thanks for this video, I customized it for my shop and made two 8' benches with the horizontal racks integrated into them and a chopsaw station in between the benches.
I'm going to get the materials tomorrow morning to build this. Of course I will need to modify the rack part to fit my 8' ceiling, and will use 16" centers along with ply shelf material, but it is not much of a deviation from your great design. Thanks, and I just subbed, too.
Nice lumber rack idea! I intend to build them. I live in a really humid climate, have never noticed the warping and cracking issues with home center wood that every talks about.
Fantastic, Marc! Thanks for taking the time to document this in video format. I suppose you could bolts in place of the screws that attach the brackets to the studs? That might create a 'modular' system and may even make it a little easier to fit the brackets (pre-drilling the studs before fixing them to the wall studs). Look forward to seeing the rest of your new-old workshop progress.
Once I picked up a magnetic stud finder I've never used the traditional stud finder again. I only payed $3 for it too. The only time i'd use one is on lathe where the plaster is too thick for the magnets but so far I haven't had too.
thank you for sharing this video and plans!! great job on everything. just printing off these plans and can't wait to get started on wood racks that i can really use and maybe the storage bin too. thank you again!!
Very Cool video Marc, Here I thought I was the only one who really knew how to calibrate a Stud-sensor. 8-) I have needed a rack like this for a few years but wasn't just sure how to construct it. Well you have just gave me the knowlege to build one, thank you allot! always enjoy your videos, keep them comming. 5*****
Cool project, it would be nice if you make a video in about 6 months of any problems or suggest improvements to your rack or shop setup over time if you find something was overlooked.
Marc, you could place a single locking swivel caster and a standard swivel caster to "lock" into place without extra hardware to do so as you mentioned. I do have one question though, I was always taught for sheet goods, to never stand them either their ends or sides/edges due to warping, that one should always lay them flat? Have you encountered such things as warping to your sheet goods by standing them up like that? AZ has a much lower humidity range than most states, here, it's very high.
@Mopardude Well, I can't say for sure it gives me dead center since I can't actually see the stud. But I can tell you that it dependably gives me the start, stop, and center points. The display has a meter that slowly builds until it reaches center. That's when the light goes on, then the meter begins to drop down again as you move off the stud. And after using it a few hundred times I have yet to miss a stud. So as far as I'm concerned, this little unit is pretty darn accurate.
@cultech To be honest, I am not sure. I have never really worked with metal studs before so I don't know what you need to do to make sure you have full structural integrity. Maybe someone with general construction experience will chime in.
@therealandycook I am actually considering adding one of those spring loaded gate casters. Should help take off a few pounds and give a little extra support.
Terrific for the garage. I've got a lot of plywood, 2x4's on hand for this project. It'll clean up my garage and hopefully I can move around in there again. I keep picking up free lumber here and there and it's just getting out of control. I'll save a section of the cart for scraps for my wood burner.
Waiting to see the video where you sand and finish the lumber rack. Prolly take you about a while. haha. Awesome videos!! I'm actually getting inspired to begin some wood working because of your educational videos.
I just finished building my lumber rack based on yours. I found that there was too much play side to side for the vertical supports. Probably my fault. However, I added horizontal 2x4s every other vertical 2x4 to prevent the racking. Now it is a rigid beast and does not move.
@deleetmeeh I know mine definitely gives you a the stud center, as well as the start and stop points. Its a standard unit from Home Depot and nothing special. From my experience with it, its pretty darn accurate.
I overloaded my Boar rack, and the screws pulled out from the wall dumping the lot on the ground. Unfortunately with everything going on this summer, I've had to leave it for several weeks. I did go in and pullout the boards I didn't want to warp or twist. Looking for a solution, this video came up, and it's great. However; I had to do some modifications to fit my application. Currently on the cinderblock wall I have 3 24" 2X4" laying flat which I secure to the wall with construction glue and Tapcon bolts. To make up the difference from 24" to 54" I am marrying another 30" 2X4" with a 54" 2X4". These will be lagged to the wall with a steel drop in and lag bolts for that purpose. With the 2 2X4" 54" long doubled against the wall, I'll have a good amount of surface to put the shelf supports up. I will turn the 2X4" flat between them giving the shelf support the ability to slide past the 2 2X4" anchored to the wall.
You could put another set of casters close to the hinge end to help take the load off the hinges, and it should swing just as well. By the way, what type of work do you do fulltime?
Hey Marc, great video. I used your ideas to build storage shelves in my garage and it worked perfectly. I didn't need mine to be quite so robust so I scaled it down a little, but I can easily hang on it with no flex. Thanks a bunch. Oh, what happened to the funny out takes you used to have at the end? I liked those.
@hoold90 The Spruce ply from B and Q would be fine. Its a bit rough and will need a good sand, but at half the price of the birch ply, thats not a big issue. The Birch ply is great for making furniture for around the house though :)
One critique I have is about the casters. Since you have a fixed pivot point on the side opposite the casters you would be better off with straight casters attached tangentially to the hinges swing. What happens with swivel casters is when they change direction they have throw which causes undo strain on the casters and the parts, they don't freely rotate on axis. Otherwise I like it a lot.
As always just what I needed to see. But what type of drill do you have? I do see that it is a Dewalt but I hear a racheting sound and think it is some kind of hammer drill. Is it just a normal drill?
So, studs in my garage are exposed and I can directly attached racks to them. Do you think I still need to attach the vertical supports to studs and then add the racks to the attached vertical supports?
Agreed, I was thinking more or less the same. I'd put a pair of casters towards the middle and a single caster at the end (near the hinge), front side. My 2 cents.
@TsmnnDvl5 While our humidity is low, the plywood that gets shipped here has a moisture content that's quite high. So we tend to see even more issues with plywood than most areas. In the idea world, yes, we would store sheetgoods flat. But even with my generous amount of space, devoting a 4' x 8' space for plywood storage just isn't practical. So vertical storage is the only option. The best defense against warping is buying good quality. And so far I haven't been disappointed.
I thought the best way to store plywood is flat? Do you have any issues with standing sheets upright? Do you add filler blocks on the sheet stock to minimize curling/warping? Thanks in advance for your reply!
I looked and didn't want to repeat a suggestion...Lord knows, there's enough of them! One idea to keep the sheet goods cart against the wall is to use a locking caster on the outside wheel. Push it back, lock the wheel. Also helps to lock the cart while pushing in sheet goods...to keep it immobile.
studs are the vertical supports inside the walls that hold up the weight of the roof. they're usually 2x4 or 2x6 inches by however tall your walls are. Its awesome to see someone your age with an interest in this stuff. if you want to know more about woodworking check out steve ramsey, doucette and wolf, this old house and the new yankee workshop. There's lots of others but beware, some people aren't really qualified to be giving advice on building and youtube doesn't discriminate.
very nice... my consern tho is when you store plywood in vertical postition isint there more risk on getting the potato chip sindrome to it than if you store itlying down?
@TheWoodWhisperer yes and change your name too. like metal speaker or something. keep the good work iam really learning with you. show how to veneer large pieces. i dont know if veneer its the right word
Most stud finders actually work by finding each edge separately. Start by moving the stud finder one direction and when it lights up stop and mark a line. Then go to the opposite side of your line about 3 to 4 inches away and work towards your line to find the exact edge by stopping when it lights up again. You can now determine the exact middle. If your having trouble with your stud finder use a stud finding magnet set to locate the screws. These work well. Never trust anything to be on center.
To reduce the stress on the rightmost vertical member why not put casters at the right of the cart as well so that the weight of the sheet goods is supported mainly by casters?
Marc - Pretty neat idea. Do you have any problems with the sheet goods bowing over time? I was wondering if I need to make something that basically straps across the sheet goods to keep them straight up and down and not leaning. What do you think?
befmx31 mine has not bowed and it is loaded with heavy plywood and mdf. I would recommend adding a third caster near the middle as mine is sagging but only slightly.
Attaching the uprights from the top down and leveling from there means the screws in the top that have the most work to do will have the best bite in case the studs aren't truel. If your upright runs off the stud at the bottom, it's not quite as critical as it would be if it ran off at the top.
Can you please elaborate on what you're saying here? You're talking about the vertical attachments to the wall, correct? You're saying it's best to put in the top screws first?
Can't help to notice that the pull out shelf probably should have another wheel located underneath where hinges are it just seems like that would be unstable
This video is almost 10 years old and the number of other woodworking videos that reference it is amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Just finished assembling this lumber rack. I used a tapering jig I found on Inspire Woodcraft to taper the shelf supports. This rack cleaned up my wood shop immensely. Thank you.
I built this same rack many years ago and it has served me well. I would recommend one additional caster in the middle of the rack. Mine has started to sag but only slightly.
Finished my cart a few days ago and followed your design. Absolutely love it. came out great and ALL my scraps are together and orginized. I used steel casters and the are just fine no issues what so ever. . My floor is pretty lever so no issue of the cart rolling out on its own. But as Mark stated in His video a simple latch will stop any free roll with ease.
Thanks again Mr. Mark for your creativaty.
Nice design. I would recommend one additional castor on same end as hinges. Over time the gate hinge screws may shear from the weight. Let the castor handle the weight while the hinges allow the in/out sweeping movement.
Eileen, For Sure! Excellent suggestion! I would recommend a "ball" caster for this one due to the tighter turning radius.
I have built a number of these racks over the years and I have one suggestion. cover the horizontal supports with some plywood or OSB to make them into shelves. I notice that you have some shorter boards that cover 2 supports if you accidentally move them the ends will come off the support and onto the floor or yourself. (ask how I know). It also allows you to store a number of short pieces. It looks great
Marc,
Thanks again for sharing your expertise. You talented, generous, and a real friend to woodworkers worldwide.
Thank you so much for this video! I had a similar design idea for a lumber rack floating thru my head. I’ve got a couple tweaks I’m going to do. The arms of the rack is the biggest validation for my design ideas. Thank you again.
Awesome video Marc!
I used your method, its a great way to build garage shelves that are heavy duty. Thanks for the very informative video.
Marc, thanks again for sharing your expertise. You are talented, generous, and a valuable resource to woodworkers worldwide.
@Bojanawwr masonry anchors or special screws designed for masonry. But do your research to make sure it can support the weight.
The initial considerations about wood, moisture, etc was VERY useful
I know it's an oldie Marc but thanks, just finished framing in my rack in our new home in my base,net woodshop to be. I have to get some casters and couple of hinges but that plywood rack should be in this weekend. Awesome video as usual, Chris
i love your efficient KISS approach to everything. Very clear and concise. + the blues music is awesome for guitarist like me :-)
The locking casters is a good idea, but for the people that don't have the money to buy a lot of items like that they could get a screen door latch and use it.
Thanks for the video Marc. It is very useful. I am going to build me a rack. I have wood in several cardboard boxes. I like that wood rack though. Excellent instructional video.
Thanks for this video, I customized it for my shop and made two 8' benches with the horizontal racks integrated into them and a chopsaw station in between the benches.
That was great! Watched you and April Wilkerson to make a small 2 shelf version for my garage shop. Thanks for the great tutorial!!!
April is awesome!
I really like the spax screws I use them all the time but the leg bolts was definitely the right call in addition to the spax.
Great idea!! Definitely going to borrow your ideas!
I'm going to get the materials tomorrow morning to build this. Of course I will need to modify the rack part to fit my 8' ceiling, and will use 16" centers along with ply shelf material, but it is not much of a deviation from your great design. Thanks, and I just subbed, too.
Nice lumber rack idea! I intend to build them. I live in a really humid climate, have never noticed the warping and cracking issues with home center wood that every talks about.
Awesome idea with that swing-out rack was trying to come up with an idea of what to do and I believe I just found it. Thanks
@jordanbeach89 Actually i used Robertson screws for the vast majority of this project.
@paullie6719 it just gives you a little more clearance vertically on each shelf.
Made this design for my shop and it turned out great! Love the idea. Keep up the great work. Earned a subscriber and a like 💪🏽
Fantastic, Marc! Thanks for taking the time to document this in video format.
I suppose you could bolts in place of the screws that attach the brackets to the studs? That might create a 'modular' system and may even make it a little easier to fit the brackets (pre-drilling the studs before fixing them to the wall studs).
Look forward to seeing the rest of your new-old workshop progress.
Once I picked up a magnetic stud finder I've never used the traditional stud finder again. I only payed $3 for it too. The only time i'd use one is on lathe where the plaster is too thick for the magnets but so far I haven't had too.
thank you for sharing this video and plans!! great job on everything. just printing off these plans and can't wait to get started on wood racks that i can really use and maybe the storage bin too. thank you again!!
Only halfway done with mine but it’s turning out fantastically. Thanks for your help
Very Cool video Marc, Here I thought I was the only one who really knew how to calibrate a Stud-sensor. 8-) I have needed a rack like this for a few years but wasn't just sure how to construct it. Well you have just gave me the knowlege to build one, thank you allot!
always enjoy your videos, keep them comming.
5*****
Cool project, it would be nice if you make a video in about 6 months of any problems or suggest improvements to your rack or shop setup over time if you find something was overlooked.
Great and wonderful project, thanks for the plans.
Marc, you could place a single locking swivel caster and a standard swivel caster to "lock" into place without extra hardware to do so as you mentioned. I do have one question though, I was always taught for sheet goods, to never stand them either their ends or sides/edges due to warping, that one should always lay them flat? Have you encountered such things as warping to your sheet goods by standing them up like that? AZ has a much lower humidity range than most states, here, it's very high.
@Mopardude Well, I can't say for sure it gives me dead center since I can't actually see the stud. But I can tell you that it dependably gives me the start, stop, and center points. The display has a meter that slowly builds until it reaches center. That's when the light goes on, then the meter begins to drop down again as you move off the stud.
And after using it a few hundred times I have yet to miss a stud. So as far as I'm concerned, this little unit is pretty darn accurate.
Great videos. I just started this beautiful hobby and I'm loving it. Thank you!
@cultech To be honest, I am not sure. I have never really worked with metal studs before so I don't know what you need to do to make sure you have full structural integrity. Maybe someone with general construction experience will chime in.
It's never a dull moment to check up your channel! Always very informative and funny! Love the RHCP shirt too btw!
Thanks! /Nic.
@therealandycook I am actually considering adding one of those spring loaded gate casters. Should help take off a few pounds and give a little extra support.
very nice and practical I think I will make something very similar, thank you.
Terrific for the garage. I've got a lot of plywood, 2x4's on hand for this project. It'll clean up my garage and hopefully I can move around in there again. I keep picking up free lumber here and there and it's just getting out of control. I'll save a section of the cart for scraps for my wood burner.
Excellent job!
Nice and simple, keep up the excellent work all the best
km-QTR
Waiting to see the video where you sand and finish the lumber rack. Prolly take you about a while. haha. Awesome videos!! I'm actually getting inspired to begin some wood working because of your educational videos.
I just finished building my lumber rack based on yours. I found that there was too much play side to side for the vertical supports. Probably my fault. However, I added horizontal 2x4s every other vertical 2x4 to prevent the racking. Now it is a rigid beast and does not move.
@deleetmeeh I know mine definitely gives you a the stud center, as well as the start and stop points. Its a standard unit from Home Depot and nothing special. From my experience with it, its pretty darn accurate.
I overloaded my Boar rack, and the screws pulled out from the wall dumping the lot on the ground. Unfortunately with everything going on this summer, I've had to leave it for several weeks. I did go in and pullout the boards I didn't want to warp or twist. Looking for a solution, this video came up, and it's great. However; I had to do some modifications to fit my application. Currently on the cinderblock wall I have 3 24" 2X4" laying flat which I secure to the wall with construction glue and Tapcon bolts. To make up the difference from 24" to 54" I am marrying another 30" 2X4" with a 54" 2X4". These will be lagged to the wall with a steel drop in and lag bolts for that purpose. With the 2 2X4" 54" long doubled against the wall, I'll have a good amount of surface to put the shelf supports up. I will turn the 2X4" flat between them giving the shelf support the ability to slide past the 2 2X4" anchored to the wall.
You could put another set of casters close to the hinge end to help take the load off the hinges, and it should swing just as well. By the way, what type of work do you do fulltime?
Absolutely beautiful! Great instructions. Thank you for sharing your super design. I’m subscribed. Have a good day
I LIKE YOUR WORK
good idea!👌
Hey Marc, great video. I used your ideas to build storage shelves in my garage and it worked perfectly. I didn't need mine to be quite so robust so I scaled it down a little, but I can easily hang on it with no flex. Thanks a bunch. Oh, what happened to the funny out takes you used to have at the end? I liked those.
Love the swing out sheet goods storage, Great Idea!
love the good eats style blurb
@hoold90 The Spruce ply from B and Q would be fine. Its a bit rough and will need a good sand, but at half the price of the birch ply, thats not a big issue. The Birch ply is great for making furniture for around the house though :)
One critique I have is about the casters. Since you have a fixed pivot point on the side opposite the casters you would be better off with straight casters attached tangentially to the hinges swing. What happens with swivel casters is when they change direction they have throw which causes undo strain on the casters and the parts, they don't freely rotate on axis.
Otherwise I like it a lot.
@TheWoodWhisperer thanks very much!!
As always just what I needed to see.
But what type of drill do you have? I do see that it is a Dewalt but I hear a racheting sound and think it is some kind of hammer drill. Is it just a normal drill?
So, studs in my garage are exposed and I can directly attached racks to them. Do you think I still need to attach the vertical supports to studs and then add the racks to the attached vertical supports?
@TheWoodWhisperer thanks and what the point in the tapper on the shelves?
Agreed, I was thinking more or less the same. I'd put a pair of casters towards the middle and a single caster at the end (near the hinge), front side. My 2 cents.
@TsmnnDvl5 While our humidity is low, the plywood that gets shipped here has a moisture content that's quite high. So we tend to see even more issues with plywood than most areas. In the idea world, yes, we would store sheetgoods flat. But even with my generous amount of space, devoting a 4' x 8' space for plywood storage just isn't practical. So vertical storage is the only option. The best defense against warping is buying good quality. And so far I haven't been disappointed.
I need help building some type of overhead storage connected to the ceiling any ideas on how I can do this
im 14 what are studs and what do they do like in the wall hold the wall straight?
I was looking for some plywood storage ideas and came to your old video I remembered. I am cracking up at 16:30 (sultry jazz music) close captioning.
How long were your "extra long" lag screws?
looks great!
I thought the best way to store plywood is flat? Do you have any issues with standing sheets upright? Do you add filler blocks on the sheet stock to minimize curling/warping? Thanks in advance for your reply!
I looked and didn't want to repeat a suggestion...Lord knows, there's enough of them! One idea to keep the sheet goods cart against the wall is to use a locking caster on the outside wheel. Push it back, lock the wheel. Also helps to lock the cart while pushing in sheet goods...to keep it immobile.
I would 'locate' every stud. I have several studs in my garage that are off an inch from what they're supposed to be (17", 15")
whats the music when you put up the long supports? And whats the point in the tapper?
studs are the vertical supports inside the walls that hold up the weight of the roof. they're usually 2x4 or 2x6 inches by however tall your walls are. Its awesome to see someone your age with an interest in this stuff. if you want to know more about woodworking check out steve ramsey, doucette and wolf, this old house and the new yankee workshop. There's lots of others but beware, some people aren't really qualified to be giving advice on building and youtube doesn't discriminate.
What is the purpose of the angle cut on the plywood? Just looks?
Arizona.
@Pedrofreestyle97 makes them lighter and provides more room on each shelf.
Great video. I think I would have put a set of casters in the middle. just seems to be a large distance without support.
It's a DeWalt impact driver. The only way I drive screws anymore! :)
Very cool!
@hoold90 bottom line is anything that is flat, stays flat, and is fairly inexpensive is fair game.
To solve the issue with the rack sliding out slightly.... use a locking wheel. That would give stability and security
The question, I have exposed studs in my basement. Can I just add these shelves to those studs direct?
very nice... my consern tho is when you store plywood in vertical postition isint there more risk on getting the potato chip sindrome to it than if you store itlying down?
@TheWoodWhisperer yes and change your name too. like metal speaker or something. keep the good work iam really learning with you. show how to veneer large pieces. i dont know if veneer its the right word
That shop was about 25 x 60 or so.
that was really good i didnt see that stud joke coming... Im much more obvious when i do that lol
Most stud finders actually work by finding each edge separately. Start by moving the stud finder one direction and when it lights up stop and mark a line. Then go to the opposite side of your line about 3 to 4 inches away and work towards your line to find the exact edge by stopping when it lights up again. You can now determine the exact middle. If your having trouble with your stud finder use a stud finding magnet set to locate the screws. These work well. Never trust anything to be on center.
To reduce the stress on the rightmost vertical member why not put casters at the right of the cart as well so that the weight of the sheet goods is supported mainly by casters?
Marc - Pretty neat idea. Do you have any problems with the sheet goods bowing over time? I was wondering if I need to make something that basically straps across the sheet goods to keep them straight up and down and not leaning. What do you think?
befmx31 mine has not bowed and it is loaded with heavy plywood and mdf. I would recommend adding a third caster near the middle as mine is sagging but only slightly.
Attaching the uprights from the top down and leveling from there means the screws in the top that have the most work to do will have the best bite in case the studs aren't truel. If your upright runs off the stud at the bottom, it's not quite as critical as it would be if it ran off at the top.
Can you please elaborate on what you're saying here? You're talking about the vertical attachments to the wall, correct? You're saying it's best to put in the top screws first?
Where did you get 4-3/4 inch screws? I can't find them anywhere. Thanks.
He made the same lumber rack? Haven't seen the video yet.
muy bueno
Whats the difference between a impact driver and a cordless drill/ screwdriver?:D
Can't help to notice that the pull out shelf probably should have another wheel located underneath where hinges are it just seems like that would be unstable
@Ismlor SketchUp
How about cabinet catches to keep the cart from swinging out?
Marc
Quick question - what size casters did you use?
o i love what u do my dad dose the same thing and i make something for myself the one wood i love is charry
What 3D software did you use
neither can I, lol. I guess you could make the cart very tall and secure the wall/dividers above the 4' mark.