Wood storage in the shop.

[chopnhack]

I was wondering how everyone handles their lumber storage needs. Specifically, when you store your lumber, do you sticker or not? I am not talking about drying, but store bought lumber that you intend to use in the next year or two or three ... how do you store it?

p.s. - I am currently other with lumber "stored" everywhere and any which way....

[cwsmith]

My basement shop is relatively small, consisting of two rooms with a wide door joining them. Total space is about 23 x 11. During the summer months it's very humid and during the winter its quite dry. I use a dehumidifier and try to keep the humidity in the vicinity of 50-60%.

In one room I have my RAS and drill press and compressor set up along with tool storage. In the other, is where I stack the wood, keep my folding tables, router table, and BT3100. I have to move things around, fold up the tables when I want to use the BT.

So I keep my wood purchases to a dozen or so boards at a time, usually 1 x 10 x 8 and then rip whatever widths I need using my BT3100-1

I store them against one wall, supported about 18-inches off the floor and sticker each board using simple 3/4 x 3/4 x 12 or so. These are simply trim cuttings that I've re-sawn into 3/4" width to make them square.

I store them in a couple of plastic paint cans with the metal rims cut off.

Because the shop is small, I usually work back and forth between folding benches... taking the stock from it's primary storage position, moving it to one table for sanding and then I stack the finished stock on the next table, each time stickering it.

Absorption and drying seem to be fairly consistant and since I started using stickers, I find I have a lot less cupping.

CWS

[RAFlorida]

I had to go "other",

because my shop's only 10' x 20' and we buy only what we need to do the project at hand. If only LOML would've listened to me years ago and let me invest in a larger shop, groan.

Roger

[garymuto]

I use a Triton Lumber rack. I stand the narrow (<6") boards on end and the wider boards have to be flat.

[cabinetman]

All stored lumber should be stickered whether it's KD, within MC, or drying. Space can be a problem.
.

[bruce hylton]

I just have a large mess with most of what is in the shop standing on end.

[natausch]

I don't sticker due to space limitations, but I do take one step closer to compuslive behavior and wrap each level in the rack in platic painters tarp, sealed with duct tape.

[atgcpaul]

I buy mostly shorts (6') and they go on a wall rack without stickers. Longer
boards and slabs (>8') are standing up against the wall.

I bought 100bf of freshly milled white oak a few years ago and it was drying
on a flat surface outside with stickers between them. I've brought about 1/3
of it inside last spring and it's on the wall rack with stickers.

Yes, I should sticker everything but I just don't. I don't have a jointer so I
buy the flattest lumber I can. I cut out the really bad spots on the chop saw
before running them through the planer which does a good job and then I
straight line rip and edge using a jig on my TS.

[pelligrini]

I built a 5' wide addition on the side of my 10x12 shed for storage (sure wish I made it taller). The exterior of the shop wall has adjustable metal shelving brackets 24" oc (corresponding with the studs). I should have gone with a wood storage system like a triton, but the brackets from HD were cheaper. The cheaper brackets are a little taller, so I did loose some storage area. Most wood on the brackets gets stickered. I have a bucket of maple strips that came from the tongues and grooves ripped from a mess of reclaimed maple flooring. They're about an 1/8" x 1/4". Stickers get placed about 12" oc, one over the support bracket and another mid span.

Big sheet goods get stored upright on the opposite wall. The end wall has smaller sheet goods and short wide boards stored vertically and perpendicular to the wall for easier access and selection.

The space in between receives my sawhorses, outfeed tables, shop vac, etc at the end of a session.

I have a some more storage inside the shop over the doors. These shelves hold smaller boards up to 24" to 36" in length. I didn't bother stickering any of this as it was too hard to get the stickers under the boards.

[steve-norrell]

I don't have a lot of room for storage of wood so I try to buy only what I need for a specific project. When I have extra, I store it on racks suspended from the ceiling. It is very rare that more than two or three boards are stacked one upon the other.

Regards, Steve

[dbhost]

Right now most of my lumber is just in a giant pile on the floor, some stood on end between the wall and the garage door track. I have the material to build a rack now, but most of the offending lumber is leaving my shop quickly and becoming a fence anyway... Once that is done, the occupied wall gets electrified and insulated, the tools moved over, the other wall insulated, and THEN I mount up the lumber racks...

FWIW, my "lumber rack" will be Closetmaid heavy duty shelf standards and brackets. I got them on clearance at Lowes dirt cheap. Same stuff I paid a LOT more for to build my bench top tool rack... Ugh!

[natausch]

By the way, Woodcraft has a 20% off deal on a different style (galvanized steel) rack system. I picked up 3 6' straps and 9 14" brackets (150lbs per bracket at end load) for $60 shipped when combining the free shipping and $15 off $75 coupon for this month.

[smorris]

I sticker all my lumber. I also sticker milled parts if they are going to sit overnight or longer. Overkill, perhaps, but I haven't had any parts cup or twist due to having one side sit flat on a surface.

[jabe]

I sticker whenever possible. But I usually buy only what I can use so less clutter in my work area.

[atgcpaul]

By the way, Woodcraft has a 20% off deal on a different style (galvanized steel) rack system. I picked up 3 6' straps and 9 14" brackets (150lbs per bracket at end load) for $60 shipped when combining the free shipping and $15 off $75 coupon for this month.

Yep. I got some, too. With the coupon, they're cheaper than the Closetmaid stuff but the Woodcraft brackets aren't rated as strong as the Closetmaid. I think CM brackets will fit the WC standards and vice versa.

I always do a quick check on Craigslist for them.