Drywall/sheet goods rack

Lucky you ….I work out of my basement with less than seven feet of clearance. Nice rack to solve your issues : )

-- When did quiet and quite become the same word ? I'm guessing about the same time as your and you're did.

Good idea but the weight load you are putting on those ceiling joists concerns me. Did at least double up the joists?

-- Les B, Oregon

I am with Les. As a contractor, I have seen people do things similar to this with disastrous results.

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://americancraftsmanworkshop.com

Thanks for the concern guys. I didn’t double up on the joists, but I can easily do so, I have several more 2×8’s left over still. Trick would be getting them in there without unloading the rack. I suppose if I unbolted one at a time, I could get away with it, right?
It won’t stay that loaded for long, now that the weather is warming up we’re about to start doing a fair amount of reno on the house mostly in my kitchen which will be getting new cabinets plus new rock all along one wall. , I expect to burn through those sheets in just a couple of months. for the record, most of what you see up there are scraps, I’d estimate there’s only 5.5 sheets of 1/2” rock all told. 4 full sheets and the rest partials. plus two panels of 1/4” pegboard.
As for load above them, there are a few plastic storage tubs with light items in them in the loft. It is 11’ up so it doesnt’ get a lot of use. Plus the plans I used called for 24” on center for the joists, I used 16” for safety. The joists are sistered to the trusses, so I’ve got some leeway.

-- Ned - 2B1ASK1 http://nedswoodshop.blogspot.com

Simple jacks could unload the joists while you double them up. That way you wouldn’t have to empty the rack.

d

-- The best things in life aren't THINGS.

Don, yep, I was thinking of a deadman t-jack similar to what one would use for installing drywall on a ceiling.

Barry If I’m going to use Any of what is up there it is All going to be used, scraps first. The pegboard will be put up in a couple of weeks, but that’s relatively light. The rest, as I mentioned, will go to use once we start renovating the house, kitchen and bathroom are both overdue for some new rock. Just a matter of a few weeks before that gets going.

also, you’re pretty much looking at my entire shop there… I don’t have any other lighter items to store… that aren’t already on the shelves at the end of the shop there, or on the lumber rack to the ‘right’ of the photo. What I have under the benches wouldn’t go high either. I’m really not going to add anything significant to the rack either. Save perhaps for some f-clamps.

-- Ned - 2B1ASK1 http://nedswoodshop.blogspot.com

structurally the lumber is sufficient to hold the weight, with only a 4 or 5ft span. You would be surprised. HOWEVER you are relying on fasteners to hold the weight at every joint. That is where your failure more than likely would occur. To solve this, create a lap joint or add joists in between, not doubling joists. This way it would increase the amount of fasteners thus lessening the burden on each individual fastener. Hope that makes sense

What’s that I see————- is it a floor???? I have one of those somewhere.

-- “Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.” General Robert E. Lee, C.S.A.

mrdull, that was my key goal… to free up those precious 10 sf of shop floor. I now had room to slide that cabinet with my drill press on it down, and next I’ll move my bandsaw across the room to the power tool wall. Then I’ll have a line up of chopsaw, tablesaw (mobile) bandsaw and drill press. Then if I can move the stuff on the two shelves on the end out of there, I’ll be able to set up my lathe on the far wall. Someone over on Family Woodworking said that organizing a shop is like a 3D version of the slide the tile puzzle, move this to free up space for that, to move something else…

I’m getting a lot closer to functional though!

Tooldad, the span is just over 4’ wide, plus a bit more to allow for the width of the 2×4’s to hold up the span. as you say the fasteners are the weak point. I”ll be keeping an eye on them. I think they’ll hold a few months though.

-- Ned - 2B1ASK1 http://nedswoodshop.blogspot.com

Just wanted to point that out. Everyone was worried about the lumber strength. That is the strongest point.

At my school workshop last year I used some LVL beams to make a lumber rack by using a dado every 2ft the width of a 2×4 and then sandwiched 2 of them together to make a mortise. HOpe that makes sense. The mortises were a little loose so I used 1/2” x 6” hex bolts and washers to help support the weight. The arms are 2ft long each and cantilever out.

Needed another rack this year. Didn’t have the time to cut mortises. So I used 3 pieces of the LVL by cutting short 2ft sections to go between each shelf arm and then just used my framing nail gun to attach them together. Was going to put hex bolts through, but didn’t have any long enough, so we tried it without bolts.

That second shelf is actually stronger because there is no slop and it is the lumber holding everything up, not the fastners. I even climbed on it, 230lbs on one arm, no problems.

hope that helps explain if anyone needed further reinforcement for the sake of arguing.

Hmmm, redesign possible… have to see how it goes.

-- Ned - 2B1ASK1 http://nedswoodshop.blogspot.com

Free up that floor space good Idea. I’m a 20 year contractor and it looks like you don’t have a weight problem given your 2×8s are on top of your wall. Half lapping in my opinion will weaken your tie rafter. The Only Item of concern is your bolts look like they are low on your tie rafter and that could split the bottom of your rafter if enough weight is put on your shelf. The connectors (bolts) are holding shearing weight and they will hold more than you can put on that shelf.

Jim

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

Jim, if I were to raise them, would drilling another set of upper holes (one per joist) further weaken the joist? I’m all for moving them up if that would help with the survivablity.

-- Ned - 2B1ASK1 http://nedswoodshop.blogspot.com

Nice job.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

I have something similar to that in my garage (although I just use it for generic storage.
The difference, is I didn’t build entirely out of wood (Yeah, I know. GASP!). For the “hangers”, I found these nice things online (stumbled across em and thought “dang, I could use a set of those). Just strung some long pieces of OSB between em & BANG, it’s a hangin shelf.

QuickShelf.com