As things slowly settle inside the house I am turning my attention to the shop.  The garage is kind of a messy puzzle.  You have to put something away so you can make space to put more things away.  I was going to make some sort of vertical wood storage, but wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it.  Instead I found a good space that would support traditional horizontal storage.

I found Lowe’s has a line of Blue Hawk (store brand) brackets and shelving that was pretty affordable, came with a weight rating, and was thinner vertically than the Closetmaid option.  I cleaned out a corner of the shop and found a set of studs I could sink the brackets into.  This will mostly cover up the window, but it has dark tint and blinds so it wasn’t being used for light anyways.

I started filling up the rack and was pretty happy with my new setup.  This handles boards from 30 inches to 10 feet pretty well.  Shorter pieces don’t stack well and offer a different challenge.  I decided to build something extra for below the main rack.  I have traditionally put shorter cut off pieces into 5 gallon buckets, and let them pile up under foot.  I came up with something that makes good use of the dead space under the wall rack.

This was done with a single sheet of 3/4″ plywood, but you could make two out of a sheet of 3/4 and a sheet of 1/2″ and get the price down a little.  The uprights are 23×23″, the shelves are 15″ wide and 30″ long installed at 35 degrees, and the back that runs across the storage unit is a full 48″ wide and 12″ tall. The diagram below shows how I cut it out of a 4×8 sheet.

There is a little bit of scrap left over, but not a ton.  Depending on your available space, you could adjust the angles and make it hold more or less materials.  This design lets me store a stack 10″ tall before it interferes with the lowest horizontal rack.  It accommodates anything up to about 34 inches, but at that length, it should go on the big rack.

I cut everything out and assembled one side to the back to start with.  I then went ahead and put pocket holes in all the “shelves”.  That let me screw them in horizontally to the uprights from underneath.

I worked from left to right installing one shelf, then another upright on and on.  The shelves got a little higher with each one, the first is 35 degrees, the last is probably more like 40.  I should have stuck a layout line on each upright to keep things on track.  Still, the assembly is very sturdy and fits where I need it to.  I added plastic furniture gliders to the bottom so the plywood doesn’t sit in direct contact with the floor and I can slide it out easily.

I had thrown out a lot of scrap before moving and threw out more stuff that wasn’t worth keeping before filling this up.  PVC and other non-wood related items go in a bucket, but everything else gets a cubby.  Most have a left and right divide of wood species.  I might work out some moving divider later on.

The horizontal racks are mostly organized by wood species.  This is way cleaner and more efficient than what I had at the last garage.  My previous home made brackets were much taller and didn’t allow as much storage space.  I need another space for sheet goods, but this should cover the rest.  Hopefully I can stay disciplined in my buying and keep my collection to within the confines of this rack area.