Shop plan: storage
Saturday July 12th, 2003

Now that I've managed to get my shop cleaned and organized (see my tour), it's time to start thinking about the future. By this, I mean that I need to analyze what I need out of my workshop and how I plan to achieve it. First step is storage.

Since I recently purchased a large load of lumber (and I already have a pretty good supply for the projects I've got in the works) I am in desperate need of lumber storage.

Current Storage

At the moment I have a rack behind my workbench (corner 1 in the tour), which will hold roughly 100bf  in 8' lengths.  It will also hold 30-50bf of shorts - 36" or shorter.  I also have a small space that will hold ~10 2x4 plywood sheets (not visible). There is space under the stairs, but it is poorly utilized. It has 200bf laying on the floor, but the rest of the space is unused. I could stack a lot of stock in there, but getting to the stuff on the bottom would be tiresome. In the storeroom (upper right corner) I store sheet goods and other stock of various lengths- leaning against a wall. It is fairly difficult to get at the back sheets and a lot of space is wasted (corner 3 in the tour).

Future Storage

My first step will be to add some racks to the storeroom for more efficient stock storage. 1) left wall: a floor-to-ceiling rack for holding boards up to 8 feet long. My estimate is that this will hold ~450bf with optimal usage...probably 300bf in practice. 2) right wall: a two-part sheet-goods rack. The front part will hold large sheets (up to 4x8'). It will swing out to allow the sheets to slide out from the end into the working area of the shop. This will allow instant access to each sheet without moving the others. Inspiration for this rack came from a magazine, but I can't recall which one - possibly ShopNotes. Behind this swinging section there will be two areas for 2x4' sheets stored on end between 2x6" studs. There would be one more area...but I have to work around the electrical distribution box. It will hold 7 4x8' sheets and 14 2x4' sheets. 3) right wall: above the sheet-goods rack I will add more racks for board stock up to 6 feet in length. I think it will hold about 120bf, optimally. 4) under stairs: A series of racks, accessible from the door under the stairs, will allow storage of stock of various lengths. The bottom will hold longer stock (up to 8'). Each section above will hold progressively shorter stock. On the downside, only the ends of the boards will be visible. On the upside, it should provide an excellent storage are for scraps, since different lengths can easily be sorted and located.