As I mentioned in my previous post, I was working on a lumber rack. I found the plans over at OneProjectCloser. It was, in fact, my first real project made largely with my ShopSmith. It's a simple design made from roughly one-and-a-half sheets of 3/4" plywood; I scored a good deal on some cabinet-grade plywood, and used that.
The rack uses two French cleats mounted on the wall, on which hang a series of joists with horizontal arms at three levels for holding lumber and sheet goods. This set-up is incredibly strong!
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| One yeti per upright! |
I am not a small guy, and there wasn't any creaking or flexing. As you can see, the floor looks nice and clean. Fortunately, you cannot see my driveway, where everything got moved to so I could mount the rack to the wall!
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| Loaded up! |
Next up: The workbench!
I did learn some very valuable lessons on this project!
- Since I don't have any outfeed support, the long rip cuts were done with a guide and a circular saw.
- When making beveled rip cuts (the wall cleats for this project), it's important to pay attention to which face of the board the width measurement is made on. I originally had the measurement on the back (wall-facing) side, and ended up with cleats about 2-inches to wide. A simple fix, but time lost nonetheless.
- A jig-saw is a useful tool! I did not have one for this project, and had to cut the slots in the vertical joists by hand. Mostly with a coping saw. That was not fun, and there were a lot of irregularities. Some rasping, filing, and sanding made them pretty much ok, though!
- A tapering jig would have made the arms much easier and more regular. I used some trigonometry to figure out what the angle should be, and used the miter gauge. This was not particularly safe, I have learned, and I will not do it again. Also, the cuts were somewhat irregular, but that was not critical for this project.
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