By signcraft
Posted on Wednesday, February 19th, 2020
Our recent feature, Build one of these handy racks to store sheet goods, brought us more great designs for sheet goods storage racks. No matter how large or small your shop may be, one of the designs in this article or the previous one will help you tame your sheet goods. A rack lets you quickly check your substrate inventory, saving time and reducing clutter.
Shane Phillips, Pro Sign, Cookeville, Tennessee:
“The footprint of this storage rack is 4-ft. wide and 8-ft. deep, and it stands 9-ft. tall. The bottom right bin holds 4x8s on edge, and you can slide a 10-footer in there if needed. The bottom left bin held panels up to 5-ft. tall or wide.
“The top right holds 3×4 pieces. Beyond this bin is a section that holds pieces up to 2×4 and is accessed from the right side. The top left bin holds pieces up to 3×8 feet. The small bin at the very top left is for fiberglass rods, EMT and other long rounds.
“Being a small custom shop, I didn’t carry much extra stock. Full sheets usually left with the next job. Although small pieces didn’t take up much space, they were used in a variety of ways: added dimensional layers, jigs, templates, deadmen for installations, etc.
“The rack was easily built from 2x4s and used crating plywood. It was compact, inexpensive and we never lost a board.”
Rob Skelton, Fantastic Signs, New Smyrna Beach, Florida:
“Our version of a better mousetrap is super easy to load/unload and rolls easily anywhere it is needed (or out of the way!) with almost no effort. This one holds 4×8 sheets, but it can easily be scaled to size or length. You could also build multiple units and use them for various substrates.”
Tom Pike, Sign Masters, St. Paul, Indiana:
“I recently built a wall-mounted rack to handle my extra pieces of everything. It can handle full sheets and anything down to very small scraps. I have tried using warehouse shelving units and I still have one, but I cannot get things I need out unless I unload the whole shelf.
“I made this rack using a 2-in.-square sign post and two 32-in.-long pieces of steel for the sides to hinge it off of the wall. I ran an e-track ratchet tie-down strap through the pipe. The tie-down is attached to e-track steel track on the 2×4 shop wall. (The e-track system is used for tiedowns inside a trailer, but you can improvise if you want.) The sign post is 98-in. long so that the tie-down does not get caught on the ends of the 8-ft. sheets.
“With the post on a 32-in. hinge point, we make sure that we have a panel that is at least 36-in. high in the front of the stack. With the ratchet loosened the post leans out, and we can just go through all the pieces easily.
“When done, we just lift or ratchet the rack back up straight. We’ve had nothing warp from being stored on end.”
