Retracting clamp rack

The new shop is coming together, but as we try to figure out where everything goes we’re realizing that some things that looked like good ideas in theory aren’t really working in practice.

One of those things is my roll-around clamp rack.

Charlene mentioned that what we really needed was something that retracted into the ceiling. I thought about it a bit, and eventually realized that we had the electric winch left over from the mechanism I built to lift the dirt to the roof. So last night I grabbed a couple of 2×4s and a few other scraps and prototyped a clamp rack that folds into the ceiling.

First test last night:

More pictures at my personal blog.

There’s some racking in the frame that I should address a bit, and I’m thinking that I should rig the winch so that it pulls the top from the back rather than having the cable in the way, but I think this has promise as a way to keep the clamps out of the way…

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke