Most economical way to get new shelving

[BoomerangInfo]

Hi all,

After 4 years, I've decided it's time to actually setup my shed properly :)

At the moment, I've got wood sitting in the floor, PowerBooks in random cardboard boxes, and other odds and ends in large plastic containers. I have a 6x9 shed, 3m high, and I basically want to line the walls with shelving from 450-900mm wide, 1.5-2.4m long, and either 900mm or 2.4m high, depending on the function in the various spots.

I've been doing up my floor plan, and am now thinking about materials. Given I was wanting customization to my specs, I was just going to go with 70x35mm pine studs for the frames, and mdf/particle board/ply for the shelves, depending what was cheapest.

But as it looks like the costs are adding up, as I could have 50+ meters of shelf space to setup, I was wondering if those who have lots of experience in this area could suggest more economical, yet sturdy bench/shelf construction or purchase methods. I want something solid. I've had those cheap tinfoil Dexion shelves before, and am not interested in having them fall over on me again.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks. Russell.

[Robson Valley]

Forget most of the shelving, your timber can support itself quite nicely with just the shelf brackets. If you make the brackets out of the same pine stud stock, you're done!
Of course the First Law of New Sheds is that there is never enough shelving.

[Ashore]

I build a lot of mine with qubelok from Caprel al
http://www.spacepac.com.au/Brochures/Shelving/Qubelok/Aluminium_Tube_and_Nylon_Joints_3pg_np.pdf
If you prefer a cheeper option as was suggested by another forum member go to your local motorbike shops and ask them for the racks the bikes are shipped in when the come to australia, There good steel and with an angle grinder and a cheap welder your away :2tsup:

[BoomerangInfo]

Forget most of the shelving, your timber can support itself quite nicely with just the shelf brackets. If you make the brackets out of the same pine stud stock, you're done!
Of course the First Law of New Sheds is that there is never enough shelving.

Yeah guess that's true for construction timber, but I also do pens, intarsia and scrollwork, so need somewhere to stick the small pieces too. I can leave off one set of shelves though.

[RufflyRustic]

i set up 3 x trition wood racks in my shed (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f40/latest-shed-developments-75053/). Perhaps you could set up something similar.

[BoomerangInfo]

i set up 3 x trition wood racks in my shed (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f40/latest-shed-developments-75053/). Perhaps you could set up something similar.

That looks good, but it looks like more work than wooden shelves :) Where do you get the racks from? Do bunnings have them, or are they speciality items?

Russell.

[RufflyRustic]

I got the racks from bunnies just before triton went out of business. You may find some around for sale in various places and shops and online, but you'd have to hunt for them.

They were a bit of work to set up, but well worth the effort.

It's the idea of shelving/racks like that that I'm hoping you will consider. Another forumite used pipe for the racks and sturdy hardwood for the uprights for his woodrack.

cheers
W

[BoomerangInfo]

I guess my main concern is whether the shed frame is string enough to handle the weight, but at least it's a different option to consider.

The other thing I have to cater for is plywood sheeting, which needs something different if it's not cutup.

[BobL]

I guess my main concern is whether the shed frame is string enough to handle the weight, but at least it's a different option to consider.

The other thing I have to cater for is plywood sheeting, which needs something different if it's not cutup.

If you are worried about weight, make the shelving studs go all the way to the floor. Then you only need a relatively light fixing to the wall in a couple of places - the higher up the better. This is the method I'm currently using to make a metal holding rack made of steel strap and rod. I'll be posting a pic or two once I'm done.

A few weeks ago SWMBO asked me to install some shelving in a seatainer at her riding school. The condition was I could not drill into the seatainer as it was a leased. The only thing I had to hang onto were a set of small steel loops welded into the corner where the wall met the top of the seatainer. To install the shelves I first made a simple square frame consisting of a pair of 70 x 35 studs (that went all the way to the floor) and linked the studs to the steel loops with small shackles, and a pair of top and bottom cross pieces. The shelves are then attached to the studs but are not attached anywhere else to the seatainer. The shelves do lean out off the wall but to level them up I placed the bottom cross piece of the frame in between the seatainer wall and studs. The weight of studs/shelves and stuff on the shelves keeps the whole thing pretty stable.

Given you have the space (ha!) I would make a rack that allows you to hold the ply vertical so you can pull out the sheet you want. Storing it flat means packing and unpacking ie PITA

[opelblues]

hi, i had the same problem with shelving, the way i went is just waited until the likes of BigW, Coles, Woolworths do a refit. most times this framing goes to scrap metal merc. i picked up 5 uprights all the brace members and enough shelf brackets to do me for years. and they are load rated and they have feet on them that you can adjust. i spokr to the storeperson and the manager to do the right thing. and the cost was nada, nil, zero. i hope this helps

[damian]

Some of the comments above are about timber storage. If your anything like me very little of your storage challenge is about long thin easily stacked bits of wood.

Now take the following for what it's worth. I realise full well you may have different opinions and priorities than me.

Pine studs: Bunnings at booval regularly get failed studs in. They have some now that are $2.75 for 70x30x2400. They can't be used in house frames but are straight and sufficient for your use. About 1/3 the price of rated studs. Ring around local bunnings and timber yards to see if anything similar is in your area.

Damaged sheets or packing materials. Ask around larger factories in your area to se if they recieve goods packed in ply or mdf or chipboard. You won't get 8x4's but the pieces can be bent to many needs and they are usually happy not to have to pay to dump it.

Timber yards. Sometimes they have old stock, rejected or uncollected orders laying around.

Garage shelving can be furniture, but your title implies your willing to make some compromises to save. Garage fitout needs to be functional but needn't be pretty, YMMV...

2c

[Pat]

Triton Wood Rack (http://www.carbatec.com.au/triton-wood-rack-storage-system_c21650)

I have some timber in the new shed, under benches or the long lenghts go to the lean to against the garden shed. I have to replace the fence next to the new shed . . . a set of the above wood racks, some left over colourbond sheeting to keep some of the rain off the timber, a few 400*400 pavers for a floor, the new long lengths storage will be done . . . eventually:U

[BoomerangInfo]

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Being out near Warwick, theres not a lot of commercial places dumping stuff regularly, but I guess there should be some around. I'll try and keep an eye out.

[RufflyRustic]

If you are worried about weight, make the shelving studs go all the way to the floor. Then you only need a relatively light fixing to the wall in a couple of places - the higher up the better. This is the method I'm currently using to make a metal holding rack made of steel strap and rod. I'll be posting a pic or two once I'm done.
....

This is what I did too. ran the studs to the floor and fixed to the wall.:2tsup:


Oh Cool - Thanks Pat - geez, only $39 now?? I paid a fair bit more than that!!:cool:

[BobL]

[LEFT]BobL, please STOP building your racks/shelves NOW!! In all seriousness, I only have your safety in mind when I say this. I have some major concerns regarding your use of 50x5 flat (mild steel?) as a vertical stud.

You really need to look at it in the same manner as a house wall with timber studs. The strength and load carrying capacity is determined largely by the depth of the stud and not just the material it is made from.

A pair of 90x45 timber studs in a house wall are capable of supporting reasonably heavy weights because the down-force of the load is counter-acted through a 'section' that is 90mm deep(behind gyprock). It does not take a great weight to buckle a 'section' that is 5mm deep, regardless of the fact that it is steel.

Thanks for the concern and I am well aware of this problem and would hate anyone to get hurt by my design. Usually I tend to over engineering things with a very large safety margins but this time I guess I got a bit slack. To increase the safety margins, instead of just locating the strap behind the roof truss I have bolted the strap to the truss as shown in the attachment (white dots). This places the strap in tension as much as compression which will reduce the chance of buckling.

Just to set yours and my mind at easy I have done some test weigh ins. I weigh 125 kg and can hang from just one of the brackets with a slight flexing of the strap. Theoretically that means one level or 6 brackets should be able to hold 750 kg but there is no way I will be getting anywhere near this weight on any of those levels.

Anything really heavy is staying on the floor. Mostly I will be storing ally square and round tube and a few pieces of 1" SHS and 2" angle on these racks. I tend to buy stuff in 6 and 8 m lengths and that is stored under the house or at the local steel merchants and it's only the left overs from projects that end up on the rack.

RE: roof Truss. Don't worry although I can drive truss analysis software easily enough to work this out, I have 3 engineers in the family plus a heap of them at work to refer to and one of them has already given me plenty of advice.

BTW I based my design on a 45 year rack at work which uses 10 mm thick strap, and 3/4" rod for the brackets which are 600 mm apart and are dynabolted to brickwork. These brackets are braced underneath. The heaviest things they put on these racks is up to three 4" diam steel stock. This is a loading of ~100 kg per bracket which is less than my test weight so I figured 1/2" rod unbraced would be plenty for me especially if I placed some of the brackets closer together to hold the shorter stuff as these could also hold heavier stuff if i needed to.