Wood rack on block walls

Jeff Horton

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Looking for ideas on how to attach a wood rack, could be heavily loaded at times. To a concrete (cinder) block wall.

I have used tapcon screws for a lot things and really impressed with them. But I don't think I would trust on them on a wood rack. I am leaning toward toggle bolts. But still looking at the moment.
 
I use 1/4" toggle bolts. As a matter of fact, I just bought a new Rigid 1/2" hammer drill to drill the holes. It requires a 3/4" bit. I am getting ready to hang my DC, and need to bolt a stud wall to the concrete block in my basement.
 
I don't like the idea of drilling into block. I'm sure its done all the time but I'd rather not do it all the same. A while ago a fellow was looking for ways to hang cabinets in a basement shop and he didn't want to drill holes either. I sketched out the following for him. In that case it was a french cleat system hanging from vertical members that are both hooked over the top of the wall and also screwed or bolted to the joists above.

basementwall.jpg


For a lumber rack maybe you would run the verticals to the floor and perhaps there'd be another set of them out away from the wall a bit tied to the ones against the wall so they couldn't/wouldn't buckle outward.

Or maybe you could get by with a single anchor at the mid point into the wall.

p.s. pardon the block wall texture. I didn't notice it was wrong when I applied it and didn't bother going back to fix it. ;)
 
I've always used the old stand-by lead anchors for heavy stuff. I started using Tapcons for cabinets etc. My rack which holds mostly smaller pieces of stock and my miter saw is comprised of the heavy adjustable shelf brackets. The stanchions are mounted with lead anchors.

FWIW,
Wes
 
I have a unusual area I want to put mine. Dave, I was at first thinking 4x4's with pipe. Attaching them to the joists and resting on the floor similar to what you show. Then I found a rack I like and I have the lumber in the barn so I can build it free.

I have long outfeed tables at the RAS and lots of space on the wall that is wasted. I want to put them there. Will get some photos and scan a photo of the rack I want to build. It will help make sense of what I need. I probably can reinforce the table and let it rest on there, but the joists don't line up like I would like. And I want some shorter rack over the saw, so I have work around that. Photos will follow latter on today.
 
I think you would be best suited by building a wood rack that is supported by the floor and use the wall as a means to stabilize or secure in place. In other words, make it reach the floor and support the weight and then bolt it to the wall to keep it from falling over or collapsing
 
I think you would be best suited by building a wood rack that is supported by the floor and use the wall as a means to stabilize or secure in place. In other words, make it reach the floor and support the weight and then bolt it to the wall to keep it from falling over or collapsing

I'm with Bill. Holding something still takes much less effort that holding something up. We all hate to give up the floor space but sometimes it is the best solution.
 
This is the rack I am thinking of building, it's from Wood magazine. They show being able to put the arms in every 6" inches or so and that seems ridiculously close to me. Looks like you might get 3 boards on each one, so I will spread out the spacing to something more practical.

rack.jpg

I have roughly four foot on the left side of the saw. Roughly eight foot on the right side. I will let the wood overlap the upper half of the windows to gain longer board storage space. I want to add shorter racks on either side of the RAS I want the racks to go to or near to the ceiling. I can stand on the tables and access the wood near the ceiling no problem

shopr-rack1.jpg shopr-rack2.jpg


It's not practical for me to run this to the floor because of the outfeed tables. I could reinforce the outfeed tables with additional legs at the rear and let the racks rest of the tables. Again, not my first choice even though I don't have any intentions of moving these. This is the only long space I had, so it's staying.

I just had a thought. I could run the racks, just shy of the table. Add some wedge shaped shims under them and just tap them in place.. That way if I ever needed to adjust a table, replace the top or what ever I could remove the wedges and then the tables, leaving the rack in place..

I could move the table and saw out form the wall, but that would leave a space for 'stuff' to fall behind the tables. That tables are bolted to the saw frame. So it's not an easy job to move these. Not to mention all the wood stored in there that would have to be removed.
 
Jeff,
Why not go with the Wood magazine plan, with Dave's attachment method? That would solve some of the issues with your tables, yet still allow the majority of the weight to be held by the structure above versus the anchors in the wall.

Just a thought,
Wes
 
Wes, I thought of that and it may be the best answer. But the spacing of the joists is not the best. They fall in the the wrong places. But again, it may be the best idea.
 
Oh, you did mention that before didn't you.:eek: And to think I'm helping my son learn how to read!:eek:

Good luck on the project Jeff,
Wes
 
jeff, cantilevering weight off hollow cinderblock walls isn`t the best idea......if the walls have been corefilled then it might be an option?....if i where you i`d be looking at another alternative.
 
Not that this will help with the anchoring but recently I saw something about a wood rack that was real interesting. For the "shelves" they used pipe. There is a fixture (don't know the name) that is designed to screw onto a flat surface and then screw pipe into. This person mounted it behind the 2x6 he used for the back support with the female part of the screw sticking through the wood. Then he screwed in pipe for supports. The neat part of this from my perspective is that he then put PVC over the pipe (id of the PVC slightly larger than the od of the pipe and then capped the pipe. Makes for a very sturdy support when the 2x6 is anchored to the wall and makes for VERY easy sliding of wood onto and off the supports. YMMV
 
Chip, lots of variations on that one. The simplest is taking 4x4, Attach it to a floor joist over head while resting on the floor. Then drilling holes and sliding the pipe in. Good set up, just not going to work well where I want to put it. But I do like that set up. I just don't like where it would have to be put. I am trying to free that space up.
 
jeff, cantilevering weight off hollow cinderblock walls isn`t the best idea......[...] if i where you i`d be looking at another alternative.

(Starting from Dave Richards' rendering) Instead of hooking the "standards" over the cinder block wall, would it make sense to use hangman's-gallows-type cross braces from the rafters?

I realize that such braces would get in the way of putting long pieces of lumber on the upper shelves. (Now, that wouldn't be a problem for most turners. :D) Would it be sufficient to only have braces on the end-most standards? I suppose shorter braces for the middle standards would be better than nothing....
 
So Jeff, how much lumber are you planning to put on this rack? Like Bill and Glenn, I'd have some pretty serious reservations about trying to hang much weight as opposed to setting it on something solid.
 
i can`t wrap my head around the gallows idea:eek:.........but as a spinoff of daves drawing using baltic birch cut in an "L" shape to hang from the top of wall, laminated several layers thick with arms laminated at 90º for lumber might be a doable........i don`t know if this makes sence reading it?
 
Still reading and thinking. I REALLY want to put this over the saw.

John, load will vary but at times it could be a pretty big load. Of course it is spread out over all the arms. More arms less weight per.

Tod, I follow what your saying. Might be an option. Just a small space to work in. I keep thinking about a ledger board. Lots of achor's. A mostly shear force then. :dunno: Still thinking on this one.
 
remember that vibrating steel held in contact with a masonry structure will cause the masonry structure to fail......placing boards on a cantilevered arm that`s set into block with a steel anchor will cause vibration of the anchor that will wear away at the block...failure is a matter of when not if.

[edit] if you want to use an anchor in shear in masonry construction the lead drive-in type will help reduce the effects of vibration...
 
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