Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm looking for ideas about how to store my lumber.
any descriptions, pictures, or links would be great.
Thanks

Bob-
Is the lumber green or dry?
Are you storing boards, or pre-cut top and b+s sets, etc.?

This is a common problem with those who have WoodAcquisitionSyndrome.
Fill up the basement and then start on the garage?

Seriously, I store my top/backs in a humidity controlled area and I don't sticker them once they are dry.

Cheers
John

Dry wood. Boards, pre cut, rough cut, and everything in between or at least small enough to easily fit inside my 10'x13'x8' work area. Which I intend to keep as climatically controlled as I can get it, when it's finished.

I've been looking for ideas around woodworking web sites and forums for a rack or shelving of some sort. I was curious about what a luthier oriented version would look like.

Bob,

To dry wood (tops, backs and sides), I sticker them with 1/4" x 5/8" stickers and place box fans blowing through the piles on a low to medium setting. Once the wood is dried I remove the stickers, label the sets (in case they get dropped etc! ) and then stack on a shelf. I have a few hundred back sides and tops around at anytime and that is how they are stored. No need for weight on them or anything, just protect them from huge and sudden swings in humidity and you won't have any issues. Two easy methods to determine if your wood is dry are as follows:
1) Feel the wood, if it feels cool to the touch, it still has some moisture
2) Weigh your wood (or a sample from the pile) weigh it again a few days later, if there is a change in weight it is still loosing moisture, once it has stabilized for a week or two, it is about as dry as it will get and can now be stacked until you are ready to use it.

Hope that helps, nothing fancy, sometimes simple is the most efficient!

Shane

_________________
Canada

Bob-
My 'ideal' storage for tops and back/sides sets would be some sort of racks where I could store the plates vertically (like books on a shelf), not stacked the way I have them now. It would make 'browsing' a lot easier. Also, a place big enough to store the sides with the backs would be nice. They tend to migrate into a 'pile of sides here and a pile of backs there'- all labelled, of course, but still a pain when you are looking for one particular set.

For rough lumber, some heavy duty racks would be my choice...
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=32145&cat=1,43326

Cheers
John

For general storage Those LeeValley racks are beautiful. But for the cheapest thing I buy those standard, usually grey shelf brackets & if you had solid hardwood stacked on them put one on every stud. If not going to support a huge weight every other stud is fine. I use em on my concrete basement walls too & cover with whatever you have around, ply, pb, I even had some old bifold doors that work well.
MM

_________________
Mike McNerney

I just threw together a rack last night from most of the scraps that were left behind in the garage I'm moving into.

Longer boards waiting to be cut and laminated or resawn can lay across the top and all the pre cut smaller stuff I'll stick in the bottom.