Readers Best Lumber Racks

To Tom Whalley of central Iowa, organization equals time saved. So he sorts his lumber by type of wood and thickness. He stores scrap pieces on the left wall and big boards on the right. "When I need a chunk of wood, I can see at a glance just what I have on had so I don't have to waste a trip to the mill," he says.

Plywood and other sheets goods populate this mobile rack. Tom separates each section by size The shelves support smaller pieces: the middle divider not only supports larger sheet goods but also separates front from back.

Most of the wood Dave Knau uses is salvaged. "You'd be amazed how much lumber is around!" he marvels. "People will just give it away when they know you're a woodworker." The trick is storing it-that's where this 21' wall comes in handy.

Instead of building their portable sheet-goods rack with two sloping sides, as most plans call for, Wayne and David Southard made one side perpendicular to the floor so they could store the rack flush against the wall.

Leland built two lumber racks: one for longer boards and the other, shorter rack along the adjacent wall for holding 3⁄4" material, as well as shorter pieces. Having learned the hard way what happens when you don't attach uprights to studs, Leland now knows to carefully seek them out before hanging anything bearing weight.

Jeff Tobert used uprights with angled holes to support short lengths of pipes to support this shop stock.

Sammy had too many plywood sheets taking up too much space in his shop. So he created a portable plywood cart that not only moves easily on casters but also lets him load and unload sheets without difficulty, thanks to the rollers on each end.

Chris Finnerty liked WOOD magazine's roll-around plywood cart, but the original's one-sided design handled—as its name implied-plywood only. He came up with an alteration that made the unit even more versatile. "Basically I did a mirror image of the ends and flopped the two halves, then made the lip on the bottom of the plywood side 6" wide instead of 4" so you could carry more sheet goods," he says.

No space goes to waste in Keith Robison's New York shop. Keith used the limited space under the stairs to the second level to sticker part of his lumber collection.

An admitted wood junkie, Keith has dozens of species of wood stacked all around his shop. These shelves under the loft stairs hold short stock and turning blanks. "It really helps me to see what's there, and I can get what I want without have to dig around for it."

The original plan Ed Walker used to build this rolling lumber rack called for an overall length of 6'. Ed stretched it to 7', added a row of bins on top for tools, screws, and clamps upgraded the swivel caster to 4", and redesigned it to incorporate additional storage for short stock in the center.