Ever build a sliding storage wall using Unistrut?

[ScottsGT]

I'm completely out of wall space for storage. Every wall in my garage has either a workbench in front of it, shelves or a fridge and freezer.
In front of my shelves I'm thinking about using Unistrut's trolley system to mount a hanging 3/4" ply board that I can slide side to side. It would be in front of one of my shelf units, and I could push it over towards my work bench if I need to access anything on the shelves.
This would be used to store my yard/garden tools on. Weed whacker, rakes, shovels, hedge trimmer, blower, etc...

 

[R. Deschain]

Doing the same thing now in the utility room. Using the UniStrut 3-hole Trolleys on top and bottom UniStrut Trolleys with a singe eye, both from McMaster-Carr.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#3626t11/=1c66ull
https://www.mcmaster.com/#3626t16/=1c66vtx

 

[Brian_WK]

No but i'm interested to see the look! So I say go for it! I want to do something similar but would be more for hiding storage and doing 3 rows of rails so they could be stacked when I need to get something long off the shelves.

Brian

 

[glentre]

Sounds like a good idea and not complicated to do. However, I would recommend you go with the original Unistrut product and not the big box knock-offs which look the same but have dimensional problems. I needed 20 ft lengths for an attic lift but didn't want to pay the costly freight for such long pieces. So, I bought two lengths from Home Depot and butted them together. However, the pieces were not the exact same dimension on the ends and I could not get them to align perfectly with the result my trolleys tend to bind or jump in the misaligned track joints. Lesson learned......should have paid the freight. No problem with them if you only need ten ft or less.

Glen

 

[rburke65]

Thus should not be too gard to do. Unistrut makes rollers that fit inside the strut. Build the partition, and hang it from the rollers.

 

[Colin Len]

This seems like a pretty neat solution. I've been wanting sliding door cabinets for an entire wall in my garage - it's the wall the car is parked closest to and I can save space and have more things accessible if the doors slide instead of open. Originally I'd just planned on using closet door hardware or something but this seems WAY more heavy duty (more expensive too).

 

[ScottsGT]

Check industrial supply houses in your town for the real Unistrut products. I've been buying it for years from Graybar Electric.

 

[ishiboo]

Seems like it would be very easy to have a nice setup with this. If you used Metro-style shelving or even plastic shelving, you could simply hang a steel cable from it that goes through the shelving uprights and have it secured at the bottom. Or even some 3/8" threaded rod!

That way you could use existing shelving so you don't have to build any, and it will look just about factory-made.

 

[ScottsGT]

I'm not wanting more shelving space, needing more flat wall space to hang weed eater, rakes, clippers, blower, etc on. Ran it past the wife unit the other night. She was all for anything that could organize my disaster we call the garage.

 

[ard]

She was all for anything that could organize my disaster we call the garage.

No matter what I am looking to buy, I tell my wife it is for "organizing stuff"

 

[BFBOB]

I'm not wanting more shelving space, needing more flat wall space to hang weed eater, rakes, clippers, blower, etc on. Ran it past the wife unit the other night. She was all for anything that could organize my disaster we call the garage.

THIS

Make her happy, then you can bang YOUR wife!

 

[terabitdan]

You could also use pocket door rails to hold up a frame, with either pegboard or plywood. Pocket door rails will support up to 300 lbs and probably be cheaper than the unistrut.

My brother has 5 or 6 of these to store all his hand tools in the basement. Really nice, slide out the unit you need and grab the tool. It takes up about 3’ of space 2’ deep.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Colin Len]

^Good call on the pocket door hardware. Did some googling and found this: https://jhusa.net/111sd-sliding-bypass-door-hardware

 

[sixty4]

Subscribed this is a brilliant idea! Pictures when done....Please!

 

[ScottsGT]

Trolleys will be $62 and shipping. Lowes has the good Unistrut for $20 for a 10' stick. Add sheet of 3/4 ply and a 2X4 for ceiling mounts and hardware. Getting the house ready for my sons wedding rehearsal dinner party on the 20th. After that I'll start on this project. Spent last weekend cleaning up the area to prep.

FYI: Trolleys are on Amazon for basically the same price. If you have Prime, free shipping. Just ordered two.

 

[Ray916MN]

I did something like this in my office where I was out of bookshelf space for my magazine collection. Mounted unistrut to the front of a back row of bookcases at the front edge of a waist level bookshelf. Used bolts with nuts and washers mounted to the back of the front row bookcase to create standoffs to run in the unistrut and then mounted wheels on the front row bookcases. Works like a charm. The biggest advantage to this approach is it provided cheap stability and safety against pull out or down for the front bookcases with allot of load capacity. Full each front bookcase weighs 800lbs.

Carrying the weight load on the floor and using the unistrut channel as a guide only, will make it easy for the movable wall to carry lots of weight. This approach would allow you to literally build a movable wall which could handle having hundreds of pounds hung on it.

 

[ScottsGT]

Ray, planning on your method to build some pullout shelves for garage storage at the end of the stairwell going upstairs. Going to have one at 18" deep, the other 12" deep. But that's a project for another day.

 

[bob15]

If you use only one piece of strut and hang stuff on it, it won't stay vertical.....it will tip back away from you.

If you run 2 pieces of strut running parallel from the ceiling, make sure they are dead on parallel or make sure whatever you have the trolleys attached will be able to move. If not, you will have binding issues.

I have one single strut trolley set-up with a rack with plastic bins on it. As weight in the bins increases, the plywood and rack & bins moves away from you.

I also have two double track trolley set-ups where i am running one cabinet with 6 double axle trolleys and another set-up with 2 tracks with 2 cabinets on it, with each cabinet having 3 double axle trolleys.

the double track set-ups are nice, but a PIA to set-up so that the cabinet's roller's move smoothly.

 

[ScottsGT]

Bob, thought about that already. Mounting casters horizontally on the shelves behind it for the board to roll against. And where it rolls to the left in front of my work bench, I'm planning on mounting rollers or casters under the edge of the bench. They'll only stick out about a half inch. Also planning on off-setting the board back by sandwiching a 2X4 between the top rollers and the ply board to off set the center of gravity.

Or just casters on the bottom bearing about 97% of the weight and using the tops as simply a guide.

 

[bob15]

Bob, thought about that already. Mounting casters horizontally on the shelves behind it for the board to roll against. And where it rolls to the left in front of my work bench, I'm planning on mounting rollers or casters under the edge of the bench. They'll only stick out about a half inch. Also planning on off-setting the board back by sandwiching a 2X4 between the top rollers and the ply board to off set the center of gravity.

Or just casters on the bottom bearing about 97% of the weight and using the tops as simply a guide.

How often do you think you'll move it? For me with the single strut and the plywood/bin set-up, it rests against a board, so to move it, I just pull the plywood away from the wall and slide it. that slider doesn't get moved very often anyways, so no big deal.

the double track set-ups took time to set-up because it needs to be perfect or you need the item to be "free floating".

All that being said, it is worth trying and doing. I have zero regrets on it and would do it again.