Then we moved one of the kitchen base cabinets out to the garage…which eventually became my workshop area and general dump-everything space. Sigh.
After that hell-realization of my garage/workshop having been intruded-violated-theived, I began a furious double-reason attack on the space. First, the boxes under the bird nest were open, and contained lots of sharp pointy objects like circular saw blades. I had visions of little babies skewering themselves, oh, noes. Second, I wanted a full inventory of everything, just in case the sander was… somewhere. (It’s not.) In the meantime, I started organizing the stacks of wood by setting up wall shelves to hold all but the heaviest pieces…
And even though it seems like the shelves should hold, there were two problems. Okay, I admit, I kept waking up in the middle of the night whenever the house would settle, and I’d think: crap! the garage wall is about to come crashing down! And, all that wood on the walls — spaced out by dint of the brackets — meant pretty much little to no wall-space left for anything else… and I still hadn’t gotten the largest stack of wood up off the floor, nor had I figured out what I’d do with all the wood I’ve got that’s 2′ or less.
I was running out of room elsewhere, too, shoving stuff around to make room to open up boxes I’d not investigated since we moved, and trying to ‘place’ things according to their eventual destinations. But at least all the license plates are up, as befits a true garage.
And, too, I managed to clear out the floor around the bird nest, though plywood is acting as a visual barrier right now. After much contemplations, and hours of research for how other folks had done it, I finally stumbled across some guy named Bob. Now, Bob’s little geocities site has been gone for years, but one of the woodworking sites cached it. Glory be. I did the math, figured out how much room I have versus how much wood, where this freestanding lumber rack would fit, and here’s what I ended up with:
The verticals are spaced 2.5′ apart, for a full 5′ length. (The original was 12′, with verticals every 3′.) The little concrete ledge is 5′7″ deep, so I went with 5″ and tried to center it between back wall and edge; unfortunately, the stupid ceiling isn’t level (hah, hah, like it would be), so where the verticals ended up was as far into the garage as I could get them, and there’s still scrapes on the ceiling. Anyway, the verticals are set on edge, right at center point of a 2×4 as base, and another one at top — just like if I were doing a wall, but turned the studs 90deg.
The horizontals are also 2×4s, supported by 2×2 short pieces. I started with double lag bolts in each horizontal — two for each point of meeting a vertical. Then I got about three-quarters of the way through and discovered that… well, if you do shelves + 2×2 support, it comes to twelve lag bolts for each individual set (2 horizontals, two supports). Multiply by 3 for the number of vertical braces, and then by 7, the number of shelf-levels and… well, let’s just say it’s definitely over 200 lag bolts. Crap, because a box of 100 is $20. I was wondering if I’d overengineered, but Bob’s original picture had double-lag bolts, so that’s what I’d done…
Here’s a closer look at the system:
The short pieces attached to the base, along the left, are to support plywood that will be slid between the rack and the back of the workbench. (Plywood must be kept either perfectly flat, or perfectly vertical, or it’ll warp.) That way, the plywood won’t be in touch with the concrete, either — concrete+wood=bad. Bob probably has either a much larger workspace, or the entire garage to himself (or just a boatload of wood), so his design was 16″ space between the two vertical sets, with the horizontals cantilevered out another 12″ on either side. (Maybe that’s why his pictures show double lag bolts in each horizontal-meets-vertical point. Dunno.) I don’t have that much room, nor that much wood, so I went with 14″ interior shelf depth, and 7″ cantilever. (The very top shelf cantilever is 16″, for the few pieces I have that are 15″ or more in width.)
I predrilled the holes & set the pieces in place. Then I used a nifty drill-attachment to powerdrive the bolts home. (No way was I going to do all those with just a rachet, people. I’m crazy. I’m not stupid.) Put the next set of horizontals in place, pre-drill, bolt, move along. Plus, this time I even went ahead and cut all parts ahead of time, so I moved at a much faster pace than I’d expected. After a few hours climbing the rack like a demented monkey (and even after taking it down to a single bolt per upright, it was still solid and unmoving), I finally got everything in place and could start loading it up!
That, my friends, is a lot of wood in a very small space (easily more than 100 board feet, in a space about 2′ by 5′, not counting overhang at the end for the few 8′ boards). And it’s not even including the boards I’ll add in the morning, from the last stack, which are the extra-heavy stairsteps my grandfather saved. Plus, I’ve got about five boxes of wood that’s 2′ or less — still working on how to store those, but the rack has room, no doubt.
Total materials:
2 boxes 1/4″ lag bolts, $20 each
8 2×2s, approx $2.3 each
21 2×4s, approx $2 each (for some reason, Lowes is $2.3 while Home Depot is $1.7, so I’m averaging at $2)
I think those are the numbers. Don’t have them right here, but when I added up cost (not including rachet bit, since that’ll be reused), it came to $100 for the entire rack. Not too bad, I suppose.
Next up: lockable cabinet where I can store all power tools, along with about 10′ or more o’ pegboard, so I can have everything out and visible, instead of rummaging through drawers and poking myself on random screws and chisels and whatnot. I’m considering a wall-unit that unfolds in some way, so I can both close & lock it, and so when it’s closed it’s not taking up as much space.
At some point around then, I expect, will be when we get new garage door (with automatic opener so CP can come & go without having to push bike out, close door, then ride off, let alone sit bike outside while he comes inside, opens garage door and then pushes bike in) — and a new back garage door. This one won’t be no hollow-core; it’ll be steel, with a window, and a screen door! Yippee. I’ll be able to prop the door open on nice days, and see the backyard, instead of all the ogling assholes who like to drive past the dead-end sign only to act surprised that, gee, look Bernice, it’s a dead-end! — at which point they turn around, and they always slow down to look at me and my garage and what I’m doing and my house and my yard, like I’m frickin Dead End Street Free Entertainment, and maybe it’s just me, but it sure feels like the look you get when you’re being scoped out. Ya know what? Not interested.
But a backdoor being open — because there are fumes from wood dyes & stains, and that whole sawdust issue — is far more pleasant a view than the open garage and ogling sign-disbelievers, anyway.
All that said, if you’ve been wondering, never fear. There is still room for the Harley, despite the chaos of reorganizing…
And when I’m done, the space right now being taken up by ladder, large trash bag, various plywood, etc — will be just the right size for a second bike. Hrm, funny how that works out.
Tagged: organization, structural design, workshop