Plywood Storage

[JakeKohl]

After starting a couple of smaller projects followed by declaring war on spiders in my shop, a pile of plywood leaning against a wall started getting on my nerves. I needed to clean behind it but the thought of moving it and putting it back was painful. I decided to build a wood storage cart and, after some online research of what other people have done to solve this issue, I started to build based on a fairly common design I found on several websites.

I am fortunate to have access to Solidworks to design this cart. The base of it is 48" x 32" and I wanted it to have the capacity to store 10 sheets of 3/4" plywood among tidying up some cluttered wood stock I have laying around. I'll occasionally work on a project with some nice wood (Mahogany, Ash, etc.) and I wanted to be able to keep the scraps and keep them protected.

One problem that I did want to resolve is access to sheets on the bottom of the stack. I tend to keep several different types of plywood and sign substrates on hand and I will invariably need to get to a sheet in the back 80% of the time. I also get a good bit of wind through my shop because I have a garage door on opposite ends of the building (which is really nice with good weather and/or working on stinky or dusty stuff) and I wanted to prevent the plywood from being able to be blown off the cart. With these issues in mind, I came up with a steel "arm" that will wrap around to the front that will still allow me to insert and remove sheets from the side but I can tilt sheets forward to rest on that arm so I can access sheets in the middle or back of the stack. It also keeps the plywood from possibly being blown off the cart should a stray gust of wind come through the shop.

Here's the 3D model:

cart3D by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


Building the base:

20140824_161316 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

20140824_160444 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

Building the bins and the perpendicular upright. I cheat with the shapes on these - I own a graphics company so I just cut the shapes I needed to cut out of cheap vinyl, stuck them to the panels, and cut them out on the bandsaw.


20140827_195650 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


20140827_200539 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


20140827_214839 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


20140827_214926 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

That's as far as I got last night...more to come.

 

[NUTTSGT]

It's got casters ! They make life so much easier. The swing arm is a great idea too.

 

[JakeKohl]

It's got casters ! They make life so much easier. The swing arm is a great idea too.

It's a shop rule! EVERYTHING on casters (except my future fixed cabinets).

I had planned to put two fixed and two rotating casters on this but I didn't have any fixed casters...While that might make it a little tricky to move any great distance, it will make it easy to slide it into a small space for storage. All casters have brakes.

 

[Terranova]

Neat looking piece. Looking forward to the rest.

T

 

[Keithinsc]

I have been looking around for just this type of thing! Awesome job.


How many sheets of plywood are needed? I'll be 'borrowing' your idea

 

[John in OH]

Nice plan!! I think that design may soon be copied(stolen) in my shop as I often suffer from similar wood storage problems!

 

[JakeKohl]

I have been looking around for just this type of thing! Awesome job.


How many sheets of plywood are needed? I'll be 'borrowing' your idea

This one requires 3 sheets of 19/32" sheathing, 1 - 8' 2x6, 2 - 10' 2x4s, and 4 8' 2x2s. I'll also be sheeting the bottom with some luan to reduce the hiding cavities for spiders (damn things are taking over my shop). I'll have less than $75 in it not including casters. I'll be glad to share the drawings once I'm done with it next week and confirm that it all fits together properly.

 

[JakeKohl]

Aaaa, heck. These should fit just fine. You can download PDF files of the drawings of this cart at the following link. Disclaimer; I didn't spend much time detailing or refining these drawings. You will still need to use your head a little...feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

EDIT: I fixed this link to a new file that has the latest corrected drawings.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xxteuqwooghpuf/plywood cart drawings2.zip?dl=0

I've used a ton of 1-5/8" drywall screws to attach the pieces and predrilled and countersunk the holes. The OSB really likes to split when a screw goes in the end so pre-drilling is pretty important.

I used a poor-man's track saw for cutting most of the panels but I put the smaller pieces through my table saw. If you do use the table saw, make sure that the saw is properly aligned and that you have a splitter or riving knife installed when cutting this OSB material. This material has tension in it and will pinch the saw blade when cutting in certain axis. This will cause violent kickback. I have an Incra tools Micro Jig SteelPro splitter that I REALLY like. Every piece of this material that I ripped on my table saw closed up and pulled the kerf keeper out of my zero-clearance insert (it is designed to pull the 2nd plastic piece of of the insert if the material closes down - the plastic kerf keeper then travels with the piece and keeps the kerf wedged open). I have no doubt that these pieces would have been instant high speed projectiles. I have no affiliation with Incra Tools (other than being a fan).


20140827_221850 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

 

[72Anthony]

Nice job and thanks for posting the plans!

One cool idea I've seen is to make some rollers out of PVC or other material to make it easier to insert or remove sheets in the middle of your stack.

 

[BearsFan315]

Very cool concept for storing materials !!
reminds me of the bins they use at the big box home store for metal bar & channel !!

NICE JOB !!

 

[JakeKohl]

Nice job and thanks for posting the plans!

One cool idea I've seen is to make some rollers out of PVC or other material to make it easier to insert or remove sheets in the middle of your stack.

How were the PVC rollers arranged? Across the bottom perpendicular to the sheets?

 

[shopnut]

It's a shop rule! EVERYTHING on casters (except my future fixed cabinets).

That's basically my rule too "The only thing that touches the floor are wheels (cars, bikes, and equipment on casters)" Makes life a lot easier. The only exception is the lift, but it DOES have a caster set

Nice cart, btw.

 

[mbatarga]

How were the PVC rollers arranged? Across the bottom perpendicular to the sheets?

I imagine that is what was suggested - just like the big box store plywood cutting systems. The "rollers" allow the plywood sheet to slide out - but with a stack of plywood being stored such as on your cabinet - I don't see how that would be advantageous, since the weight of the stationery sheets would prevent them "rolling" to ease the sheet being removed.

 

[Modern Jess]

Nice design, and nicely done!

 

[hoho98925]

Gotta have it on casters, makes life so much easier. here is mine.

 

[JakeKohl]

I got a little more completed on the cart last night. The shelves and angled sheet are made. The shelves pushed the angled sheet about 3/8" too far out for some reason (it's probably some of the bow in the sheets stacking up). I'll clamp them tight tonight, measure, and trim a bit off the shelves so the angled piece lines up properly with the angled step.

I did notice a couple of issues with the drawings - so if any of you have already downloaded those, I'll have corrections published this afternoon. Also note that the drawings don't show the bevel cut on the shelf support pieces - the angle on those is 5 degrees.

I've also since realized that the vertical cubbies on the back don't need to be as deep as they are. They could be 5" less deep and I probably would have taken 5" off the overall width of the cart if I was building it again (which I am not!).


20140828_214809 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


20140828_214824 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


This is an 8' piece of material for a test fit:

20140828_214951 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

 

[JakeKohl]

Gotta have it on casters, makes life so much easier. here is mine.

Awesome - yeah, that's what I'm talking about with the rear vertical cubbies. Mine are deeper than needed. Those look about right.

I had intended to store sheet goods horizontally on mine but make the cart four feet wide and let the sheets overhang each end by two feet. When I was drawing it up, it dawned on me that I could store the sheet goods vertically and take up less floor space. Obviously, you need more than 9' ceiling clearance for that to work.

 

[Strouty]

I may make one of these out of steel for my scraps and sheets of steel and aluminum. I really like the idea. Nice finished product.

 

[NUTTSGT]

If you stand the sheets upright, is the base larger enough that it won't get top heavy ?

 

[JakeKohl]

If you stand the sheets upright, is the base larger enough that it won't get top heavy ?

I think it should be OK. Taking an eyeball approach, with it heavily loaded the CG will be about 3.5' high should be inboard at least 10"...meaning, it would require a push of roughly 145 lbs horizontally at the CG height to push it over with two wheels jammed. That's estimated with 5 sheets of 3/4" plywood on it. I can't physically push that hard meaning I probably couldn't tip it over if I tried...so I think that's reasonably stable (if I did my math correctly - it has been a while!).

In either case, if does turn out to be unstable, I can just lay the sheets down and store them horizontally.

 

[AnthonyJ124]

Very neat. I clicked on this thread thinking... I have a pile of plywood I need to tidy, maybe there's a simple solution within.... And instantly I was way over my head. I guess that's why I'm on GJ. Great info and build. I might try something a little simpler in my shop.

 

[JakeKohl]

Drawing pack is updated. I had a dimension picked to a wrong point on the drawing that showed the shelf locations. I also added dimensions on the short width of the shelves (the edge has a 5 degree bevel). This dimension is helpful because it's the one you would use to setup a table saw to make that cut.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xxteuqwooghpuf/plywood cart drawings2.zip?dl=0

As I mentioned before, I probably would make this cart 4 or 5" narrower and shrink the rear cubbies down a little...they're bigger than they need to be. To do this, you only need to shorten the 2x4 stringers from 32" to whatever width you are making, and shorten the cubbie side plates by the same amount. As my cart is now, I will probably put in some dividers to make the cubbies a little more usable.

 

[JakeKohl]

All Done! Once it was fully loaded up, I didn't have ANY extra room on the plywood ledge. I'm happy with the stability even with the sheets in a vertical orientation and I have no worries about it tipping over. I'm also starting to think that the bins are alright sized like they are. They need some space to be able to insert long pieces of material at an angle to clear the ceiling.

I'm still debating a little on the arm...I think I'll think that over a couple of beers tonight. The 1/2" ply that I have doesn't like to lay very flat and it needed clamping pressure to really make it lay down well. I'm also thinking that the arm might get in the way...not sure. If I could figure out some kind of quick clamping arm thingy, that might be the trick but it might just end up with a couple of quick grip clamps dedicated to it.


20140829_201850 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


20140829_203733 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


It's not yet fully loaded here:

20140829_212004 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr


20140829_212250 by Green Room Graphics, on Flickr

 

[Cougar67]

I was looking for plans for a lumber cart a few months ago and yours is the best I've seen. Very nice design. I would have to buy more lumber to fill it so it's better that I use it up. What are you doing to kill the spiders? I have pretty good luck with bombing and bombing again a couple of weeks later.

 

[xyster101]

I really like that. I might have to make one.

 

[JakeKohl]

I was looking for plans for a lumber cart a few months ago and yours is the best I've seen. Very nice design. I would have to buy more lumber to fill it so it's better that I use it up. What are you doing to kill the spiders? I have pretty good luck with bombing and bombing again a couple of weeks later.

I haven't tried the bombs yet...I just try to keep up with them with the perimeter spray - but that's clearly not cutting it.

 

[TheNovice]

I imagine that is what was suggested - just like the big box store plywood cutting systems. The "rollers" allow the plywood sheet to slide out - but with a stack of plywood being stored such as on your cabinet - I don't see how that would be advantageous, since the weight of the stationery sheets would prevent them "rolling" to ease the sheet being removed.

An old thread but will reply anyway.

The roller isn’t one solid roller. But rather a series of rollers/wheels that can spin independent of the roller/s next to them. Ideally you would want only one sheet of ply to a row or column of rollers.

Not sure I am clearly explaining the concept.

 

[couch67]

Exhuming this old post as it was exactly what I needed to build a version of my own, and to thank to the original posters.

Built the frame out of 1 1/2" tube, then built the lumber and off cut storage out of 3/4" ply. The plywood sheet storage wall has a 5 degree slant to it. Overall its 46" wide by 32" deep. Should hold 8 sheets of 3/4" ply and all of the offcuts I keep and plan to use some day

Since the photos I rigged up some flatbar add 2' more of additional vertical support for the sheets, might add a pic later on.

 

[MushCreek]

Very cool design! I wonder how the war with the spiders went? I live in the same neck of the woods, and the spiders and wasps let me use my shop if I behave.

 

[acer66]

That cart looks great.

 

[Innovate1]

The dropbox link says the file was deleted. Any way to get the plans? Looks like a great addition to the shop and I have a bunch of plywood left overs from the shop build.