I just expanded my workshop, and am dedicating an 8' wall to a lumber rack. I put in two extra studs, one stud width apart, so I could trap a 2x4 arm in between them. So, with two of those, and 3 single studs; how much weight can it hold?
Yeh I know, way too vague for an answer; but 10 board feet, 50 board feet
250 board feet? Those of you with similar racks should have some idea.
I was thinking of nailing arms to the side walls as well, and connecting all the arms with another 2x4 across the ends, but that might be overkill? Or not?
I made mine by not cantilevering the arms, but by including four 2 x 4 uprights with 3 box frames attached to both the uprights and the stud walls, you can see this by examining one of the pictures on my shop page: (back of the eighth "after modifications" picture). This arrangement currently is holding on the order of 500 BF of assorted woods. I really need to take a better picture of the rack and add it to the site. Upsides of this arrangement: 1. It adds additional storage space that you wouldn't have with cantilevered beams. Note the saw, jigs, and broom hanging from the uprights. Underneath the bottom box frame, I have suspended metal brackets to hold pipe, trim, and other sundry small pieces up from the floor. The floor is used to store some 4 x 4 beams (for which warp and twist aren't an issue), a floor jack, and other items not affected by storage on concrete. 2. There is more support for the lumber, I did this on 16" centers (I think), so rather than a couple of cantilever beams, I have a pretty good amount of support.
Downside of this arrangement: You make all of your lumber pulls by removing the lumber from the ends, not by lifting straight off the cantilevers.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough
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I have the wood arranged in the vertical position so support doesn't have to be strong at all. This also has the advantage over horizontal in that you don't have to remove the wood from the top in order to get at that one piece laying on the bottom.
Yeh, I can't do that; I have to take it off the side. However I will be supporting the ends, so mine ought to be 2/3rds as strong, and 250 bf is probably enough for me. Thanks; nice looking shop.
If it's going to be on concrete, be sure to put a piece of plywood or the like down. Otherwise the wood may wick moisture up from the concrete and twist/warp.
I know this is a little obvious, but vertical storage limits you to the height of your ceiling (about 8 or 9 feet in my case), while horizontal storage can accommodate lumber as long as your longest (unbroken) wall (20+ feet in my case).
Turns out I am overbuilding it horribly. I have 6 supports, two them them tied to the walls. A single center support can support my weight; so I figure all six ought to be good for almost a ton. I suppose something would fail if I tried to load the 5 shelves with 5 tons of wood, but since my estimated load is about one tenth of that...
My rack is simply 2x4's ripped in half, and crosscut to about 16-18".
Each "arm" then has a triangular 3/4" C/D plywood stiffener glued and screwed to each side. The stiffeners are about 4" wide at one end, tapering to the width of the ripped 2x4, and 3 1/2" longer than the arm. The stiffener allows the arm to mount to 2x4's (spaced 16" apart) run from the floor to the ceiling joists of my basement shop.
Since all of the force is down and away from the concrete wall, it's very easy to attach the stringers to the sides of the joists with bolts and construction adhesive.
The rack took no more than one evening to construct and is dead stable.
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