Lumber Rack

Well I’ve been laying low the past few months with a back and an associated Achilles problem. Still not there yet, but I had enough lying around so I decided to get up off the couch and build a lumber rack to get the pile of cherry lumber up off the floor.

This is the basement portion of a pretty good sized 3 season porch. Makes for great storage, easy access to a hallway leading to the shop through the door on the right. To the far right is a set of french doors to the outside for easy loading and unloading of materials.

Lumber rack is 2”x4”x8’ pine with 3/4” x 16” EMT Conduit. I did rip the 2×4’s down to 3” thick for no particular reason other than I didn’t want that extra 1/2”. Holes for the EMT were bored with a 1” forstner bit at a 5° angle, 2 5/8” deep. Probably should of gone with a bit steeper angle as with a 1” hole you do loose a little of that 5° with a sloppy fit. Top of the 2×4 is lagged into the header above and 3 lags with lead wedges hold it onto the cinder block wall.

Picture #2 (sorry for the quality, just taken with my phone) shows all the cherry lumber in the rack. Our company has a sister company that does tree work. Occasionally I get to pick thru some nice logs that come in, thus a lot of cherry lumber.

Picture #3 so mostly everything in it’s place. I need a few more EMT pieces to fill out the rack so I can throw some other odd ball pieces up on the rack as well.

I have extra pieces already milled/drilled to add onto the left side, if the log pile ever gets used or moved. As it sits right now, I have roughly 14’ of wall space to use and another 2’ or so to add on some day.

Materials cost me around $140. (Another $10 or so some day when I finish the rest to the left).

-- Jim, Michigan