# Stand alone wood rack and shelves - design help



## buktotruth (Nov 15, 2010)

Hi everyone,

I'm in desperate need of a wood rack and some shelves for organizing my basement shop. I want to keep this build rather simple as it will strictly be a functional product (no need for outstanding aesthetics in my basement), so the plan is to do this all out of 2' x 4's and left over 3/4"plywood. I put together a basic model in sketchup (attached) but have a few questions.

First, some limitations:

1. I have a low ceiling, so my max height for this rack is 69" (i'm squeezing it under a heating vent).
2. The width is constrained to just under 8' (plenty of room for most of the lumber I buy)
3. I'd like to stick with basic construction to get this done quickly. So, wood screws are my main form of joinery (though I can adjust as suggested).
4. The unit has to be stand alone for a number of reasons related to the layout of my basement and so it will not be attached to any walls. Theoretically, I could screw it down to the concrete floor, but I’d rather not do that if possible.
5. The top two “shelves” will be for lumber and the bottom two will be for loose items and some smaller power tools (circular saw, jigsaw, sanders, etc…). So, this will need to support a fair amount of weight, but not a ton.

My questions:
1. As you can see in the images and model, my main risers and feet are made of two 2x4s joined together (or, I can grab some 4x4s). Is this overkill? Will a single 2x4 hold the load okay? If I need the 4x4 strength, any tips on joining two 2x4 beams? I was thinking of simply screwing them together with 3” wood screws.
2. I’m using 45 degree angled support beams to hold everything in place. I’ve designed it so that all the supports are identical to make the build simpler. Is this sufficient, or should I add some metal reinforcement?
3. I’d like to build the four vertical structures (vertical risers, feet, shelf racks, supports) as individual units and then attach them together with some kind of cross beam structure (I just have 5 2x4s in various places holding it all together right now). This will hopefully again make the build easy as it will be all repetitive and uniform. So my question is, is this a good idea? 
4. Related to the last point, my biggest unknown is about the cross beams that hold the four vertical pillars together. Is that enough support? Should I have diagonal braces as well? I’m clueless on this one.

Thank you for any help you can give! I’m in “shop organization” mode right now, and having this build will be a huge help.
-Jeff


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## ScottyB (Mar 1, 2009)

I am no engineer but I do like to pretend. It does seem to me that you would be better served by rotating your risers 90 degrees. You could even sandwich your risers around the shelf supports. It would be easier to build and give you better strength, or at least, that is how I see it. Whether it will hold the load you want, I don't know.


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## buktotruth (Nov 15, 2010)

ScottyB said:


> I am no engineer but I do like to pretend. It does seem to me that you would be better served by rotating your risers 90 degrees. You could even sandwich your risers around the shelf supports. It would be easier to build and give you better strength, or at least, that is how I see it. Whether it will hold the load you want, I don't know.


Great point. I think that would definitely add some strength.


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## SteveEl (Sep 7, 2010)

Depending on what you put where, beware of toploading. I tied mine to a couple of 1st floor joists just to give some anti tipping help.


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## buktotruth (Nov 15, 2010)

SteveEl said:


> Depending on what you put where, beware of toploading. I tied mine to a couple of 1st floor joists just to give some anti tipping help.


Unfortunately, that's not really an option since right above it is a heat duct.


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## Adillo303 (Dec 20, 2010)

Wood storage is / was my first up project. I aecured two 10 foot pieces of Kindorf. to my garage ceiling. I ran them at a 90 degree angle to the ceiling joists and used a 1/4 inch lag bolt and a fender washer to secure it to every joist that it crossed. From the Kindorf on the cieling I used threaded rod to make cross pieces that ran parallel to the joists and at a 90 degree angle to the first kindorf. It will hold a tremdous amount of weight and by using threaded rod and more Kindorf, you can accommodate all sorts of needs.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

Quite a few ideas here: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...sa=1&q=wood+storage+rack&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=


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## buktotruth (Nov 15, 2010)

First of all, thank you everyone for your suggestions! I did some redesigning and spent the weekend putting the wood rack together.

The sketchup file is attached for those that are interested. 

Slooooowwwwly the shop is coming together. Next up is an outfeed/assembly table. More on that soon.


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## Firewalker (Jan 3, 2011)

That's pretty fantastic! Well done!:thumbsup:


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